Gali Nagaraja

Injured India pacer Mohammed Shami hopes to start bowling in the nets from next month, saying his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) was going in the right direction.

Shami has been out of action since World Cup due to a knee problem and recently underwent a surgery. He missed out on IPL and the Bangladesh tour.

“I hope to start bowling in the nets next month. I am now in a comfort zone and my body is not feeling tight. There is no problem and I am slowly increasing the weight,” Shami, who took 17 wickets in seven World Cup matches, told PTI.

The Hamas movement has put “impossible” conditions ahead of the formation of a new Palestinian unity government, a senior Palestinian official said on Saturday.

“Hamas says it accepts the formation of a government, but on the other hand it has put conditions to topple the idea,” Xinhua quoted Amin Maqbool, secretary general of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party’s revolutionary council, as saying.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Friday arrested 109 people for urinating in public in Agra.

The GRP conducted a drive for 48 hours across 12 stations and was able to send 109 people to jail for 24 hours.

“People are generally habitual of spreading filth around the railway premises. The area which should be maintained clean, most of it is being subjected to all kind of filth. We did a drive and caught people who were urinating around the premise. We caught 109 people,” said G.N. Khanna, Superintendent GRP.

Lok Sabha member Arun Kumar of BJP ally RLSP on Saturday hit out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for “targeting” an upper caste community.

“A particular caste is being targeted and attacked. We will not accept it and will not tolerate it,” he said at a press conference in reference to police action against aides of arrested Janata Dal-United legislator Anant Singh, who is from the Bhumihar caste.

Arun Kumar said Nitish Kumar “used” dozens of people like Anant Singh for his own political benefit and left them in the lurch after his aim was fulfilled.

Kurdish fighters have recaptured the Syrian city of Kobane which was seized by the Islamic State (IS) terror group, authorities said on Saturday.

According to the watchdog group, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), clashes in Kobane have ended as the Kurdish fighters are combing the city in search of IS militants, Xinhua news agency reported.

The IS militants infiltrated Kobane on Thursday (June 25).

They killed at least 174 civilians and engaged in intense battles with the Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Insisting that all was well in the Indian cricket dressing room, pacer Mohammed Shami today said reports of rift between Test captain Virat Kohli and ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni are simply wrong.

“That the team is divided and the team is not performing — there is no truth in these things. I have shared the dressing room with all of them including Virat and Mahi Bhai.

I never felt anything like that (there is a rift between them). If media is making an issue then it is wrong,” he told PTI here.

The Telangana government has urged the Centre to intervene and direct the Reserve Bank of India to credit back Rs.1,274 crore to the state’s account as the money was transferred “illegally” to the income tax department.

A state government delegation led by Minister for Panchayat Raj and Information Technology, K. Tarakarama Rao met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi on Saturday.

Rao told reporters after the meeting that they urged Jaitley to ensure that the money is credited back to the state account.

A seven-year old girl on Saturday fell into a borewell in Rajasthan’s Sikar district.

Police officials reached the spot to rescue the girl.

The area around the borewell is being dug in an effort to rescue the seven-year old.

Further details are awaited. (ANI)

Ahmed Shehzad and Azhar Ali produced a gritty performance on Saturday as they reduced Pakistan’s deficit to six runs at stumps on the third day of the second day against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Conceding a 177-run first innings lead, Pakistan recovered from a shaky start as Shehzad and Azhar steadied the ship by sharing a solid 120-run partnership for the second wicket after the dismissal of Mohammad Hafeez (8).

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was on Saturday discharged from a private hospital here after being treated for viral fever and abdomen infection, a doctor said.

The 75-year-old former Uttar Pradesh chief minister came to Medicity Medanta Hospital on Friday after feeling unwell.

“Yadav was diagnosed for viral fever and an infection in his abdomen. Senior cardiologist Dr. Naresh Trehan and Dr. Sushila Kataria were monitoring his diagnosis process,” a doctor at Medanta, who did not wish to be named told IANS.

The devastating heat wave that struck Pakistan’s Sindh province is slowly subsiding but the toll has climbed to 1,242 with 32 deaths reported in Karachi on Saturday.

Various government-run hospitals in Karachi confirmed that at least 32 people died of heatstroke on Saturday, reports Dawn.

At least 13 people died in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), 11 in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), two in Qatar Hospital, three in hospitals owned by Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and three in other hospitals in the city.

Greek Prime Minister Alexia Tsipras on Saturday said the country will hold a referendum on July 5 on the latest debt deal proposed by its international creditors.

On June 30, the second extension of the Greek bailout expires and Athens must later this month make a payment of 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) or risk crashing out of the single currency and possibly the EU. The talks have been in deadlock for five months.

