India win toss, to field against Sri Lanka

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field against Sri Lanka in a do-or-die match of the cricket tri-series at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Tuesday. India has made one change in their playing eleven with Irfan Pathan missing out due to his injury and Zaheer Khan making a comeback. The Sri Lankans have gone with an unchanged side. Teams: India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravinder Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan. Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Chandimal, Kumar Sangakkara, Thisara Perera, Angelo Mathews, Rangana...

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Facebook denies accessing users’ text messages

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook is being accused of snooping on its users' text messages, but the social network says the accusations are inaccurate and misleading. The company is among a wide-ranging group of Web entities, including Flickr and YouTube, that are using smartphone apps to access text message data and other personal information, according to a Sunday Times report (behind a paywall). The newspaper said Facebook "admitted" to reading users' text messages during a test of its own messaging service. The report also says information such as user location, contacts list, and browser history are often accessed and sometimes transmitted to third-party companies,...

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Nokia announces Reading, Transport and Life services

Barcelona, SPAIN--To complement its new Lumia and Asha devices, Nokia has also unveiled services across its Windows Phone (WP) and S40 platforms. This move marks the Finland-based company's focus on "building a whole ecosystem", according to Nokia's EVP of sales, Colin Giles. Here at MWC, it is becoming increasingly apparent that handset makers are shifting from an emphasis on specs, and choosing to focus on the user experience instead. Not to be left out, Nokia has chosen to unveil some useful location-based services and education apps this year. Windows Phone Nokia Reading (free): The new Reading app is a hub for news, e-books and audio books. It provides you with the ability...

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BSNL tablet gets over one lakh pre order requests

The tablets will be available in retail stores and BSNL outlets from March 1. Public sector telecom operator, BSNL, which recently launched extremely low cost tablets along with two mid range tablets, has got a tremendous response from Indian consumers. The three tablets, bundled with its connection, are in the price range of Rs 3,499 - Rs 12,500. They are manufactured by Noida based Pantel Technologies. Virendra Singh, managing director of Pantel Technologies, said to The Mobile Indian, "We have received more than one lakh pre booking orders over phone and online for the three tablets which we have launched in association with BSNL." He further added, "Apart from the consumers' interest,...

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Launches at MWC 2012

It is still few hours before Mobile World Congress [MWC] 2012 kicks off, and 5 new mobile phones have already been launched in Barcelona. The highlight of the launches so far are quad-core phones and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich [ICS]. Yes, Android phones are stepping up on the hardware front. Here's a low down of the devices that have been announced, as yet. Huawei Ascend D quadHuawei's latest flagship device, the Ascend D quad, is supposedly "the world's fastest smartphone." The D quad is definitely a sight to behold, particularly the 4.5-inch 720p display — the screen's very bright, and the viewing angles are excellent. It's not the thinnest phone we've seen,...

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National Science Day celebrations at Science City

AHMEDABAD: As the nation will observe National Science Day on February 28, the citizens will see a slew of activities at Science City which has planned a five-day Science Carnival on theme of youth and science. The science day is observed every year to commemorate Dr C V Raman's find of Raman Effect for which he later got Nobel Prize for physics in 1930. "The Science Carnival is going to be an event with a series of scientific activities and programs involving school and college students, eminent scientists and faculties of the state and country. We want to provide a real platform for the budding scientists to make their career and profession in science," said a senior Science City...

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Amarnath Board has surrendered to NC govt: BJP

Jammu: Alleging blatant politicisation of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, BJP on Monday accused the SASB of surrendering its autonomous character to serve the political interests of NC-led government in Jammu and Kashmir.  "There is blatant politicisation of SASB....The Board has surrendered its autonomous character to serve the political interests of the NC-led government," BJP chief spokesperson Jitendra Singh told reporters here. He objected to curtailing the duration of Amarnath Yatra to just 39 days this year, saying there was no rationale behind the decision. Singh also demanded reconstitution of the Shrine Board. He questioned the stand of the Congress party, which is a coalition...

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Hussey doesn't want to hear calls for Tendulkar to quit - it may fire him up

DESPITE calls in India during the week for their national hero Sachin Tendulkar to retire after a lean summer in Australia, Michael Hussey admitted he still felt trepidation whenever the player known as the ''Little Master'' took strike. Tendulkar will today try to score the elusive 100th international century of his career when India take on Australia at the SCG. While the likes of former Indian skipper Kapil Dev said Tendulkar should consider retirement, Hussey told The Sun-Herald he was still a prized scalp. ''He's still a key wicket,'' Hussey said. ''Experience says he's done it in the past. He's a great player and his record speaks for itself. Tendulkar is someone you're always...

