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Captaincy is like facing an oncoming train: KP

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London, July 04: Captaincy had bogged down fiery English batsman Kevin Pietersen to such an extent that he now equates the job to facing an oncoming train and says it gets worse when the team performs badly.

“All day every day, it’s like facing an oncoming train. It absolutely hammers you,” Pietersen told ‘The Daily Telegraph’.

“Then if you’re not playing well, like we weren’t in India, it’s just negative press conference after negative press conference and eventually it affects the way you play. It just weighs you down,” he added.

Harmison and Panesar await their fate

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London, July 04: The speed with which England vacated the field at Edgbaston on Friday afternoon revealed plenty about their mindset in the lead-in to next week’s first Test in Cardiff.

The time was 5pm on a perfect summer’s afternoon, and the opportunity was there for at least another hour and a half of fine-tuning. However, it was not deemed necessary by England’s think tank, who have seen enough already, and just want to get the proper action underway now.

Comforting to have Dhoni at the crease: Kirsten

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New Delhi, July 04: As nervousness gripped him during India’s thrilling chase in the third one-dayer against West Indies, coach Gary Kirsten said he drew comfort from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s presence at the crease.

“Someone like MS Dhoni can hit the ball out of the ground at any time so it was comforting knowing that we had him at the crease controlling the game,” said Kirsten.

Man of the match Dhoni, hit an unbeaten 46-run knock to take India through in the rain-truncated third ODI and take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series.

North tells critics to lay off Hughes

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London, July 04: Marcus North has urged detractors of Phillip Hughes not to read too much into the Australia opener’s failures against England’s back-up bowlers ahead of next week’s first Ashes Test.

Highly-rated Hughes has just four days to solve the dilemma of how to handle the predictable bouncer barrage heading his way in Cardiff after twice being found out by England’s discarded paceman Stephen Harmison in the final warm-up match in Worcester yesterday.

US commander works to win Afghan hearts

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Kabul, July 04: Amid the worsening security situation in war-battered Afghanistan, American troops work to allay Afghan concerns over US military presence in their country.

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban and seek out al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Nearly eight years after the US-led invasion of the country by coalition forces, Afghanistan is still in the grip of insecurity and poverty.

Barroso re-election vote delayed

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Stockholm, July 04: The European Union has delayed a vote on the re-election of incumbent European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso until later this year.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the re-election vote would probably be held at the end of September.

Speaking at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Stockholm, Reinfeldt told reporters that a decision on Barroso’s re-election this month would be unlikely.

“We will not make a decision on Barroso in July, but we hope that this decision will be taken in due course.”

Iran denies report of hanging protesters

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Tehran, July 04: An Iranian official has denied reports that six people who had protested against the results of the June 12 presidential vote were hanged in the city of Mashhad.

“No-one has been detained or executed during the post-election turmoil in Mashhad,” the city’s Chief Prosecutor Seyyed Hassan Shariati said in an interview.

In a recent report, the Israeli Jerusalem Post daily had cited anonymous sources as claiming that six supporters of defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi had been hanged in Mashhad.

Indian board restores domestic event after protest

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New Delhi, July 04: The Indian cricket board said on Saturday it will work out a schedule for a key one-day domestic tournament after moves to axe the event were met with angry protests.

“The schedule of the Deodhar Trophy will be finalised at the board’s working committee meeting in August,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a press release.

The Indian media had reported that the Deodhar Trophy was being dropped from next year’s calendar to fit in matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL), leading to protests by the right-wing Shiv Sena party in Mumbai.

Kenyan sponsors of election violence to face ICC

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Nairobi, July 04: The International Criminal Court (ICC) will set up a special tribunal for ringleaders of Kenya’s worst post-election violence, which claimed the lives of about 1,500 people.

The Hague-based court’s prosecutor said that the tribunal will be set up only for those who have not already been punished in Kenya.

“If there are no national proceedings, we’ll do it,” Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told AFP after meeting with Kenyan Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo.

Two foreign aid workers kidnapped in Darfur

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Darfur, July 04: Armed men have abducted two foreign aid workers in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, UN officials say.

The two women — one Irish and one Ugandan — work for the Irish aid group Goal and were abducted from their compound in the northern town of Kutum on Friday evening along with a Sudanese guard who was later released, officials said.

John O’Shea, the chief executive of Goal, named the two women as Hilda Kawuki, 42, from Uganda and Sharon Commins, 32, from Ireland.

Mystery surrounds oil leak in central Iran

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Tehran, July 04: Following a leak in a crude oil pipeline in central Iran, a vital river has been put in danger, but it remains unclear whether there has been serious contamination.

The leak occurred Thursday morning in a 10-inch (25.4 cm) oil pipeline along the Serkan-Makuh axis, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the town of Pol-e Dokhtar in the province of Lorestan.

Some sources have reported that thousands of liters of oil had ended up in the River Kashkan, resulting in the death of some 30,000 sea animals.

Peaceful protest against Israeli wall turns violent

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Jerusalem, July 04: Israeli army forces have injured three Palestinian demonstrators protesting against the Apartheid Wall in two separate West Bank villages.

Three people were injured and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked Palestinian villagers and international activists during the weekly non-violent protests against the wall in the villages of Bil’in near the central West Bank city of Ramallah and in Ni’lin on Friday.

German Olympic Committee reacts with caution to Pechstein case

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Hamburg, July 04: The German Olympic Committee on Saturday reacted with caution to a doping ban on the nation’s most successful Winter Olympian, speed skater Claudia Pechstein.

