New Delhi, July 31: Indian men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas notched up a straight-game win over Malaysian rivals Teik Chai Gan and Bin Shen Tan to cruise into the finals of the New Zealand Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Auckland today.
The top seeded Indian duo took just half an hour to beat the Malaysians 21-15 21-14 in the semifinals today.
Birmingham, July 31 (AFP) Australia coach Tim Nielsen hailed England’s sportsmanship in allowing them to bring in reserve wicket-keeper Graham Manou for his Test debut here at Edgbaston yesterday.
Australia suffered a setback shortly before the match started when regular wicket-keeper Brad Haddin sustained a finger injury during the warm-up.
Haddin had been named in the Australia team at the toss and that meant the tourists had to seek permission from England captain Andrew Strauss to select a specialist replacement in South Australia’s Manou for an unexpected Test debut.
Srinagar, July 31: Returning to work after two days of high drama, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he was not looking for revenge as he reached out to the opposition for its cooperation in running the government.
“I am not a person to seek revenge but I will reach out to the opposition for cooperation in the larger interests of the people of J and K,” Omar told reporters on being asked about PDP allegation made in the assembly that he was involved in the 2006 sex scandal, a charge rubbished by him.
New Delhi, July 31: After witnessing a steep fall in the past two straight sessions, gold today regained some of its sheen to close higher by Rs 80 at Rs 14,950 per ten gram on emergence of buying by stockists and ornament makers ahead of the festival and marriage season amid firming trend overseas.
Silver too staged a comeback and recorded a hefty rise of Rs 400 to Rs 22,500 per kg.
Trading sentiment turned bullish after gold rose by 2.10 dollar to 936.50 dollar an ounce in London as dollar weakened against major currencies, boosting demand for the precious metal.
Islamabad, July 31: Pakistan’s Supreme Court will today pronounce judgement in the case challenging the decisions of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to impose emergency in 2007 and his actions in sacking dozens of judges.
The arguments in the case were completed earlier today but the 14-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhary fixed 3 p.m. (local time) to give its ruling after the court broke up for customary Friday prayers, said lawyers, who argued in the case.
London, July 31: A former music teacher has admitted giving his terminally ill father a gun so he could commit suicide in a busy hospital.
Guy Button, 30, smuggled a Second World War Walther PPK handgun and 19 rounds of ammunition into Northampton General Hospital last October, where his father, Ian Button, shot himself in view of other patients on a busy ward. Northampton Crown Court heard the 63-year-old had just been told he had terminal lung disease.
New Delhi, July 31: The arrest of his son in a corruption case was a conspiracy against his “personal and political life”, Buta Singh, chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, said today. “This is a conspiracy to malign my political and personal life,” Buta Singh told reporters after his son Sarabjot Singh alias Sweety Singh was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) early today.
Buta Singh, however, refused to comment on the role of the CBI.
Washington, July 31: College students who feel invincible or impervious to physical harm are likely to disdain vaccines to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV and herpes.
Conversely, students who feel impervious to psychological harm or those who didn’t care what others thought, are more likely to get the vaccine.
Mumbai, July 31: Bollywood damsel Deepika Padukone has a lot going for her post Om Shanti Om. But after the flop of Chandni Chowk to China the pressure to prove her acting prowess depends a lot on her latest released ‘Love Aaj Kal’.
Kareena Kapoor’s absence has attracted more attention then our leggy lass Deepika who plays lead opposite Saif Ali Khan in Love Aaj Kal. The actress seems unruffled by the hype created by media. She feels that after people will watch the film they would be talking about her.
Let’s hope Deepika’s prediction comes true.
—Agencies
Washington, July 31: A virus discovered last year in a rare form of skin cancer has also been found among those affected with the second most common form of skin cancer, indicating that it might be more prevalent than earlier thought.
“Originally it was thought that this virus caused only this rare skin cancer, but our findings indicate that it is a lot more prevalent than we initially thought,” said principal investigator Amanda E. Toland, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Centre (OSU-3C).
Kolkata, July 31: With the Supreme Court refusing to stay a Calcutta High Court order banning commercial vehicles over 15 years old from Kolkata, transport operators Friday decided to keep all such vehicles off the roads from Saturday.
“We’ve decided not to run commercial vehicles more than 15 years old in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area from Aug 1,” said Swarnakamal Saha of the Kolkata Metropolitian Bus and Mini Bus Owners Association.
“We’ll only withdraw 15-year old commercial vehicles but other vehicles will ply,” he said.
Mumbai, July 31: “Am I a criminal or a terrorist?” asked an upset Emraan Hashmi Friday. The Bollywood actor alleged he had been denied a house he wanted to buy in the upmarket Pali Hill area of Mumbai because he was Muslim.
The actor, who was not given a no objection certificate (NOC), believes the housing society in Pali Hill was hiding the real reason for its refusal.
Hyderabad: Two Indian Air Force pilots were killed when a trainee aircraft crashed in Andhra Pradesh’s Medak district.
The mishap took place when the HPT-32 training aircraft belonging to Air Force Academy Dundigal crashed in an open ground at Annaram village of Jinnaram Mandal near the academy, police said.
