faheem New Delhi, July 31: Indian men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas notched up a straight-game win over Malaysian rivals Teik Chai Gan and Bin Shen Tan to cruise into the finals of the New Zealand Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Auckland today.
The top seeded Indian duo took just half an hour to beat the Malaysians 21-15 21-14 in the semifinals today.
Birmingham, July 31 (AFP) Australia coach Tim Nielsen hailed England’s sportsmanship in allowing them to bring in reserve wicket-keeper Graham Manou for his Test debut here at Edgbaston yesterday.
Australia suffered a setback shortly before the match started when regular wicket-keeper Brad Haddin sustained a finger injury during the warm-up.
Haddin had been named in the Australia team at the toss and that meant the tourists had to seek permission from England captain Andrew Strauss to select a specialist replacement in South Australia’s Manou for an unexpected Test debut.
Srinagar, July 31: Returning to work after two days of high drama, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he was not looking for revenge as he reached out to the opposition for its cooperation in running the government.
“I am not a person to seek revenge but I will reach out to the opposition for cooperation in the larger interests of the people of J and K,” Omar told reporters on being asked about PDP allegation made in the assembly that he was involved in the 2006 sex scandal, a charge rubbished by him.
New Delhi, July 31: After witnessing a steep fall in the past two straight sessions, gold today regained some of its sheen to close higher by Rs 80 at Rs 14,950 per ten gram on emergence of buying by stockists and ornament makers ahead of the festival and marriage season amid firming trend overseas.
Silver too staged a comeback and recorded a hefty rise of Rs 400 to Rs 22,500 per kg.
Trading sentiment turned bullish after gold rose by 2.10 dollar to 936.50 dollar an ounce in London as dollar weakened against major currencies, boosting demand for the precious metal.
Islamabad, July 31: Pakistan’s Supreme Court will today pronounce judgement in the case challenging the decisions of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to impose emergency in 2007 and his actions in sacking dozens of judges.
The arguments in the case were completed earlier today but the 14-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhary fixed 3 p.m. (local time) to give its ruling after the court broke up for customary Friday prayers, said lawyers, who argued in the case.
London, July 31: A former music teacher has admitted giving his terminally ill father a gun so he could commit suicide in a busy hospital.
Guy Button, 30, smuggled a Second World War Walther PPK handgun and 19 rounds of ammunition into Northampton General Hospital last October, where his father, Ian Button, shot himself in view of other patients on a busy ward. Northampton Crown Court heard the 63-year-old had just been told he had terminal lung disease.
New Delhi, July 31: The arrest of his son in a corruption case was a conspiracy against his “personal and political life”, Buta Singh, chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, said today. “This is a conspiracy to malign my political and personal life,” Buta Singh told reporters after his son Sarabjot Singh alias Sweety Singh was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) early today.
Buta Singh, however, refused to comment on the role of the CBI.
Mumbai, July 31: The son of the Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Buta Singh was on Thursday detained by CBI for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs one crore from a Nashik-based contractor to close a case in the Commission.
CBI sources said Sarabjot Singh was detained by CBI in the national capital after which he has been brought to the city for further questioning.
Sarabjot is alleged to have demanded Rs one crore as a bribe from a Nashik-based contractor against whom a case was pending in the Commission.
Baghdad, July 31: Iraqi security forces have largely gained control of an Iranian exiles’ camp in Iraq after fighting which left as many as eight dead and 400 wounded.
The assault on Camp Ashraf, 80 miles north of Baghdad, is the latest episode in the strange history of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a cult-like organisation that has in the past been allied both to Saddam Hussein and the US in its long battle with Tehran’s Islamic government.
–Agencies
Los Angeles, July 31: Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron will campaign for women’s rights in the Middle East in her new movie Florence of Arabia. The actress has purchased the film rights to author Christopher Buckley’s literary satire of the same name.
The story is about a State Department employee (to be played by Theron) who, after watching her friend marry the prince of a Middle East country and subsequently get executed, fights for equal rights for the women of that country, Variety reported.
Venice, July 31: Indian writer-director Anurag Kashyap of Dev D fame will be a part of the international jury at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Kashyap will be in the jury headed by Academy winning director Ang Lee that will judge the films screened in the ten day long extravaganza that begins on September 2.
London, July 31: Hollywwod stunner Megan Fox has failed to work her charm on several editors of US biggest male websites as they have decided to boycott news and pictures of the actress for one day.
The Transformers beauty has stormed into the popular press in the last year and is regularly voted as the sexiest women in the world. She has also become men’s magazine favourite, appearing on the covers of GQ, Esquire, Maxim and Empire in just a matter of months, Contactmusic reported.
