Press Trust of India

Press Trust of India (PTI) is India’s premier news agency, having a reach as vast as the Indian Railways. It employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.

Wawrinka retains Chennai Open crown

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Top seed Stanislas Wawrinka retained the singles title of the Chennai Open with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win over Slovenian qualifier Aljaz Bedene in the final, here Sunday.

The one-sided final which lasted just 69 minutes, saw World No.4 Swiss Wawrinka give yet another masterly exhibition to pocket his third Chennai Open crown and the eighth of his Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour career while 25-year old Bedene, ranked 156, playing his maiden main draw final, was clearly out of depth.

Croatia votes in presidential run-off

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Croatians Sunday voted to elect their next president from incumbent Ivo Josipovic and challenger Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, a candidate from the largest opposition party Croatian Democratic Union, in a run-off race.

In the neck-and-neck first round Dec 28, 2014, Josipovic won 38.46 percent of the vote while Kitarovic got 37.22 percent.

Latest polls showed that Josipovic was supported by 46.5 percent of the voters while Kitarovic was estimated to win 34.9 percent of the vote.

No forced conversion in Himachal, say police

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There has been no case of forced conversion in Himachal Pradesh, police said Sunday following VHP women’s wing’s claims that love jihad was taking place in the state.

“No case of forced conversion of the Hindus has been reported,” a statement by Additional Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu said.

He said no information of any Bangladesh national residing in the state has been reported so far.

Durga Vahini, the women’s wing of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), had claimed that love jihad was taking place in the state.

Neeraj Pandey is honest filmmaker: Rana

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Rana Daggubati, who will be seen in Neeraj Pandey’s “Baby”, says he is a huge fan of the filmmaker’s work.

“I have been a fan of Neeraj’s films, especially ‘A Wednesday!’. In this corrupt film world, he is one filmmaker who is stuck to honesty and integrity. He makes films in his genre. He doesn’t get into commercial zone just for the heck of it. He is an honest filmmaker,” Rana told IANS.

Federer completes 1000th career win with Brisbane title

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Tennis ace Roger Federer edged past Canadian Milos Raonic to win the Brisbane International title, thereby completing his 1,000th professional career win, here Sunday.

The 33-year-old beat Raonic, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-4 on Patrick Rafter Arena to clinch his 83rd career title and 1000 wins, the third man to do so after American Jimmy Connors and Czechoslovakian-turned American Ivan Lendl.

Federer now heads to Melbourne to begin preparations for the Australian Open, which begins Jan 19.

We are reviving economy, invest in India: Modi

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Making a decisive push towards generating investment to see the success of his ‘Make in India’ mantra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday his government was trying to revive the economy, and told global investors that India today was a land of opportunities.

“In a short span of seven months, we have been able to change the atmosphere of despair and uncertainty,” Modi told the seventh Vibrant Gujarat summit here attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as ministers and corporate leaders from 100 countries.

‘Programme for Visit India Year 2015 in China soon’

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The Indian government is expected to announce a programme to attract Chinese tourists to India in ‘Visit India Year 2015’ in China, said a senior official.

“The ministry of tourism will soon make a detailed announcement in this regard. In China the promotion would be called ‘Visit India Year 2015’. In India it will be called ‘Visit China Year 2016’,” Shoeb Samad, regional director (south) India Tourism told IANS on the sidelines of a travel fair organised by Fairfest Media Ltd here.

Fog delays 50 trains in Delhi, Monday to be cloudy

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It was a cold and windy Sunday in the national capital with dense fog in the morning which led to over 50 trains being delayed here. The Met Office has forecast a partly cloudy Monday.

According to the Northern Railway, 34 trains coming to the city were late, while 17 trains departing from Delhi were rescheduled. One train was cancelled.

However, according to an official of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, not a single flight was delayed due to the fog.

The visibility at 8.30 a.m. was 700 metres.

12 Bodo militants arrested in Assam

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Twelve Bodo militants were Sunday arrested from three places in Assam along the international border with Bhutan, a day after an insurgent involved in the massacre of adivasis was shot dead, police said.

The cadres of the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) were arrested in Chirang district in operations jointly carried out by Assam Police, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Sashastra Seema Bal.

‘La Dolce Vita’ star Anita Ekberg dead

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Actress Anita Ekberg, best known for her performance in Federico Fellini’s iconic 1960 movie “La Dolce Vita”, passed away Sunday at the age of 83.

According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Ekberg died here Sunday morning after having been under treatment for some time in the clinic San Raffaele in Rocca di Papa, reports telegraph.co.uk.

The former Miss Sweden had also appeared in films like “Blood Alley” and “War and Peace”.

(IANS)

Security beefed up around Khaleda Zia’s office

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Security measures have been ratcheted up once again around BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s office Sunday as thousands of devotees entered Dhaka after the Ijtema, gathering of Muslims.

Traffic movement around Road 86 of Gulshan, where Khaleda’s office is located, has been regulated by the police. Only the residents are allowed to criss-cross the street where police checkposts have been set up Sunday morning, bdnews24.com reported.

Senior IT official, CA arrested by CBI

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A senior income tax (IT) department official and a chartered accountant have been arrested on corruption charges, the CBI said Saturday.

In a statement issued here, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said its anti-corruption branch caught red-handed Joint Commissioner Sallong Yaden accepting an hefty bribe of Rs.800,000 from Shreyans Bhandari of S.H.Bhandari & Co. Yaden had demanded the sum to give a favourable report to a client of the accounting firm.

The CBI also searched nine places here including residences and offices of the people involved.

