With an assist from science, American COMMUNITY chestnut ... · WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014 • [email protected] • • 4455 7741 ... is a likeness of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder

WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741

COMMUNITY

ARCHAEOLOGY

FILMS

HEALTH

TECHNOLOGY

P | 4

P | 6

P | 8-9

P | 11

P | 12

• Paris Saint-Germain Academy returns, registrations begin

• Basra: TheCity of Sindbad

• How Reese Witherspoon and Megan Ellison are changing the movies

• US introduces menu calorie labeling to fight obesity

• Shopping: Which smartphone to buy as a gift

inside

LEARN ARABIC • Learn commonly

used Arabic wordsand their meanings

P | 13

P | 7

With an assist from science, American chestnut lives on

EXPRESSINGEXPRESSING FREEDOM THROUGH FREEDOM THROUGH

GRAFFITIGRAFFITI

Everywhere you turn, walls in the Gaza Strip are covered with paint — brightly coloured slogans, political portraits and prose. For youth in the besieged enclave, graffiti is a tool for self-expression and fighting back.

2 COVER STORYPLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014

By Adel Zaanoun

Everywhere you turn, walls in the Gaza Strip are covered with paint — brightly coloured slogans, political portraits and prose.

For youth in the besieged enclave packed with 1.8 million people, graffiti is an important tool for self-expression and fighting back.

Since their birth, they have never known anything beyond this tiny strip of land wedged between Egypt and Israel, with the Mediterranean Sea to their backs.

In the south, the walls rail against Egypt’s closure of the Rafah border crossing.

In the north, they condemn the Israeli sol-diers who prevent them from crossing through Erez.

There is that pervading sense of being trapped, of powerlessness in the face of Israeli bombardments, the never-ending progression of funerals, the humiliation and the oppression.

All these things find expression in the gaudy slogans daubed on walls and in alleyways across the territory.

“In painting these walls, I feel free,” says Naim Samsum, a bearded 25-year-old wearing a black beanie hat, white jeans and a Superman T-shirt.

“What we want is to send a message to say

that people here love life, that they have had enough of death and destruction,” says Samsum, who draws his inspiration from online videos of graffiti “tags” on the side of train cars in Europe. A tag is a graffiti artist’s signature.

As with many other art forms in Gaza, poli-tics is never far off.

On one wall are giant portraits of some of the best-known Palestinians.

There is one depicting iconic Yasser Arafat, who founded the Fatah movement and died in mysterious circumstances in 2004. Next to him is a likeness of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the rival Hamas movement, who was assas-sinated by Israel the same year.

Colourful war of words plays out on Gaza’s battered walls

3PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014

Tensions in Gaza between the two nationalist movements erupted into bloodshed in 2007, with Hamas forcing Fatah loyalists out and seiz-ing power. There followed a bitter seven-year split that was patched up earlier this year through a unity deal.

Underneath the two portraits, in large letters, is written “Yes to national reconciliation.”

A little further away, another artist has drawn a picture of an M75, a Gaza-made rocket with a range of about 80km (50 miles) that was fired at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv during this past summer’s 50-day war with Israel.

Cheap, easy and effectiveSince 1987, when the first

Palestinian uprising began, Gaza’s walls have been covered with polit-ical messages, calls to strike and details of upcoming demonstra-tions. Back then, militants would even use the walls to chronicle the dates of Israeli air strikes and the names of the victims, or “martyrs.”

Using spray paint as a political tool is not new in Gaza, says Fayez Al Sarsawi, who both paint and sculpts.

“Graffiti is a form of art which doesn’t cost much and lets you reach people easily,” he says.

And Basel Al Maqusi, who runs an art gallery in an upscale area of Gaza City, says it is also a relatively safe way of getting your message across.

“Writing on the wall is the simplest way to reach people, without putting yourself in too much danger. Handing out pamphlets requires a lot of time and could cost you your life, while writing something on a wall stays for a long time and it can be seen by everyone.”

Unlike the earliest, hastily scrawled graffiti, vibrant frescoes that catch the attention of admiring passersby are now created by young people.

In front of a bombed-out police station that was hit during the summer war, a wall is covered with a picture of a child with his fist raised, under which is written “Freedom.”

For Musab Abu Daff, freedom is the very essence of graffiti.

“I learned to do graffiti because

it’s a form of freedom. It allows you to express yourself, talk about where you live, especially here in Gaza where everything is destroyed,” says this 20-year-old street artist in baggy jeans and a Bob Marley T-shirt.

“We need to express our feelings.”“The Israelis oppress us, they

stop us from travelling and they have besieged Gaza. So I decided to write on the walls of Gaza exactly what is happening to us,” he says.

AFP

I learned to do graffiti because it’s a form of freedom. It allows you to express yourself, talk about where you live, especially here in Gaza where everything is destroyed.

Graffiti depicting (from left) late founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) George Habash, late Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and late Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in Gaza City.

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 20144 CAMPUS / COMMUNITY

Shantiniketan Indian School student, Sara Salah El Ameen of Class XII emerged as the junior champion 2014 in the ICC One Toastmasters Speech Contest recently.

DMIS organises health awareness programme

As a part of Parent Lecture Series an interactive session

on healthy life and food habits was conducted at Doha Modern Indian School by Dr Ashwini Deshmukh, from Weill Cornell Medical College for Gr 4 students in the new mul-tipurpose hall recently.

The session covered all aspects of healthy living. The resource person engaged the students with a power point presentation cover-ing the importance of breakfast, food pyramid, role of liquids in our body, need for exercise, and healthy and unhealthy food habits. She also stressed on the harmful effects of junk food.

The ‘Questions Round’ was the most interesting part of the session

and students enthusiastically inter-acted with numerous questions.

Dr Ashwini answered all the questions patiently with lots of facts and tips, enlightening the stu-dents on various aspects of health education.

The Principal Rakesh Singh Tomar and Head Mistress Aruna Suresh were also present during the session. The school counsellor Unnikrishnan proposed the vote of thanks.

The Peninsula

Ricardo Costa handing over the cheque to Abdulla Al Naemi as Juanita Williams, Rhonda Rhooney and other officials look on.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Qatar announced a donation of over QR50,000 to local non-profit ani-

mal organisation 2nd Chance Rescue.The cheque was presented by

Chevron Phillips Chemical Qatar Human Resources Manager Ricardo Costa to 2nd Chance Rescue founder Abdulla Al Naemi, and was the second donation made to the charity this year as the groups work together to tackle the issue of animal welfare across the country.

The donation will be used to main-tain the upkeep of 2nd Chance Rescue Qatar’s facilities, as well as fund the organisation’s educational programme, which visits schools throughout the country to teach students about ani-mal care and conduct.

Al Naemi said: “For us, sponsorship

is not just about the money but the support. Knowing that companies like Chevron Phillips Chemical Qatar believe in our cause and want to help us raise awareness and continue what we’re doing is indescribable. With the ever-growing population of stray and abused animals on our doorstep, the task can seem daunting, but thanks to this sponsorship we can keep growing and saving more animals in need.”

Costa said: “At Chevron Phillips Chemical Qatar, we believe that real benefits can be gained by establishing effective relationships in our commu-nities. 2nd Chance Rescue is doing a wonderful job taking in and educat-ing Qatar’s population on stray and abandoned animals, and we’re happy we could help contribute to this cause.”

The Peninsula

Chevron Phillips Chemical donates QR50,000 to 2nd Chance Rescue

For the second consecutive year, the ‘Paris Saint-Germain Academy

brought to you by Ooredoo’ will take place at the Evolution Sports Academy facilities, at the Doha College.

