India vs Pak match: Post your comments here

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07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

World Press Photo: 18 award-winning images

A photograph showing an intimate moment between a young gay couple in St Petersburg has won the top prize at the World Press Photo of the Year competition.

This photo by Mads Nissen shows Jonathan Jacques Louis, 21, and Alexander Semyonov, 25, a gay couple during an intimate moment in St. Petersburg, Russia. (AP Photo/Mads Nissen, Scanpix/Panos Pictures)

Other winning photographs highlighted animal cruelty in China and the Ebola crisis in west Africa. The winners were selected from more than 90,000 images submitted to the contest.

This photo shows,'when spores of the fungus land on an ant, they penetrate its exoskeleton and enter its brain, compelling the host to leave its normal habitat on the forest floor and scale a nearby tree. Filled to bursting with fungus, the dying ant fastens itself to a leaf or another surface. Fungal stalks burst from the ant's husk and rain spores onto ants below to begin the process again' in Manaus, Brazil. (AP Photo/Anand Varma, National Geographic Magazine)

In this photo, Laurinda is waiting in her purple dress for the bus that will take her to Sunday School, Moree, New South Wales, Australia. She is among the many socially isolated young women in disadvantaged communities in Australia facing entrenched poverty, racism, trans-generational trauma, violence, addiction, and a range of other barriers to health and well-being. (AP Photo/Raphaela Rosella, Oculi)

In this photo, twin brothers Igor and Arthur hand out chocolates to their classmates to celebrate their ninth birthday in an orphanage in Baroncea, Moldova. (AP Photo/Asa Sjostrom, Moment Agency/INSTITUTE for Socionomen/ UNICEF)

This photo shows a kitchen table after a mortar attack in downtown Donetsk, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Sergei Ilnitsky, European Pressphoto Agency)

This photo shows a 19-year-old Chinese worker, wearing a face mask and a Santa hat, standing next to Christmas decorations being dried in a factory, as red powder used for coloring hovers in the air, in China on June 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronghui Chen, City Express)

This photo shows Odell Beckham of the New York Giants making a one-handed touchdown catch in the second quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA. (AP Photo/Al Bello, Getty Images)

This photo shows a cadet at the Royal Military Academy in Breda, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Al Bello, Getty Images)

This photo shows students seen in a schoolyard in El Dorado County, California. (AP Photo/Tomas van Houtryve/VII for Harper's Magazine)

This photo shows a group of young Samburu warriors encounter a rhino for the first time in their lives in Lewa Downs, Northern Kenya. Most people in Kenya never get the opportunity to see the wildlife that exists literally in their own backyard. (AP Photo/Ami Vitale/National Geographic )

This photo shows a photo of Julia Baird in a series named: Family Love 1993-2014 – The Julie Project. For 21 years Darcy Padilla photographed Julie Baird and her family's complex story of poverty, AIDS, drugs, multiple homes, relationships, births, deaths, loss and reunion. (AP Photo/Darcy Padilla/Agence Vu )

This photo shows medical staff at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center escort a man in the throes of Ebola-induced delirium back into the isolation ward from which he escaped in Hastings, Sierra Leone on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Pete Muller/Prime for National Geographic/The Washington Post)

This photo shows an Orthodox priest blessing the protesters on a barricade in Kiev, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Jerome Sessini, France, Magnum Photos for De Standaard)

This photo shows school uniforms belonging to three of the nearly 300 girls kidnapped from a remote school dormitory in Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group on April 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Glenna Gordon)

This photo shows a young girl pictured after she was wounded during clashes between riot-police and protesters after the funeral of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during last year's anti-government protests, in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP Photo/Bulent Kilic, AFP)

This photo shows a monkey being trained for the circus cowering as its trainer approaches. (AP Photo/Yongzhi Chu)

This photo shows shipwrecked people are rescued, aboard a boat 20 miles north of Libya, by a frigate of the Italian navy on June 7, 2014. After hundreds of men, women and children had drowned in 2013 off the coast of Sicily and Malta, the Italian government put its navy to work under a campaign called "Mare Nostrum" rescuing refugees at sea. (AP Photo/Massimo Sestini)

This photo shows Argentina player Lionel Messi looking at the World Cup trophy during the final celebrations at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 14, 2014. Argentina were defeated by Germany in the final. (AP Photo/Bao Tailiang, Chengdu Economic Daily)

View the entire collection of winning images from the 57th World Press Photo Contest here.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rahul wanted a Kejriwal-type campaign: Digvijaya

Does the rise of AAP spell the death knell of the Congress, now reduced to zero seats in Delhi? Some party leaders have been lately speaking out about the rot within. Now senior leader Digvijaya Singh tells Sagarika Ghose that Rahul Gandhi's attempts to change the Congress are being blocked by the party 'establishment'

The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party is bad news for Congress. Many say AAP is the new Congress.