Five new swine flu cases in Delhi

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Five new cases of swine flu were reported in the national capital Saturday, taking the total this season to 41, health officials said.

According to the health department, the new cases included 3 males and 2 females.

“The address of the first patient, a 44-year-old male has not been found till now. But the other two males are a 16-year-old boy from Prem Nagar and a 44-year-old from Mahavir Nagar,” a senior official, who is also the nodal officer for swine flu cases told IANS.

Have not cheated distributors: ‘Lingaa’ producer

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Producer Rockline Venkatesh Saturday asserted he did not cheat distributors of Rajinikanth-starrer “Lingaa”.

He said if proven guilty, he is ready to give in to the demands of the distributors, who staged a fast here Saturday seeking compensation for the heavy losses incurred by them.

Venkatesh told reporters here that if “proven guilty of cheating the distributors, I’m ready to accept their demands” and had no swindled or cheated them by pocketing the profits.

Tough match brings happiness: China football head coach

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China football team head coach Alain Perrin was satisfied after his side clinched a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in their Asian Cup opener Saturday, saying a “tough match brings joy”.

Following an impressive individual performance, Yu Hai scored the game’s decisive goal in his 50th international cap, firing a deflected long range free kick into the bottom corner with nine minutes remaining, reports Xinhua.

Yu’s goal came just moments after Chinese keeper Wang Dalei saved Saudi Arabian striker Naif Hazazi’s penalty, which he’d won himself after being fouled by Ren Hang inside the area.

Kohli says team showed `character` and `intent` despite `hard fought` series defeat

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Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli believes that his side showed the character and intent at the international level despite losing a hard fought Border-Gavaskar series to Australia. The SCG Test ended in a draw after Australia posted a second innings total of 251-6 declared and held India to 252-7 at the draw of stumps on the final day of the Sydney Test. Kohli said that his side showed the intent and character at the international level as it had been a hard fought series, adding that they wanted to play hard cricket and gave a fight.

Woman gang raped, killed

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A 30-year-old woman, who was reported to be missing since Friday morning, was gang raped by her friend and his associates who later killed her and dumped her body in a Delhi Development Authority nursery early Saturday, police said.

The body was spotted by the security guard behind some bushes in the nursery around 8.20 a.m. in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area. The body was in a semi-naked condition with the hands and legs tied with ropes.

Young to become Australia’s fielding coach

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American fielding guru Mike Young will be Australia’s fielding coach during the impending One-Day International (ODI) tri-series, involving India and England, and the 2015 World Cup, a Cricket Australia (CA) statement said Saturday.

He comes in place of Greg Blewett who is unavailable because of the birth of his child. But Blewett will return to his role after the birth and work with Young.

Young has worked intermittently with the Australian cricket team for 15 years.

Targeting quarter-finals in Asian Cup: North Korea coach

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North Korea lost their opening game of the Asian Cup 0-1 against Uzbekistan Saturday, but their coach Jo Tong Sop said that they would recover soon and fight for a place in the quarter-finals.

North Korea came close to scoring an equaliser just before the final whistle, but striker Pak Kwang-ryong’s header following a corner was saved by Uzbekistan’s goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov, reports Xinhua.

“In the last minute I really thought it was unfortunate but the result is the result,” Jo said after the match.

Smith very `satisfied` to score four centuries in Test series against India

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Australia Test skipper Steven Smith said that he was very satisfied to have scored four centuries in the recently concluded four match Test series against India, which saw Australia clinching the Border-Gavaskar series 2-0. The SCG Test ended in a draw after Australia posted a second innings total of 251-6 declared and held India to 252-7 at the draw of stumps on the final day of the Sydney Test. Smith said that it was a very good series win and satisfying to make four hundreds in a series, adding that he enjoyed captaining his side.

Racial comments spray-painted on gurdwara in Canada

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A gurdwara in the Canadian state of Alberta was vandalised with phrases like “Leave Canada’ painted on it, media reported.

“Today we discovered something very deeply saddening to us,” Global News quoted Harman Singh Kandola, chairman of the gurdwara’s advisory committee, as saying Friday.

“Some graffiti that was put on the wall of the exterior of our facility.”

Singing maestro Yesudas turns 75

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Veteran playback singer K.J. Yesudas, who has over 45,000 film songs in 14 languages and 22,000 other songs in his kitty, turned 75 Saturday.

As has been his practice, on every birthday, he and his family visits the Kollur Mookambika temple near here and takes part in the musical tribute there.

Dressed in a flowing white kurta and a white dhoti, the seven-time national award winner conducted the customary musical session Saturday morning at the temple where he sang hymns.

Yesudas is a recipient of the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, besides winning 17 state film awards.

Gayle’s sixer storm steers Windies rout of Proteas in first T20

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West Indies swashbuckling opener Chris Gayle hammered 77 runs off just 31 balls as he steered his side to victory in the first Twenty20 international against South Africa by four wickets at Newlands. Gayle smashed eight sixes and five fours in his stellar performance as West Indies chased down the target of 165 runs with four balls to spare. South African skipper Faf du Plessis said that it was a captain’s nightmare, adding that he thought they had posted a good total, Sport24 reported.

Tamil Nadu wants centre’s help in holding Jallikattu

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam Saturday said his government would take all measures to ensure traditional Jallikattu (bull taming) was held and the central government would be urged to remove bulls from the list of animals not to be trained for public performance.

In a statement issued here, Panneerselvam said a state government team would meet the central officials Jan 12 and urge them to remove bulls from the list put out by the the environment and forest ministry.