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Dhoni might have his day says Bedi, pitches for new Test captain

Blaming Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the apparent 'rift' in the Indian cricket team in Australia, former captain Bishan Singh Bedi on Sunday said that time has now come for the side to have a new Test skipper. Bedi felt that Dhoni had failed to maintain harmony in the Indian team in Australia by stating that the three senior openers could not be in the team together as they were slow fielders. Asked if Dhoni should be removed from Test captaincy, Bedi said, "This is the job of selectors and I don't wish to pressurise them. But personally speaking Dhoni might have his day. I think there is definitely room for a new Test captain. "To a certain extent, the dissensions in the team in Australia...

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2G scam: A Raja in the spectrum of BSNL-WiMax scam

The CBI on Saturday registered a fresh case in connection with alleged irregularities in awarding BSNL’s WiMax franchise to a private firm, considered close to former telecom Minister A Raja, and carried out searches across four cities. The federal investigation agency has so far not named Raja as an accused in the new FIR. “A regular case has been registered in this matter against some officials of BSNL and a private firm for causing loss of Rs 535 crore to the national exchequer. Several incriminating documents have been seized during the countrywide raids. Further investigation is on,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra told DNA. Nine teams of CBI officials searched the residences of Bharat...

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BJP demands meeting of all CMs to solve NCTC row

HYDERABAD: Asking the government to keep the proposal of setting up the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) on hold, BJP on Saturday demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately convene a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the contentious issue threadbare. Speaking to newsmen here, BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu alleged that the UPA government has taken a unilateral decision to set up the NCTC and it was against the spirit of the Constitution.Naidu, who is also the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, said 11 chief ministers have demanded the repeal of NCTC, which he said, was notified without taking the state...

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‘Govt statement on proposed strike ritualistic’

New Delhi: Rejecting the government's appeal to desist from the proposed countrywide strike on February 28, major trade unions have said they would not consider such a "ritualistic statement" as there has been no genuine move to consider workers' demand. The general strike, which has been called to protest the "anti-labour" policies of the government, would cover all sectors barring Railways. AITUC general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said the government's appeal has come "too late" as it had the opportunity to discuss workers' issues at the recently- concluded Indian Labour Congress but it "never displayed any seriousness".  The unions had on December 2 last year decided to go on strike...

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India to seek exclusion of its EEZ from war zone

KOCHI: India will make a fresh ap peal before London-based Joint War Committee (JWC) for the exclusion of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from war zone notification. This was announced by Director-General of Shipping S B Agnihotri on Saturday. “There had been no piracy attacks in Indian waters over the last nine months. The Navy has sanitised our waters. This provides ample grounds to exclude Indian waters from the war zone,” he said. Even before the Enrica Lexie episode, India had taken up the issue before the JWC. India will file the appeal before the next JWC meeting scheduled in May.The inclusion of Indian waters in the war zone has both commercial and strategic implications.As...

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Pakistan not to extend ISI chief's term

The Pakistani government has decided not to extend the tenure of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, a media report said. Pasha, who has been the director general of the ISI for the last three-and-a-half years, will be transferred to the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) as its head, the daily Dawn reported citing sources late on Saturday. He was handed a one-year extension as chief of the country's spy agency last March. The government has not commented on the matter. A source close to Pasha also said the ISI chief did not want an extension. Sources claim that the government believes Pasha's appointment to PSD will "help the future of Pakistan-US nuclear and strategic...

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Nelson Mandela spends night in hospital

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has spent a night in hospital following what officials described as a "diagnostic procedure".Doctors stressed that 93-year-old Mr Mandela's life was not in danger and the treatment was for a long-standing abdominal complaint. The Nobel peace laureate's health has declined in recent years and he rarely appears in public. Mr Mandela is due to be discharged from hospital by Monday, officials said. On Saturday night he was said to be in a stable and comfortable condition. Earlier, President Jacob Zuma said in a statement that Mr Mandela "has had a long-standing abdominal complaint and doctors feel it needs proper specialist medical attention". He...