Aam Aadmi Party is a political movement by activists who were first promoted by the RSS. Then they went into politics. Even today they will never criticise the BJP for its policies. They are only talking of corruption. Corruption is an issue in society and government and in every political party. Every party is fighting its own battle against it. But if you ask Kejriwal what is your political ideology, they say we are against corruption. Who isn't?

But aren't they targeting the Congress vote?

They have to deliver. The Congress has to keep its left-of-centre, socialist, secular ideology strong when it competes with the regional parties of Lalu, Mulayam, JD(U) and AAP. I had warned Delhi Congress leaders that Kejriwal is targeting your core group, the slums, weaker sections, and you have to be careful. They were thinking he would damage the BJP more than Congress. That was a wrong assumption.

So AAP is a fundamental threat to you?

It has to be seen how they perform and where they spend their resources. They could be a challenge to both BJP and Congress. I will be very happy if Kejriwal delivers on his promises. First he has to identify himself. What are the thrust areas of his development schemes? Whom does he represent in his governance? That will become obvious in the next one year.

But aren't they a fresher secular alternative?

I have a hunch that AAP is an overall part of the Congress-mukt-Bharat scheme of the RSS. I've believed this since 2010. We have to pin him down. Does Kejriwal believe in the 'Hindu rashtra'? Why does he not speak on conversions? Does he believe in socio-economic programmes for uplift of minorities? Why did he not visit the places where communal riots took place in Delhi? Has he ever spoken against the communal mindset of BJP? Give me one statement where he has spoken against conversions, 'Hindu rashtra' or taken an ideological line against RSS. All activists who leave AAP join BJP, not Congress. Because that's where their ideological moorings are.

But AAP says it does not want to fall into the secular blackmail trap of the Congress.

It's not a trap, it's a commitment. Congress has never compromised with communal Hindus or communal Muslims. We were fighting Hindu Mahasabha and RSS on one side and the Muslim League on the other. We would like to know from Arvind Kejriwal whether he believes in communal harmony. Will he protect minorities from persecution? Will he stand up when churches are being burnt? Why only speak against corruption? What are his replies to Anna Hazare's charges about funds collected through IAC? Why is he quiet on that? Unfortunately, the Congress has not been able to defend and define what we mean by secularism. That is a problem. Post 2014, we lost the war of perception. We could not communicate and counter the aggressive propaganda of the BJP and its communal allies.

Should Rahul learn from Kejriwal?

You will be surprised to know that Rahul Gandhi did want to run a Kejriwal-type campaign. Open the party up, allow people to come in, put a greater emphasis on mass contact, but unfortunately he was not allowed to give a new direction by the establishment. But he has to come forward, become Congress president, campaign aggressively throughout, not just at election time. He has to be seen more, heard more. Why should people vote for Congress and Rahul Gandhi if they don't know what he stands for? He must be on Twitter and Facebook; social media is a reality you can't ignore.

So, there's a clash between the old and the young in the Congress?

People call me his mentor and adviser but Rahul doesn't need anyone. He is politically conscious and has a political mind, but since his mother has not been well, he does not want to impose his will on her because it will bring him into confrontation with her. But we have to change, we must change. Rahul is prepared to change, but maybe others are not.

Is the Congress getting squeezed with Modi taking away the middle-class Hindus and Kejriwal the lower-income vote?

Yes.Whenever there's an option of a third secular formation, that is a challenge. A coalition of the poor or a secular front is a challenge for us. We do have to re-set; every party has to press the re-set button periodically. It has been a failure of the Congress that we have not been able to build up regional leaderships.

As for Modi, his greatest strength is that he is doing the packaging and event management for all the schemes started by UPA. Inclusive banking was started by us, spelt out in Dr Manmohan Singh's 2011-2012 speeches. Modi has only renamed it Jan Dhan Yojana, claiming 11 crore accounts have been opened, but these accounts have always been there. Swachh Bharat is nothing but UPA's Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. In fact the budget still provides for it as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.

So the future for the Congress is … ?

We have to aggressively market ourselves as what we are — a left-of-centre, secular, socialist party. That's the future of the Congress, that's been the political space of the Congress from the very beginning. We cannot renege on that because if we do we will lose our identity. The rightwing space does not belong to us. And we must make attempts to build regional leaderships.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Law of averages may dampen dream clash

For many, India-Pakistan is the ultimate dream final; so when they faceoff in their opening matches itself, right at the start of the World Cup, it offers a delicate irony.

Victory will still be savoured, yes, but it will not be as sweet.

Of course, every Indian is already treating Sunday's encounter at the Adelaide Oval as a cakewalk: the team has never lost to Pakistan on this platform and they don't expect the script to unfold in a different way in the rarefied climes of down under.

True, India barely had to bat their eyelids in any of the five Cup games, beating them across four continents; the same veneer of invincibility, however, brings in an altogether different dimension to the contest: the law of averages.

Any statistician will confirm that you can't keep winning against the same opponent, especially if there isn't much to distinguish between the two teams: after all, both have always had the depth and desire to even become the best in the world at some point or the other.Indeed, their battles in other formats and other events have been much more evenly balanced, with Pakistan actually enjoying a healthy edge at 72-45; it can be argued that India have been lucky in the World Cup as they enjoyed first mover's advantage on four occasions.

