shameen

BCCI Working Committee meet on August 13

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New Delhi, August 07: The Indian Cricket Board`s all-powerful Working Committee will meet on August 13 in Mumbai.

The Working Committee`s meeting would be preceded by a meeting of the BCCI`s finance committee on August 12. The Finance Committee will discuss the expenditure incurred on organising the Indian Premier League this year.

The Working Committee is expected to clear the spending sheets.

“The Working Committee of the BCCI will meet at 11:00 am on August 13 at the Cricket Centre,” the BCCI said in a statement.

Unhappy with PCB, marketing manager quits

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Karachi, August 07: The resignation spree in the Pakistan Cricket Board continues with long serving marketing manager Khurrum Malik becoming the latest to step down from his post.

After resignations of chief selector Abdul Qadir and Aamer Sohail, sources in the board confirmed that Malik has also submitted his resignation with a 30-day notice as he was not happy with the PCB functioning under Ejaz Butt.

The development came on the same day, the chairman of the
National Assembly Standing Committee on sports Jamshed Khan
Dasti urged the President and Prime Minister to sack Butt as

Visa problem stops Tanvir from playing for Surrey

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Karachi, August 07: Pakistan fast bowler Sohail Tanvir was disappointed after his much touted deal with the English county side Surrey failed to materialise apparently due to visa problems.

Tanvir, who was dropped from the Pakistan team for ODI series in Sri Lanka following a poor show in the Twenty20 World Cup in England, was supposed to play for Surrey for rest of the season for a reported deal worth 75,000 pounds.

“Yes I didn`t get the required work permit and visa on time so the contract has fallen through. It is very disappointing to me,” Tanvir said.

IPL cannot make up for Ashes pleasure: Flintoff

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Leeds, August 07: Star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff rates the Ashes rivalry against Australia as the ultimate for an Englishman, which could not be compensated by playing in any number of IPL or World Cup matches.

“The Ashes is like nothing else. You can have your World Cups and IPLs, but as an Englishman, to be able to play in the Ashes is the ultimate,” said Flinotff, who has decided to prematurely quit Test cricket after the series owing to his recurring injury worries.

Zaheer ruled out of Champions Trophy

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New Delhi, August 07: Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan is certain to miss the upcoming Champions Trophy that is scheduled to take place in September.

Zaheer, who had a major shoulder surgery last month, is highly unlikely to make it to the Indian squad for the Champions Trophy.

Reports also suggest that he could miss the November-December’s seven-match ODI home series against Australia.

Zaheer picked up his injury while playing in the Indian Premier League in South Africa in the month of April.

Most endangered vulture breed ready to fledge

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New Delhi, August 07: One of the world’s best conservation stories is being scripted at a wildlife Centre in Haryana’s Pinjore, where a slender-billed vulture nestling, a rare species, has for the first time hatched in captivity and is ready to fledge.

–Agencies

Kepler scope sends stunning images of distant planet

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Washington, August 07: Five months after it was launched on a mission to find earth-like planets, the Kepler space telescope has sent back to Earth high-precision images of a planet some 1,000 light years away, NASA said Thursday.

But the real excitement at NASA was over how well Kepler was working, and the promise it holds for the future.

With Kepler only in the calibration phase, the telescope, which was launched in March on a mission to find earth-like planets in the galaxy, sent back to Earth highly precise images of a planet with the unromantic name of HAT-P-7-B.

Atom-smasher to run at partial power in relaunch: CERN

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Geneva, August 07: The world’s biggest atom-smasher will operate below full power when its restarts in November, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Thursday.

In a statement, CERN said no more repairs would be necessary for “safe running” this year and next, after the 27-kilometre (17-mile) collider is switched back on.

Nestled inside a tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) promises to unlock scientific mysteries about the creation of the Universe and the fundamental nature of matter.