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Yemen Swears In New President to the Sound of Applause, and Violence

SANA, Yemen — Yemen’s first new president in more than three decades was sworn in on Saturday, taking over a country with a broken economy, crumbling infrastructure, violent separatist movements, an active Qaeda franchise and Islamist militants in control of large swaths of territory. After a year of antigovernment protests and rising insecurity in a country the United States sees as a critical ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, Yemenis were hopeful that the new government led by Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi, the former vice president, represented a fresh start. But as if to underscore the problems Mr. Hadi faces, hours after he took the oath of office and promised to continue...

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Barak will have to pass an attack on Iran through a reluctant U.S.

Any talk of military action against Tehran is taking place in the shadow of this November's U.S. elections. But if Israel does strike, ordinary civilians will be leading the aerial attack. Ladies and gentlemen, let us introduce the Israelis who will fly off and bomb Iran, on an errand assigned to them by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz. Should this mission get a green light, the bomb squad could consist of a lawyer, the director of a business and a pilot from a commercial airline - these are some of the day jobs of our combat pilots and navigators. They are people we meet every day...

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Osama Bin Laden's Pakistan compound demolished

Pakistan is demolishing the compound where US forces killed Osama Bin Laden, in the city of Abbottabad, residents and police say. The al-Qaeda leader was shot dead at the compound in the north-western city near the capital Islamabad in May 2011. Bulldozers arrived after dark to demolish the outer walls, and have been working through the night. There is heavy security around the compound, which served as Bin Laden's hideout for more than five years. Dan Griffiths report...

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KYI: Here are stock tips to play the market right

Just when Indian investors thought the bulls have finally arrived at the market and bears gone into hibernation for the time-being, one little cub crawled out and pushed the Sensex down to close below 18000 over the past week. It was the first negative close for the market on a weekly basis since the start of 2012. Analysts say that the market having rallied nearly 20% in the previous seven weeks helped by inflows, it could be profit-booking or renewed worries about rising global oil prices and the country's widening fiscal deficit that saw the indices correct downward. The Sensex closed 2% lower on w-o-w basis while Nifty lost 2.4% over the past week. In such an environment, does...

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Kingfisher Airlines's nosedive poses serious dilemma for government

NEW DELHI: As Kingfisher Airlines careens toward collapse, the Indian government finds itself between a rock and a hard place. The government, already weakened by a string of corruption scandals over the past year, will face further political heat if it tries to rescue a money-losing private carrier - especially one owned by a flamboyant liquor baron. If it lets Vijay Mallya's airline fail, however, the government will hurt state-run banks, which own about a fifth of Kingfisher's shares and three-quarters of its $1.3 billion debt. Kingfisher is struggling with fewer flights and pilots, staff demoralised by unpaid salaries, and outstanding dues to aircraft lessors, oil companies,...

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SBI to relax loan rules for small businesses

TRICHY: State Bank of India chairman, Pratip Chaudhuri on Saturday said that rules for sanctioning loans up to an amount of Rs one crore for small businesses and services would be relaxed to facilitate business prospects in the central region of Trichy. Senior SBI officials, who were here to give freebies to deserving institutions as part of the bank's corporate social responsibility said that once the Small Industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) gave the nod for a well-deserved, growth-oriented business proposition, the loan amount up to Rs one crore would be dished out by the bank without any collateral. This, Chaudhuri said, was being done to promote a number of small businesses,...

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Too-coy India prompts Citi's HDFC retreat

You should be careful what you wish for. India has resisted, strongly, what it sees as excessive foreign participation in its banking system. And with the need to conserve capital at home, it's no real surprise that Citi(C.N) has decided to cash in its 9.9 percent stake in Housing Development Finance Corp(HDFC.NS) for $2 billion. But had India allowed Citi more skin in the game it might have stuck around. India's banking regulator has long worried about hot money and fair-weather friends. But the protectionism deployed actually increases the dangers. With a 10 percent cap on foreign direct investment in Indian banks, Citi lacked a real say in how HDFC was managed. Other Indian banks...

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Celebs have edge over social workers: Salman Khan

Salman Khan, who runs charity organisation Being Human for underprivileged people, feels that due to media coverage movie stars tend to have an edge over others who sincerely work toward the betterment of society. And he is not too happy about it. "We (celebrities) have an edge because we are there on every TV and every screen, good films, bad films, stuff like what we do in restaurants...So, we are there all over and we have an advantage over people who are really great people, and have not been given the coverage because of TRP ratings," the 46-year-old said here. "It sucks because if you are doing that kind of (social) work, and nobody knows about you, it's weird," he added....