Yes, they won the toss on as many as four occasions and got the opportunity to set up the target; that ensured that Pakistan were always in the boiling cauldron called pressure, and they just wilted each time as the heat got to them.On the one occasion that they batted first and even amassed a daunting 273, they ran into an emotionally charged Indian team; Sachin Tendulkar himself was in a zone and it didn't matter that Shoaib Akhtar was breathing fire and raw pace.

The law of averages will certainly loom over the two captains; but in this context, it probably descends into a different dimension and that might well have an overwhelming effect on the game itself, if not the result: the two teams have never looked so ordinary or average.India have traditionally been the stronger batting side and, on paper, they still look formidable; the truth, however, is that as a group, they have been woefully out of form and, last heard, are still uncomfortable on bouncy pitches.

Pakistan, on the other hand, have always been sharper with the ball: but for this edition, they have been hit by injuries and Mohammad Irfan is the only real threat. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah may prove to be the joker in the pack, especially as he is an unknown weapon.

Of course, the lesser forces ­ India's bowlers or Pakistan's batsmen ­ might still have the last laugh; that is probably the only way this game will be commensurate with the passion and intensity that it generates among the two nations.

Maybe, it will yet be a dream game.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Blog: Roast rapists and criminals not comedians

Controversies are tedious. They succeed in boring people out of their minds; especially those needless controversies espoused by radical elements for cheap publicity with a despicable agenda of suppressing the citizen's voice.The proponents of moral policing blatantly vitiate social peace by disrupting public property and curbing everlasting values of freedom of thought and expression bestowed upon us by our Constitution.

The recent controversy over the AIB Roast is indeed baffling. Many groups desperate to make themselves relevant; took a moral high ground by unnecessarily dragging the organisers, producers directors and actors of AIB Roast to the court alleging an attack on India's cultural and traditional values.

Comedy is an avenue for creative expression. We are a young country that wants to celebrate humour.  Why must we always take ourselves so seriously?

Yes, the jokes at the AIB Roast were filthy and excessively obscene. I am not justifying roast sessions where expletives are spouted every five seconds in front of a large audience. Nevertheless, with the spirit of provoking laughter, the organisers and the participants of the AIB Roast should be entitled to express their sense of humour in the manner they creatively choose to.

None of the celebrities who happily derived pleasure from being roasted with élan or the thousands of people who purchased tickets to attend the show; were offended by the vulgar jokes. The men and women present there equally endorsed the roast and were able to take the indecent jokes in their stride.

On the other hand, millions of people who watched the AIB Roast on YouTube expressed their opinions ranging from amusement to utter disgust. Viewers' discretion was advised by AIB through a disclaimer at the start of the video. We did have the option to either watch or entirely ignore the content.

I am tempted to draw a parallel between the AIB Roast and various problems faced by women in the country. The hypocrisy and double standards of moral policing are evident in the country. The silence of moral police when atrocities are committed against women and children all over the country on a daily basis is contemptible.

Loony elements quickly spring into action when they don't agree with something. Demanding a ban on books, articles, comedy shows; filing an FIR; sending a legal notice; targeting individuals by physical attacks and vandalizing their homes, etc.  are among the typical reactions to moral policing that endangers creative expression.

However, we don't find them coming out in support of citizens demanding a safer environment that allows women to exercise their freedom of choice. We never see them expressing solidarity with citizens who were outraged by reprehensible acts of sexual violence against women and children.

We should roast those people whose primitive mindset is preventing women's empowerment and progress. We should roast those people who blatantly disrespect women. We should literally roast rapists, criminals and misogynists whose existence makes our streets unsafe for women and children. We should roast those law enforcement officials who fail to offer adequate protection to women and are insensitive to their concerns.

We should roast those people who do not guarantee freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of expression. We should roast those people who disallow blooming of creative expression and ideas.

Citizens are furious by the whims and fancies of the moral police and their attempts at curtailing freedom of speech (and laughter) in the country. The squeamishness of the moral police is lamentable and it is time that society reins in the misplaced sense of righteousness and sanctimony exhibited by them. Moral policing is a grave threat to our society and must be eliminated to safeguard various freedoms – including the freedom to laugh – enjoyed by the people of India.

Freedom of thought and expression is an immensely valuable gift that must be preserved and protected from lunatic fringe at any cost.

AIB is using humour as a rubber sword which allows them to make a point without drawing blood. AIB might be legally roasted by people who do not agree with their style of comedy. But it will not discourage them from conducting roast sessions, make us laugh heartily and help us develop a great sense of humour that our country desperately needs. After all, laughter is a powerful stress-relief medicine.

