Gali Nagaraja

Sri Lanka would look to rein in a marauding Chris Gayle, whose performance may be a determining factor when the dominating hosts clash with an upbeat West Indies in the final of the World Twenty20 here on Sunday.

Sri Lanka are aiming to win their second world title after a gap of 16 years as their first and only World trophy came in 1996 while the Caribbean side are playing a World event final after nearly 30 years, having last played against India at the Lord’s in 1983.

Myanmar has extended its 15-year drug eradication plan by another five years, Xinhua reported Saturday.

The programme was to end in 2014 but has now been extended till 2019.

The Golden Triangle, covering an area of 950,000 sq km, is one of Asia’s major illegal opium-producing areas. The region overlaps with Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

Myanmar is taking a lead role in fighting drugs and is increasing cooperation with various stateholders, Home Minister Lieutenant-General Ko Ko said.

ICC CEO Dave Richardson on Saturday admitted that the strip used for the first semi-final between Sri Lanka and Pakistan was not “ideal” for T20 cricket but mentioned that pitch preparation is a difficult task in the prevailing climatic conditions in the Island nation.

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram had also criticised the pitch at the Premadasa Stadium.

Braving acute pain, Sharmila Nicollet shot a superb round of 72 but it came a bit late as she crashed out at the midway stage of the Lacoste Ladies Open de France, here.

Sharmila, who hurt herself in the first round, and shot a disappointing 80, came out for the second round after taking pain killers, and carded a 72.

She had three birdies, including one on the last and dropped five bogeys in her 72. She totaled 152.

Three people, all from the same family, were killed in Mainpuri on the night of Friday-Saturday, police said.

Om Prakash (55), his wife Gunjan Devi (44) and their nine-year-old daughter Shalu were found with their throats slit, police said, adding that it appeared, prima facie, to be a case related to old animosity.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Mainpuri Shalabh Mathur told IANS that the incident took place in Lakutpur village under Kishni police station in Mainpuri, about 220 km from the state capital.

Buoyed by his comfort with Hindi and Bollyood’s relaxed pace, southern star Prithviraj Sukumaran, who will soon be seen in “Aiyyaa”, is eager to find a firm foothold in Hindi filmdom.

“I want to go slow with southern movies. I will do one-two films a year. So, that means three months, and the rest of the time I want to give to my new found Bollywood career,” Prithviraj told IANS, a few days before his Bollywood debut with Rani Mukerji.

The actor, who hails from Kerala, has no particular genre in mind for his next Bollywood project.

Actor Akshay Kumar, who is riding high on the success of his latest production venture “Oh My God”, is eagerly waiting for his wife Twinkle Khanna to watch the film.

“My whole family has seen the play earlier and everybody is a huge fan of this play and that is when I decided to buy the rights and make the film. I am waiting for my wife to watch the film,” Akshay told IANS.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde Saturday arrived in Kargil town of Ladakh region on his maiden visit to Jammu and Kashmir.

The home minister was received in Kargil by state Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, local legislator Qamar Ali Akhoon who is also a minister, councillors of Kargil Hill Development Council, state Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Prasad, senior officials of the district administration and the army.

China’s railways carried 1.44 billion people in the first three quarters of the year, up 4 percent from a year earlier, the railways ministry said Saturday.

In the first nine months, the country’s railways delivered 2.91 billion tonnes of goods, a statement said, adding that supplies of goods were affected by a downward economic trend during the period, reported Xinhua.

The appointment of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Francis D’Souza as deputy chief minister in Goa has been adapted from the models in Karnataka and Maharashtra, according to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

Parrikar earlier this week had said that D’Souza had been chosen for the post of deputy chief minister, and a formal notification would be issued Monday.

“There is a deputy cheif minister in Karnataka and Mumbai (Maharashtra). It’s the same thing here,” Parrikar told reporters after a meeting of BJP legislators.

Thirty-seven Taliban militants have been killed in fighting with the security forces in Afghanistan, the interior ministry said Saturday.

The deaths occurred during overnight joint operations by the Afghan police and army and NATO-led coalition forces.

The raids were conducted in Kabul, Faryab, Kandahar, Zabul, Wardak and Helmand provinces, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying.

—IANS

Islamist Abu Hamza al-Masri and four other terror suspects have flown out of Britain on board a plane bound for the US, the BBC reported Saturday.

The high court earlier dismissed the five men’s final appeal against extradition to the US where they will face terror charges.

The Scotland Yard extradition unit officers handed the suspects to US marshals at the British Air Force base Mildenhall.

British Home Secretary Theresa May said she was pleased the suspects will no longer stay in her country.

Actress Manisha Koirala, who will be seen on the silver screen after a long gap in “Bhoot Returns”, doesn’t like to call it her comeback film.