From December 7 to 11, hundreds of kids aged between 6 and 16 years old, boys and girls, will have the opportu-nity to experience Paris Saint-Germain Soccer School.

All week long, from 3pm to 6pm, the young players will take part in techni-cal training sessions led by Paris Saint-Germain coaches and supported by the UEFA qualified coaches from Evolution Sports Qatar.

In addition to the unique training methodology tailored to each individu-al’s profile, the participants will receive a Paris Saint-Germain Academy train-ing kit and the official Paris Saint-Germain Academy diploma during the closing ceremony.

These exclusive training sessions will leave a lasting impression on any young footballer aspiring to develop their skills and wishing to discover the world of one of the best European football clubs.

The registrations are open on www.evosportsqatar.com or by email [email protected]. The Peninsula

Paris Saint-Germain Academy returns, registrations begin

5COMMUNITY / MARKETPLACE PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014

The Swedish car manufacturer Volvo with Domasco hosted cardiopulmonary resuscita-

tion (CPR) and first aid classes at its premises in partnership with Doha Mums, a community of expatriate mothers living in Doha.

Twelve training classes con-ducted by Alan Walker a Red Cross Instructor covered CPR techniques for adults and infant as well as first aid procedures for splinting and dress-ing wounds.

CPR techniques recommended by the Red Cross have been recently sim-plified. Therefore, participants appreci-ated the easy-to-remember teachings of Walker.

Faisal Sharif, Managing Director, Domasco, stated: “We are delighted to support initiatives such as these that, at its core, form the very basis of Volvo’s DNA. The collaboration of

Domasco -Volvo with Doha Mums provided 136 Doha residents with certifications in CPR and first aid.”

“It is highly recommended to have a first aid kit available in each car at all times whether you are planning a long

distance drive, day trips or just going for shopping,” said Andrew Parrott, Head of Sales and Marketing, Volvo Domasco.

“Volvo’s first aid kit, available in all our vehicles, provides quick access to

many easy-to-use first aid items. It contains over 60 items, including an information guide to basic first aid techniques because in a Volvo, safety is for everyone,” he added.

The Peninsula

Volvo hosts CPR training classes for Doha Mums

Alan Walker explaining the techniques during a class.

Members of Doha Mums trying out the procedures they learnt in the class.

Grand Heritage Doha Hotel and Spa’s Turkish restaurant Agora has managed to maintain

its ranking as the number one restaurant in Qatar, originally announced by Trip Advisor in 2013. The restaurant has attained a 100 percent recommendation rating from guest reviews.

Trip Advisor asks its reviewers to grade res-taurants based on quality, variety of food offerings and standard of service. The Turkish restau-rant has continuously gained popularity for its wide selection of mouth watering dishes based on Balkan, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines.

Commenting on this, Zeid Talhami, Director

of Sales & Marketing, said: “We are very pleased that our guests have continuously provided Agora with high reviews. Maintaining this rank has only been achieved through hard work, as Grand Heritage Doha Hotel and Spa strives to deliver faultless customer service. Besides offering guests delectable dishes inspired by traditional Ottoman recipes, Agora also provides guests with a styl-ish and sophisticated setting that is reminiscent of both traditional and contemporary Turkey. Furthermore, the restaurant’s outdoor terrace encourages guests to enjoy their dinner experi-ence with Doha’s cool weather. This milestone in particular has lasted for one year now, and

we will continuously work to maintain that for the future. ”

Agora is ranked first among 439 other restau-rants in Qatar by Trip Advisor.

The Peninsula

Agora retains Trip Advisor’s top rank

Bazm-e-Alig, the association of the alumni of Aligarh Muslim

University in Qatar, organised the Sir Syed Day at Marriott Hotel recently. Celebrating the birthday of founder of the Aligarh Muslim University, India the members of the Bazm-e-Alig paid homage and tributes to the great reformer.

The President of the association, Akhlaq Ahmad Khan in his address urged the members to spread the need of modern education and the impact of Sir Syed’s efforts on the community.

The function was graced by S Zaman Khan, the oldest AMU Alumni in Qatar, as the Chief Guest. He was one of the founding members of the organi-sation. Moosa Zainal Moosa, Advisor, Ministry of Education, the Patron of

the association since its inception in 1988, also attended the function.

In his address to the members, Khan praised the members and the executive for all their endeavours since 1989.

For his guidance and support to Bazm–e-Alig, Khan was awarded “Nishan-e-Bazm-e-Alig”. This award was constituted by the organisation to honour Alumni who have contributed significantly to the welfare of the AMU fraternity in Qatar or elsewhere.

Sajid and Aftab took the audience to their university days and recited the poem on Numaish. The highlight of the event was conferment of titles to the seniors by Irshad Faridi and Afroz Alam.

The function ended with the singing of the AMU Tarana.

The Peninsula

Bazm-e-Alig marks Sir Syed Day

The Bazm-e-Alig officials and guests at the Sir Syed Day function.

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 20146 ARCHAEOLOGY

Basra the ‘Smiling Mouth of Iraq’ as the Iraqis called it lies on the right bank of Shatt Al Arab river, and is located

nearly six hundred kilometres south of Baghdad. Since its foundation by Obttab bin Ghazwan in the year 14 after Hijrah — 636 AD it became the most famous Iraqi river and sea port in the old and modern world.

Basra is also known as the city of Sindbad the Sailor. His sea adven-tures took place in the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean waters and is mentioned in the famous Arab Fairy Tales book Alf Layla wa Layla — Thousand and One Nights.

Archaeological activities took place not far away from the modern city and the old historic records and sources reveal that the location of Basra was known during the reign of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty (ca. seventh century BC) as Therdon port.

In the times of the Ummayd Dynasty (ca. seventh century AD), Caliph Abdul Malik ibn Marwan invaded Basra and the city remained under the control of the Ummayd Dynasty until the rise of the Abassid Dynasty in middle of the eighth cen-tury AD.

During the reign of Ummayd Dynasty, due to hectic trade in Arabian Gulf and in the Indian Ocean it became the centre of international trade. Consequently, Arab and for-eign travellers, writers, historians, and geographers wrote detailed accounts about its importance in trade, and how it became, during the beginning of the ninth century

AD, the centre of Arabs and Muslim intellectuals and theologians.

After the fall of Baghdad, the capi-tal of the Islamic Caliphate in 1256 AD, Basra and many other Arab and Islamic cities witnessed many foreign invasions. The last, however, was the British invasion where the British and Indian soldiers fought a bitter battle with the Basrawis in the year 1914, and to commemorate that bat-tle the people of Basra called it the Battle of Basra.

In the eras following the fall of Baghdad in 1256 AD many Arabs and Europeans travellers, sailors, geogra-phers and adventurers visited Basra and wrote about its schools, scholars, philosophers and thinkers, in addi-tion to its social life and its trades and traders.

Among them is one of the most known Arab travellers Ibn Battuta, who visited Basra in 1346 AD, and wrote: “On my way to Basra I passed through the Strait of Harmous. Basra, consists of three different quarters and there is a big mosque in Basra, which is three kilometres far from the city.”

Ibn Battuta also wrote: “I knew while I was in Basra about the civil war between the Persians and the Mongols.”

In 1766 the Dane sailor and voyager K Nippur arrived in Basra through Shatte Al Arab River. He estimated the population of the city as 50,000. He also mentioned that the city was under the Turkish ruler called Khan, and in the eastern part of Basra there is an Arab tribe called Ka’ab, ruled by a sheikh named Salman.

Nippur added in his historical accounts about Basra that there are ancient ruins from early Islamic eras located several miles west of the city. There are Islamic mausoleums also in the same location where local people buried their dead near by them.

