Timeline: Another fine mess...problems at the cricket World Cup

Here is a timeline on the problems which have cropped up in the tournament so far. January 27 - Eden Gardens is stripped of its only match involving the host nation (India v England on Feb 27) because the International Cricket Council do not feel it will be ready in time after undergoing a construction facelift. February 18 - Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium is given a scare ahead of its preparation to stage the April 2 World Cup final, when the city's top fire chief says "the renovated stadium has many loopholes in its fire safety mechanism" and refuses to approve it. -- Organizers hastily fix the problems and it is declared safe days later. February 21 - KyaZoonga -- the official website selling World Cup tickets -- crashes before the...

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Posted in: Cricket world cup,CricketNext

Jagan's fast divides Congress again in public

Hyderabad:  Congress MLAs and MLCs loyal to former party MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy today undertook a 'padayatra' from Indira Park in Hyderabad in support of the fast being held by him for the last six days on the tuition fees reimbursement issue. "We have undertaken the 'padayatra' in protest against the Andhra Pradesh government's insensitive attitude on the demand for release of funds for the tuition fees reimbursement and Jagan's fast," Konda Surekha, a die-hard loyalist of Jagan, told reporters at the Assembly. The Jagan supporters found fault with the state government for not holding talks or sending a representative to meet Jagan though his week-long fast entered the sixth day and he needed medical attention. The...

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Posted in: INDIA news,NDTV

EARTHQUAKE

Geoscience Australia earthquake seismologist Dr Trevor Allen answers ABC News Online's questions about how earthquakes work and why they are causing so much chaos in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.On February 22, 2011 a shallow 6.3-magnitude quake ripped through Christchurch, killing at least 75 people and leaving as many as 300 others missing. The city was only just getting back on its feet after experiencing an even stronger 7.0-magnitude quake on September 4, 2010. Q. What is an earthquake and how does it occur? A. What is happening under the Earth's crust is that the tectonic plates are moving continuously. What this does is it actually puts stress on the rocks, both on the boundaries of these tectonic plates and internally within the plates themselves. So once the stress...

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Posted in: International,SPECIAL NEWS,WORLD NEWS

Telangana shuts down, OU boils

HYDERABAD: The Osmania University campus, the ‘epicentre’ of the pro-Telangana protests, was on the boil on Tuesday, the first day of the two-day Telangana bandh called by the TJAC, as students and security forces fought pitched battles. In fact, trouble started on the OU campus yesterday itself in the wake of the ‘Chalo Assembly’ rally and continued today. Meanwhile, normal life was hit across Telangana as shops and establishments were shut and RTC and private buses largely remained off roads.However, unlike on the OU campus, situation largely remained peaceful in the districts barring minor incidents. At a few places, rail traffic was disrupted for sometime while some buses were damaged. Rallies were taken out and demonstrations held across the region. Violence erupted on OU...

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Posted in: SPECIAL NEWS,TELENGANA

Gaddafi urges violent showdown and tells Libya 'I'll die a martyr'

Gaddafi set the stage for a violent, final showdown to crush Libya's popular uprising by urging loyalists to take to the streets to fight "greasy rats" in the pay of enemies ranging from the US to al-Qaida. In an angry, ranting and often incoherent speech, the beleaguered Libyan leader ignored evidence of repression and bloodshed, including new reports of death squads, to insist that he would die in his homeland rather than flee abroad. "I am not going to leave this land," Gaddafi vowed in a live broadcast on state TV. "I will die as a martyr at the end … I shall remain, defiant. Muammar is leader of the revolution until the end of time." Speaking in front of the Tripoli compound bombed by US planes in 1986, he invoked the spirit...

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Posted in: International

Why Apple’s Competitors Can’t Compete With the iPad’s $500 Price Point

Now that the Motorola Xoom is announced and will soon hit the shelves at retail outlets we will see if people are willing to pay a price premium for an Android tablet. Our guess is they won’t. So why doesn’t Motorola undercut Apple, the current tablet sales trendsetter? Most observers are saying that the $500 iPad has the perfect price point and if the upstart wants to win this fight or just compete they need to at least meet Apple’s price and probably beat it. A really good $399 Android Tablet would likely sell well. Case in point: the Samsung Galaxy Tab is selling well and right now buyers can snag one at T-Mobile with a two-year contract for $249.99 or $499.99 without the weight of the contract. Other carriers have decent prices too on Samsung’s T...

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Posted in: TECHNOLOGY

Apple's iPad 2 Launch Delayed

The launch of Apple Inc's iPad2 tablet will be delayed to June from April as maker Hon Hai faces production bottlenecks due to the device's new design, Taiwanese brokerage Yuanta Securities said in a note. Component makers had to change their production processes after Apple made design changes to the iPad2 before the Lunar New Year at the beginning of February. "Our checks suggest new issues are being encountered with the new production process and it is taking time to resolve them," Yuanta's head of downstream tech equities, Vincent Chen, wrote in the note on Tuesday. Hon Hai declined to comment on the note. Apple was not immediately available for comment. The note said that if the launch of the iPad2 is delayed by two months, total...