The aircraft which took off from the Dundigal academy at 9 am crashed while landing at the academy at about 9.45 am.
Two IAF pilots Ritin Jain and Chaturvedi were killed on the spot.
However, the exact cause of the crash is yet to be known.
Mumbai, July 31: Peace loving Deepika Padukone told the media during the premiere of her film ‘Love Aaj Kal’ that she likes Saif Ali Khan as an actor only and there is nothing between them. She also clarified that there is no bad air between her and Kareena Kapoor.
Grapevine is that Kareena had problem with one kissing scene between Deepika and Saif. Because of which she even stopped talking to Saifu. But Deepika discarded the speculation by stating that she and Bebo always had cordial relations and there is no such problem.
Bangalore, July 31: World’s leading car manufacturer Toyota on Friday launched the new variant of its luxury sedan ‘New Camry’ in India.
The company has aimed yearly sales of 500 units of New Camry.
The latest version of luxury sedan would be available in four variants. The New Camry is priced between Rs 21.26 lakh and Rs 23.40 lakh.
According to Toyota’s Indian unit, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, the sales of existing Camry (the earlier version) went down by more than 75 per cent in the April-June quarter, it sold 44 units as compared to 182 in the year-ago period.
—Agencies
Islamabad, July 31: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can change the sub-continental strategic equation if politicians in both countries “care to listen to him”, a leading English daily said Friday while analysing his defence of the India-Pakistan statement issued in Egypt.
“He is now about to change the Indo-Pak strategic equation if the politicians on both sides care to listen to him,” an editorial in the Daily Times said, noting that Manmohan Singh had “proved his political stature once again”.
Bangalore, July 31: With corporate establishments coming under terror radar, software giant Infosys here today became the first private setup to get the cover of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which usually guards only government installations.
“This is the first time, since its creation in 1969, that the CISF will be providing security cover to a corporate organisation in India,” CISF IG R K Mishra said formally deploying the force personnel at Infosys facility at a function in Electronics city.
A total of 101 CISF personnel were inducted at the facility.
Mumbai, July 31: One of Bollywood’s most successful comedy makers directors, David Dhawan, says a filmmaker has to be emotional to make a good movie. He also admits to getting stressed even now before the release of each of his films.
“If you don’t know how to cry or laugh, then you can’t understand the audience. The goodness has to be within you to come up with something exciting. A good movie should have the right mix of emotions, backed by a powerful script,” Dhawan told IANS here.
Sydney, July 31: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Friday said he once worked as a cleaner at a sawmill, “cleaning the loos”.
Rudd spoke to Fairfax Radio about his worst job experience, in support of Employment Participation Minister Mark Arbib’s call on generation Y not to be too fussy about their first jobs.
He recalled his days when he roughed it out cleaning toilets, The Age reported Friday.
Ranchi, July 31: The Hummer, a sports utility vehicle (SUV), is the latest addition to Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s fleet of vehicles and bikes. He drove from New Delhi to Ranchi in his Hummer.
Dhoni arrived in Ranchi with fast bowler R.P. Singh Thursday night.
The Hummer costs around Rs. 7 million. In India, film star Sunil Shetty and pop singer Mica also own Hummers.
Washington, July 31: The head shape and overall size of rodents have been changing over the years. Now, an ecologist has tied these changes to human population density and climate change.
Oliver Pergams, assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said that such size-and-shape changes in mammals, occurring in less than a century, are quite substantial.
Sydney, July 31: Monitoring changes in vibrations can detect hidden damage in bridges, said an Australian researcher.
Doctoral engineering researcher Henry Shih of Queensland University of Technology has developed a method to determine whether a bridge is damaged and even locate where the damage is in the structure.
The method used data obtained from the vibration monitoring of the bridge. The data collected is fed into a specially designed computer model which can identify any damage.
Washington, July 31: Trust in business is recovering significantly in some of the world’s largest markets with India and China most positive about business and the US rebounding from 10-year lows, according to a new survey.
The Edelman Trust Barometer found that at 75 percent, India recorded the highest level of trust in business of any of the six countries surveyed. China followed with 60 percent respondents saying they trust business to do what is right.
London, July 31: Pop legend Michael Jackson was in advanced talks with a space scientist in a desperate bid to do his famous moonwalk on the moon before he died, says his friend.
The singer wanted to beat his rivals into space by actually making it first to the moon to do his famous dance move in a $1.97 billion project, reported newsoftheworld.co.uk.
“He wanted to be the first pop star in space so badly. He had to be first. He knew it wouldn’t only be history-making, it would be history-shattering,” said Jackson’s close friend Uri Geller.
Chandigarh, July 31: A city-based NGO Friday opened a drop-in-centre here to help improve the quality of sex workers.
“This drop-in-centre is just like a home for these sex workers. Here they can come and interact among themselves and even celebrate festivals together. We will arrange all the recreational facilities for them,” said Parmod Sharma, coordinator of the NGO Yuvsatta.
Sharma said that according to the statistics of the State AIDS Control Society, the number of female Commercial Sex Workers (CSW) in the city is around 3,500.