shameen Mumbai, August 30: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to extend coach Gary Kirsten’s contract till the 2011 World Cup.
According to reports, the BCCI is satisfied with the way that Kirsten has performed his job and is keen on giving him more time to continue the good work.
Kirsten’s contract will be ratified on September 24th.
–Agencies
Colombo, August 30: New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram hit robust half-centuries to keep Sri Lanka`s seemingly inevitable victory on hold in the second and final Test here today.
The tourists, who began the last day gasping for survival at 182-6 in chase of an improbable target of 494, went to lunch on the fifth day at 302-7 at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
Vettori was unbeaten at the break on 68 and Oram made 56, the left handed pair adding 124 runs for the seventh wicket after they came together yesterday evening at 176-6.
New Delhi, August 30: A recent revival of monsoon rains will help India’s cane crop but the world’s top sugar consumer will still need to import in the new season from October, the head of a trade body said.
“Recent rains will certainly have positive impact on the plantation for 2010/11 harvest and is likely to have positive impact on 2009/10 cane yield,” Samir Somaiya, president of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), said in an interview.
New Delhi, August 30: The full Planning Commission, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will discuss on September 1 the state of economy that is under pressure from drought and rising prices of food items.
Besides chalking out the strategy to combat the impact of drought, which has already hit 252 out of about 600 districts, which may pull down the economic growth to about 6 percent, the meeting will also review the implementation of the integrated energy policy.
Mumbai, August 30: Defending India’s stand on the Doha talks, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said it was wrong to blame India for the deadlock and on the contrary New Delhi was making an effort to re-engage in the multilateral global trade deal.
“There has been a deadlock for close to 14 months for various reasons. Sometimes, it has been projected that there was non-agreement and it was India which was responsible. No, that’s not correct. We took a position. Other developing countries took a position,” Sharma said at a function here last night.
Berlin, August 30: German Labour Minister Olaf Scholz expects unemployment to keep rising in the coming months but believes it will stay below four million, according to a magazine interview to be published Monday.
“The economic collapse will of course lead to a jump in unemployment in the coming months,” the Social Democrat minister told Der Spiegel magazine.
“But this year we will stay under the four million mark.”
Frankfurt, August 30: The roughly 370,000 employees of Volkswagen and Porsche are striving initially to acquire a stake of up to 5 percent in the automotive group, VW’s labor chief told a German newspaper.
“I don’t know how much we will end up with. It certainly won’t be 10 percent overnight, but between one and five percent to begin with,” Sueddeutsche Zeitung quoted Bernd Osterloh on Saturday as saying.
It was not clear yet how the employees would finance the purchase of their stake, the paper said.
Baghdad, August 30: A committee reviewing Iraq’s budget proposals for 2010 has recommended spending plans be based on average oil prices of USD 60 per barrel and average crude exports of 2.15 million barrels per day, a government spokesman said on Saturday.
Iraq’s approved federal budget for 2009 was based on income from oil prices averaging USD 50 per barrel.
Iraq hiked oil exports in July to 2.037 million bpd, their highest level since the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
Berlin, August 30: US auto giant General Motors wants Russian firms barred from taking over its German subsidiary Opel, but Berlin does not agree, according to the weekly Der Spiegel.
In its forthcoming issue the weekly, which cites no sources, says that the US government, which now owns 60 percent of GM, wants no Russian participation in the future control of Opel.
Kandahar, August 30: A suicide bomber blew himself up close to NATO troops in southern Afghanistan today, killing up to two Afghan civilians and wounding more than 20 others, officials said.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which has 64,500 troops in Afghanistan to fight a growing Taliban insurgency, confirmed “an incident” involving its troops but had no other details available.
The attack happened when Afghan police and NATO troops were walking through a small town in the province of Zabul, the local district governor told.
Islamabad, August 30: An official says a large explosion and gunfire have been heard near a police station in northwestern Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
In the latest news report, at least 15 police recruits are dead in the area, which the Army recently retook from Taliban control.
Television footage from the scene on Sunday showed officers gathering up mutilated bodies.
Police dispatcher Mohammad Akhtar says the blast came as new recruits were being trained near the station. He says at least three are dead and several more wounded.
–Agencies
Kabul, August 30: The commission investigating fraud in Afghanistan’s Presidential Election says it has now received more than 550 complaints serious enough to affect the poll’s outcome if proved true.
Nellika Little, a spokeswoman for the independent Electoral Complaints Commission, says it has received more than 2,000 allegations of fraud or intimidation involving voting day or the counting of ballots.
Washington, August 30: After months of efforts, the Obama administration has finally developed a set of about 50 measurements, which would gauge its progress in the Afghan-Pak war zone.
Currently under ‘test run’ by the White House, the metrics to assess war success would be presented before the Congress on September 24, ‘The Washington Post’ reported today.