I have great faith in the judiciary and the Constitution of my land. I do not endorse AIB Roast, but I do endorse freedom of speech that must be safeguarded and upheld at all times.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rahul wanted a Kejriwal-type campaign: Digvijaya

Does the rise of AAP spell the death knell of the Congress, now reduced to zero seats in Delhi? Some party leaders have been lately speaking out about the rot within. Now senior leader Digvijaya Singh tells Sagarika Ghose that Rahul Gandhi's attempts to change the Congress are being blocked by the party 'establishment'

The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party is bad news for Congress. Many say AAP is the new Congress.

Aam Aadmi Party is a political movement by activists who were first promoted by the RSS. Then they went into politics. Even today they will never criticise the BJP for its policies. They are only talking of corruption. Corruption is an issue in society and government and in every political party. Every party is fighting its own battle against it. But if you ask Kejriwal what is your political ideology, they say we are against corruption. Who isn't?

But aren't they targeting the Congress vote?

They have to deliver. The Congress has to keep its left-of-centre, socialist, secular ideology strong when it competes with the regional parties of Lalu, Mulayam, JD(U) and AAP. I had warned Delhi Congress leaders that Kejriwal is targeting your core group, the slums, weaker sections, and you have to be careful. They were thinking he would damage the BJP more than Congress. That was a wrong assumption.

So AAP is a fundamental threat to you?

It has to be seen how they perform and where they spend their resources. They could be a challenge to both BJP and Congress. I will be very happy if Kejriwal delivers on his promises. First he has to identify himself. What are the thrust areas of his development schemes? Whom does he represent in his governance? That will become obvious in the next one year.

But aren't they a fresher secular alternative?

I have a hunch that AAP is an overall part of the Congress-mukt-Bharat scheme of the RSS. I've believed this since 2010. We have to pin him down. Does Kejriwal believe in the 'Hindu rashtra'? Why does he not speak on conversions? Does he believe in socio-economic programmes for uplift of minorities? Why did he not visit the places where communal riots took place in Delhi? Has he ever spoken against the communal mindset of BJP? Give me one statement where he has spoken against conversions, 'Hindu rashtra' or taken an ideological line against RSS. All activists who leave AAP join BJP, not Congress. Because that's where their ideological moorings are.

But AAP says it does not want to fall into the secular blackmail trap of the Congress.

It's not a trap, it's a commitment. Congress has never compromised with communal Hindus or communal Muslims. We were fighting Hindu Mahasabha and RSS on one side and the Muslim League on the other. We would like to know from Arvind Kejriwal whether he believes in communal harmony. Will he protect minorities from persecution? Will he stand up when churches are being burnt? Why only speak against corruption? What are his replies to Anna Hazare's charges about funds collected through IAC? Why is he quiet on that? Unfortunately, the Congress has not been able to defend and define what we mean by secularism. That is a problem. Post 2014, we lost the war of perception. We could not communicate and counter the aggressive propaganda of the BJP and its communal allies.

Should Rahul learn from Kejriwal?

You will be surprised to know that Rahul Gandhi did want to run a Kejriwal-type campaign. Open the party up, allow people to come in, put a greater emphasis on mass contact, but unfortunately he was not allowed to give a new direction by the establishment. But he has to come forward, become Congress president, campaign aggressively throughout, not just at election time. He has to be seen more, heard more. Why should people vote for Congress and Rahul Gandhi if they don't know what he stands for? He must be on Twitter and Facebook; social media is a reality you can't ignore.

So, there's a clash between the old and the young in the Congress?

People call me his mentor and adviser but Rahul doesn't need anyone. He is politically conscious and has a political mind, but since his mother has not been well, he does not want to impose his will on her because it will bring him into confrontation with her. But we have to change, we must change. Rahul is prepared to change, but maybe others are not.

Is the Congress getting squeezed with Modi taking away the middle-class Hindus and Kejriwal the lower-income vote?

Yes.Whenever there's an option of a third secular formation, that is a challenge. A coalition of the poor or a secular front is a challenge for us. We do have to re-set; every party has to press the re-set button periodically. It has been a failure of the Congress that we have not been able to build up regional leaderships.

As for Modi, his greatest strength is that he is doing the packaging and event management for all the schemes started by UPA. Inclusive banking was started by us, spelt out in Dr Manmohan Singh's 2011-2012 speeches. Modi has only renamed it Jan Dhan Yojana, claiming 11 crore accounts have been opened, but these accounts have always been there. Swachh Bharat is nothing but UPA's Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. In fact the budget still provides for it as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.

So the future for the Congress is … ?

We have to aggressively market ourselves as what we are — a left-of-centre, secular, socialist party. That's the future of the Congress, that's been the political space of the Congress from the very beginning. We cannot renege on that because if we do we will lose our identity. The rightwing space does not belong to us. And we must make attempts to build regional leaderships.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

Law of averages may dampen dream clash

For many, India-Pakistan is the ultimate dream final; so when they faceoff in their opening matches itself, right at the start of the World Cup, it offers a delicate irony.

Victory will still be savoured, yes, but it will not be as sweet.

Of course, every Indian is already treating Sunday's encounter at the Adelaide Oval as a cakewalk: the team has never lost to Pakistan on this platform and they don't expect the script to unfold in a different way in the rarefied climes of down under.

