‘Delhi 6′, ‘Dev-D’ in Venice Film Festival line up

Rakyesh Om Prakash Mehra’s ‘Delhi 6′ and Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Dev D’ are among the four Indian movies that will be screened at the the 66th Venice Film Festival.

The films are not a part of the ‘Competition Category’ of the festival, the oldest in the world, but will be screened in the ‘Midnight Movies’ and ‘Horizons’ section of the ten day
extravaganza that begins on 12th September.

Kashyap, who is also part of the prestigious six member jury of the festival, will showcase two of his films, ‘Dev D’ and ‘Gulaal’ in the Midnight category along with Mehra’s ‘Delhi-6′.

‘The Man’s Woman and Other Stories’ by Amit Dutta will be part of ‘Horizons’ section.

‘Dev D’, a modern romantic take-off on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic novel, ‘Devdas’ was one of the first hits of 2009 and won critical as well as commercial success.

Kashyap’s other film ‘Gulaal’, on the other hand is a brutal study of student politics, caste rivalries and regional pride set in modern day Rajasthan.

The film released in 2009, garnered critical acclaim as well as audience appreciation.

‘Delhi-6′, which also in the ‘Midnight Movies’, tries to grapple with a host of issues that still bother India, unsociabiliti, supererstition, communal rift, middle class dreams and urban malaise through the eyes of people living in the old city of Delhi.

Murali to retire from Test cricket next year

Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan said on Thursday that he is planning to quit Test cricket after next year’s series against the West Indies.

The 37-year-old off-spinner said he is eyeing the two Test matches against the West Indies in November next year as his farewell series because he feels his body cannot bear the rigours of five-day games for much longer.

“We don’t have many Test matches next year but I am thinking that next year’s Test series against West Indies (in November) will be my last two Test matches,” Muralitharan said after Sri Lanka registered a 36-run victory over Pakistan in the first ODI in Dambulla .

Muralitharan has been struggling with a knee injury for quite sometime, which forced him to stay out of Sri Lanka’s recent Test series win over Pakistan.

His decision came after doctors warned him against surgery at this moment as it could virtually see the end of his career.

Watson shines as Australia make positive start

Australia made a confident start in the third Ashes test against England as Shane Watson’s unbeaten fifty lifted them to 126 for one on a rain-disrupted first day on Thursday.

The start of the match was delayed by six hours but Watson, recalled in place of Phillip Hughes, and Simon Katich played a series of crisp strokes to seize the initiative against a subdued England seam attack.

Katich fell for 46 to off-spinner Graeme Swann but Watson had moved on to 62 at the close, including 10 fours, with his captain Ricky Ponting on 17.

“It was a positive result for us,” Australia coach Tim Nielsen told a news conference. “It can be difficult to get through a session like that but to lose only one wicket was a good effort.”

Australia, looking to level the series following their 115-run defeat in the last test at Lord’s, suffered a blow when wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, named in the side at the toss, was ruled out with a finger injury sustained in practice.

The Australians asked England for permission to replace Haddin and the hosts agreed, allowing Graham Manou to make his debut.

“Haddin has fractured the end of the ring finger on his left hand,” Nielsen said. “It was after the toss so we really had to rush to speak to England before the start and we were pleased that they agreed to let us play Manou.”

Ganguly all set to debut in cricket admin

Set to be elected CAB President unopposed at Friday’s Annual General Meeting, Jagmohan Dalmiya welcomed Sourav Ganguly’s entry into cricket administration.

Ganguly will make his debut in cricket administration through Mohammedan Sporting club at Friday’s AGM.

“I have already said his entry is always welcome. With his technical knowledge, I am sure cricket in the state will benefit immensely,” Dalmiya said on the eve of 78th AGM. “He is always been a part of the CAB and I am sure he will be a good cricket administrator as well.”

Dalmiya is now all set to retain his panel of joint secretaries (Arun Mitra and Biswarup Dey) and treasurer Subir Ganguly.

Elections will be held this time just for the post of vice presidents with Howrah district’s Abhijit Dutta contesting against four sitting Vice Presidents – Samar Kar, Shiv Kumar Kalyani, Arijit Datta and Timir Ghosh.