Khost, August 30: Thirty-five Taliban militants were killed in overnight clashes with the Afghan and US-led coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, the police said on Sunday.
The fighting took place in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan.
“Joint forces launched an operation against Taliban militants in Sapera district from Saturday night till Sunday morning, during which 35 militants were killed,” provincial police chief Abdul Qaum Baqizoi told Xinhua.
He added that the joint forces also found assault rifles, ammunition and food items at the militants’ hideout.
London, August 30: The British government decided two years ago it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make the Lockerbie bomber eligible for return to Libya, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Leaked letters show Justice Secretary Jack Straw informed his Scottish counterpart, Kenny MacAskill, of the decision to include Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement, the report said.
Five months earlier Straw had said he favoured excluding Megrahi from the agreement.
Canberra, August 30: Authorities are investigating whether Australian law was broken after an Australian-owned ship was seized in the United Arab Emirates carrying North Korean weapons bound for Iran, an official said on Sunday.
Shipping Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that the UAE found banned North Korean weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, headed for Iran on the Australian-owned, Bahamas-flagged cargo ship ANL Australia.
Tehran, August 30: Iran’s President defended his proposed Cabinet ministers on Sunday as lawmakers began what is expected to be a fierce debate over whether the nominees have the relevant credentials or are simply unquestioning loyalists.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is forming his new government while still under attack by the pro-reform opposition that his re-election in June was fraudulent. But he is also under pressure from fellow conservatives, who have long lambasted the president for hoarding power by putting close associates in key posts.
Moscow, August 30: Russia’s land forces will receive over 3,000 new weapon systems and military hardware this year, a senior commander has said.
“We will receive over 3,000 pieces of weaponry of various modifications this year. These include Iskander systems, T-90 tanks, and other modern arms,” Deputy Commander, Maj Gen Viktor Batmazov said.
The supply of high precision and modern reconnaissance systems has increased this year. Up to a thousand of military units in the land forces will be put on permanent combat readiness status in 2009.
Hanoi, August 30: Veterans and family members of the last two Australian servicemen who remained unaccounted for from the Vietnam War gathered on Sunday to send the airmen’s remains home after 39 years.
“This ceremony marks the end of an era,” Mike Kelly, Australia’s Minister of Defence Support, said to about 100 guests gathered on the tarmac of Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport.
Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver, both 24, were the last Australians whose bodies had not been found after going missing in action during the Vietnam War.
Taipei, August 30: Taiwanese officials said on Sunday they hope the Dalai Lama will stay clear of politics to avoid angering China during his visit to comfort victims of the island’s worst storm in 50 years.
Although the Tibetan spiritual leader has travelled to Taiwan before, many fear his arrival late Sunday could hurt the island’s improving relations with rival China — the signature issue in the 15-month-old administration of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou.
Dubai, August 30: Al Qaeda on Sunday identified a militant who tried to kill Saudi Arabia’s security chief on Thursday as Abdullah al-Asiri, a wanted suspect who entered Saudi Arabia from Yemen.
A suicide bomber posing as a repentant militant blew himself up in the Jeddah office of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in the first known attack on a member of the Saudi royal family since al Qaeda began a violent campaign in the world’s top oil exporter in 2003.
Melbourne, August 30: Soma Joseph had come here from India with big dreams but a year after her arrival she is in a state of disarray.
Hoping for greener pasture, the woman from Kottayam in Kerala, who worked as a nurse in Saudi Arabia earlier, had come here last year as a student with her husband Biju. She had taken admission to Community Welfare course in Melbourne International College, a private institute.
Shimla, August 30: After judges in Delhi and Kerala, judges of the Himachal Pradesh High Court have also decided to follow the footsteps of Supreme Court justices and make their assets public, a court official said Sunday.
“A decision to declare assets has been taken unanimously by all the nine judges, including acting Chief Justice RB Mishra, after the apex court judges’ resolve to make public their assets,” VK Sharma, Registrar General of the High Court, said.
Chandigarh, August 30: A UK national and two teenaged boys have tested positive for swine flu here, taking the total number of such cases in the city to 15.
A 14-year-old boy from Panchkula, who had recently returned from Hong Kong with his parents, was taken to Government Medical College and Hospital on Thursday with swine-flu like symptoms.
Another 14-year-old boy, who did not have any recent travel history, also tested positive for H1N1 virus. Four members of his family have also been quarantined, nodal officer for swine flu cases H C Gera said.
New Delhi, August 30: Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday termed as baseless the reports of a planned change in top leadership of the party, saying LK Advani will continue to remain the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.
Naidu further said the party will take its own decisions regarding its future.
Naidu’s remarks came after senior RSS leader Madandas Devi expressed hope that the BJP will come out stronger from the current crisis. He also made it clear that at the RSS would not interfere in the BJP’s decision-making.
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