The 11th World Athletics Championships begin Saturday in Osaka, Japan, with 13 Turkish athletes also competing. On the first day of the championships, six Turks will be on the track. Abdil Ceylan will run in the men's marathon while Türkan Erişmiş will participate in the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase, Özge Gürler will run in the women's 400 meter hurdles, Olympic bronze winner Eşref Apak and Fatih Eryıldırım will both participate in the men's hammer throw, to earn a berth in the finals. Former 5,000 meter world record holder Elvan Abeylegesse will also vie for the 10,000 meter final, aiming to win the country's second medal at a world championship. The only medal Turkey won was in 2003 when Süreyya Ayhan clinched the silver in the 1,500 meter race at the 9th World Championships in Paris. Other Turkish athletes to compete in Osaka are Nevin Yanıt in the 100 meter hurdles, Yeliz Ay in the 20 kilometer walk, Esen Kızıldağ in the 100 meter hurdles, Svetlana Sudak in women's hammer throw, Ercüment Olgundeniz in discus, Bahar Doğan in women's marathon and Halil Akkaş, who won four medals at last week's Universiade in Bangkok, in the men's 3,000 meter steeplechase.
Presidential contender Abdullah Gül is now one step closer to the presidency although he failed to get elected during the second round of voting in the presidential elections held Friday.
Gül received 337 of 446 votes, four less than he received in the first round of voting. Nevertheless this number is enough for him to be elected president on Aug. 28, in the third round of voting where 276 votes suffice. The Nationalist Movement Party's (MHP) candidate Sabahattin Çakmakoğlu received 71 votes and the Democratic Left Party's (DSP) candidate Tayfun İçli received just 14 votes. There were 24 blank votes cast.
Gül and Çakmakoğlu will contest the third round, while İçli is out of the race. Following the voting Gül said that everyone must wait for the voting on Tuesday.
The AKP objected to the results when Gül could not secure all the votes from his party. The AKP's Uşak deputy, Mustafa Çetin, was late for voting and two others voted for Çakmakoğlu and İçli by mistake.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) boycotted the voting in Parliament while the other parties were present despite a call to boycott the voting by Deniz Baykal, the CHP's leader. With the participation of the MHP, DSP and the Democratic Society Party (DTP), Gül did not face a problem in meeting the quorum. The DTP did not change its stance and cast blank votes.
CHP to boycott swearing-in ceremony next week
The CHP declared Friday that it will not be present in Parliament during Gül's swearing-in ceremony on Aug. 28.
�There is no reason for us to enter Parliament during Gül's swearing-in,� Mustafa Özyürek, deputy leader of the CHP, told reporters.
Özyürek reiterated that they boycotted Parliament due to the AKP's failure to seek compromise with the political parties.
�We have already stated that we will limit our relations with Abdullah Gül, if he is elected. We will not participate in the Oct. 29 reception to be held in Çankaya Palace,� he said.
India is in the throes of a revolution of rising expectations, a country animated by a providential sense of its own possibility
Already, it is close to dislodging Japan as the world's third largest economy, if purchasing power is taken into account. And by 2040 should have eased past China to become the planet's most populous country.
Though progress can be agonisingly and needlessly slow, especially in the countryside, living standards are improving, along with literacy rates and life expectancy.
In Mumbai not so long ago, I visited what can only be described as a gentrified slum, where a young father sat in front of his colour television mesmerised by the fast-moving ticker racing across the bottom of the screen.
He was checking on the value of his share portfolio, and happily it was increasing with each occasional blink of his eyes.
Daring to dream
Even in the shanties, still stinking and overcrowded, people are daring to dream. The signs of change are everywhere.
Inequalities aside, the crude equation that increased wealth will lead ultimately to decreased suffering should apply to most of India's social and economic maladies.
Yet there is one problem that prosperity is actually aggravating.
I saw this for myself in a hospital in Punjab, where we filmed a young mother giving birth, with the help of a surgeon's scalpel, to her second daughter.
The Caesarean section was a complete success, and the safe arrival of such a beautiful ball of life should have been greeted with uncomplicated delight.
But the mother had failed once again to provide her husband with a son and heir, so it was a singularly joyless occasion.
Old attitudes
Handed the little girl, not yet 10 minutes old, the women of the family were disapproving and edgy, fretful perhaps of how they would break the news to the men folk, who had not even come to the hospital.
On the maternity ward a few minutes later, I was asked by one of the ladies - the mother's sister, I think - whether we would like to name the baby girl.
We demurred, of course. Then came an even more extraordinary request: did we want to take the baby, not just to hold, but to have?
In another time, she might have been killed.
For this prosperous Punjabi family, we seemingly offered a less savage means of disposal.
In modern-day India, sex selection, the all-too-common practice by which female foetuses are terminated before birth, conforms to a very different and disturbing calculus: increased wealth brings increased access to prenatal ultrasounds and sonograms.
New and more widely available technology, the engine of India's relentless economic growth, is also fuelling female foeticide.
Illegal
According to a study by Unicef, a higher percentage of boys are born now than 10 years ago in 80% of India's districts.
Only last month in the state of Orissa, the skulls of 40 female foetuses and newborn girls were discovered in an abandoned well.
More distressing still, sex selection is worst in the most affluent parts of the country: Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat.
In northern Punjab, for example, there are just 798 girls under the age of six for every 1,000 boys. The national average is 927.
Even though it is illegal in India for a doctor to reveal the gender of an unborn child, the law is rarely enforced.
Over the past 20 years, it has been estimated that some 10 million female foetuses have been aborted.
Girls are unwanted because they are seen as a financial burden. Landholdings can pass to in-laws and dowries, which themselves are illegal, siphon money from families.
First birthday
Why pay 50,000 rupees to your new in-laws when you can pay 500 rupees for an abortion? You do not even have to leave home.
Many unscrupulous doctors carry portable ultra-sound equipment in the boots of their cars.
Increased consumer choice is one of the hallmarks of the new India.
Tragically, it is being applied, with almost industrial efficiency, to depress the female birth rate.
also vie for the 10,000 meter final, aiming to win the country's second medal at a world championship. The only medal Turkey won was in 2003 when Süreyya Ayhan clinched the silver in the 1,500 meter race at the 9th World Championships in Paris. Other Turkish athletes to compete in Osaka are Nevin Yanıt in the 100 meter hurdles, Yeliz Ay in the 20 kilometer walk, Esen Kızıldağ in the 100 meter hurdles, Svetlana Sudak in women's hammer throw, Ercüment Olgundeniz in discus, Bahar Doğan in women's marathon and Halil Akkaş, who won four medals at last week's Universiade in Bangkok, in the men's 3,000 meter steeplechase.
India is in the throes of a revolution of rising expectations, a country animated by a providential sense of its own possibility