Dalmiya is at the helm of CAB since 1993 except for a 19-month hiatus from December 2006 to the middle of last year when the former BCCI chief had to step down from the CAB post after being slapped with a ban by Sharad Pawar ruled Board.

He however returned to power in 2008 by defeating then president Prasun Mukherjee comprehensively.

On the other side, Ganguly had earlier intended to enter into the cricket administration that snowballed into speculations that the former India captain was eyeing the BCCI plum post in 2014.

Widely speculated that Ganguly would contest Dalmiya this time around, the left-hander backed out apparently failing to manage the required numbers.

Ganguly will represent a different club – Bhukailash Sporting – in the CAB’s working committee, a move that has irked CAB top brass.

Sensex surges over 310 points to a year’s high

The BSE benchmark index Sensex surged by over 310 points to the highest in this year in early trade on Friday on increased capital inflows by foreign funds on the back of impressive corporate earnings amid firming global cues.

Extending its Thursday’s gains, the 30-share index rose by 311.01 points to 15,698.07 points in early trade with

all the sectoral indices gaining up to 2.47 per cent.

The BSE barometer had gained 1.41 per cent in the previous session.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty climbed 86.90 points, or 1.73 per cent, to 4,658.35 points.

Marketmen said sustained buying by foreign funds following better-than-expected earnings posted by several

blue-chip companies and firming global markets mainly buoyed the sentiment, lifting Sensex to a year’s high.

Most of the Sensex companies have posted impressive quarterly earnings this season so far, beating market

estimates.

Major gainers in Friday’s rally were Reliance Industries (2.24 per cent at Rs 1,942.50), Reliance Infra (1.67 per cent at Rs 1,204.90), Rcom (2.17 per cent at Rs 287.70) and Infosys Technologies (1.69 per cent at Rs 2,044.35).

Tata Steel rose by 2.44 per cent, Sterlite Industries by 3.57 per cent, Tata Motors by 4.48 per cent, Mahindra and Mahindra by 3.10 per cent and DLF Ltd by 2.39 per cent.

Myanmar warns against protests ahead of Suu Kyi verdict

Military-ruled Myanmar’s state media on Thursday warned citizens against inciting protests as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi began stockpiling supplies ahead of a possible five-year jail term.

A prison court is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday in the Nobel peace laureate’s trial on charges that she breached the terms of her house arrest by sheltering an American intruder who swam to her house.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, in a comment piece ahead of the judgement due tomorrow, cautioned against anti-government factions, saying that “we have to ward off subversive elements and disruptions”.

“Look out if some arouse the people to take to the streets to come to power. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy activists,” the article said.

Security has been tight for all the hearings, with memories still fresh in Myanmar of massive anti-junta protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007 which ended in a bloody crackdown.

A conviction is widely expected in the two-and-a- half-month trial, which has sparked international outrage.

It has been repeatedly delayed as the junta fended off criticism and calls for the release of Suu Kyi.

China stops mining project with North Korea

A Chinese investment company has abruptly suspended a joint project with a North Korean firm that has been targeted under U.N. sanctions, a news report said Thursday.

The suspension comes as the United States has been mustering international support for strict enforcement of the sanctions aimed at depriving North Korea of financing and material for its nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. and Chinese officials discussed North Korean issues during high-level talks that ended Tuesday in Washington.

China’s cooperation in enforcing sanctions against its ally is seen as crucial to increasing pressure on North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

Zhongkuang International Investment signed a deal with North Korea’s Mining Development Trading Corporation, or KOMID, in 2006 to develop a bronze mine in the North and commissioned NHI Shenyang Mining Machinery, another Chinese company, to build facilities for the mine, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

The investment company, however, sent a letter to NHI earlier this month demanding it stop construction of the facilities, the newspaper reported, citing Chinese steel industry officials it did not identify.

NHI had hurried construction so that production could start in September after Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping pledged full support for the development of the mine during his trip to Pyongyang in June last year, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified industry official.

