Delhi beats Chennai

Delhi Daredevils ended the four-match winning streak of the Chennai Super Kings with a comprehensive eight-wicket win in the Indian Premier League match at the M Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
The win opened up the tournament and ensured Chennai, Delhi and Rajasthan share the top spot in the table with four wins and a defeat each, and only separated by net run-rate.
Captain Virender Sehwag (71) and the in-form Gautam Gambhir (50) laid the foundation for the Delhi win with an opening wicket partnership of 115 off just 68 balls.
Sehwag was his usual aggressive self, hitting seven boundaries and four massive sixes in his 41-ball knock, while Gambhir again outlined his credentials in this version of the game with his third half-century in five games.

UPA will hold LS polls in October'

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has predicted that elections to the Lok Sabha would be held in October 2008, saying the United Progressive Alliance government cannot sustain the price rise issue any longer.
Advani, who was in Anekal in Karnataka as part of the election campaign for the Karnataka assembly elections, said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government was not able to handle the issue of inflation any longer. The Congress feels that the more they delay the elections, the more they will anger the voter, prompting elections in October.

Sharif-Zardari talks Cordial

Talks between the former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party Asif Ali Zardari over the reinstatement of judges appear to have made headway.
At the end of two rounds of marathon talks on Wednesday evening, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Federal Communication Minister who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League (N), said substantial progress had been made in the talks. He said talks would continue on Thursday afternoon on a few sensitive issues which still needed to be addressed. The PML (N) delegation, led by Mr. Sharif, was earlier scheduled to depart for Pakistan on Wednesday night.
Both Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari earlier assured the media after the first round of talks on Wednesday afternoon that the coalition government was not in danger of collapse. “The coalition is strong,” Mr. Zardari told reporters outside the venue of talks. Neither of the two leaders referred to the 30-day deadline for the reinstatement of sacked judges that the PML (N) and the PPP had set under the Murree accord.
Mr. Zardari has been insisting that the judges’ reinstatement is part of a wider issue of judicial reforms in Pakistan. He has, therefore, advocated working out a constitutional package to be passed by Parliament as the basis of a lasting solution. According to him, persisting with a 30-day deadline, which expired on April 30, for the restoration of the judges is unrealistic.The talks took place in Dubai.

Jayasuriya and Bravo Engineers Mumbai's first win

Inspired by Sanath Jayasuriya's 3 for 14, the best figures of the tournament, the Mumbai Indians put their off-field troubles aside and pulled off their first win. On a slow Eden Gardens pitch, though not the minefield of the previous game, Mumbai had a nervy start and were 25 for 3 before Dwayne Bravo and Robin Uthappa put on a century stand to see them home.
After Kolkata Knight Riders chose to bat, Mumbai's stand-in captain Shaun Pollock stunned the huge crowd, removing local hero Sourav Ganguly and the dangerous Brendon McCullum in the first over.
Jayasurya Inspired spin Bowling reduced the Knight Riders to 77-6 until LR Shukla smashed two fours and a six each off Bravo and Dilhara Fernando as 44 runs were scored in the last four overs.Mediocre total of 137 was set.

After losing 3 wiskets in the first 4 over Mumbai was rescued by some sensible batting by Bravo and Uttapa.Both of them saw their team register the first win in this Tournament.Bravo remained unbeaten on 64 of 53 balls and Uttappa 37 of 37 balls.

Sonia Blames State Government for Price rise

Accusing the UPA government of "mismanagement", senior BJP leader L K Advani on Tuesday said the Congress was trying to shift the blame for the price spiral on state governments.
Reacting to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's speech in West Bengal on Monday, the senior party leader said, "her attempt to shift the blame for price rise on state governments is a disingenuous attempt to hide the failure and mismanagement of the Central government."
Advani, who was addressing a meeting of the parliamentary party here, said Gandhi has "broken her silence" on the violence in Nandigram for the first time after the communist parties started protesting against the government's failure to contain price rise.
Gandhi in a public meeting at Behrampur had charged the West Bengal government with failure to contain violence in Nandigram and said there is no place for political violence in a democracy.

“Sonia knows nothing about West Bengal” Basu

Marxist leader Jyoti Basu said here on Tuesday there was no reason to give importance to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s remarks during her visit to the State on Monday.
Coming out of a Polit Bureau meeting, which he attended as a special invitee, Mr. Basu said “Her words cannot be taken seriously.”
Asked about Ms. Gandhi’s criticism of law and order in the State and comments on the sufferings of people in Nandigram during the unrest there, he said, “She knows nothing of West Bengal.” Ms. Gandhi had no comments to offer on the peoples’ hardships due to price rise. “Controlling the prices is the duty of the Centre and also a commitment in the Common Minimum Programme, which it is not abiding by.”