Polling in the by-election to Tamil Nadu’s Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency which is expected to bring back Chief Minister J. Jayalalalithaa into the state assembly began here at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

Around 250,000 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise where the AIADMK general secretary’s main rival is C. Mahendran of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

–IANS

Indian pace spearhead Mohammed Shami has said that he played with his knee injury during the World Cup as the team’s chief wicket-taker did not want to disturb the winning momentum in the final stages of the showpiece event.

Forced to miss season eight of IPL, Shami underwent a surgery and is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and is unlikely to be match-fit in time for India’s tour of Sri Lanka in late July.

The Bengal paceman though recalls his injury during the Australia series.

Rubbishing allegations of Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case that she had been asked to “go soft” by the NIA after the NDA came to power, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said this charge was part of a conspiracy against the Narendra Modi Government.

“Those involved in the case would not be spared, while the innocents will not be punished. The guilty will not be spared,” Naqvi, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, told reporters on the sidelines of an event here today.

The 22-year old victim who was offered a mediation with her rapist by the Madras High Court today said the suspect could go to any extent to escape punishment.

The woman, however, said she would not like to settle with him at any cost.

V Mohan was sentenced to seven years in jail for raping a 15-year-old orphan in 2008. The girl became pregnant and is now a young mother of a six-year-old daughter.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal today demanded resignation of?External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over Lalitgate.

RLD General Secretary Trilok Tyagi, at a press conference today, alleged that both BJP ministers are in cahoots with former IPL chief Lalit Modi.

On one hand, he said, the Modi government is creating hype about bringing back the black money into India but on the other, it is shielding Lalit Modi who allegedly has black money hidden in various foreign countries.

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved his country’s Parliament on Friday, paving way for fresh parliamentary elections in August, around 10 months ahead of schedule.

The BBC quoted Sri Lanka government spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne as saying that Sirisena has signed a gazette notification dissolving parliament, which will come into effect from midnight.

The Maharashtra Government on Friday gave a clean chit to Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria after finding his explanation regarding his meeting with former IPL chairman Lalit Modi in London as ‘satisfactory’.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the additional Chief Secretary (Home) K.P Bakshi, who had sought information from Maria regarding his meeting with the former IPL chief in July last year, has concluded that the IPS officer did not violate any service rules in meeting him. (ANI)

The Islamic State (IS) militants on Friday advanced into Syria’s northern city of Hasaka amid ferocious battles with the Syrian government forces, according to activists.

The IS continued to advance against the government forces, storming the central prison of Hasaka, and releasing all inmates, Arab media cited the IS reports as saying.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 20 security forces were killed on Friday when the IS militants blew up a car bomb near a security headquarters in Hasaka.

Taking a dig at Congress which imposed Emergency, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan said BJP-led NDA would never do so and it could be expected from a party dominated by ‘dynastic politics’.

“BJP will never impose emergency on the country…it will never be done,” he said, adding the party takes pride on its vibrant system of inner-democracy.

Though there has been criticism against the Modi-led BJP regime at the Centre by rival parties, such voices were not muffled, he said, addressing a meet organised by his party here.

In a landmark judgement, the US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that gays can marry nationwide and states cannot ban same-sex marriage – an issue that divides America and India.

The 5-4 ruling giving LGBT rights activists their biggest victory came after decades of litigation and fast-changing public opinion that saw President Barack Obama to come out in support of same sex marriage three years ago.

His administration supported the challengers to the gay marriage bans in the apex court.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressed his delight on receiving former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s book ‘Transcendence: My Spiritual Encounters with Pramukh Swamiji’.

The Prime Minister took to twitter to share his thoughts.

“Delighted to receive Dr. @APJAbdulKalam’s book ‘Transcendence: My Spiritual Encounters with Pramukh Swamiji’ from Brahmvihari Swami ji,” he wrote.

“The book is a highly personal account of interactions between two very respected personalities. @APJAbdulKalam,” he added. (ANI)

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asserted on Friday that “jungle raj” will never return in Bihar as long as he is at the helm.

Nitish Kumar also asserted that his government would never shield any law-breaker nor implicate anyone in any false case.

“Till the time I am at the helm of affairs, the rule of law will prevail in the state,” he said.

“As I see it, the law is equal for everybody and is no one is above the law,” he added. “‘Jungle raj’ will not return (in Bihar) till power is in my hands.”

Charging the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal with being “dictatorial”, the BJP on Friday said there was “undeclared emergency” in the state under the Trinamool Congress rule.

Addressing a rally here to mark the 40th anniversary of the Emergency, union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Prakash Javadekar warned the Trinamool that if it continues to walk the way of stifling democracy then it will be disposed off by the people.