Nippur in part of his account also mentioned that there are plenty of date palm tree groves and different kinds of dates in Basra.

It is interesting to note that the city of Basra up to the present time is very proud of its great number of dates palm trees groves, and the varieties of its dates productions.

The Peninsula

Dr Munir Taha

Basra: The City of Sindbad

Archaeological activities took place not far away from the modern city and the old historic records and sources reveal that the location of Basra was known during the reign of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty.

FOOD 7PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014

By Tamar Haspel

Nearly 400 years ago the Pilgrims sat down with the Wampanoag to share the feast immortalised as Thanksgiving. We don’t know the

exact menu. According to Kathleen Wall, food-ways culinarian at Plimoth Plantation, venison, fowl and corn were documented by attendees, but, beyond that, we can only speculate. I asked if we could speculate about chestnuts.

“We can’t say for sure, but the odds are pretty good,” she says. “They’re right in season. Both cultures knew them and used them.”

Susan Freinkel, in her excellent book American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, describes how, in the fall, when the nuts were sometimes inches deep on the ground, fami-lies used to gather them for their own use and to sell. Livestock was let loose to forage for them. People who didn’t eat chestnuts often ate chest-nut-fed venison or squirrel. Furniture, fence posts and utility poles were made of the long, straight, rot-resistant timber. In some places, one in four forest trees was a chestnut, and the tallest stood 12 stories high.

Then a fungus killed almost all of them. The chestnut blight was first spotted in 1904 and is believed to have arrived here in Asian chestnut trees, which have some resistance to it. American chestnuts have none, and all but a few hundred of the 3 to 4 billion trees were wiped out in just a couple of decades.

Three to 4 billion. It’s hard to get your arms around a number that big, so let’s convert it to something useful: food. A mature tree can pro-duce several hundred pounds of nuts (the record is more than 1,000 pounds); about 70 percent of that weight is actual nutmeat. For the sake of being conservative and working with round num-bers, let’s call it 100 pounds of nutmeat per tree, at about 1,000 calories per pound, or 100,000 calories

per tree. So 10 trees would provide the million calories (give or take) one person eats in a year.

Here’s what that means: If we still had those 3 to 4 billion trees, they would meet 100 percent of the caloric needs of today’s entire American population of just over 300 million. They could feed every last one of us.

Of course, even without the blight, we’d have lost a good portion of the trees as development encroached on forests. And living exclusively on chestnuts would get old fast, anyhow, despite their versatility as a foodstuff: They can be roasted, fried, candied, steamed, grilled and even turned into flour. Those numbers are just a way to imag-ine how significant a food source American chest-nut trees were, and could be again.

Over the past century, chestnut blight wasn’t the only thing that distanced us from the source of our food. Farming technology improved, and feeding our population required fewer and fewer people working the land. After World War II, it took half of us to feed all of us. Today, only 1 to 2 percent of Americans farm. City popu-lations increased, and sources of wild food got pushed back. Most of us seldom see our food in the ground or on the hoof, let alone grow it, hunt it or gather it.

That’s good, because it frees us from having to feed ourselves every day. We can spend our time inventing things, building things, writing things and binge-watching Breaking Bad. But I think it has cost us. My theory, based entirely on personal experience, is that spending time with the plants and animals you eat makes you internalise the idea that what you’re eating is plants and animals, and then the stuff in the brightly coloured boxes starts to look a lot less like food.

That, at any rate, has been my experience, and it’s an experience I value. A readily available sup-ply of high-quality, good-tasting food, growing out there in the woods, might put it in more people’s grasp. Thanks to a group of scientists at the State

University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, headed by Bill Powell and Chuck Maynard, it could happen. On November 4, they announced that they had bred a blight-resistant American chestnut by introducing a gene from wheat.

Blight kills trees by producing oxalic acid. Wheat has a natural defence against oxalic acid; the plant can break it down into benign compo-nents. It turns out that a single gene is responsible for that function, and inserting that single gene into the American chestnut genome made the tree resistant.

Unlike the controversy of genetically modi-fied organisms (GMOs) in commercial foodstuff, the gene that might save the American chestnut wasn’t created for personal profit or for the ben-efit of corporations or farmers. It contributes to a wholesome, healthful diet. And it’s intended solely for the public good.

There has been an effort — ongoing in the 100 years since the blight — to create blight-resist-ant American chestnuts by cross-breeding with Chinese chestnuts, and the American Chestnut Foundation has had some success on that front, but it hasn’t yet achieved its goal. Powell said he’s glad others are taking a different approach, because having the trees from both programmes out there in the forest would increase the genetic diversity and the chance that American chestnuts will thrive. (Chinese chestnut trees can grow in some parts of the country, but they don’t have the cold-resistance for the American chestnut’s range, and they grow wide rather than tall, mak-ing them ill-suited for forests.)

Powell and Maynard anticipate that getting approval from the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency will take at least five years, and they’re spending that time trying to raise 10,000 blight-resistant chestnut seedlings. When the approvals are in, those 10,000 will be the American chestnut’s re-introduction into our lives.

Repopulating our woods — and even our yards, our commons and our courthouse lawns — with American chestnuts would put a versatile, nutri-tious, easily harvested food source within reach of just about everyone. For those living on the margins, it could be a very real hedge against want. For everyone, it could be a hedge against distancing ourselves from our food, and the first step toward a healthier diet.

That we no longer have to procure all our food ourselves, settler-style, is a good thing. The need to do it, day in and day out, undoubtedly put the “grim” in Pilgrim. But procuring some of that food firsthand might bring home the message of Thanksgiving, a celebration of the bounty that we eat. With profound satisfaction, my husband, Kevin, and I populate our Thanksgiving table and feed our family with the oysters we grow, the venison we shoot and the fish we catch. We’ve got peppers, squash and herbs in the freezer. We’ll have pate from our chickens’ livers and stock from our turkeys’ bones. Pies will be made with our eggs, crusts with our lard.

Most people don’t have the time or flexibility to hunt, gather and grow all those things, and even one or two of them can be a stretch. But almost everyone could take the kids into the woods one beautiful fall weekend to gather chestnuts. This Thanksgiving, I hope you’ll join me in congratulat-ing the scientists who are working hard to make it possible.

WP-Bloomberg

With an assist from science, American chestnut lives on

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014 ENTERTAINMENT8 9

HOLLYWOOD NEWS BOLLYWOOD NEWS

Zayn Malik wants to quit One Direction?

English pop band One Direction’s member Zayn Malik is reportedly ready to give up his glamorous lifestyle for a quieter life with his fiancee Perrie

Edwards.The 21-year-old is said to be tired of being famous and wants a more

relaxed and peaceful lifestyle, reports femalefirst.co.uk.“Zayn is fed up with the whole fame thing. He loves singing and his fans

but he just wants a quiet life now,” a source told Sunday People newspaper.The singer is also thought to be considering the departure in order to

spend more time with Edwards, as he wants to settle down with the singer who he proposed to in August 2013.

“He has become increasingly disappointed with the little amount of time he can spend with Perrie. Unfortunately she is in a band too, they have so little time together. Zayn appreciates how lucky he is, but life is about fam-ily for him and he is seeing too little of his loved ones,” the source added.

Christian Bale jealous of Ben Affleck?

Actor Christian Bale, who is best known for portraying Batman in The Dark Knight trilogy, says he felt jealous when he saw actor Ben Affleck

taking over the character in his upcoming film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Affleck received a heavy backlash from fans once he was confirmed as the new Batman in Zack Snyder’s upcoming film, but nobody was more stunned about the casting news than Bale.

