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Inzamam smells grouping with Pakistan team

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Karachi, July 13: Former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq today said groupings within the team could be the reason behind Pakistan’s dismal show in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka.

“I fear there might be groupings in the team. I think Younis Khan has not been successful in gelling the team as yet,” Inzamam said.

“If any player is indeed involved in such things then he should be penalised immediately by the board and team management,” Inzamam told ‘Jang’ newspaper.

Earthquake shakes eastern Indonesia islands

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Jakarta, July 13: An undersea earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck off the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba late Monday afternoon, but there were no immediate reports of injury and damage, meteorologists said.

The quake hit at a depth of 86 kilometres with its epicentre about 107 kilometres north-west of Waingapu, a district town on Sumba island in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province. It occurred at 6:52 pm (1052 GMT), the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

Abhishek’s dream role grabbed by Hrithik

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Mumbai, July 13: Abhishek Bachchan will have to take a backseat as it’s not him; but Hrithik Roshan, who will fill in the famous shoes of Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, in the remake of Agneepath.

Directed by Karan Malhotra, a long time associate of Karan Johar, the film was long in talks with Hrithik Roshan being considered as the leading man for this cult classic, which propelled Amitabh Bachchan into super-stardom.

Recently, a lot of rumours were doing rounds as to who will star in the lead, as talks were on with both Hrithik and Abhishek Bachchan.

I still invest a lot in stock market: Soha Ali Khan

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Mumbai, July 13: Soha Ali Khan Despite being from the famous Pataudi family, Soha is not only firmly grounded but also never tried to cash-in on her family background.

The actress who did her graduation in History at Balliol College, Oxford University, and Masters in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences says that studying at Oxford kept her grounded.

I’d have done the same – Hauritz

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Melbourne, July 13: Australia would have employed similar stalling tactics to England’s final-wicket pairing in Cardiff had they been the team fighting for a draw, according to Nathan Hauritz.

As Australia pressed for victory and England scrambled to save the match, the hosts sent 12th man Bilal Shafayat, and physiotherapist Steve McCaig out to the centre in the 102nd and 103rd overs in an apparent time-wasting tactic described by Ricky Ponting as “pretty ordinary”.

German firms launch Sahara energy project

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Munich, July 13: German firms on Monday launched a renewable energy project designed to provide European households with electricity from the Sahara.

Utilities giants RWE and E. ON, electro-engineering group Siemens and Deutsche Bank are among the dozen companies involved in the 400- billion-euro
(552-billion-dollar) Desertec Industrial Initiative.

The consortium agreed to form a consultancy by the end of October, which would look into methods of financing and present a concrete investment plan within three years.

AP CM releases SLB credit plan

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Hyderabad, July 13: Releasing the Rs 55,000-crore Credit Plan, o Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today urged banks to make available adequate credit to common man to overcome the impact of economic slowdown.

”India is a very big consumer country. We can overcome economic downturn by making available credit in a big way to the common man,” he said inaugurating the State-Level Bankers (SLB) Committee Meeting here.

Sonu’s bare-chested fight with Salman

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Mumbai, July 13: Since the last few years, Sonu Sood’s career has been on the upswing. After sharing screen space with Hrithik Roshan in Jodhaa Akbar and Akshay Kumar in Singh Is Kinng, Sonu is all set to star alongside Salman Khan in Arbaaz Khan’s home production Dabangg.

Asked about his role in the film, Sonu said, “Yes, I am doing Dabangg. It’s an action drama which centers around the crime scene in U.P and Bihar. I can’t reveal too much about my character but I play a youth leader with grey shades.”

Sensex In Red, Down 149.17 Pts

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Mumbai, July 13: The Sensex continued to trade in the negative terrain after hitting a low of 13,219.99. Real estate, metal, automobile and power stocks saw the brunt of profit booking while consumer durables stocks were hammered very badly.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index lost 3.50% and 3.93% respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Consumer durables declined 6.42%, followed by realty sector, which lost 5.18%, Metal and Auto fell more than 3% each, Power and Capital goods lost more than 2%.

Iqbal Qasim appointed chief selector

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Karachi, July 13: Former Pakistan spinner Iqbal Qasim has been appointed chairman of a new, restructured national selection commitee. Former Test cricketers Saleem Jaffer, Ijaz Ahmed, Azhar Khan and Mohammad Ilyas have also been appointed members.

Two co-opted members, Asif Baloch and Farrukh Zaman, have also been included to make it a seven-member panel, but they will not have a vote on selection, and are only expected to provide input.

Nuclear dispute not included in Iran’s proposal

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Tehran, July 13: The Iranian proposal which is supposed to be presented to world powers does not include anything on the nuclear dispute, official news agency IRNA reported Monday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told IRNA it would include global nuclear disarmament, finding ways to tackle the global economic crisis, settle cultural and ethical problems as well as deal with global and regional security.

The spokesman said the new proposal was an updated version of the previous one sent to the world powers last year.

Pentagon to combat tobacco use in military

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Washington, July 13: Pentagon is considering a move that would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform.

Following the findings of a recent report by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Pentagon is considering a full ban on tobacco in the military.

More than 30 percent of active-duty military members use tobacco products of some kind, and troops often rely on cigarettes as a stress reliever.

Asin stalked in Singapore

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Mumbai, July 13: Asin stalked in Singapore Recently, gorgeous actress Asin was stalked by an unidentified man when she visited the beautiful country to attend an award function. The stalker has been following the actress ever-since she landed in Singapore and traced every movement of hers.

