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Wednesday, July 29, 2009 MUMBAI: Finally Katrina Kaif has made a confession that was long due. After using every trick in the book to keep her romantic alliance with Bollywood’s Salman under wraps, and snubbing every controversy with her coy smile, Katrina Kaif has boldly owned up to her cushy clandestine love affair with the macho actor. In a candid interview given to a magazine, the she has thwarted all murky speculations surrounding her ever so guarded personal life.Stating loud and clear that she is romantically involved with Salman Khan, the stunner has lashed out at all those stating that her love affair with the Khan has gone sour. And it’s not just a one-line admission of her love for her beau, but Kat has snubbed aside her shy girl image to divulge some saucy details about their rocking relationship. Speaking to a magazine, the stunner stated that she is so hooked on to Salman that she carries his picture with her at all times. Besides stating that Salman’s a ‘wonderful perso

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 HONG KONG: The first international kung fu festival in Hong Kong has kicked off, 36 years after the death of Bruce Lee, the world's kung fu movie icon.More than a thousand martial artists from 19 different countries are expected to turn out to put their kung fu abilities to the test.The festival, which is scheduled to continue until early August, aims to promote and develop Chinese martial arts, through holding a number of bare-handed and armed martial arts competitions.Prior to the event, Hong Kong, home to many renowned kung fu legends, marked the 36th anniversary of the first kung fu movie sensation Bruce Lee last Monday (July 20).Though the popularity of kung fu has taken different forms over the past three decades, many people who practice the sport still claim Bruce Lee as the original and the best.A 19-year-old competitor from Czech said she was inspired by Chinese kung fu movies, including Bruce Lee's movies, to start martial arts herself."B

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 BRUSSELS: The United States is setting up a task force to investigate how money is reaching insurgents in Afghanistan, much of it from within the Gulf states, a US regional envoy said Tuesday. "This is a huge problem, and we are forming up a task force to work on this in which Treasury (Department) will take the lead," US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He said the Pentagon, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other "relevant agencies" would be involved. While he would not mention any figures, Holbrooke said: "More money is coming from the Gulf than is coming from the drug trade to the Taliban." NATO and US forces are battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters and their backers in Afghanistan, with substantial income from the illicit opium trade being used to finance their insurgency. Holbrooke said the money "is coming in from sympathisers all over the world, with the bulk

Tuesday, July 28, 2009,QUETTA: Participation of two Pakistan players in the World Junior Canoeng Championship has become doubtful due to non-availability of funds. This was told to Geo News by chairman Balochistan Canoeng Association Abdul Rahim Babai in Quetta. He told that the World Junior Canoeng Championship is being held in Russian capital Moscow from July 28 to August 2. Pakistan is being represented by canoeists from Balochistan Mohammad Abubakar Durrani and Mohammad Shoaib Khilji. He said that funds for participating in the championship have not been released by the government due to which players participation has become doubtful.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009,PARIS: Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong on Tuesday hit back following a stinging attack on him by this year's Tour winner Alberto Contador. Contador won the Tour de France title for the second time here on Sunday, with US rider Armstrong, who came out of retirement, finishing third. But just hours after collecting his trophy on the Champs Elysees the 26-year-old Spaniard launched an extraordinary attack on his Astana teammate. "My relationship with Lance is non-existent," Contador told a press conference in Madrid. "Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will." Armstrong, 37, hit back Tuesday, posting on his Twitter feed: "Seeing these comments from AC (Alberto Contador). If I were him I'd drop this drivel and start thanking his team. Without them, he doesn't win." The American also claimed the Spaniard has "lots to learn". Armstrong added: "A cham

Tuesday, July 28, 2009,MUNICH: English club Manchester United’s team reached Munich for participating in the Audi Cup tournament to be played on july 29 and 30. Just after completing the tour of China, the United Manchester players under supervision of coach Alex Ferguson reached Germany. Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar said that the team has just returned from the tour of China and is exhausted so it should have get some time for rest. United take on Argentine giants Boca Juniors in Munich on Wednesday, before meeting either hosts Bayern Munich or AC Milan in the final a day later. They ended their Asian tour with an 8-2 hammering of Chinese side Hangzhou Greentown and Van der Sar seemed pleased that the club had enjoyed a successful tour of Asia and were now taking their preparations up another notch.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 JAKARTA: Indonesian opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri launched a Constitutional Court challenge Tuesday to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's re-election victory.The daughter of independence hero Sukarno has refused to accept the results of the July 8 polls, which she lost in a landslide to ex-general Yudhoyono, just as she lost the previous election to him in 2004.She claims millions of voters -- out of around 170 million who eligible in the world's third-biggest democracy -- were disenfranchised by inaccurate voter lists and insufficient polling booths in key districts."First, we want a second-round presidential election run-off or at least SBY has to bring back the people's trust by competing in the run-off with us," Megawati's legal adviser, Arteria Dahlan, said, using Yudhoyono's nickname."Second, if that's not granted, then we want the vote to be counted again across Indonesia."Third, we have proof that t

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 NEW DELHI: As rain fury unleashed over Delhi, at least 11 people are killed near Noida after a wall collapsed due to heavy rain. All of them had taken shelter during the torrential rain on Monday night. The victims were rushed to the Noida district hospital. At least a dozen more injured are being treated there at the moment. The dead includes four children and two womenThe incident took place in sector 58 of Noida. "The wall collapsed due to heavy rains," an official said.