True, India barely had to bat their eyelids in any of the five Cup games, beating them across four continents; the same veneer of invincibility, however, brings in an altogether different dimension to the contest: the law of averages.

Any statistician will confirm that you can't keep winning against the same opponent, especially if there isn't much to distinguish between the two teams: after all, both have always had the depth and desire to even become the best in the world at some point or the other.Indeed, their battles in other formats and other events have been much more evenly balanced, with Pakistan actually enjoying a healthy edge at 72-45; it can be argued that India have been lucky in the World Cup as they enjoyed first mover's advantage on four occasions.

Yes, they won the toss on as many as four occasions and got the opportunity to set up the target; that ensured that Pakistan were always in the boiling cauldron called pressure, and they just wilted each time as the heat got to them.On the one occasion that they batted first and even amassed a daunting 273, they ran into an emotionally charged Indian team; Sachin Tendulkar himself was in a zone and it didn't matter that Shoaib Akhtar was breathing fire and raw pace.

The law of averages will certainly loom over the two captains; but in this context, it probably descends into a different dimension and that might well have an overwhelming effect on the game itself, if not the result: the two teams have never looked so ordinary or average.India have traditionally been the stronger batting side and, on paper, they still look formidable; the truth, however, is that as a group, they have been woefully out of form and, last heard, are still uncomfortable on bouncy pitches.

Pakistan, on the other hand, have always been sharper with the ball: but for this edition, they have been hit by injuries and Mohammad Irfan is the only real threat. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah may prove to be the joker in the pack, especially as he is an unknown weapon.

Of course, the lesser forces ­ India's bowlers or Pakistan's batsmen ­ might still have the last laugh; that is probably the only way this game will be commensurate with the passion and intensity that it generates among the two nations.

Maybe, it will yet be a dream game.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

In pics: Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

/elections/kejriwals-swearing-in-ceremony/eventshow/46243876.cms

01

Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday took oath as the eighth chief minister of Delhi, promising to make Delhi the first corruption-free state in five years. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

/elections/kejriwals-swearing-in-ceremony/eventshow/46243873.cms

02

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Arvind Kejriwal (R), with fellow AAP minister Manish Sisodia, address supporters. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

/elections/kejriwals-swearing-in-ceremony/eventshow/46243871.cms

03

Supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) watch leader Arvind Kejriwal being sworn in as Delhi chief minister by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

/elections/kejriwals-swearing-in-ceremony/eventshow/46243868.cms

04

Lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung administered the oath of office and secrecy to Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and five other ministers at the historic Ramlila Ground here, exactly an year after Kejriwal quit after a short 49-days regime. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

/elections/kejriwals-swearing-in-ceremony/eventshow/46243865.cms

05

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Arvind Kejriwal (2R) and fellow AAP ministers Asim Ahmed Khan (L), Satyendra Jain (2L) and Manish Sisodia greet supporters. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

/elections/kejriwals-swearing-in-ceremony/eventshow/46243853.cms

06

The AAP had won 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi decimating Congress and leaving only three seats for the BJP. (TOI photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

/elections/kejriwals-swearing-in-ceremony/eventshow/46243852.cms

07

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal alongwith Manish Sisodia leave his residence in Kaushambi to take oath at Ramlila Maidan on Saturday. (TOI photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

India vs Pak match: Post your comments here

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by {{:user.name}}

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07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More

World Press Photo: 18 award-winning images

A photograph showing an intimate moment between a young gay couple in St Petersburg has won the top prize at the World Press Photo of the Year competition.

This photo by Mads Nissen shows Jonathan Jacques Louis, 21, and Alexander Semyonov, 25, a gay couple during an intimate moment in St. Petersburg, Russia. (AP Photo/Mads Nissen, Scanpix/Panos Pictures)

Other winning photographs highlighted animal cruelty in China and the Ebola crisis in west Africa. The winners were selected from more than 90,000 images submitted to the contest.

This photo shows,'when spores of the fungus land on an ant, they penetrate its exoskeleton and enter its brain, compelling the host to leave its normal habitat on the forest floor and scale a nearby tree. Filled to bursting with fungus, the dying ant fastens itself to a leaf or another surface. Fungal stalks burst from the ant's husk and rain spores onto ants below to begin the process again' in Manaus, Brazil. (AP Photo/Anand Varma, National Geographic Magazine)

In this photo, Laurinda is waiting in her purple dress for the bus that will take her to Sunday School, Moree, New South Wales, Australia. She is among the many socially isolated young women in disadvantaged communities in Australia facing entrenched poverty, racism, trans-generational trauma, violence, addiction, and a range of other barriers to health and well-being. (AP Photo/Raphaela Rosella, Oculi)

In this photo, twin brothers Igor and Arthur hand out chocolates to their classmates to celebrate their ninth birthday in an orphanage in Baroncea, Moldova. (AP Photo/Asa Sjostrom, Moment Agency/INSTITUTE for Socionomen/ UNICEF)