The man got so courageous with his moves that he tried to get closer to Asin, when she was in her hotel lobby. But thankfully, the hotel security guards instantly got into action and caught hold of the stalker, relieving Asin from any danger.

Suicides, thing of past in Sircilla: CM

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Hyderabad, July 13: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today complimented bankers for making suicide among weavers ‘a thing of past in Sircilla Town.’ ”Suicides by weavers have abated in Sircilla.

It is now only history,” he said while speaking after inaugurating the 166th State-Level Bankers Committee(SLBC) Meeting here. This was made possible by focussing on lending to weavers’ community after forming Self Help Groups.

Iran boosts crackdown on smugglers

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Tehran, July 13: An Iranian senior security official says the police have taken measures to reduce the amount of goods smuggled out of Iran to neighboring countries.

Commander of Iran’s Border Police Brigadier General Qasem Rezaei said the total value of the smuggling commodities from the northeastern borders have been decreased to $100 million annually from $500 million due to sealing off the frontiers.

“With sealing the northeastern borders, deploying new forces and using (monitoring) tools we protect our national wealth,” Fars news agency quoted Rezaei as saying.

Britain’s token arms sanctions agaisnt Israel

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London, July 13: Downing Street orders minimum sanctions against Israel in response to demands for a wholesale embargo in protest at the Zionist regime’s massacres of Palestinians.

On Monday, Israeli daily Haaretz said the British authorities had wavered only five of 182 warrants for supplying the Israeli military with equipment.

The move came after UK lawmakers, rights groups and damning reports by the Amnesty International targeted London’s arms sales to Tel Aviv that had maximized its armed campaign against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Trisha thanks Priyadarshan for ticket to Bollywood

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Chennai July 13: Southern actress Trisha describes her entry into Bollywood as dream debut and thanks her mentor, filmmaker Priyadarshan, who launched her in Tamil movies with “Lesa Lesa” seven years ago, for now introducing her to Hindi films as well.

Priyan has signed Trisha for the Hindi movie “Khatta Meetha” opposite Bollywood star Akshay Kumar.

Preity seeing Yuvraj Singh?

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Mumbai, July 13: Being a celebrity is not as rosy as you look from the outset.

You have to pay a huge prize for name and fame. Bollywood actress Preity Zinta is one of the victims. She has been in the news for all the wrong reasons ever since crack appeared on her long-time relationship with Ness Wadia. Now, she has been linked with her captain Yuvraj Singh.

Mallika invited to visit Twitter headquarters

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Mumbai, July 13: Trust Mallika Sherawat to take us by surprise every time! She is the first Indian star to be invited to visit Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California.

The sexy siren has a popular Bollywood presence on Twitter via her page ‘@MallikaLA’. She is also apparently one of the most ‘followed’ Bollywood celebrities on Twitter with more than 2500 fans keen on knowing what the sexy actress is up to.

Gillespie joins chorus to bring back Harmisson at Lord’s

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London, July 13: Former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie has joined the chorus to bring back Steve Harmison in the England side for the second Ashes Test at Lord’s starting Thursday.

Gillespie feels that Harmison is peaking at the right time and can cause problems for the Australian batsmen at Lord’s, where the visitor’s have not lost a Test since 1934.

Pietersen has to put team first: Warne

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London, July 13: Former Australian spin wizard Shane Warne feels that charismatic England batsman Kevin Pietersen should learn to put the team first, not himself.

Pietersen has come under heavy criticism for playing reckless strokes in the first drawn Ashes Test in Cardiff that almost put England on the verge of a loss.

2011 WC to be officially launched tomorrow

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Mumbai, July 13: The 2011 World Cup, to be held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will be officially launched here tomorrow with the bigwigs of the International Cricket Council in attendance.

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat and the 2011 World Cup Central Organising Committee Chairman and ICC Vice President Sharad Pawar would be present at the logo unveiling of the mega event, sources said.

The organising committee, now headquartered here, is also scheduled to meet before the formal launch.

Solana Palestine remark draws Israel’s ire

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Jerusalem, July 13: Reacting to EU remarks about creating a Palestinian state without Israel’s consent, Tel Aviv claims the EU Foreign Policy Chief made the comments for his own personal gain.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday criticized the European Union’s top diplomat Javier Solana for calling on the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if Israel refuses to do so. According to Lieberman, the EU diplomat made the remarks in an attempt to enhance his own standing before leaving office.

Second Iraqi dust storm heads for Iran

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washington, July 13: NASA satellite images of Iraq show a large haze carrying two billion tons of sand and dust is leaving the country and heading towards its eastern neighbor Iran.

The dust storm, which had originated in Saudi Arabia, was blown into Iraq last week. It is now heading for Iran. It will be the second dust storm to hit the country, the Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya TV reported.

The weeklong sandstorm forced visiting US Vice President Joe Biden to cancel his flight to Kurdistan and interfered with the schedule of his meetings in Baghdad.

Strike at 2010 World Cup projects enters sixth day

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Johannesburg, July 13: A strike by workers at several World Cup stadiums in South Africa entered its sixth day on Monday amid signs that a resolution might be close at hand.

Around 70,000 construction workers at five of 10 World Cup stadiums and several other key infrastructure projects downed tools last Wednesday over pay.

The workers, who earn on average 2,500 rand a month (around 224 dollars), are demanding a 13-per-cent wage increase.