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Posted in: TECHNOLOGY

Libyan snipers fire on mourners

Libyan security forces killed at least 15 mourners and injured dozens of others at a funeral on Saturday, according to hospital officials. The snipers targeting protesters against longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi began firing on crowds as they mourned 35 people who died the previous day in anti-government rallies. The shootings reportedly occurred in the eastern city of Benghazi, which has been a focal point of five days of unrest and where government forces wiped out a protest encampment earlier in the day. New York-based Human Rights Watch previously reported that Libyan security forces have killed 84 people in a harsh crackdown on three days of protests. The latest reported fatalities from Saturday's funeral raise that death toll...

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Posted in: International

UK sends rescue team to New Zealand quake zone

LONDON — Britain has dispatched a search and rescue mission to New Zealand, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday, to help find survivors of a powerful earthquake that has killed at least 65 people in the second city of Christchurch. Voicing his "deepest sympathies and condolences" to New Zealand, Cameron said the UK "stood ready" to provide further help at this "dark and difficult time". "There are many people in Britain with ties of friendship or family to New Zealand," said Cameron, speaking to British journalists travelling with him in Kuwait. "I have been in touch with my good friend, prime minister John Key, and he knows that Britain stands ready to provide whatever assistance is required in support of the local emergency services. "The people of New Zealand have...

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Posted in: International

Pirates shoot dead four American hostages: U.S. military

(Reuters) - Pirates shot dead four American hostages on a yacht they had seized in the Arabian Sea, and a firefight left two pirates dead and 13 captured, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. The sequence of events was not immediately clear, but the U.S. military's Central Command said the dead hostages were only discovered after U.S. forces responded to gunfire and boarded the pirated yacht, known as the Quest. "As they responded to the gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors," the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement. "Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds." The military, which said the incident took place at about 1 a.m. EST, had...

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Posted in: International

Chennai Tamil Nadu worker killed in Libya, another injured

A man from Tamil Nadu's Tirunelvelli district, working as a contract worker in South Korean Hyundai's project in Libya, was killed and another injured in the clashes between pro-democracy protesters and security forces in Libya, officials said on Tuesday. Murugaiah, 42, from Thalaivankottai village was killed when their residential camp caught fire due to firing, and his colleague, Ashok Kumar seriously injured, Tirunelveli district collector M Jayaraman told IANS, citing information from the victim's widow, M Vellathai, who was informed by Ashok Kumar on Sunday. He said Murugiah and Ashok Kumar were part of 31 people from...

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Posted in: International

Governor is serious : Action expected on TRS

Governor though appeared to be smiling while TRS MLAs tried to tearup his speech papers, turned very serious after the attack on Jayaprakash Narayan. He asked for taking action against TRS MLAs when Deputy Speaker Manohar, Council Chairman Chakrapani went to Rajbhavan on thursday afternoon to express their apolgies....

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Posted in: TELENGANA

Bangladeshi fans celebrate outside the venue of the opening ceremony of the ICC World Cup in Dhaka. Photo: AP

Cameramen surround the cup following the captains’ press conference prior to the opening of the ICC World Cup of Cricket in Dhaka. Photo: AP A prayer is performed at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai on for Team India’s victory in the World Cup. Photo: PTIAn artist paints the head of a cricket fan in the colours of the National Flag alongside a haircut resembling the World Cup, in Mumbai. Photo: AP  Former cricketer and Congress MP Mohammed Azharuddin extends his wishes for Team India for the ICC World Cup 2011, in Moradabad. Photo: AP &nb...

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Posted in: CricketNext

Bahrain’s army controls capital, bans protests

The island nation was effectively shut down since workers in the capital could not pass checkpoints or were too scared to venture out. Banks and other key institutions did not open Army patrols and tanks locked down the capital of this tiny Gulf kingdom after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre—dawn assault on Thursday that uprooted their protest camp demanding political change. Medical officials said four people were killed. Hours after the attack on Manama’s main Pearl Square, the military announced a ban on gatherings, saying on state TV that it had “key parts” of the capital under its control. After several days of holding back, the island nation’s Sunni...

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Posted in: WORLD NEWS

Malkangiri Collector's kidnapping: Maoists extend deadline

Bhubaneswar:  The Maoists, who kidnapped R Vineel Krishna, the Collector of Orissa's Malkangiri district and junior engineer Pavitra Majhi on Wednesday, have extended their deadline. On Thursday, they sent a list of seven demands to the Naveen Patnaik government. The Maoists say they will release the two kidnapped officials if Central forces are withdrawn from Malkangiri. They are also demanding an end to Operation Greenhunt  and the release of arrested Maoists. NDTV has learnt that there may be talks with the Maoists through mediators as early as Sunday (February 20) to negotiate the release of Krishna and the junior engineer. A four-page letter with demands of the Maoist was forwarded to the media late on Thursday night. The Maoists said in the...

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Posted in: SPECIAL NEWS

No room with cricket view

MUMBAI: As World Cup begins, hotels in cities that will be hosting cricket matches in India are running to full capacity. Fans looking for last-minute accommodation in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, etc will find it hardpressed to get confirmed or reasonably priced bookings in even one-star hotels. At smaller venues like Mohali and Nagpur, rooms are no longer available, said travel agents. This trend, say travel agents, is also seen in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where hotels have put up 'sold out' banners. Bangladesh is the only venue where cricket enthusiasts can still book rooms. It's worth noting though, that in India at least, the majority of bookings have been made by cricket fans from other countries. Cricket lovers from South Africa, Kenya, New Zealand, Singapore, the...

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Posted in: CricketNext