Pvt schools have no right to hike fees: SC

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New Delhi, August 07: In a major decision, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that private unaided schools do not have the right to hike fees charged from students.

Hearing a review petition filed by the Action Committee for Unaided Private Schools seeking reconsideration of a 2004 apex court verdict, in which the SC had upheld the Director Education’s authority to take a final decision in fee hikes being implemented by schools on the ground of implementing pay commission recommendations for teachers, the SC today said only the government can regulate private school fees.

Congress talking about poor, working for the rich: SP

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New Delhi, August 07: Samajwadi Party on Friday demanded inclusion of 16 castes in Uttar Pradesh in the Scheduled Castes list, castigating the Congress for “talking about poor but working for the rich”.

Raising the matter in Lok Sabha during Question Hour, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said his erstwhile government in the state had sent a proposal to this effect in 2005 which had been rejected by the Centre then.

He said facilities given to these castes through reservation at the state level were withdrawn when the Centre rejected the proposal.

US deficit climbs to $1.3 trillion

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Washington, August 07: The US budget deficit reached USD 1.3 trillion for the current fiscal year in July, official data showed, news set to fuel opposition to US President Barack Obama’s ambitious health care and climate change proposals.

The deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2009, which began October 1, reached USD 1.3 trillion, close to 880 billion dollars greater than the deficit recorded through July 2008, said the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

US reopens H-2B visa prog for foreign workers

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Washington, August 07: The US has resumed accepting applications for the H-2B foreign temporary worker visa after receiving far fewer petitions from US employers than anticipated.

The congressionally mandated annual cap for H-2B visas sought by semi-skilled Indian workers is 66,000, and the government has issued only 40,640 this fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Japan Airlines books $1 billion loss in Q1

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Tokyo, August 07: Japan Airlines Corp. said Friday it posted a USD 1 billion loss in the April-May quarter, larger than its loss for all of last year, as ticket sales suffered due to the weak economy and swine flu fears.

Asia’s biggest airline said its net loss was 99 billion yen (USD 1 billion), versus a 3.4 billion yen loss a year earlier. Sales fell 32 percent to 334.9 billion yen from billion yen.

Canada rejects NATO call to Afghan stay past 2011

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Ottawa, August 07: Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon has reaffirmed Canada’s 2011 exit from Afghanistan despite reported pleas from NATO’s chief for an extension of Canada’s deployment in the war-torn country.

“Our government is abiding by the motion passed in Parliament in 2008 — that is that our combat forces will leave by 2011,” Cannon said.

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen remarked while visiting a Canadian development project in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, that he would like to see Canada stay beyond 2011.

Lankan govt, rebels confirm new LTTE leader’s arrest

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Colombo, August 07: Tamil Tiger rebels have acknowledged their new leader has been arrested in Malaysia and handed over to the Sri Lankan military.

Notably, there is a contradiction regarding the place of LTTE chief’s arrest. According to rebels, Selvarasa Pathmanathan was arrested in Malaysia, but Sri Lanka’s Defence Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had earlier claimed that the Tiger rebel was detained in Thailand.

In a statement, LTTE says that Selvarasa Pathmanathan was captured near a hotel on Wednesday by the Malaysian Royal Intelligence Corps.

Pak should try ‘war criminals’ during Bangladesh war: Expert

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Dhaka, August 07: Pakistan should try those responsible for the genocide that took place during Bangladesh’s freedom struggle in 1971, a Canadian lawyer has said while endorsing Dhaka’s move to try those it considers “war criminals”.

Trying those responsible for the killings of unarmed civilians was necessary “to stop recurrence of genocide and end culture of impunity”, David Matas, who has dealt with Rwanda genocide and Nazi war criminals, told The Daily Star newspaper.

Soldiers occupy Honduras hospitals as strikes spread

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Tegucigalpa, August 07: Soldiers have occupied state hospitals in an increasingly tense Honduras as health workers declared an indefinite strike calling for the return of ousted president Manuel Zelaya.