Bale said that there was a small part of him that wanted to carry on with the role, and after learning that Affleck would be his successor, the British actor was shocked, reports contactmusic.com.

“I’ve got to admit initially, even though I felt that it was the right time to stop, there was always a bit of me going, ‘Oh go on. Let’s do another’.

“So when I heard there was someone else doing it, there was a moment where I just stopped and stared into nothing for half an hour,” Bale told Empire magazine.

However the British star, who last played the role in 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises, is now comfortable with his decision to walk away from his incarnation of Bruce Wayne.

“I’m 40. The fact that I’m jealous of someone else playing Batman. I think I should have gotten over it by now,” he further added.

Nicole Kidman ‘happy’ to play bad girl

Actress Nicole Kidman says she loves playing

the villain in movies because as a child, she was “happiest” pretending to be a villain.

“I was the kid who loved the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz. So, of course, I grew up to be the girl who wants to play the vil-lain in a movie. I’m always happy to play the bad girl,” she told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Kidman voiced the evil Millicent in the forthcom-ing film Paddington, which is directed by Paul King.

“I know all about Paddington. I had a teddy bear but I also had a pad-dington Bear. I remember being about six or seven and just hoping I would find my own little paddington stranded on the street,” she said.

The film, which also stars Julie Walters, Hugh Bonneville and Peter Capaldi, is based on the novels by Michael Bond.

Dilip Kumar bounces back on Twitter

After a string of online rumours of his ill-health, thespian Dilip Kumar emerged out of his hibernation from Twitter to ensure his fans know

that he’s well. He has thanked everyone for their concern.“Phone calls from all over the world. All night. Your love and prayers

and Allah’s blessings cannot be thanked enough,” the 91-year-old tweeted following almost a day of rumours about his health scare.

The last tweet from the @TheDilipKumar was way back in June, but now the Mughal-e-Azam star has plans to be regular on the social net-working platform — albeit with some help.

“I plan to be regular on this medium. I’ve asked @faisalMouthshut to post what I dictate and read to me your messages,” he added.

The Twitter handle is that of Faisal Farooqui, the founder and CEO of MouthShut.com.

Earlier, megastar Amitabh Bachchan had taken to Twitter to tell fans that Dilip Kumar is “perfectly fine”.

“Some baseless rumours being spread about Yusuf Saheb — Dilip Kumar, being ill...Saira-ji just informed me he is perfectly fine,” he added.

Dilip Kumar recently attended Salman Khan’s sister Arpita’s wedding reception in Mumbai with his wife Saira. The evergreen couple was wel-comed with due respect.

Virat-Anushka not in YRF’s next film

Fans of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli are in for a disappointment as he won’t be making his film debut opposite his rumoured girlfriend and

actress Anushka Sharma, according to Yash Raj Films. It was earlier reported that Virat has replaced superstar Shah Rukh Khan in a romantic film, being made by Yash Raj Films (YRF) starring Anushka. However, the production house has no intentions to become the launch vehicle for the cricketer in filmdom.

“#YRFNews Virat Kohli will not star opposite Anushka Sharma in YRF’s next,” read a tweet from the official handle of the production banner.

The production house, under the guidance of late filmmaker Yash Chopra and now Aditya Chopra, has rolled out several popular films including hopelessly romantic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

Anukshka, who has found strong foothold in Bollywood, was also launched by the banner in 2008 opposite Shah Rukh in film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

Johar wants to make films like Hirani

Karan Johar has been wowing the audience with his breezy entertain-ers since 1998, but the filmmaker says he doesn’t have the “ability”

to make films like Rajkumar Hirani.Hirani’s directorials like 3 Idiots and Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. are enter-

taining, and yet convey a strong message. And Karan Johar says he is envious of him.

“I’ve been pitted against everyone and I feel envious, not jealous. I am envious of Hirani. I’ve never managed to do what he does. His movies have genious ideas. I don’t have the ability perhaps. I would love to make those kind of movies. Hirani has strong screenplays. I hope I get such screenplays,” Karan Johar said during a session titled An afternoon at Film Bazaar with Rajeev Masand on the final day of Film Bazaar.

Hirani’s next movie titled PK which stars Aamir Khan will soon hit the theatres.

PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014

By Alyssa Rosenberg

Last week, I wrote about how hard it was going to be to fill the slate of Best Actress nominees at the Academy

Awards, given how few movies this year gave women significant screen time and rich, complex parts. But two of the movies that have produced genuine contenders — David Fincher’s Gone Girl and Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild— have one thing in common: Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Pacific Standard.

Witherspoon, who was part of the Hollywood Reporter’s annual actress roundtable, told the magazine that her success as both a producer and a potential Best Actress contender (she stars as memoirist Cheryl Strayed in Wild) were the result of a recent deci-sion: to stop waiting for other people to start making movies about interesting female characters.

“I can’t speak for other people. I just recognise that about three years ago, I started seeing this complete lack of interesting female leads in film. First I got mad, really mad. And then I was like, “It’s nobody’s fault; if you’re not proactive about things ...” I’d had a company before, but it was basically about trying to develop things that I would eventually be in,” Witherspoon explained. “So I just switched the idea: If I can develop anything for any other women, I don’t care who it is; I just want my daughter to grow up seeing

complex, interesting, nuanced women in film. So I started it with my own money — you know, the first thing people tell you is, “Don’t put your own money into anything” — so I was like, is this really dumb? But I got a great partner (Bruna Papandrea) and the first two things I sent her were Gone Girl and Wild. And those were the first books that we optioned.”

Gone Girl and Wild are tremendously different books, but the women at the centre of both are undeniably differ-ent from almost anything anyone else in Hollywood regularly escorts to the screen. Lead female characters in each book — Amy Elliot Dunne and Cheryl Strayed — have gotten lost. Amy, the brilliant, amoral creation of novelist Gillian Flynn, finds herself in Missouri, exiled from New York by an economic downturn that eliminated both her job and that of her husband Nick, and Nick’s mother’s terminal illness, which drew him home. Cheryl, devastated by the death of her mother, wrecks her young marriage and loses herself in heroin and a series of doomed affairs.

Gone Girl is the story of how Amy finds her way back to herself by fram-ing first her husband for her murder, and then her high school boyfriend for rape. Wild is Cheryl Strayed’s rather more sedate story of a restorative hike on the Pacific Coast Trail, a trek that re-centred Cheryl in her own body and mind. Amy is a monster, while Cheryl is a literary book club heroine, but both books — and both movies — place their

perspectives and opinions, uncomforta-ble and jarring as they may be, squarely at the centre. It is women’s experiences who matter here.

Witherspoon is hardly the first woman to make this hike, of course. Her potential awards-season domi-nance recalls that of Megan Ellison (daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison), whose Annapurna Pictures production company has also turned out a reli-able series of contenders and intelli-gent provocations. Annapurna Pictures movies tend to be less intrigued by the inner lives of women, and they are more likely than Pacific Standard films to have male main characters. But the women in movies Ellison makes never seem less than formidable and fasci-nating, even when they have to swipe the movie from a male co-star or lead.

Take Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master: Ostensibly it’s a movie about the relationship between the founder of a new religion, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his troubled acolyte (Joaquin Phoenix). Amy Adams makes an indelible impression as Peggy Dodd, Lancaster’s wife. Controlling and theologically rigid, by the end of the movie, we get the sense that Peggy has not been sidelined by Dodd, but rather, that she prefers to exert her influence through him.

In Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s exploration of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Jessica Chastain turns in a similarly rigid, compel-ling performance as Maya, the lead

analyst on the case. Maya is person-ally unpleasant and professionally excellent. At the end of the movie, it is impossible not to wonder what Maya will be without her quarry.

Even in less self-serious Annapurna-produced movies, women transcend stereotypes. The young hooligans of Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers have turned an over-marketed college experience into a kind of consumer-ist religion that they pursue with fun-damental zeal. And as Samantha, the artificial intelligence in Spike Jonze’s Her, Scarlett Johansson provides a beautiful example of what it means to come intellectually alive, using only her voice.

That Ellison and Witherspoon’s companies have produced so many important movies so quickly says a great deal about the opportunities the rest of Hollywood is missing. And it is a sobering reminder of how little — and how much — it takes to make a quick and visible difference in pop culture. An actress’s long-percolating revela-tion, or the daughter of a tech titan’s good financial fortune end up being the difference between a Hollywood that has few good roles for women and one that has almost none. These are slim reeds on which to hang creative revo-lutions. If we want more good movies about female characters, it seems we are going to need more women with access to money and serious directors to get those projects rolling themselves.

WP-Bloomberg

How Reese Witherspoon and Megan Ellison are changing the movies

HEALTHPLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 201410

© GRAPHIC NEWSSources: Fast-Track – Ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 (UNAIDS), World AIDS Day

Dec 1, 2014

World AIDS Day

LatinAmerica

Asia andPacific

Eastern andSouthern Africa

UNAIDS has set a target to end the AIDS epidemic as a global health threatby 2030. The upward trajectory of the epidemic has been broken and

ambitious targets aim to cut new HIV infections by 28 million andAIDS-related deaths by 21 million over the next 15 years

ESTIMATED ANNUAL NUMBER OF NEW HIV INFECTIONS ANDAIDS-RELATED DEATHS (low to middle income countries, by region)

200

0

,000

200

0

,000

2010 2030

30

0

,000

30

0

,000

2010 2030

40

0

,000

40

0

,000

2010 2030

Caribbean Eastern Europeand Central Asia

Middle Eastand North Africa

,000120

02010 2030

120

0

,000

600

0

,000

2010 2030

600

0

,000

West andCentral Africa

,000500

02010 2030

500

0

,000

2

0

,000,000

2010 2030

2

0

,000,000

93%90%

89%92%

83%86%89%

90%80%

90%

80%90%

91%94%

Fast-Trackreductiontargets

New HIVinfectionsunder fast-track strategy

AIDS-relateddeaths underfast-trackstrategy

If currentstrategycontinues

Dec

1: W

orld

AID

S Da

y

HEALTH / FITNESS 11PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014

By Toni Clarke and Anjali Athavaley

The US government will publish sweeping new rules requiring chain restaurants and large vending machine operators to disclose calorie counts on menus to make people

more aware of the risks of obesity posed by fatty, sugary foods.

“Obesity is a national epidemic that affects mil-lions of Americans,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told reporters on a conference call.

“Strikingly, Americans eat and drink about a third of their calories away from home.”

The FDA’s new rules, which are part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, set a national standard for restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets and will pre-empt the patchwork of state laws.

Under the rules, calories must be displayed on all menus and menu boards. Other nutritional informa-tion — including calories from fat, cholesterol, sugars and protein — must be made available in writing upon request.

The new calorie rule covers meals at sit-down res-taurants, take-out food, bakery items, ice cream from an ice-cream store and pizza, which will be labelled by the slice and whole pie. Seasonal menu items, such as a Thanksgiving dinner, daily specials and stand-ard condiments will be exempt.

The final rule, unlike a 2011 proposal, includes movie theatres, amusement parks and alcoholic beverages served in restaurants, but not drinks mixed or served at a bar.

Restaurants have one year and vending machine operators have two years to comply with the new rules following publication in the Federal Register.

Panera Bread Co in 2010 became the first company to vol-untarily display calorie informa-tion at all its cafes nationwide. Others, including McDonald’s Corp and Starbucks Corp, fol-lowed suit.

The agency said it amended its proposals after considering more than 1,100 comments from indus-try, public health advocates and consumers.

It narrowed the scope to clearly focus on restau-rant-type food. Still, there are nuances: Foods such as deli meat bought at a grocery store counter will be excluded. But the rules will apply to food eaten in grocery stores, such as meals purchased at in-house cafes.

Hamburg acknowledged that calorie counts for pizza slices and many other foods made on the premises will vary. Restaurants may draw on data-bases, cookbooks and food package labels to calculate calories.

The restaurant industry has supported a national standard for years and welcomed the changes.

“We believe that the Food and Drug Administration has positively addressed the areas of greatest con-cern,” said Dawn Sweeney, chief executive of the National Restaurant Association, which represents 990,000 restaurant and food-service outlets.

Not all industry groups were satisfied.“We are disappointed that the FDA’s final rules will

capture grocery stores, and impose such a large and costly regulatory burden on our members,” said Peter

Larkin, president and CEO of the National Grocers Association.

Nat iona l Automat i c Merchandising Association, rep-resenting the food and refresh-ment vending industry, said it will “reserve judgment” on the impact on the industry, but said that two years was insufficient “implementation time”, especially for small businesses.

The rules aim to close a gap in the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which estab-lished nutrition labeling on most foods, but not restaurant or other ready-to-eat foods.

Katie Bengston, Panera’s nutrition manager, said menu labeling has not affected its busi-ness: “We did not notice a jump in sales from higher calorie items to lower calorie items.”

Reuters

Under the rules, calories must be displayed on all menus and menu boards. Other nutritional information — including calories from fat, cholesterol, sugars and protein — must be made available in writing upon request.

Permanent stress may lead to mental disorders: Study

Permanent stress can activate immune cells that can cause changes in the brain, lead-

ing to mental disorders such as schizophrenia, shows a study.

The researchers focused mainly on a cer-tain type of phagocytes, namely microglia. Phagocytes are large white cells that can swallow and digest microbes and other for-eign particles.

Under normal circumstances, microglia repair gaps between nerves cells in the brain and stimulate their growth. However, once activated, microglia may damage nerve cells and trigger inflammation processes, the find-ings showed.

The more frequently microglia get triggered due to stress, the more they are inclined to remain in the destructive mode - a risk factor for mental diseases such as schizophrenia, the study noted.

However, the researchers noted that not every individual who is under permanent stress will develop a mental disorder.

US researchers demonstrated as far back as the 1950s that children born of mothers who contracted true viral influenza during pregnancy were seven times as likely to suf-fer schizophrenia later in life.

The new study confirmed this hypothesis in animal models.

“The embryo undergoes some kind of immune response which has far-reaching con-sequences and presumably shapes the future immune system,” said Astrid Friebe from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany.

The study appeared in the science magazine Rubin.

Exercise and fasting could boost brain’s functions

Exercise along with occasional fasting is good for boosting the brain’s neurons,

shows a new research.The research on animals showed how inter-

mittent fasting in rats and mice can enhance learning and memory and decrease the risk of degeneration of those brain functions.

“We have evidence that exercise and proba-bly intermittent fasting increase the number of mitochondria in neurons,” said Mark Mattson, neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging in the US.

Intermittent fasting may improve perform-ance on cognitive tests and change neural net-work connections.

The stress of fasting and exercise helps the brain adapt and improve the energy flow of neurons.

In fact, fasting and exercise seem to increase the production of a protein called brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that boosts cell growth.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience here recently.