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Sachin Tendulkar gets honorary life membership of SCG

SYDNEY: Iconic Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday became the first overseas player to be presented with the honorary life membership of the Sydney Cricket Ground. Presenting the award, New South Wales premier Barry O'Farrell said, "Sachin is one of the greatest cricketers ever and it's only appropriate we honour him with life membership of one of the world's greatest cricket grounds. Praising Tendulkar for his sportsmanship and deference for the history of the game, O'Farrell remarked, "The batting legend has said the SCG is his favourite ground outside of India and it's no wonder when you look at his record at this ground." "Sachin has provided crowds with wonderful...

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Olympic qualifier: India close to realising London dream

New Delhi: When a spirited Indian team take the field in the final on Sunday, they would be looking nothing less than a win and seal a spot in the 2012 London Olympics. It’s a perfect setting for a win for India and to avoid another disaster, considering the fact that France are a less ranked team than the hosts. The fact that they beat the Europeans in the pool would be an added advantage for the 10th ranked team. The most successful team in the history of Olympics, with eight gold medals, India failed to qualify for the first time in 80 years Beijing Olympics four years ago. India started the FIH Olympic qualifiers as favourites and stayed unbeaten before reaching the final at...

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London dreams shattered for Indian women

Oh no, not the way to start! The stadium rose in collective moan when South African No 10 Shelley Russell punished India for a Ritu Rani blunder in the 4th minute of the women’s Olympic qualifier final here on Saturday. The blunder mattered the most as the hosts lost 1-3, thus failing to realise their dream of booking a ticket to London. India were no match to the fitter South African side and conceding goals through errors did not help their cause. In the final, the team looked confused and even failed to trap the ball neatly. There was no doubt that the match against Italy, only 24 hours back, had taken its toll on their body and mind. Before they could regroup after the initial blunder,...

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Time for experiments over, says Dhoni

Faced with a do-or-die situation, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is all set to field his three regular openers rather than experiment with a pinch hitter at the top of the order in Sunday's crucialtri-series One-dayer against Australia in Sydney. "We have three genuine, proper openers. I see no good reason why I should sent in a pinch-hitter. All three score at a brisk pace, they are good at hitting boundaries as well asin taking singles." "There is no requirement of a pinch hitter when all three are playing," said Dhoni, indicating the rotation policy is as good as over for the rest of the tournament. With only two more league matches to go, a defeat for India would leave them...

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WHO knocks India off polio list

India’s name was taken off the list of the world’s four polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO) because it has been free of polio for one whole year.  The three remaining endemic countries — where the polio virus continues to infect people — are Pakistan,Afghanistan and Nigeria. India’s last polio case was detected in a two-year-old girl in the Panchla block of Howrah, West Bengal, on January 13. “Till 2009, India accounted for half of the total number of polio cases being reported worldwide. It’s a remarkable achievement for us to be taken off the list,” said health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at the Polio Summit 2012. For the Pulse Polio programme, the Centre...

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Baby Sanyam suffers Falak's fate

What could possibly prompt a human being to burn a three year old baby with cigarettes, to mercilessly beat the child to the extent of breaking his bones, to starve him of basic nutrition for two long months. This is the face of a man whose conscience is unmoved at having tormented three year old Sanyam. Kailash Yati, Sanyam’s stepfather, said, “I told her to do whatever she wants with the child, to either keep it or give it to one of her relatives. I had no wish to keep the child. If I wanted to keep the child, I wouldn’t have brought him.” Arrested after TIMES NOW exposed the savage manner in which he tried this innocent life. Nidhi Jain, Sanyam’s mother, said, “He used to lock me...

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A row over shorter Amarnath yatra

A storm is brewing in Jammu and Kashmir over Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) decision to curtail the duration of this year’s annual pilgrimage to the holy cave to 39 days. SASB led by Jammu and Kashmir governor NN Vohra held a meeting after which it was announced that the yatra would commence fr om June 25 and culminate on Raksha Bandhan on August 2, this year. In the SASB meeting, Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, besides other members, was present. However, Shri Amarnath Sanghrash Simiti (SASS) rejected the schedule. “We will not accept less than two months yatra. Who is SASB to decide over the matters relating to faith?” said Brig (retd) Suchet Singh, SASS convener. The Board said, in 2010 and 2011,...

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