Tehran, July 31: Forty days after the death of Neda Soltan, the young Iranian woman whose harrowing last moments during a post-election protest were filmed and seen around the world, Tehran was the scene of extraordinary clashes yesterday as police used force to crush an opposition-backed memorial service for the student and other victims of violence.
Tehran, July 30: About 20 Iranians detained during protests over the disputed presidential election will face trial this weekend, on charges including bombings, carrying weapons and attacking security forces.
The trials were announced yesterday as anger grew even among some government supporters over abuse of those arrested.
Released prisoners have told of beatings and brutality during their detention. One said he was crammed with 200 others in a pitch-black cell as guards waded in and beat them. Others claimed they were forced to lick toilet bowls.
Islamabad, July 30: Thousands of weapons of prohibited bore, including sub-machine guns, have been issued in Pakistan in an irregular manner and in violation of rules, which has run the Pakistan government into trouble.
Islamabad, already facing a mounting insurgency in the form of number of armed militant groups and its army trying to quell a violent Taliban insurgents in the restive NWFP, has now been rocked by the scam of thousands of weapons finding their way to people illegally.
Africa, July 30: Security forces in northern Nigeria have freed nearly 200 women and children during a crackdown on a radical Islamic sect responsible for violence that has killed at least 150 people.
Soldiers in armoured personnel carriers surrounded and shelled parts of a compound that is home to Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the Boko Haram sect, in the city of Maiduguri, destroying buildings including a small mosque.
New Delhi, July 30: BJP today targeted External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, likening him to former Home Minister Shivraj Patil and saying the country’s foreign policy is not safe in his hands.
“He (Krishna) is proving to be the former Home Minister Shivraj Patil whom Congress had to get rid of finally. Only that he is taking much less time to prove himself a Shivraj Patil,” senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha told reporters outside Parliament.
“The country’s foreign policy is not safe in the hands of this External Affairs Minister,” he said.
Los Angeles, July 30: Marat Safin, playing for the fourth time in three days, summoned enough energy to beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the L A Open.
Safin, who played an exhibition match against Pete Sampras on Monday and beat Robby Ginepri the Tuesday night, also teamed with Igor Kunitsyn to win a first-round doubles on Monday.
Columbia, July 30: A South Carolina man was charged with having sex with a horse after the animal’s owner caught the act on videotape, then staked out the stable and caught him at shotgun point, authorities said Wednesday.
But this wasn’t the first time Rodell Vereen has been charged with buggery. He pleaded guilty last year to having sex with the same horse after owner Barbara Kenley found him in the same stable and was sentenced to probation and placed on the state’s sex offender list.
London, July 30: Asylum-seekers have become early victims of the squeeze on government spending in the face of the economic crisis.
Allowances for people who claim refuge in Britain will be cut or frozen in the autumn in an effort to reduce the size of the asylum budget.
London, July 31: Multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy learns today whether her fight to allow her husband to help her commit suicide has been successful.
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She took her case to have the law clarified on assisted dying to the highest court in the land where today a panel of five Law Lords give their ruling.
They sit at the House of Lords where earlier in the month a measure to remove the threat of prosecution from those who go abroad to help a terminally-ill patient die was defeated by peers who preside over Parliamentary business.
Mumbai, July 30: In highly volatile trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex bounced back and went up over 142 points in afternoon today as speculators indulged in covering short positions on the last day of the expiry of the July contracts in derivatives.
The Sensex, which dipped to 15,065.48 points in early trade, recovered by 142.08 points, or 0.90 per cent at 15,315.54 at 13.15 hours with heavyweight stocks led by banks and IT leading the recovery.
Similarly, the 50-share National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 38.30 points to trade higher at 4,551.80 at the same time.
Lucknow, July 30: Uttar Pradesh government has granted affiliation to 55 new engineering colleges, which will be included in Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) counselling beginning from today, official sources said here.
After inclusion of the new colleges, which have already got affiliation from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and UPTU, 13,200 more B.Tech seats would be available in the counselling, they said.
The total number of engineering colleges participating in the counselling would now be 166, they said.
–PTI
Washington, July 31: A baby girl who was cut from her mother’s womb has been found alive, police said today.
The girl, whose mother’s body was found on Monday in a cupboard at her Worcester, Massachusetts, apartment, appeared to be in “fairly good health” at a New Hampshire hospital, Worcester Police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst said.
Two people have been arrested over the mother’s death.
Mumbai, July 30: In an exclusive interview to ET, Anil Ambani says Mukesh “has already made it amply clear, both within the family, and externally, that he does not visualise any further role for my respected mother in resolving this matter or any other matter.”
There’s nothing personal, it’s strictly business, says Anil Ambani , chairman of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, a day after he lashed out at his elder brother and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani, and the petroleum ministry.