As the political stalemate dragged on more than one month after the military coup, foreign diplomats meanwhile met with the defiant interim leaders in a bid to seek a negotiated end to the crisis.

A day after police fired tear gas and water cannons at some 3,000 student Zelaya supporters, hospital workers said they were on an indefinite strike.

Over 60 feared dead in Tonga ferry disaster

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Nuku’Alofa, August 07: More than 60 people are now feared dead after an overnight ferry capsized and sank near the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa, police said on Friday.

A revised manifest increased the number of people on board the Princess Ashika, which sank just before midnight on Wednesday, from 79 to 117, Tonga’s police commander Chris Kelly told Radio New Zealand.

Tonga’s Prime Minister Feleti Sevele has asked New Zealand and Australia to send Navy divers to help recover bodies from the ferry, saying there was little chance of finding more survivors.

Russia, Turkey sign South Stream gas deal

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Ankara, August 07: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday signed an agreement that will allow the planned South Stream pipeline to pass through Turkey’s waters.

The pipeline is a Russian-Italian project that would bring Russian gas to Europe via the Black Sea. It is seen as a rival to the Nabucco pipeline, which some European leaders favour since that project does not rely on Russian gas.

Sotomayor OK’d for US Supreme Court in historic vote

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Washington, August 07: Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation on Thursday as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, a history-making Senate vote that capped a summer-long debate heavy with ethnic politics and hints of high court fights to come.

The third woman in court history, she’ll be sworn in on Saturday as the 111th justice and the first nominated by a Democrat in 15 years.

Renewed protests break out in Iran

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Tehran, August 07: Renewed protests against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad broke out on Thursday evening in northern Tehran, eyewitnesses said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Vanak square, shouting ‘Allah’o Akbar’ (God is Great) and slogans against the President such as ‘Death to dictator’, ‘Ahmadinejad shame on you’ and ‘Resign, resign’, the witnesses said.

A large number of police and anti-riot forces were deployed in the central Vali-Asr Avenue that leads north to the square.

Drug killings soar as Obama heads to Mexico summit

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Ciudad Juarez, August 07: Mexican drug gangs are killing rivals in record numbers in a major setback for the government, which will seek more support from US President Barack Obama when he visits the country this weekend.

Severed heads, burned bodies, daylight shootouts and dead children are daily fare from Mexico’s Caribbean to its desert border with the United States, even as Army Generals pour soldiers and elite police onto city streets.

S Korea doing everything to free citizens in North

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Seoul, August 07: South Korea’s President said on Friday the country is “doing everything it can” to win the release of its citizens detained in North Korea, after former US president Bill Clinton brought home two American journalists.

The release of reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling raised calls for Seoul to do more for five South Koreans being held in the North, one since late March.

With ties between the Koreas at a historic low, Pyonyang has refused to talk about the detainees, and South Korea has ruled out the possibility of sending an envoy to negotiate their release.

US looks to Vietnam for Afghan tips: Report

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Brussels, August 07: Top US officials have reached out to a leading Vietnam war scholar to discuss the similarities of that conflict 40 years ago with American involvement in Afghanistan, where the US is seeking ways to isolate an elusive guerrilla force and win over a sceptical local population.

The overture to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Stanley Karnow, who opposes the Afghan war, comes as the US is evaluating its strategy there.

Bonfires mark Georgia war, tensions high a year on

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Tbilisi, August 07: Bonfires were lit across Georgia overnight to mark a year since the former Soviet republic’s five-day war with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia.

Pro-Western Georgia launched an assault on South Ossetia late on August 7 after days of clashes with separatists and years of escalating tension with Moscow, drawing a devastating Russian counter-strike that ended on August 12.

The war killed at least 390 civilians and at its height displaced some 190,000. A year on, an unfulfilled ceasefire pact and sporadic gunfire keep alive the risk of renewed hostilities.