This photo shows a kitchen table after a mortar attack in downtown Donetsk, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Sergei Ilnitsky, European Pressphoto Agency)

This photo shows a 19-year-old Chinese worker, wearing a face mask and a Santa hat, standing next to Christmas decorations being dried in a factory, as red powder used for coloring hovers in the air, in China on June 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronghui Chen, City Express)

This photo shows Odell Beckham of the New York Giants making a one-handed touchdown catch in the second quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA. (AP Photo/Al Bello, Getty Images)

This photo shows a cadet at the Royal Military Academy in Breda, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Al Bello, Getty Images)

This photo shows students seen in a schoolyard in El Dorado County, California. (AP Photo/Tomas van Houtryve/VII for Harper's Magazine)

This photo shows a group of young Samburu warriors encounter a rhino for the first time in their lives in Lewa Downs, Northern Kenya. Most people in Kenya never get the opportunity to see the wildlife that exists literally in their own backyard. (AP Photo/Ami Vitale/National Geographic )

This photo shows a photo of Julia Baird in a series named: Family Love 1993-2014 – The Julie Project. For 21 years Darcy Padilla photographed Julie Baird and her family's complex story of poverty, AIDS, drugs, multiple homes, relationships, births, deaths, loss and reunion. (AP Photo/Darcy Padilla/Agence Vu )

This photo shows medical staff at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center escort a man in the throes of Ebola-induced delirium back into the isolation ward from which he escaped in Hastings, Sierra Leone on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Pete Muller/Prime for National Geographic/The Washington Post)

This photo shows an Orthodox priest blessing the protesters on a barricade in Kiev, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Jerome Sessini, France, Magnum Photos for De Standaard)

This photo shows school uniforms belonging to three of the nearly 300 girls kidnapped from a remote school dormitory in Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group on April 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Glenna Gordon)

This photo shows a young girl pictured after she was wounded during clashes between riot-police and protesters after the funeral of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during last year's anti-government protests, in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP Photo/Bulent Kilic, AFP)

This photo shows a monkey being trained for the circus cowering as its trainer approaches. (AP Photo/Yongzhi Chu)

This photo shows shipwrecked people are rescued, aboard a boat 20 miles north of Libya, by a frigate of the Italian navy on June 7, 2014. After hundreds of men, women and children had drowned in 2013 off the coast of Sicily and Malta, the Italian government put its navy to work under a campaign called "Mare Nostrum" rescuing refugees at sea. (AP Photo/Massimo Sestini)

This photo shows Argentina player Lionel Messi looking at the World Cup trophy during the final celebrations at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 14, 2014. Argentina were defeated by Germany in the final. (AP Photo/Bao Tailiang, Chengdu Economic Daily)

View the entire collection of winning images from the 57th World Press Photo Contest here.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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India vs Pak match: Post your comments here

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In pics: Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday took oath as the eighth chief minister of Delhi, promising to make Delhi the first corruption-free state in five years. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Arvind Kejriwal (R), with fellow AAP minister Manish Sisodia, address supporters. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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Supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) watch leader Arvind Kejriwal being sworn in as Delhi chief minister by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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Lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung administered the oath of office and secrecy to Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and five other ministers at the historic Ramlila Ground here, exactly an year after Kejriwal quit after a short 49-days regime. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Arvind Kejriwal (2R) and fellow AAP ministers Asim Ahmed Khan (L), Satyendra Jain (2L) and Manish Sisodia greet supporters. (AFP photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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The AAP had won 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi decimating Congress and leaving only three seats for the BJP. (TOI photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal alongwith Manish Sisodia leave his residence in Kaushambi to take oath at Ramlila Maidan on Saturday. (TOI photo) 

Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony

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Rahul wanted a Kejriwal-type campaign: Digvijaya

Does the rise of AAP spell the death knell of the Congress, now reduced to zero seats in Delhi? Some party leaders have been lately speaking out about the rot within. Now senior leader Digvijaya Singh tells Sagarika Ghose that Rahul Gandhi's attempts to change the Congress are being blocked by the party 'establishment'

The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party is bad news for Congress. Many say AAP is the new Congress.

Aam Aadmi Party is a political movement by activists who were first promoted by the RSS. Then they went into politics. Even today they will never criticise the BJP for its policies. They are only talking of corruption. Corruption is an issue in society and government and in every political party. Every party is fighting its own battle against it. But if you ask Kejriwal what is your political ideology, they say we are against corruption. Who isn't?

But aren't they targeting the Congress vote?

They have to deliver. The Congress has to keep its left-of-centre, socialist, secular ideology strong when it competes with the regional parties of Lalu, Mulayam, JD(U) and AAP. I had warned Delhi Congress leaders that Kejriwal is targeting your core group, the slums, weaker sections, and you have to be careful. They were thinking he would damage the BJP more than Congress. That was a wrong assumption.

So AAP is a fundamental threat to you?