Agencies

US introduces menu calorielabeling to fight obesity

TECHNOLOGYPLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 201412

By Hayley Tsukayama

IPHONE 6Get it: If you must have the lat-

est iPhoneSkip it: If you’re super happy with

your current phone accessoriesStarts at QR2,799 in Qatar.What’s there to say, really? The

iPhone 6 is the latest flagship smart-phone from Apple and improves on the previous model in all the usual ways. It’s lighter, brighter and — for a twist — bigger than its predeces-sor. This phone has a 4.7-inch screen, a bit of a bump from the four-inch screen on the iPhone 5s. It also has a faster processor and new camera features that let you shoot in slow motion. New smartphone chips also mean you can pay for things by tap-ping your iPhone against some card readers (with fingerprint authenti-cation, of course). There’s also a nas-cent health data program designed to help you track your fitness; that still needs some work. Overall, the improvements make it well worth having to buy a new case for your phone.

IPHONE 6 PLUSGet it: If you really love watching

movies on your phoneSkip it: If your pocket is your

favorite place to keep your phoneStarts at QR3,199 in Qatar.In this corner, weighing in at 5.5

inches is the iPhone 6 Plus, a god-send for Apple fans who want to ditch their tablets. Apple’s given the iPhone 6 Plus all the bells and whis-tles it gave the 6 — payment chips, health data tracking and faster performance — plus better battery life and software that makes shaky phone videos look rock solid. The extra screen real estate also makes it great for doing a little more serious work. For video watching and film-ing, the iPhone 6 Plus is wonderful.

Still, it will stretch your pocket and your pocketbook.

NEXUS 6Get it: If the screen is all that

matters to youSkip it: If you want a big phone

to shoot lots of video$650 in USThe Nexus 6, the latest co-branded

effort from Google and Motorola, is a monster of a phone with a six-inch screen. It comes with the advantages of being as pure a Google phone as you can get. It has Google’s latest Android operating system, Lollipop, and its layout has none of the annoy-ing clutter that often plagues other Android phones. This phone is pow-erful, has a gorgeous screen and is seriously ready for all your video and work needs. It has some drawbacks as well. While its screen is great for video, the phone doesn’t have a great camera to shoot with, especially as compared with others of its size and price. That’s not enough to mar an all-around great phone, but still worth considering.

HTC ONE M8Get it: If you want an all-around

fantastic phoneSkip it: If you want a status pieceStarts at QR2,749 in QatarThe HTC One M8 is solid from

stem to stern. Though a little heftier than other phones of its size, this 4.7-inch-screened beauty boasts a nice body, a good screen and strong performance. It also has front-fac-ing speakers, which make it easy to share music and videos without muf-fling the sound. Yet it doesn’t have standout features strong enough to lure dedicated iPhone or Samsung Galaxy users into its fold. Even a nifty camera feature that lets users change the focus of a picture after the snap doesn’t lift it over the edge.

Luckily, the HTC One M8 also

has the unusual distinc-tion of having both Android and Windows Phone mod-els, which gives users a lit-tle more flexibility than its rivals.

LUMIA 635Get it: For a low-priced

phone that’s a good valueSkip it: If you have to

have the latest appsStarts at QR699 in Qatar.

Microsoft doesn’t get a lot of recognition for its phones, but the 4.5-inch Lumia 635 is a standout in the field thanks to its relatively low price. Windows Phone may not have a lot of converts, but for those who use a lot of Microsoft products such as the Office suite, OneDrive or Skype, this phone offers a lot of smart integration. It also has Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri, which works a little more conversa-tionally and smoothly than its Apple counterpart. Microsoft suffers on the app front — the latest and greatest can take a while to show up on its phones, if at all — but if you want a good phone at a low price, give this one a whirl.

GALAXY NOTE 4Get it: If handwritten notes and

scribbles are your thingSkip it: If you have a tabletStarts at QR2,799 in Qatar.Another entrant in the phone-

tablet hybrid world, the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4 is looking not only to satisfy your need for both types of

devices, but also to supplant the old-fashioned notepad. It has a stylus to make doodles and quick notes and an easy method for annotating.

It’s certainly not a device for eve-ryone — lots of people were happy to leave the stylus behind with the Palm Pilot — but Samsung has smartly integrated some handwriting recog-nition and other useful bits of soft-ware to make the extra accessory feel like more than an afterthought.

The new Galaxy Note, with its textured plastic case, feels a bit cheaper than its competitors, but it packs just as much power and polish in its software.

DROID TURBOGet it: If you want a super-pow-

erful phoneSkip it: If you are not into high

octane gamesStarts at $650 in US.Another Motorola phone, the

Droid Turbo, is every bit as power-ful as its name suggests and scores high on marks for performance. The phone also has an interesting, tightly woven fabric back, which makes it pleasant to hold. The 5.2-inch screen means that it, too, requires a little extra pocket room.

In many ways, the Droid Turbo is on par with its slimmer sibling, the Moto X, but edges it out on power and battery life. The main drawback — or at least limiting factor — of the Droid Turbo is that it’s not avail-able everywhere. Many markets its exclusively tied up with one wireless carrier. WP-Bloomberg

iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4

Lumia 635

Tech shopping: Smartphones

COMICS & MORE 13

Hoy en la HistoriaNovember 26, 1939

1504: Queen Isabella of Castile, whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon led to the political unification of Spain, died1922: Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb of the Egyptian pharoah Tutankhamun1979: The International Olympic Committee voted to re-admit China after an absence of 21 years2001: A U.S. firm claimed to have cloned the first human embryo for use in medical research

Rock diva Tina Turner was born in Nutbush, Tennessee. With her husband Ike she gained fame in the 60s, and revived her career as a solo performer from the 1980s

Picture: Associated Press © GRAPHIC NEWS

ALL IN THE MIND Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal,vertical, diagonal, forwards or backwards.

BARGE, BATTLESHIP, BOAT, CANOE, CARRIER, CATAMARAN,CLIPPER, CORSAIR, CORVETTE, CRUISER, CUTTER,DESTROYER, DINGHY, DORY, FERRY, FRIGATE, GALLEON,GONDOLA, JUNK, KAYAK, LIFEBOAT, LINER, LUGGER,MOTORBOAT, PACKET, PRIVATEER, PUNT, RAFT, RIGGER,ROWBOAT, SAMPAN, SCHOONER, SCOW, SHIP, SKIFF,SLOOP, SMACK, TANKER, TRAWLER, TUGBOAT, YACHT.

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman

Zits by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman

Hagar The Horrible by Chris Browne

LEARN ARABIC


Verbs often used

Abolish Youb�il

Abbreviate Ya�ta�ir

Abuse Youheen

Accompany Yourafiq

Accoustom Yaçtad

Act Yata�arraf

Add You�eef

Admire Youçjab

Agree Youwafiq

Aid Yousaçid

ç = ‘a’ in ‘agh’ when surprised

HYPER SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

CROSSWORDS

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

How to play Hyper Sudoku:A Hyper Sudoku

Puzzle is solved

by filling the

numbers from 1

to 9 into the blank

cells. A Hyper

Sudoku has

unlike Sudoku

13 regions

(four regions

overlap with the

nine standard

regions). In all

regions the numbers from 1 to 9 can appear

only once. Otherwise, a Hyper Sudoku is

solved like a normal Sudoku.

ACROSS 1 Clay pounder? 7 Sounds at spas10 With 66-Across, back to

the beginning … or a description of 21- and 48-Down?

14 Gobble quickly15 Persians, to the 300, e.g.16 Required to serve,

maybe17 Healthy spirit?18 Diverts20 Best seller about

shipwreck survivors22 Honey pie23 Airing, in a way24 September through

April, in a culinary guideline

26 “Shall ___ …?”28 Settled up29 Sleepytime ___32 Designate34 Hindmost35 Ring

36 Temple of ___, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

40 Finalized42 Big laugh43 Tap site45 Constitution Hall grp.46 Patient helpers, for short47 Where to find

“Yesterday” on the album “Help!”

