'PRABHAT CIRCUS'OF HYDERABADBy MUNEEB BHAIHYDERABAD : ‘Circus’ is a show of life, of mental alertness, physical perfection, skill & art, here is a little room for any mistake, here the kids claps, enjoys and have all the fun n frolic...and who can forget Raj Kapoor’s Hindi blockbuster of its time…”Mera Naam Joker”, depicted the true and lively life of a ‘joker’ (clown) acting in a circus. This time the ‘Apollo Circus’ is making the national headlines…currently this circus is being showing in the exhibition grounds Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. Apollo circus is famous for having the ‘APPU’ elephant, which was the mascot for the Asian Games 1982, held in New Delhi. Also the famous bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan acted in this circus for a TV serial early in his acting career. Now the Apollo circus is being under a new management and is owned by Alim Khan of Meerut.

QUESTIONS OVER BUSH’S MIDEAST COMMITMENTSBy JIM LOBEWASHINGTON : The question is, is President George W Bush really serious - serious enough to put real pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - about implementing the much-heralded road map to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians? If not, most analysts here believe, the latest attempt to resolve a 55-year-old problem is doomed from the outset. Views about the question are surprisingly varied in Washington. Conventional wisdom before Bush's travels to the Middle East, which culminated in his summit at Aqaba with Sharon and new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, held that Sharon and his Likud party had little to fear.

By INDRAJIT BASUKOLKATA : In mid-December last year, when the Indian government approved the Cable Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill 2002, it was touted as a harbinger of harmony to the chaos that prevails in the television distribution and broadcasting sector in India. The bill paved the way for the introduction of a "conditional access system" (CAS) for the distribution and broadcast of TV content, which in simple terms means that instead of paying for blanket channels, the viewer can choose, through a "set-top" box, which channels are wanted, and pay only for those. This will be in addition to a fixed amount of US$1.5 that viewers would have to pay each month for a clutch (a minimum of 30) free-to-air channels. This system will be introduced initially in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.

By NIKHIL CHOPRANEW DELHI : After making a significant presence on the Internet, pornography is all set to go mobile, literally. Call it latest innovation, freedom of choice or simply abuse of technology, but the mobile wireless phone sets are expected to become the next best tool after Internet for the globally thriving pornography industry, according to an expert. "We have to admit that pornography is a commercial success story," said Rajesh Kochhar, director of the New Delhi-based National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS).

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