It has to be seen how they perform and where they spend their resources. They could be a challenge to both BJP and Congress. I will be very happy if Kejriwal delivers on his promises. First he has to identify himself. What are the thrust areas of his development schemes? Whom does he represent in his governance? That will become obvious in the next one year.

But aren't they a fresher secular alternative?

I have a hunch that AAP is an overall part of the Congress-mukt-Bharat scheme of the RSS. I've believed this since 2010. We have to pin him down. Does Kejriwal believe in the 'Hindu rashtra'? Why does he not speak on conversions? Does he believe in socio-economic programmes for uplift of minorities? Why did he not visit the places where communal riots took place in Delhi? Has he ever spoken against the communal mindset of BJP? Give me one statement where he has spoken against conversions, 'Hindu rashtra' or taken an ideological line against RSS. All activists who leave AAP join BJP, not Congress. Because that's where their ideological moorings are.

But AAP says it does not want to fall into the secular blackmail trap of the Congress.

It's not a trap, it's a commitment. Congress has never compromised with communal Hindus or communal Muslims. We were fighting Hindu Mahasabha and RSS on one side and the Muslim League on the other. We would like to know from Arvind Kejriwal whether he believes in communal harmony. Will he protect minorities from persecution? Will he stand up when churches are being burnt? Why only speak against corruption? What are his replies to Anna Hazare's charges about funds collected through IAC? Why is he quiet on that? Unfortunately, the Congress has not been able to defend and define what we mean by secularism. That is a problem. Post 2014, we lost the war of perception. We could not communicate and counter the aggressive propaganda of the BJP and its communal allies.

Should Rahul learn from Kejriwal?

You will be surprised to know that Rahul Gandhi did want to run a Kejriwal-type campaign. Open the party up, allow people to come in, put a greater emphasis on mass contact, but unfortunately he was not allowed to give a new direction by the establishment. But he has to come forward, become Congress president, campaign aggressively throughout, not just at election time. He has to be seen more, heard more. Why should people vote for Congress and Rahul Gandhi if they don't know what he stands for? He must be on Twitter and Facebook; social media is a reality you can't ignore.

So, there's a clash between the old and the young in the Congress?

People call me his mentor and adviser but Rahul doesn't need anyone. He is politically conscious and has a political mind, but since his mother has not been well, he does not want to impose his will on her because it will bring him into confrontation with her. But we have to change, we must change. Rahul is prepared to change, but maybe others are not.

Is the Congress getting squeezed with Modi taking away the middle-class Hindus and Kejriwal the lower-income vote?

Yes.Whenever there's an option of a third secular formation, that is a challenge. A coalition of the poor or a secular front is a challenge for us. We do have to re-set; every party has to press the re-set button periodically. It has been a failure of the Congress that we have not been able to build up regional leaderships.

As for Modi, his greatest strength is that he is doing the packaging and event management for all the schemes started by UPA. Inclusive banking was started by us, spelt out in Dr Manmohan Singh's 2011-2012 speeches. Modi has only renamed it Jan Dhan Yojana, claiming 11 crore accounts have been opened, but these accounts have always been there. Swachh Bharat is nothing but UPA's Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. In fact the budget still provides for it as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.

So the future for the Congress is … ?

We have to aggressively market ourselves as what we are — a left-of-centre, secular, socialist party. That's the future of the Congress, that's been the political space of the Congress from the very beginning. We cannot renege on that because if we do we will lose our identity. The rightwing space does not belong to us. And we must make attempts to build regional leaderships.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Law of averages may dampen dream clash

For many, India-Pakistan is the ultimate dream final; so when they faceoff in their opening matches itself, right at the start of the World Cup, it offers a delicate irony.

Victory will still be savoured, yes, but it will not be as sweet.

Of course, every Indian is already treating Sunday's encounter at the Adelaide Oval as a cakewalk: the team has never lost to Pakistan on this platform and they don't expect the script to unfold in a different way in the rarefied climes of down under.

True, India barely had to bat their eyelids in any of the five Cup games, beating them across four continents; the same veneer of invincibility, however, brings in an altogether different dimension to the contest: the law of averages.

Any statistician will confirm that you can't keep winning against the same opponent, especially if there isn't much to distinguish between the two teams: after all, both have always had the depth and desire to even become the best in the world at some point or the other.Indeed, their battles in other formats and other events have been much more evenly balanced, with Pakistan actually enjoying a healthy edge at 72-45; it can be argued that India have been lucky in the World Cup as they enjoyed first mover's advantage on four occasions.

Yes, they won the toss on as many as four occasions and got the opportunity to set up the target; that ensured that Pakistan were always in the boiling cauldron called pressure, and they just wilted each time as the heat got to them.On the one occasion that they batted first and even amassed a daunting 273, they ran into an emotionally charged Indian team; Sachin Tendulkar himself was in a zone and it didn't matter that Shoaib Akhtar was breathing fire and raw pace.

The law of averages will certainly loom over the two captains; but in this context, it probably descends into a different dimension and that might well have an overwhelming effect on the game itself, if not the result: the two teams have never looked so ordinary or average.India have traditionally been the stronger batting side and, on paper, they still look formidable; the truth, however, is that as a group, they have been woefully out of form and, last heard, are still uncomfortable on bouncy pitches.