Sensex Gains 362 points

The Asian markets had a mixed day. The Indian market had a strong session today following positive news on two fronts. RBI announced its monetary policy (CRR hike of 25 bps) and government took fiscal measures to curb inflation (like tax exemptions for IT companies, 0% customs duty on steel). Sensex nearly ended at the day's high while Nifty closed above the 200 DMA for the first time in 40 days. Sensex ended the day at 17378, up 362 points while Nifty closed at 5195, up 105 points from the previous close. The CNX Midcap index was up 1.78%, BSE Smallcaps index was up 0.87%. The market breadth was positive with advances at 770 against declines of 467 on the NSE. Top Nifty gainers included DLF, Satyams and HDFC while losers included Grasim, Idea and Bharti Airtel.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS REGISTER THEIR 4TH WIN

It was almost a lost match for the Chenai super Kings,but a steady bowling line and astute leadership from MS DHONI saw the CSK pulling of a facile 13 run win from the jaws of certain defeat.Thanks to some insipid batting by the Royal challengers.Bangalore Royal Challengers were siting pretty with Wasim Jaffer and Ross Taylor cruising along toward the victory target(102-1in 11) at ease until Suresh Raina took a tumbling catch to dismiss Ross Taylor.This triggered the collapse.Bangalore never recovered for this and caved in losing all the wicket 13 runs short.Youngsters Manpreet Gony and Palani Amarnath Maintained steady Bowling line for the CSK.
Earlier it was MS DHONI blitzkriegs which saw the CSK posting a challenging score.Skipper made a cameo 65 of 30 balls.This almost sealed the chances of Challengers.MSDHONI was named MAN OF THE MATCH.
HARBAJAN BANNED
Ace off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was banned from playing in the Indian Premier League after he pleaded guilty to slapping Indian teammate S Sreesanth at the end of the match between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians in Mohali last week.
The temperamental bowler was also fined 100 per cent match fees from the third IPL match.Lalchand Rajput, coach of his team, Mumbai Indians, was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for making no attempt to stop the physical attack on the Kings XI Punjab bowler.
Sreesanth was let-off with a warning that his "aggression on the field will in future be taken seriously".

PSLV-C9 successfully places 10 satellites into orbit

Setting a world record, India's Polar rocket on Monday successfully placed ten satellites, including the country's remote sensing satellite, into orbit in a single mission.
The ten pack launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) saw the 230-tonne Polar Satellite launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) carry the heaviest luggage-824 kgs-and put into orbit an Indian Mini Satellite and eight foreign nano satellites besides the Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite.
At the end of the 52-hour countdown, the PSLV-C9, with a lift-off mass of 230 tonne, blasted off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and soared into the clear sky in a textbook launch.
Fourteen minutes after lift off, the fourth stage of the ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle, in its 13th flight, injected the ten satellites, into the 635 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
This is for the first time that ISRO has put ten satellites in orbit in a single launch. This is also PSLV's twelfth successful flight.
It is for the first time in the world that ten satellites were launched in a single mission. Russia had earlier launched eight satellites together.
Besides the 690 kg Indian remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A and the 83 kg Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1), the rest eight Nano Satellites were from abroad.

Lakshmi Mittal remains richest man in Britain

Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal remains Britain’s richest man for the fourth consecutive year with an estimated fortune of £27.7 billion, according to the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List regarded as one of the most authoritative independent guides to the country’s super rich.
While some of his Asian peers saw their wealth dip over the past year, Mr Mittal’s went up by nearly £8 billion, making him the world’s sixth richest man.
Britain’s ten richest Asians include Swaraj Paul, the Hinduja brothers and Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways.
All are way behind Mr. Mittal, who heads the overall list of Britain’s 1,000 richest persons followed by Roman Abramovich, the expatriate Russian oil baron and owner of Chelsea football club with a wealth of £11.7billion, and the Duke of Westminster with £7billion.

Gilchrist Ton sets up Deccan first win

Gilchrist slammed 10 sixes and nine fours in a cavalier unbeaten knock of 109 to power Deccan Chargers of Hyderabad to a 10-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians and break their duck in the IPL here on Sunday.
The left-handed Gilchrist looked in splendid form and carted the bowlers all around the park to delight the crowd of 55,000 at DY Patil Stadium while powering his way to a record-setting 42-ball 100. He remained unbeaten on 109 after facing 48 balls to hold complete sway over the home attack.
At the other end was captain VVS Laxman, with an attractive 37 not out as the duo piloted their team to their first win in four ties. Chargers achieved the target of 155 without any loss in only 12 overs.
The blitzkrieg by the wicketkeeper-batsman, who bettered his teammate Andrew Symonds' 47-ball hundred against Rajasthan Royals, helped Hyderabad romp home.

Karzai escapes assassination bid

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday survived an assassination attempt by suspected Taliban militants here at a high-profile military parade, with explosions and gunfire killing at least one person and injuring 11 others including lawmakers.
Karzai as well as scores of ministers from his Cabinet and foreign diplomats including the US ambassador escaped unhurt from the attack at the parade, organised to mark the 16th anniversary of the end Soviet-backed rule in Afghanistan.
At least one person has been killed and 11 were hurt in the attack, state run Bakhtar News Agency reported.
Security forces whisked 50-year-old Karzai away from the scene. Two MPs were reported to be among the wounded.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and said it had deployed six militants, with suicide vests and guns, to target the president.
Karzai has survived at least three previous assassination attempts but this was the first attempt on him in the capital.

BJP respected Christanity, Jesus Christ: Advani

BJP leader L K Advani on Saturday said those who consider BJP as a party of communal, anti-minorities and anti-Christian were doing so it with "ulterior motives".
The BJP respected Christanity and Jesus Christ for his message of universal peace, love and brotherhood, senior BJP leader L K Advani said while inaugurating a function of Marthoma Church off Malabar here.
Advani said his association with Marthoma Church dates back to period of Emergency in 1975-77. Marthoma Church was one of the religious organisations that openly opposed the Emergency. "I had praised the Church for its bold stand", he said.
He also distributed keys of houses, that were built by the church to the weaker sections of society. A total of 1500 houses were built with an estimated expenditure of Rs 60,000 per house.