Dede Sophie

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has announced that the Foreign Affairs Minister, the Honorable Justin Tkatchenko has stepped aside from his Ministerial portfolio with immediate effect.  This followed public uproar after a tiktok video from his daughter Savannah Tkatchenko was circulated widely on social media. The Minister’s defense of his daughter drew further harsh criticism from the public over the poor choice of words used to show his frustrations.  The Prime Minister announced that he will oversee the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the interim, and that includes making sure that the preparation towards hosting the Prime Minister of India, the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Fiji, and all other Pacific Island leaders go ahead as planned.  “I want to commend the Minister for putting the interest of the country ahead of his own. I also want to apologise to his family, and especially his daughter Savannah for the traumatic experience over the last co...

It is a 13th century Hoysala era temple gem that is located just a few hours away from Bangalore. It is located in a small village that is associated with one of Indian cricket’s fast bowlers. I am talking about the offbeat Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple that is located in the pretty little laidback village called Javagal, the ancestral village of Indian cricketer Javagal Srinath. This trikuta temple is one of many such lesser known gorgeous temples built during the reign of the Hoysala kingdom. Like most Hoysala era temples, the Lakshmi Narasimha temple at Javagal stands on a jagati (raised platform), beautiful moulding friezes and sculptures on the outer walls and lathe turned pillars, sukanasi and garbha griha on the inside. Where it differs from the other temples is that even though it is home to three shrines, it has only one shikhara. And its outer wall panel sculptures, reliefs and friezes are folkish in character and much different from the other Hoysala temples where the work ...