11.02.10 / Cricket / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
NEW DELHI: India’s seasoned batsman
Venkatsai Laxman will return for the final Test against South Africa after
recovering from a finger injury, an official said on Thursday.
“Laxman is fit and will definitely be playing,” chairman of
selectors Krish Srikkanth told reporters ahead of the decisive Test which starts
at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
India, who lost the first
Test in Nagpur by an innings and six runs, need a series-levelling win to retain
their top spot in the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings.
Laxman, 35, missed the Nagpur match after a finger injury sustained
during last month’s tour of Bangladesh failed to mend in time.
With
star batsmen Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh ruled out of the series with
injuries, Laxman was sorely missed in Nagpur as India crashed for 233 and 319 in
reply to South Africa’s 558-6 declared.
Laxman has scored 6,993 runs
in 109 Tests at an average of 45.70 with 14 centuries.
India were
forced to play rookie wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha as a specialist batsman in
Nagpur after Rohit Sharma, the first-choice replacement for Laxman, got injured
just before the toss.
Saha, who made 0 and 36, has been dropped for
the Kolkata Test and replaced in the 15-man squad by the more experienced Dinesh
Karthik.
India’s squad for second
Test:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam
Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Subramaniam
Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth,
Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina.
11.02.10 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Tags: google in iran blocked, iran web users
Google says its e-mail traffic in Iran has dropped sharply, amid reports access is being restricted for the Islamic Revolution’s anniversary.
The web giant said that the decline had happened even though its networks were working properly.
Opposition websites have urged major demonstrations on the most important day of the nation’s political calendar.
Iran’s police chief said that some activists had been arrested as they prepared for protests.
Google said users of its Gmail had experienced difficulties following a newspaper report about official restrictions.
‘Permanent suspension’
“Whenever we encounter blocks in our services we try to resolve them as quickly as possible,” the California-based company said in a statement.
“Sadly, sometimes it is not within our control.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran’s telecommunications agency had announced “a permanent suspension of Google Inc’s e-mail services”.
Washington – which on Wednesday extended sanctions against Tehran – said any efforts to keep information from Iranians would fail.
US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said: “Virtual walls won’t work in the 21st century any better than physical walls worked in the 20th century.”
The 31st anniversary of the revolution could see protests from opposition supporters who say last June’s re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.
Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have called on their supporters to rally on Thursday.
Anti-government websites have urged marchers to display green emblems or clothes – the colour adopted by the opposition movement after the disputed election.
Fatal violence erupted after the poll, and sporadically since then.
The micro-blogging site Twitter and other social networking sites were used extensively during the post-election protests.
Tehran rally
Official events will be held across Iran but the main gathering will be at Tehran’s Azadi square, where President Ahmadinejad is expected to speak.
Opposition supporters have been urged to wear green as they did last June
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Anti-government websites have urged their supporters to attend the rally too, raising the possibility of a confrontation.
Ahead of the commemorations, police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said the Revolutionary Guards and Basij Islamic militia were ready for any trouble.
“We are fully prepared for holding a safe and glorious rally,” he told Fars news agency, according to Reuters news agency.
“We are closely watching the activities of the sedition movement and several people who were preparing to disrupt the 11 February rallies were arrested,” he said.
The anniversary comes a day after the US extended Iranian sanctions, aimed at the Revolutionary Guards.
The US Treasury will freeze the assets of a senior Guard commander, as well as four subsidiaries of a construction company he runs.
The move follows the announcement by Iran of its decision to further enrich uranium for its nuclear programme.
Tehran insists it is a civilian energy programme, but the West suspects it of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
11.02.10 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Hong Kong’s top court has overturned the conviction of American woman Nancy Kissel for the murder of her investment banker husband.
The court ordered a retrial for Kissel, jailed for life for putting sedatives in her husband Robert’s milkshake and bludgeoning him with an ornament.
Her lawyers say prosecutors breached evidence rules during the trial.
The 2005 case heard tales of wealth, adultery, cocaine abuse, violent rows, greed and unhappiness.
“The court unanimously allows the appeal, quashes the conviction and orders a re-trial,” Court of Final Appeal Chief Justice Andrew Li said.
The 45-year-old mother of two, who lost her first appeal, has been serving a life sentence since she was convicted.
Body in carpet
Kissel had admitted killing her husband, a banker at Merrill Lynch, in November 2003, but had denied murder, a charge that requires premeditation.
Prosecutors said she had given Robert, 40, a strawberry milkshake spiked with sedatives, before cracking his skull several times with a heavy statuette.
Kissel had tried to dispose of his body by rolling it up in a carpet and putting it into a storage room at the luxury Parkview apartments complex on Hong Kong island.
But the stench soon gave her away.
Revelations at the original trial about the lifestyle of some members of the territory’s wealthy expatriate elite gripped the public imagination for weeks.
Kissel lost an appeal in 2008 based on her claim that she acted in self defence as her husband was threatening her with a baseball bat.
At the trial prosecutors argued that she planned the murder due to her uncontrolled passion for a new lover, a TV repairman in the US.
They alleged that Kissel stood to gain up to $18m (£11m) in life insurance payouts from her husband’s death.