49 High note?53 Tom Selleck title role55 Celebrity cosmetician

Laszlo56 What gives?58 “The Godfather” parts I,

II and III, e.g.61 It might be held on a

flight63 Spheres64 Nike competitor65 Spanish valuable66 See 10-Across67 Tandoori flatbread68 2012 YouTube sensation69 Shows subservience, say

DOWN 1 Stay out of sight 2 Queued 3 Goes from first to

second, say 4 Shirker of one’s duties? 5 Smorgasbord 6 Hasbro brand 7 Great Rift Valley locale:

Abbr. 8 Do-si-do whoop-de-dos 9 Courted with love notes?10 County fair organizer11 Green12 Some jeans13 Hindmost19 Like some cereals21 See 10-Across25 Daisy ___27 “Tasty!”30 Loire contents31 One above the

Lötschberg Tunnel33 It wraps around a chest

at the beach35 Hang in there36 Gun, e.g.37 Gun, in slang

38 Southernmost state39 Sirens41 W.W. II service member44 Definite keeper47 Friday and others: Abbr.48 See 10-Across50 Frog’s alter ego, in a

fairy tale51 Low tie52 Flings

54 ___-American56 Abba not known for

singing57 Soap with pumice59 Connie ___,

Philadelphia Athletics manager for 50 years

60 “… now ___ the future”

62 Dale’s partner

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

32 33 34 35

36 37 38 39 40 41

42 43 44 45

46 47 48 49 50 51 52

53 54 55

56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63

64 65 66

67 68 69

E C O R O C D J S N E SM A C O N A R E Q U E S TI N H A L E R Y O U L O S ET E S T L A B S P I N N E R

O S L O A R A LR A I M I N A C R E I T SO R R I N C L O D S G E TC R O C L O O P Y N H R AK A N S O P U P N U T R IY U M C L Y D E I M S A D

A G A L R O B BP H I L L I P H O L E D U PR U D O L P H E M E R I T IO N E W O O D A P T V A TM S N P P S D H S A H A

How to play Kakuro:The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some cells will contain two numbers.However, in a crossword the numbers reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get! They denote the total of the digits in the row or column referenced by the number.Within each collection of cells - called a run

- any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

14

EASY SUDOKUCartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

Easy Sudoku PuzzlesPlace a digit from 1 to 9 in each empty cell so everyrow, every column and every 3x3 box contains allthe digits 1 to 9.


CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

13:05 Storage Hunters

13:30 What's In The

Barn?

13:55 Storage Wars

Canada

14:20 Extreme Fishing

15:10 Wheeler Dealers:

Trading Up

16:00 Fast N' Loud

16:50 How It's Made

17:40 Treehouse

Masters

20:10 What's In The

Barn?

20:35 Storage Wars

Canada

21:00 Dynamo: Magician

Impossible

22:15 Magic Of Science

22:40 Close-Up Kings

23:30 Dynamo:

Magician

Impossible

13:20 Animal Airport

14:45 Animal Clinic

16:05 Shamwari: A

Wild Life

16:35 Treehouse

Masters

17:30 Gator Boys

18:25 Bad Dog

19:20 Mutant Planet

20:15 Wolves

Unleashed

22:30 Shamwari: A

Wild Life

23:00 Wolves

Unleashed

14:00 Welcome To

The Family

14:30 Young & Hungry

15:30 The Daily

Show With

Jon Stewart

18:00 Raising Hope

19:00 Melissa & Joey

19:30 The Michael J.

Fox Show

21:00 The Daily

Show With

Jon Stewart

22:30 Family Guy

23:30 Late Night With

Seth Meyers

13:00 Space Dogs

16:15 Arthur's

Missing Pal

18:00 The Nut Job

20:00 Tad, The Lost

Explorer

21:45 Blue Elephant 2

23:30 Arthur's

Missing Pal

01:00 The Elf

Who Stole

Christmas

14:00 All American

Christmas Carol

16:00 Teen Wolf Too

18:00 Mystery, Alaska

20:00 Wild Hogs

22:00 The Love Guru

00:00 Monty Python's

Meaning Of Life

02:00 Teen Wolf Too

13:00 Known Universe

14:00 Mega Factories

15:00 Evacuate Earth

16:00 Doomsday

Preppers

17:00 Beyond Magic

With Dmc

18:00 Naked Science

19:00 Evacuate Earth

20:00 Doomsday

Preppers

21:00 Beyond Magic

With Dmc

23:00 Animal Mega

Moves

13:00 The Ellen

DeGeneres

Show

14:00 Chicago Fire

16:00 Emmerdale

17:00 The Ellen

DeGeneres

Show

18:00 Chicago Fire

19:00 Switched At

Birth

20:00 Marvel's

Agents Of

S.H.I.E.L.D.

21:00 The Voice

22:00 Mistresses

23:00 Justified

12:45 Beautiful

Creatures

15:00 Scents And

Sensibility

17:00 Chasing

Mavericks

19:00 Seeking A Friend

For The End Of

The World

21:00 Nebraska

23:00 Arthur Newman

13:00 Frozen

15:00 Parental

Guidance

17:00 In A World...

19:00 The Heat

21:00 She Wants Me

23:00 Pain & Gain

01:15 Dawn Rider-

03:00 In A World...-

13:00 Jamai Raja

13:30 Bandhan

14:00 Doli Armaano Ki

14:30 Jodha Akbar

15:00 Kasamh Se

16:00 Hum Paanch

17:00 Teenovation

17:30 Neeli Chatri

Waale

18:00 Maharakshak

Aryan

18:30 Bandhan

19:00 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

19:30 Jodha Akbar

20:00 Jamai Raja

20:30 Kumkum Bhagya

21:00 Qubool Hai

21:30 Aur Pyaar Hogaya

22:00 Doli Armaano Ki

22:30 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

23:00 Best of Fear Files

00:00 Jodha Akbar

12:15 A.N.T. Farm

12:40 Good Luck

Charlie

13:05 Good Luck

Charlie

13:30 Jessie

13:55 Jessie

14:20 Austin & Ally

14:55 Gravity Falls

15:20 My Babysitter's A

Vampire

15:45 Mako Mermaids

16:10 Violetta

17:00 Twitches Too

18:30 Wolfblood

19:00 Gravity Falls

19:30 Violetta

20:20 Mako Mermaids

20:45 Spooksville

21:10 Wolfblood

21:35 Suite Life On

Deck

22:00 Good Luck

Charlie

11:00 The Paradise

11:55 Last Of The

Summer Wine

12:30 One Foot In The

Grave

13:10 Eastenders

13:40 Doctors

14:10 Last Woman

Standing

15:00 The Paradise

15:55 Last Of The

Summer Wine

16:25 The Weakest Link

17:10 Eastenders

17:40 Doctors

18:10 Last Woman

Standing

19:00 Rev.

