29.10.09 / Cricket / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
NEW DELHI: The wear and tear of the
last 10 years have taken a toll on Brett Lee’s body but the Australian pace
spearhead has no plans of cutting down on any formats of the game to prolong his
career.
Lee said the focus now is to get his place back in the
Australian Test squad but he was not planning to sacrifice ODIs or Twenty20 to
achieve that.
“To constantly bowl 150 kmph for 10-15 years will
obviously result in injuries but I am not finished yet. I am feeling fresh and
still have lot more years of cricket left. I still love the game and have
passion for the game,” Lee said.
“Any opportunity to play for your
country is something special and as bowler I am certainly not complaining. I
love to play all formats of the game. I love Twenty20, it is exciting but I am
hungry as ever to get back in the Test team,” he added.
The
33-year-old pacer said the injury sustained during the first ODI against India
in Vadodara was unfortunate and he was hoping for a commendable performance in
rest of the seven-match series to earn his place back in the Test
side.
He also ruled out suggestions that playing in the Champions
League just before the bilateral series had anything to do with his injury.
“I don’t think my injury has anything to do with Champions League. I
wanted to play as much as possible, especially after bowling in the nets
throughout the Ashes.
“The opportunity came up when we qualified for
the Champions League last year. I was born in New South Wales so I am always
ready to represent it whenever I get an opportunity. But having said that
playing for Australia definitely comes first,” said Lee, who was here as brand
ambassador of Australia’s Deakin University.
“It is unfortunate that
I picked up a slight elbow niggle during the first
ODI.”
Incidentally, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting had earlier
claimed that the inaugural Champions League has hindered his side’s preparation
for the series as three of his key players – Lee, Nathan Hauritz and Doug
Bollinger were busy playing for NSW in the cash-rich Twenty20
event.
Lee, however, refused to speculate on his availability for the
third ODI on Saturday.
“I will know whether I would be able to play
only after tomorrow’s training. I am not going to make any call today, but hope
I will be there. I have not had much rest for the last 4 to 6 months, so it is
bound to happen,” he said.
After the thrilling win in the series
opener, Australia slumped to a humiliating defeat in the second ODI on
Wednesday, but Lee said it would be wrong to undermine the visitors as the
series is still young.
“I am eager to return, (James) Hopes is also
very keen, (Moises) Henriques has joined the team and even the guys are waiting
in the wings.
“We were outclassed yesterday but it doesn’t mean we
are finished. Still five matches are left in the series,” he
said.
Sachin Tendulkar is yet to make an impact in the series,
scoring just 14 and four so far but Lee said even though their plans worked in
first two games, Aussies would be fool to write off the champion
batsman.
“He (Tendulkar) is a class act. So far we were lucky to pick
him up cheaply but it is unfair to write him off. So far it is going well and we
will stick to our plans in the next matches,” the fast bowler
said.
Asked whether the small face off between Mitchell Johnson and
Indian batsmen – Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni – during the second
ODI could have been avoided, Lee said, “If you ask me nothing went wrong
yesterday. We love to play our cricket hard and even India also play
hard.”
29.10.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
50-year old Sanjay Dutt has been shooting with 20-something Kangna Ranaut. And if they were looking super-compatible in spite of Kangna being half of Dutt’s age, it’s all because of Dutt’s special ketosis-based diet.
Says a source close to Dutt, “Sanjay went on this special diet in June. It required him to take lots and lots of fattie food and no carbohydrates at all. In fact carbs would’ve been potentially lethal for this diet. In no time Sanjay started losing weight. And that too without Sanju having to give up his favourite food.”
Today, Dutt is looking trimmer than he did ten years ago. And when he shot with Kangna last week, the camera made them look compatible.
Dutt plays an assassin out to get his victim with a sniper rifle in Knock Out.
Kangna Ranaut has always had a fascination for assassin heroes. She began her career with Gangster where her assassin-hero was Shiney Ahuja.
Now in Mani Shankar’s Knock Out, she’s again attracted to the killer-hero, this time played by Sanjay Dutt. The two became professionally fond of one another while shooting for the comedy No Problem in Cape Town.
When Mani Shankar was looking for a bright intense young actress to play a television journalist it was Dutt who recommended Kangna to the director.
29.10.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Denmark’s prime minister says he does not think a legally binding deal on climate change will be agreed upon at a December summit in Copenhagen.
Laks Loekke Rasmussen spoke ahead of an EU summit at which climate change will be one of the main topics.
EU leaders must also decide how to secure the Czech Republic’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
The treaty would create a full-time EU president, and leaders are expected to discuss who could fill the role.
December’s eagerly anticipated United Nations’ Copenhagen Climate Summit will attempt to hammer out a new global climate treaty to replace the UN Kyoto Protocol.
But Mr Rasmussen said he did not believe a final deal on reducing greenhouse emissions could be reached at the meeting.
“We do not think it will be possible to decide all the finer details for a legally binding regime,” he said.
However, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that even if no treaty is signed in Copenhagen, he was confident a political agreement could be reached there.
“We are not lowering expectations,” he said. “If we can agree on four political elements, then that could be a hallmark of success on climate change.”
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The main story will revolve around what can be gleaned about Tony Blair’s chances to become the first President of the European Council
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At the Brussels summit, European leaders will try to iron out their differences over how much each EU member should pay to help developing nations fight global warming.
The European Commission has recommended EU nations pay up to 15bn euros ($22bn; £13bn) a year from 2013 to developing nations to help them cope with climate change.
But aid and environmental groups have said Europe should be prepared to pay more than twice as much.