“I can’t really say it’s a comeback. In between I did a couple of movies, like I did ‘I Am’ and I finished two films, so I was working,” the 42-year-old said here Friday in an interview.

“Yes, I was media shy, I was staying away from the public life of film industry and stuff like that and I was based out of India as well. So, it was a kind of break but it’s not like gone somewhere and now it’s a return of mine,” she added.

A day-long shutdown to protest the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu crippled life in Karnataka Saturday.

The state-wide shutdown called by farmers and pro-Kannada organisations is supported by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular.

Uneasy calm prevailed in Bangalore and other cities and towns of the state.

“The 12-hour shutdown began at 6 a.m. There were stray incidents of road blockade, forcible closure of shops and damage to a couple of state-run buses,” a senior police official told IANS here.

President of Telangana Jagruthi, Ms. Kaveetha recorded her protest at Tank Bund against erection of the statues of Andhra leaders. A large number of her supporters also joined her in the protest, which disrupted the traffic. Police had made elaborate arrangements for the protection of the states.

She threatened the Govt. that she would protest against the erection of already damaged statues.

During the million march last year, the agitated supporters of Telangana had expressed their anger against the Andhra rulers and they had destroyed the statues on the tank bund. If the Govt. takes a decision to erect them again, it would amount to hurt their sentiments. It was told by Mr. Gaddar, the revolutionary poet at a press conference held yesterday at press club. The meeting was organized by the supporters of Telangana movement and the organizations like Telangana Vidya danthula Veduika, Telangana Journalists’ Forum etc.

After the success of Telangana March, Prof. Kodandaram has been meeting individually various political parties who contributed to the success of Telangana March. He met Dr. N.Janardhana Reddy and A.Harishwara Reddy, MLA at MLA’s hostel yesterday and thanked them. After, talking to newsmen, Dr. Janardhan Reddy told that the success of Telangana March has increased the worries of Andhra rulers. Tear gas shells were fired at the dais also. This shows that Govt. is afraid of the supporters of Telangana.

Mr. Mohammed Sirajuddin, President of Congress Minority Cell termed the Muslim Declaration of Mr. N.Chandrabau Naidu as Crocodile tears. He was talking to media men at Gandhi Bhavan yesterday. He pointed out that the budget for Minorities during TDP regime was only

Like many of her colleagues from Southern cinema, actress Ileana D’Cruz intends to move to Mumbai after making a successful Bollywood debut with “Barfi!”, and work towards building a career in Hindi cinema.

“I am planning to move to Mumbai very soon, probably in the next couple of months,” said the actress.

The Supreme Court’s decision Friday to ban all mining and transportation operations in Goa for four weeks could come as a relief for Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who has been on a sticky wicket as far as dealing with the mining impasse in Goa is concerned.

Parrikar has been hastily fire-fighting green lobbies, who have accused him of being hand in glove with the mining industry, as well as his own legislators linked to the mining lobby, who have been canvassing hard to repeal the temporary closure of mining operations ordered last month by Parrikar, also mines minister.

The first batch of Haj pilgrims left for Saudi Arabia from here Saturday.

The 300 pilgrims were seen off by Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed from the airport here.

The state Haj Committee had selected 8,229 pilgrims from 49,403 applicants this season. The committee has also provided an ATM and a SIM card to each pilgrim.

The pilgrims would travel by Saudi Airlines, which will operate 32 flight services till Oct 20.

The pilgrims will return Nov 16.

—IANS

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s south India foray is turning out to be a tale of slow growth and rapid decline. As assembly polls near in Karnataka, the only state in the south it has managed to come to power in, the party presents itself as an outfit that prefers playing a waiting game when faced with a poor choice.

A 21-year-old man arrested with 140 kg of explosives has admitted to Spain’s national police that he planned to set off bombs at the University of the Balearic Islands, authorities said Friday.

Juan Manuel Morales Sierra also spoke of his “complete admiration” for the two teenagers who killed 13 people April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in the US state of Colorado.

Morales is a “very intelligent, introverted, frustrated person” who has “problems with society and sympathy with Nazi symbols”, police told the central government’s delegate in the Balearic Islands, Teresa Palma.

The Spanish government authorized Friday the signing of a pact with the US that will allow elements of the NATO anti-missile shield to be deployed at a naval base in southern Spain.

The authorization was approved at the Council of Ministers’ weekly meeting and comes a year after Spain announced it would take part in the project.

It was then-prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero who offered Spain’s participation during a meeting in Brussels in October 2011.

Highlighting the “grim” situation in Cauvery basin, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop further release of water to Tamil Nadu and to seek a report from the team that has been deputed to assess the water situation.

“I would kindly urge upon you to explore possibilities of stopping further release of water from dams in Karnataka and also call for an interim report of the team of experts”, Krishna, now on an official visit to the U.S., said in a letter to Singh, a copy of which was released here.