Pechstein, 37, was banned for two years by the ruling body ISU because she had abnormal blood values and abnormal changes of blood values at several tests, most notably at the allround world championships in February in Norway.

Pechstein is the most successful German athletes in Winter Olympics history, with five gold, two silver and two bronze medals 1992-2006.

Iranian state-run newspaper accuses Moussavi, Khatami of treason

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Tehran, July 04: The chief editor of Iran’s state-run newspaper Kayhan accused opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi and former president Mohammad Khatami of treason Saturday.

“The two main protagonists Moussavi and Khatami should face an open trial for their clear treason (against Iran’s Islamic establishment),” Hossein Shariatmadari wrote in his column.

MJ was the reason I started loving music: Priyanka Chopra

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Mumbai, July 04: Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra says it was pop legend Michael Jackson’s songs that made her start loving music.

“You never know what you have until it’s gone – music just doesn’t sound the same without Michael Jackson. He was the reason I started to love music,” Priyanka said in a press release.

Palin resigning as Alaska governor in surprise move

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Alaska, July 04: Sarah Palin, the brash, deeply conservative governor of Alaska who crashed onto the U.S. national political scene last year as the Republican candidate for U.S. vice president, announced abruptly on Friday she was resigning as governor.

Israel keeps ex-congresswoman McKinney in custody

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Jerusalem, July 04: A former US lawmaker and a number of other human rights activists remain imprisoned in Israel three days after their failed attempt to break Israel’s Gaza blockade.

Tel Aviv has kept most of the peace activists, seized at sea by the Israeli navy, in custody without providing information on their release.

On Tuesday, Israeli authorities seized a ship carrying relief aid for the blockaded Gaza strip. The vessel was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian international activists.

Akmal century revives Pakistan A

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Karachi, July 04: Australia A 230 and 0 for 44 trail Pakistan A 333 (Akmal 129, Ahmed 61, Iqbal 52, Bollinger 5-82) by 58 runs Scorecard

Umar Akmal continued his love for Australian attacks and pitches, rattling off his second hundred in consecutive matches to give Pakistan A the initiative in Townsville. Pakistan had resumed the day on 5 for 47 after Doug Bollinger’s rampage on the first evening, but Akmal’s defiance and half-centuries to Fahad Iqbal and Sarfraz Ahmed took them to a strong 333.

In Lebanon, spying charges arrest two more men

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Beirut, July 04: Lebanese military intelligence sources have arrested two men, a father and his son, on charges of spying for Israel amid an anti-espionage crackdown in the country.

The National News Agency of Lebanon reported on Friday that the two men were arrested in Naqoura on the Lebanese-Israeli border south of the country.

The security forces said that they would continue to identify and arrest the people who spy for Israeli intelligence agencies.

Bebo now bored of bikinis

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Mumbai, July 04: Kareena Kapoor donned a two- piece in Tashan and a one- piece in Kambakkht Ishq, but now she claims she has had enough of bikinis on screen.

Talking about the dare bare scenes, she says, “ I don’t regret I did them because at that time I went with what I believed in — the demand of the script. I was comfortable on screen and enjoyed the response I got for Tashan and am still getting for Kambakkht Ishq. But now my mother has asked me to stop as she didn’t like watching me in a bikini.”

Iran plans major gas investments

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Tehran, July 04: Iran has unveiled plans to invest around $75 billion in its two major gas fields by 2015 to exploit their huge undeveloped reserves.

Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyfollah Jashnsaz said that the country would finance a $40 billion investment in the South Pars gas field in a five-year plan to produce some 28 billion cubic meters of gas annually from the field.

Iran and Qatar share the largest gas field in the world in the Persian Gulf, where the Iranian part is divided into 24 phases.

Japan parliament speaker: Judge Iran on facts

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Tokyo, July 04: Tokyo has taken a neutral stance towards the recent post-election unrest in Iran, undermining the mainstream portrayal of the events in Tehran.

“We believe all countries have a unique culture and history, so they must be judged based on factual information,” Speaker of Japan’s House of Representatives Yohei Kono said.

Kono was addressing members of an Iranian delegation to Tokyo, led by the head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi.

Black Magic Practiced In Asaram Ashram: Gujarat CID

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Ahmedabad, July 04: : Gujarat CIDAs per the affidavit submitted by the officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) before the Gujarat High Court, black magic may have been practiced inside the Asaram ashram in Ahmedabad.

In the court, CID said that lie detector test conducted on the three sadhaks of the Asaram ashram, reveal that black magic is being performed inside the ashram and that the three are aware about the same.

The disclosure comes almost one year after the puzzling death of two boys: Dipesh and Abhishekh Waghela. The two were studying in Asaram Bapu’s gurukul.

Zac Efron, Megan Fox get cosy

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Los Angeles, July 04: Hollywood star Zac Efron and model-turned-actress Megan Fox were seen enjoying a romantic dinner date at Pace, an upscale restaurant here.

“They were very friendly and their faces were close when they talked,” aceshowbiz.com quoted a source as saying.

The report suggests that both were embarking on a love relationship despite the fact that Efron is still dating actress girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens.

Vaas to quit Tests: chief selector

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Colombo, July 04: Veteran Sri Lankan seamer Chaminda Vaas has decided to retire from Test cricket, the country’s chief selector Asantha de Mel told AFP on Saturday.

The 35-year-old left-armer, who has served Sri Lanka at the top level for 15 years, will, however, still be available for one-day and Twenty20 cricket, the official said.

“Chaminda has told me he does not want to play Test cricket anymore, but he will continue in the shorter formats,” de Mel, a former Sri Lankan fast bowler, said.