19:30 Getting On

20:00 Southcliffe

20:50 Luther

21:45 Absolutely

Fabulous

22:10 Whitechapel

08:00 News

08:30 Listening Post

09:00 Algeria: The

Test of Power

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:30 Innovate Africa

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 World War One

Through Arab

Eyes

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:30 The Stream

18:00 NEWSHOUR

19:30 Witness

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Witness

1The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1 (2D/Action)

– 11:30am, 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30pm & 12:00midnight

2Dumb & Dumber To (2D/Comedy)

– 10:15am, 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:15, 9:30 & 11:45pm


– 10:30am, 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, 8:30 & 11:00pm

4Big Hero Six (2D/Animation) – 10:20am, 12.15, 2.15 & 4:15pm

Jessabelle (2D/Horror) – 6:15, 8:15, 10:15pm & 12:15am

5Interstellar (2D/Adventure) – 10:00am, 1:15 & 4:30pm

The Babadook (2D/Horror) – 7:45, 9:45 & 11:45pm

6The Signal (2D/Thriller)

– 10:15am, 12:15, 2:15, 6:15, 8:15, 10:15pm & 12:15am

Jessabelle (2D/Horror) – 4:15pm

771 (2D/Action) – 11:15am, 3:15, 7:15 & 11:15pm

Pocket Listing (2D/Action) – 1:15, 5:15 & 9.15pm

8Catch Hell (2D/Drama) – 11:30am, 3:30, 7:30 & 11:30pm

Hasslna Al Roab (2D) – 1:30, 5:30 & 10:30pm

9Interstellar (IMAX/Adventure)

– 11:30am, 2:45, 6:00, 9:15pm & 12:30am


– 10:00am, 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30pm & 01:00am

MALL

171 (2D/Drama) – 2.30 & 11.15pm

The Signal (2D/Thriller) – 4:30pm

Happy Ending (2D/Hindi) – 6:15pm

Vellimoonga (2D/Malayalam) – 8:45pm

2Big Hero 6 (3D/Animation) – 3:00pm

Catch Hell (2D/Thriller) – 5:00pm

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1 (2D/Action) – 7:00 & 9.15pm

The Signal (2D/Thriller) – 11:30pm

3The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1 (2D/Action) – 2.30pm

Hasslna Al Roab (2D/Comedy) – 4:45pm

The Babadook (2D/Horror) – 6.45 & 11.30pm

Al Jazeera 2 (2D/Action) – 8.30pm

LANDMARK

171 (2D/Drama) – 2:30 & 11.30pm


Vanmam (2D/Tamil) – 6:15 & 8.45pm

2Big Hero 6 (3D/Animation) – 2:30pm

The Signal (2D/Thriller) – 4:30 & 11.30pm

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1 (2D/Action) – 6:15pm

Al Jazeera 2 (2D/Action) – 8.30pm


– 2.45 & 9.00pm

Hasslna Al Roab (2D/Comedy) – 5:00pm


ROYAL

PLAZA


– 2.30 & 11.30pm


Vanmam (2D/Tamil) – 6:45pm

71 (2D/Drama) – 9.30pm

2Happy Ending (2D/Hindi) – 2:30 & 9:00pm

71 (2D/Drama) – 5.00pm

The Signal (2D/Thriller) – 7:00 & 11.30pm

3Hasslna Al Roab (2D/Comedy) – 2:00pm

Pocket Listing (2D/Action) – 4:00 & 8.00pm

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1 (2D/Action) – 5.45pm



PLUS | WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014 POTPOURRI16

Editor-In-Chief Khalid Al Sayed Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

IN FOCUS

A view from Aspire Park.

by Rimaz Mohamed

Send your photos to [email protected]. Mention where the photo was taken.

China hospital gives men chance to experience pain of childbirth

A hospital in eastern China is offering fathers-to-be a chance

to experience the pain of childbirth after several new moms complained they got little sympathy from their partners.

Free sessions are held twice a week at Aima maternity hospital in Shandong province and about 100 men have signed up to be tor-tured. Most are expectant dads but there are thrill seekers too among the volunteers for “taster sessions”.

For the simulations, pads attached to a device are placed above the abdomen, giving electric shocks that induce pain. The test subjects writhe in agony for up to five minutes as a nurse gradually raises the intensity on a scale of one to ten.

Song Siling, who is trying for a baby with his girlfriend, shut his eyes and grimaced as the needle on the electrode monitor inched forward with a beep.

“It felt like my heart and lungs

were being ripped apart,” said Song, who made it to level seven before frantically waving to the nurse to turn off the system. Others dropped out within minutes when they couldn’t take the pain.

Despite their obvious discomfort, the on-duty nurse said the simula-tions could never match the torment of actual childbirth.

“Still, if men can experience this pain, then they’ll be more loving and caring to their wives,” said Lou Dezhu.

Wu Jianlong, who braved the pain right up to level 10, says the experi-ence radically altered his views on childbirth.

“Because all women have children and it usually takes quite a long time, I had thought of it as being some-thing really natural, something really normal that they can get through,” he said.

Wu, whose wife is three months pregnant, yelled in pain and clenched his fists before giving in and begging the nurse to stop - he had reached the maximum limit by then.

Unlike in the West, Chinese men are often not in the room when their partners or wives give birth. Some

state-run hospitals do not allow expectant dads to enter, even if they want to.

Putin’s tiger the main suspect in mystery China goat deaths: Xinhua

A Siberian tiger released into the wild by Russian President

Vladimir Putin is the main suspect in a series of goat deaths in China’s northeast, state media reported Chinese local authorities as saying.

Siberian tiger experts have pegged Ustin, one of three tigers freed by Putin, as the killer of two goats, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Three goats are still missing.According to a Xinhua witness, the

dead goats’ skulls had been crushed with puncture holes “the size of a human finger clearly visible”.

Ustin crossed into China in October with another of Putin’s tigers, both of which carry tracking devices, Xinhua said, adding a warning from a wildlife protection expert not to throw food at the tiger if spotted.

Agencies

If you want your events featured here, mail details to [email protected]

Events in Qatar

The Sound of Music Broadway theatrical show When: November 26-29; 7pm Where: Qatar National Convention CenterWhat: The world’s most-loved musical -The Sound of Music, comes to Doha. This iconic broadway musical show will be featuring lavish costumes and scenery, a wonderful live orchestra and starring a cast of the very best of London’s West End performers, this award-winning critically acclaimed production is an emotionally packed extravaganza.Entry: QR250-QR1200

Shirin Neshat: Afterwards When: Till February 15, 2015 Where: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art What: The first solo exhibition in the Middle East by internationally acclaimed artist Shirin Neshat. Occupying the entire ground floor galleries, the exhibition features existing and newly produced works. Free admission

Arabian Horse Exhibition When: November 27; 10am - 10pmWhere: Qatar Photographic Society – Building 18, Katara What: The Qatar Photography Society in collaboration with the Arabian Horses organisation is hosting the “Arabian Horses” exhibition which is a collective exposition of the society members, and includes 47 paintings featuring the beauty of photography and the splendour of the horses.Free entry

The Tiger’s Dream: Tipu Sultan When: Till January 24Where: Museum Of Islamic Art What: This exhibition delves into the life of Tipu Sultan, the South Indian ruler, statesman, and patron. Drawn entirely from the MIA collection, and featuring many objects which have never been displayed in Qatar, the centerpiece is a group of 24 paintings showing Tipu’s victory at the Battle of Pollilur in 1780.Free entry

Yousef Ahmad: Story of ingenuity When: Nov 11- Feb14; 10am-8pmWhere: Qatar Museums Gallery, Building 10, Katara What: As a pioneer of Qatar’s modern art movement, Yousef Ahmad’s artistic journey has spanned over three decades, and his work has been influenced by his surroundings and emotional ties with Qatar’s culture and traditions. It showcases three phases in his career, from the early oil paintings that include the depiction of Al Zubarah Fort, to mixed media calligraphic pieces to new conceptual artworks.Free Entry

With an assist from science, American COMMUNITY chestnut ... · WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2014 • [email protected] • • 4455 7741 ... is a likeness of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder

Documents