Yangon, Jul 28 , The trial of Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi concluded today with the court announcing that its verdict will be delivered on Friday, which could incarcerate her for up to five years. "The verdict will be given this coming Friday," Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said. The court, operating from Yangon's Insein prison, made the announcement after hearing final comments by lawyers for the 64-year-old Suu Kyi, her two female aides and US national John Yettaw, in response to closing statements delivered by prosecutors yesterday. Suu Kyi has been on trial on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest after Yettaw, an uninvited American intruder, swam to her lakeside home in Yangon on May 3 and stayed there for two days. She faces a maximum five-year jail term if found guilty.

SRINAGAR: On a day of high drama, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today tendered his resignation to Governor N N Vohra asking him to go into a senior PDP leader's allegation of his involvement in the 2006 sex scandal and accept it if he was guilty. There were reports that Governor accepted his resignation; however, this was not true, as the Governor is reported to have observed that he would be able to consider Omar's resignation only after being fully informed about the details of the allegation against him and verifying its basis. The Governor has asked Omar to continue to discharge his responsibilities as Chief Minister till a final decision is taken, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said in a statement. Vohra, who was on his way to the airport to leave for Delhi to attend to certain engagements, deferred his departure on receiving a message that the Chief Minister wanted to meet him urgently.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009,DHAKA: Heavy monsoon rains have battered Bangladesh's capital, flooding streets and homes, stranding thousands and forcing businesses and schools to close. The national weather office says more than 13 inches (333millimeters) of rain have been recorded Tuesday in the overcrowded capital city of about 10 million people in the past 12 hours. Dhaka streets waist-deep in water has caused huge traffic snarls. The private television station reports that residents in the city's low-lying areas are stranded in their flooded homes. Trading on the Dhaka stock exchange has been delayed and schools in flooded areas are closed. Floods caused by monsoon rains are common in Bangladesh, a delta nation of 150 million people.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 ,YALA: Suspected separatist insurgents in Thailand's troubled south shot dead four civilians while a remote-controlled bomb wounded five other people, police said Tuesday. Militants gunned down a Buddhist man and his wife in an ambush early Tuesday while they were travelling by motorbike to tap rubber in restive Pattani province, police said. As police investigated the shooting, militants detonated a bomb hidden beneath the bodies of the couple, wounding three policemen and two villagers, they added. Also in Pattani a gunman posing as a wedding guest shot dead a Muslim man at a marriage ceremony on Monday evening, police said. Earlier Monday, a painter was shot dead in a drive-by shooting as he rode a motorbike to a local teashop, also in Pattani.

A vessel carrying up to 200 Haitian migrants capsized and sank near the Turks and Caicos Islands yesterday, the US coastguard said today. One survivor said the boat hit a reef near the islands, south-east of the Bahamas, as it attempted to elude police. Around 70 passengers were stranded on a reef and four bodies were recovered, a coastguard spokeswoman in Miami said. The remainder of the passengers were missing, feared dead. "Our main goal right now is just to get everybody out of the water and get medical attention for those who need it," Sabrina Elgammal said. The accident happened at around 2pm yesterday. By late evening, Turks and Caicos rescue workers, using small boats, had reached about 40 of the people stranded on the reef, two miles south-east of West Caicos island. The coastguard and island authorities were rescuing the others, a coastguard statement said. The boat had been at sea for three days when passengers saw a police vessel and accidentally steered their cr

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 WASHINGTON: Seven men including six Americans have been arrested in the US state of North Carolina on charges they conspired to "engage in violent activities," the Justice Department said. The defendants, who include a father and his two sons, were formally indicted by a grand jury last Wednesday and were arrested by federal police on Monday morning, according to a statement from the department. The men, who range in age from 20 to 39 and include six US citizens and one legal resident, went before a federal judge in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they live, immediately after their arrest. They face a complex set of charges, with all being accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. They face life sentences if convicted.

Newly elected President Sarah Palin, just weeks after winning the 2012 election, suddenly resigned today just hours after her first offical press conference, citing "harsh questions, especially from Helen Thomas, who I thought had died years ago." Palin went on to complain about rumors that her other daughter, the one whose name nobody still knows, not Bristol, the other one, was pregnant now that she is 16 going on 17 and in high school, because of her strict abstinence only program, has caused her to "hear another higher calling, like maybe being an abstinence only teacher, or something." Palin said her biggest regret about giving up the presidency, besides the "out of sight" wardrobe allowance, was never being able to "officially visit Africa, the one country in the world I really wanted to officially visit."