Pakistan, on the other hand, have always been sharper with the ball: but for this edition, they have been hit by injuries and Mohammad Irfan is the only real threat. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah may prove to be the joker in the pack, especially as he is an unknown weapon.

Of course, the lesser forces ­ India's bowlers or Pakistan's batsmen ­ might still have the last laugh; that is probably the only way this game will be commensurate with the passion and intensity that it generates among the two nations.

Maybe, it will yet be a dream game.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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World Press Photo: 18 award-winning images

A photograph showing an intimate moment between a young gay couple in St Petersburg has won the top prize at the World Press Photo of the Year competition.

This photo by Mads Nissen shows Jonathan Jacques Louis, 21, and Alexander Semyonov, 25, a gay couple during an intimate moment in St. Petersburg, Russia. (AP Photo/Mads Nissen, Scanpix/Panos Pictures)

Other winning photographs highlighted animal cruelty in China and the Ebola crisis in west Africa. The winners were selected from more than 90,000 images submitted to the contest.

This photo shows,'when spores of the fungus land on an ant, they penetrate its exoskeleton and enter its brain, compelling the host to leave its normal habitat on the forest floor and scale a nearby tree. Filled to bursting with fungus, the dying ant fastens itself to a leaf or another surface. Fungal stalks burst from the ant's husk and rain spores onto ants below to begin the process again' in Manaus, Brazil. (AP Photo/Anand Varma, National Geographic Magazine)

In this photo, Laurinda is waiting in her purple dress for the bus that will take her to Sunday School, Moree, New South Wales, Australia. She is among the many socially isolated young women in disadvantaged communities in Australia facing entrenched poverty, racism, trans-generational trauma, violence, addiction, and a range of other barriers to health and well-being. (AP Photo/Raphaela Rosella, Oculi)

In this photo, twin brothers Igor and Arthur hand out chocolates to their classmates to celebrate their ninth birthday in an orphanage in Baroncea, Moldova. (AP Photo/Asa Sjostrom, Moment Agency/INSTITUTE for Socionomen/ UNICEF)

This photo shows a kitchen table after a mortar attack in downtown Donetsk, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Sergei Ilnitsky, European Pressphoto Agency)

This photo shows a 19-year-old Chinese worker, wearing a face mask and a Santa hat, standing next to Christmas decorations being dried in a factory, as red powder used for coloring hovers in the air, in China on June 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronghui Chen, City Express)

This photo shows Odell Beckham of the New York Giants making a one-handed touchdown catch in the second quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA. (AP Photo/Al Bello, Getty Images)

This photo shows a cadet at the Royal Military Academy in Breda, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Al Bello, Getty Images)

This photo shows students seen in a schoolyard in El Dorado County, California. (AP Photo/Tomas van Houtryve/VII for Harper's Magazine)

This photo shows a group of young Samburu warriors encounter a rhino for the first time in their lives in Lewa Downs, Northern Kenya. Most people in Kenya never get the opportunity to see the wildlife that exists literally in their own backyard. (AP Photo/Ami Vitale/National Geographic )

This photo shows a photo of Julia Baird in a series named: Family Love 1993-2014 – The Julie Project. For 21 years Darcy Padilla photographed Julie Baird and her family's complex story of poverty, AIDS, drugs, multiple homes, relationships, births, deaths, loss and reunion. (AP Photo/Darcy Padilla/Agence Vu )

This photo shows medical staff at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center escort a man in the throes of Ebola-induced delirium back into the isolation ward from which he escaped in Hastings, Sierra Leone on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Pete Muller/Prime for National Geographic/The Washington Post)

This photo shows an Orthodox priest blessing the protesters on a barricade in Kiev, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Jerome Sessini, France, Magnum Photos for De Standaard)

This photo shows school uniforms belonging to three of the nearly 300 girls kidnapped from a remote school dormitory in Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group on April 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Glenna Gordon)

This photo shows a young girl pictured after she was wounded during clashes between riot-police and protesters after the funeral of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during last year's anti-government protests, in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP Photo/Bulent Kilic, AFP)

This photo shows a monkey being trained for the circus cowering as its trainer approaches. (AP Photo/Yongzhi Chu)

This photo shows shipwrecked people are rescued, aboard a boat 20 miles north of Libya, by a frigate of the Italian navy on June 7, 2014. After hundreds of men, women and children had drowned in 2013 off the coast of Sicily and Malta, the Italian government put its navy to work under a campaign called "Mare Nostrum" rescuing refugees at sea. (AP Photo/Massimo Sestini)

This photo shows Argentina player Lionel Messi looking at the World Cup trophy during the final celebrations at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 14, 2014. Argentina were defeated by Germany in the final. (AP Photo/Bao Tailiang, Chengdu Economic Daily)

View the entire collection of winning images from the 57th World Press Photo Contest here.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

07.20 | 0 komentar | Read More