But the Chinese government appeared to have exercised influence on the investment company to stop the project, the newspaper said, citing the industry official.

The investment firm reportedly told NHI that it could not disclose reasons for the suspension, according to the report.

A man surnamed Jin at the general office of Zhongkuang International Investment deferred comment to an assistant CEO for the company whom he said would return Monday.

KOMID is one of three North Korean companies targeted under U.N. sanctions in April in response to the North’s rocket launch earlier that month.

North Korea insisted it sent a satellite into orbit, while the U.S. and its allies said it was actually a long-range missile test.

KOMID is an arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Separately, Chinese customs authorities said earlier this week that they seized a stash of vanadium, a strategic metal used to strengthen steel, hidden in fruit boxes on a truck bound for North Korea.

Vanadium has defense and nuclear applications – alloys with vanadium are used in missile casings but it was not clear what the shipment was to be used for.

Bombs kill 12 in north and west Iraq: police

Twelve people were killed by bombings in northern and western Iraq on Thursday, including seven in a building used by a Sunni-backed political group in Diyala province, said police.

The violence is a reflection of the deep political and ethnic divisions that remain in Iraq despite the security gains over the past 18 months.

Diyala experienced violence earlier this week when Iraqi security forces and an Iranian opposition group living in a

camp in the province engaged in two days of clashes that left seven people dead.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed today that the seven were killed when Iraqi forces seized control of the Iranian group’s camp, reversing two days of denials that anyone had been killed.

Police in western Iraq, meanwhile, said five people died and 39 were injured when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in Qaim, near the border with Syria.

A police official said the bomber was targeting a police station, but concrete barriers prevented him from reaching it.

“There are many civilians under the rubble. Many houses were destroyed completely, and the police imposed a vehicle and motorcycle ban,” he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media.

Daily attacks have continued throughout Iraq, but the US military warns that the greatest threat to the country’s security is tension between the Kurdish-ruled north and the Arab-dominated central government.

Nigeria: Leader of Islamist sect killed in custody

The leader of the Islamist sect blamed for days of violence in northern Nigeria has been shot and killed while in police custody, officials said.

The police commander of Borno state announced on Thursday on state radio that Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect some call the Nigerian Taliban, has “died in police custody.”

He gave no further explanation, but the state governor’s spokesman Usman Ciroma told a news agency: “I saw his body at police headquarters. I believe he was shot while he was trying to escape.”

Yusuf’s death could provoke more violence, though his followers in the Boko Haram sect may be in disarray.

Troops shelled his compound in the northern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday, but Yusuf, 39, managed to escape with about 300 followers, some of them armed.

His deputy, Bukar Shekau, was killed in the attack, according to Army commander Maj Gen Saleh Maina.

Troops killed about 100 militants by the agency’s reporter’s count, half of them inside the sect’s mosque.

Soldiers then launched a manhunt, and Yusuf was reportedly found in a goat’s pen at the home of his in-laws.

Leading Nigerian rights group accuse security forces of killing bystanders and other civilians.

One more school hit by swine flu in Pune

Medical teams started surveillance at swine flu affected localities in the city on Thursday, even as one more school reported a fresh case taking the number of schools hit by the virus to seven.

The latest addition to the list of flu affected schools was Annasaheb Patil Vidyalaya in Kothrud area, civic medical officer Dr R R Pardeshi said.

Out of 76 reported cases of swine flu, 36 patients have been treated and discharged, including 21 students of a school where the infection was first detected two weeks ago, he said.

As a preventive measure, the civic authorities have started a surveillance to monitor the localities from where the positive swine flu cases were reported, he said.

The “Abhinav” school which was first to close down after the detection of virus among its students, would be reopened shortly, Pardeshi said.

Since six of the seven schools hit by the spread of the virus are located in Kothrud, a suburb, the health officials have stepped up preventive measures in the area.

“The virus has spread through the persons returning to the city from abroad but it is self-limiting in nature and people need not panic”, he added.

The overall swine flu cases in Maharashtra has already crossed the 100 mark with infections reported in Mumbai, Nasik, Thane and Panchgani besides Pune.