FC Barcelona's coach Pep Guardiola gestures to his players against Racing Santander during a Spanish league soccer match at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Sept 13 2008.
FC Barcelona's coach Pep Guardiola gestures to his players against Racing Santander during a Spanish league soccer match at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Sept 13 2008.

Iniesta looks for a Sporting chance



The Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta is hoping his side can use tonight's Champions League game with Sporting Lisbon to kick-start their Primera Liga campaign. Barca head into the clash with the Portuguese giants on the back of their worst start to La Liga in 35 years, with only one point and one goal from their first two games. Barca were derided for their performance in the 1-0 defeat to newly-promoted Numancia on the opening day of the season, but performed much better in the1-1 home draw with Racing Santander.

The poor start to new coach Pep Guardiola's reign comes after a series of high-scoring wins in pre-season and a summer of rebuilding work which saw the club shell out around ?90million (Dh469m) for the likes of Dani Alves, Seydou Keita, Gerard Pique, Martin Caceres and Alexander Hleb. The Blaugranes are desperate to perform this year after going two seasons without a trophy, and Iniesta hopes a change of competition will be the impetus his side needs. "The game against Sporting Lisbon is an important one because victories give you a lot of strength," he said.

"It's another competition, a very difficult one, and we cannot slip up, especially at home. "We have to win, no ifs or buts. Our moral and our desire need to be at their maximum." * PA Sport

Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

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The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience

by David Gilmour

Allen Lane

Company profile

Date started: Founded in May 2017 and operational since April 2018

Founders: co-founder and chief executive, Doaa Aref; Dr Rasha Rady, co-founder and chief operating officer.

Based: Cairo, Egypt

Sector: Health-tech

Size: 22 employees

Funding: Seed funding 

Investors: Flat6labs, 500 Falcons, three angel investors

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