Talks last week on how to fund such aid collapsed as EU finance ministers disagreed over how to share the costs.
‘Risk of deadlock’
On the eve of the summit, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, urged his counterparts to compromise on agreeing climate aid figures to developing nations.
“We have a risk for a clear deadlock in the negotiations,” he said.
“The emerging economies are looking for financing and without it they will not make the required reduction targets.”
The BBC’s Oana Lungescu in Brussels says it is unclear how much money the EU is willing to put on the table and who should pay what.
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EU 20-20-20 TARGETS
20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020
20% increase in use of renewable energy by 2020
20% cut in energy consumption through improved energy efficiency by 2020
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Poland and other Eastern and Central European countries say they are too poor to contribute much, our correspondent says.
The EU is committed to cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20% by 2020 and by up to 30% if other countries join in.
Developing nations have been arguing that industrialised countries should carry most of the burden, because they are responsible for the majority of CO2 emissions.
The two-day Brussels meeting must also try to seal an agreement for the ratification of the Lisbon reform treaty with the Czech Republic.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus is the only EU leader who has yet to sign the treaty, demanding an opt-out from the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Eurosceptic Mr Klaus fears that charter could be used by ethnic Germans to reclaim land they lost in the Czech Republic after World War II.
The Czech Constitutional Court is expected to rule next week on whether the treaty complies with the country’s constitution, clearing the way for Mr Klaus’ decision.
EU leaders are also expected to discuss who will fill the post of full-time president that the Lisbon Treaty would create.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker have been touted as the leading candidates for the job.
29.10.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The president of Iran says his country is ready to co-operate with a proposal to enrich nuclear fuel abroad to ease tensions over its nuclear programme.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the International Atomic Energy Agency proposal as a move from “confrontation to cooperation” by western powers.
Iran insists it is entitled to enrich uranium for fuel but the US and allies accuse it of seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran was reported intending to give an answer to the IAEA in Vienna today.
“We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear cooperation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to cooperate,” Mr Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in the city of Mashhad quoted by AFP news agency.
He also reiterated that Iran would not retreat on its rights for peaceful nuclear energy, adding that the provision of enriched fuel by the Western powers for research in Iran would be a chance to test the “honesty” of Iran’s critics.
Correspondent in Tehran say the government is expected to accept the framework of the IAEA deal, but also demand changes to it.
Earlier in Vienna, a delegation of the agency’s inspectors returned after visiting Iran’s recently-revealed second uranium enrichment plant at Fordo.
“We had a good trip,” said delegation head Herman Nackaerts. He did not answer specific questions about any of the data that was gathered.
The IAEA has proposed exporting most of Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be converted into fuel before being returned to Iran.
The plan was agreed by the US, Russia and France, after talks in Vienna, but Iran missed a deadline on Friday to respond.
29.10.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The UN torture investigator has been denied entry to Zimbabwe, despite being invited by the country’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the UN says.
Manfred Nowak said he was stopped by immigration officials after landing at Harare airport on Wednesday evening.
Mr Nowak’s week-long fact-finding mission was blocked by Zimbabwe’s foreign ministry at the last minute.
Early on Thursday, Mr Nowak left the country on a flight to Johannesburg, a UN spokesman said.
The blocking of Mr Nowak’s visit comes amid a renewed political crisis between power-sharing rivals Mr Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe.
Supporters of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party have reportedly launched a campaign of violence on Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party.
Mr Tsvangirai stopped co-operating with the unity government two weeks ago.
He was angry at perceived failure by Zanu-PF to implement measures agreed to as a part of the power-sharing deal and the jailing of a senior MDC member on terrorism charges that he says are trumped up.
Battle of wills
The BBC’s Karen Allen, in neighbouring South Africa, says the decision to cancel the trip is bound to be seen by some as a battle of wills between the two major parties.
And ahead of a regional meeting on the crisis, human rights group Amnesty International has warned the country is on the brink of sliding back into last year’s post-election violence.
Mr Nowak earlier said he had received “two completely different messages” from the Zimbabwean government – but added that he would try to meet Mr Tsvangirai on Thursday.
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Recent allegations that MDC supporters and human rights defenders have been arrested, harassed and intimidated… highlight the urgency of objective fact-finding
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“I got the clear message from the prime minister that it is his understanding that the mission is going on,” he said.
“That leads me to the conclusion that there must be some kind of misunderstanding between the different cabinet members.”
The UN says Mr Nowak – the special rapporteur on torture – was informed of the cancellation only when he was in South Africa on his way to Zimbabwe.
He had been initially invited by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa – a Zanu-PF member – to meet officials and rights activists, inspect prisons and police stations and compile a report for the Security Council.
But the UN said Harare had called off the visit because of an unanticipated meeting with the southern African regional group, Sadc.
A Sadc team is due in Harare on Thursday to try to resolve the political crisis.
Nevertheless, Mr Nowak said he would travel to Zimbabwe, following an invitation from Mr Tsvangarai.
The UN said in a statement that Mr Nowak welcomed “all efforts to resolve the political crisis”, but that the Sadc meeting was not a valid reason to cancel his visit.
“Recent allegations that MDC supporters and human rights defenders have been arrested, harassed and intimidated during the past few days highlight the urgency of objective fact-finding by an independent UN expert,” the UN said.
On Tuesday, Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC party said there had been an increase in violent attacks on its members.
Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said a senior official had been stopped and beaten by Zanu-PF supporters on Tuesday morning. Days earlier, an MDC residence was raided by police.
Zanu-PF has described the comments as “cheap propaganda”.