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 WASHINGTON: Seven men including six Americans were arrested Monday in the US state of North Carolina on charges they conspired to "engage in violent jihad," the Justice Department said. The defendants, who include a father and his two sons, were formally indicted by a grand jury last Wednesday and were arrested by federal police on Monday morning, according to a statement from the department. The men, who range in age from 20 to 39 and include six US citizens and one legal resident, went before a federal judge in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they live, immediately after their arrest. They face a complex set of charges, with all being accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. They face life sentences if convicted. "These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far away land but can grow

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, administered a powerful drug that authorities believe killed the singer, a source close to the Jackson family and with knowledge of the investigation confirmed to CNN on Monday. Murray allegedly gave Jackson the anesthetic propofol in the 24 hours before he died, the source said.The doctor's attorneys had no comment on the report but in the past have said Murray never prescribed or administered anything that could have killed the pop star.Murray was the doctor who was at Jackson's home when the pop star died on June 25.Last week, Texas authorities searched Murray's Houston medical office and storage unit, looking for "evidence of the offense of manslaughter," according to court documents.Ed Chernoff, a Houston lawyer hired by Murray soon after Jackson's death, confirmed at the time that Los Angeles Police detectives and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agen

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 BAUCHI: Nigeria's security forces on Monday fought gun battles with radical Islamists who went on a rampage torching churches, police posts and government buildings in four northern states. Police put the number of dead from the weekend religious clashes at 55 in two states of Bauchi and Yobe, as of early Monday morning. In Borno state, heavily armed Islamist rebels torched a police headquarters, a church and a customs office in the border town of Gamboru-Ngala overnight before moving to the state capital Maiduguri where battles ran into the afternoon. A Nigerian Islamist sect styled on Afghanistan's Taliban burnt down a central prison in Maiduguri, two police stations, several churches, a government primary school and offices of a state unemployment bureau. "The situation has degenerated into big battles between the Taliban ... and the soldiers and police. Since morning, you can hear nothing but gunfire all over the city," resident Sanisu Aham

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 BUDAPEST: Brazilian Formula One driver Felipe Massa who was severely injured in Hungarian Grand Prix has come out of coma and recovering very fast.Thanking his fans, Massa’s family said that he has been encouraged by their support and now out of imminent life-threatening danger. However he is being kept under sedation to protect his brain after his accident, doctors said on Monday.Talking with media out of the hospital in Budapest, Hungary, parents, wife and brother thanked all the Massa’s fans and well-wishers and said that Massa’s health is rapidly improving. They said that the support from his fans in this difficult time has a great value for his family.Massa’s wife Rafela thanking God said she is very grateful to the Brazilians who prayed for Massa’s recovery. She believes that the day would come very soon when Massa would leave the hospital with a lot of joy and smiles.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 SAO PAULO: Ronaldo will be sidelined at least a month after breaking his hand in a league match over the weekend.Doctors said Monday the Brazilian forward broke two bones in his left hand after a fall 20 minutes into Corinthians' 3-0 loss to Palmeiras on Sunday. Ronaldo could miss up to eight Brazilian league matches because of the injury.Corinthians doctor Paulo de Faria says Ronaldo will miss four to five weeks because of the injury, and further exams would determine whether surgery was needed."The hand is still very swollen," Faria said. "We will have to conduct more exams. The recovery time with or without surgery is the same, but the surgery may be more effective."Ronaldo, less than five months into a successful return from the third serious knee injury of his career, had to be replaced after falling at Prudentao Stadium in Presidente Prudente. Ronaldo was trying to dribble past Palmeiras midfielder Souza when he was bumped and lost

Monday, July 27, 2009 LONDON: Holder of many cricket records Shahid Afridi will become the first Pakistani cricketer whose shirt will be placed in the historic museum of Lord’s. Allrounder Shahid Afridi had helped Pakistan win by six wickets against Sri Lanka in the final of the World Twenty20 Cup at Lord’s on June 21.The management of Lord’s have decided to preserve the shirt worn by Shahif Afridi in this final.Thus, he will become the first Pakistani cricketer any article of whom will be placed in the museum of Lord’s.Rare articles of some famous cricketers of the world have been placed in the Lord’s museum. Among them, an sparrow has also been preserved which was killed by a stroke of the bat from Dr Jahangir Khan, father of former Pakistan captain Majid Khan while articles used by Sir Donald Bradman, Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar have also been kept in the museum of Lord’s.

Monday, July 27, 2009 PARIS: Alberto Contador earned his second Tour de France victory after seeing out the 21st and final stage, won in stunning style by Manxman Mark Cavendish.Spaniard Contador held off Luxembourg's Andy Schleck with American Lance Armstrong edging out Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins equalled the best Tour finish by a Briton with his fourth place matching Robert Millar in 1984. Cavendish's win was his sixth of the 2009 Tour and he became the first Briton to win on the Champs Elysees. The 24-year-old, who now has 10 Tour stage wins to his name, was an easy winner in Paris.After almost 3,500km of racing over 21 stages in three weeks, Sunday's stage was a victory parade for Contador, who toasted his win with champagne as the peloton rode into Paris.