IPL: Chennai outclass Bangalore

PORT ELIZABETH Chennai Super Kings beat Bangalore Royal Challengers on Monday by 92 runs in the 5th match of the second edition of Indian Premier League (IPL).Bangalore Royal Challengers were all out for 87.Muttiah Muralitharan was pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets followed by Laxmipathy Balaji who sent 2 batsmen home.Earlier, Chennai Super Kings, batting first, put 179 runs on scoreboard for loss of 5 wickets.Openers Matthew Hayden and Parthiv Patel of Chennai Super Kings gave an outstanding start with their 106-run partnership. Hayden and Patel scored 65 and 30 runs respectively.While Vinay Kumar of Bangalore Royal Challengers took 2 wickets while Dale Steyn Kevin Pietersen (c) claimed one wicket each.

Famed Physicist Stephen Hawking Rushed to Hospital

LONDON Famed mathematician Stephen Hawking was rushed to a hospital Monday and was seriously ill, Cambridge University said.The university said Hawking has been fighting a chest infection for several weeks, and was being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, the university city north of London."Professor Hawking is very ill," said Gregory Hayman, the university's head of communications. "He is undergoing tests. He has been unwell for a couple of weeks."Later in the afternoon, Hayman said Hawking was "now comfortable but will be kept in hospital overnight."Hawking, 67, gained renown for his work on black holes, and has remained active despite being diagnosed at 21 with ALS, (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), an incurable degenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.For some years, Hawking has been almost entirely paralyzed, and he communicates through an electronic voice synthesizer activated by his fingers.Hawking was involved in the search for the great goal of physics -- a "unified theory" -- which would resolve contradictions between Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which describes the laws of gravity that govern the motion of large objects like planets, and the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, which deals with the world of subatomic particles."A complete, consistent unified theory is only the first step: our goal is a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence," he wrote in his best-selling book, "A Brief History of Time," published in 1988.In a more accessible sequel "The Universe in a Nutshell," published in 2001, Hawking ventured into concepts like supergravity, naked singularities and the possibility of a universe with 11 dimensions.He announced last year that he would step down from his post as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a title once held by the great 18th-century physicist Isaac Newton.However, the university said Hawking intended to continue working as Emeritus Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.Hawking had canceled an appearance at Arizona State University on April 6 because of his illness."Professor Hawking is a remarkable colleague. We all hope he will be amongst us again soon," said Professor Peter Haynes, head of the university's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

Shanghai car show defies slowdown

International car manufacturers have gathered for the opening of the Shanghai Auto Show, with the Chinese market one of the few reasons for optimism in an otherwise gloomy automotive sector.Global car sales are forecast to fall 8.2 per cent this year, but China's sales figures for March were up 10 per cent."[China] is the only healthy large car market in the world right now," Graeme Maxton, a Europe-based car analyst, said on Monday."And that means it's going to get far more attention. Everything else is collapsing. The only place you can grow is China."Vehicle sales hit a monthly high of 1.1 million in March, more than US sales for the third straight month, despite double-digit declines in most other markets."I have only three words: excited, excited, excited!'' Zhang Xiaoyu, the chairman of the Association of China Auto Engineering, said."After only 18 years of development, we may become the world's leading auto market."

Oracle beats IBM to buy Sun

Software giant Oracle has succeeded in buying hardware specialist Sun Microsystems for 7.4 billion dollars after Sun rejected an earlier offer from IBM. Business software giant Oracle announced plans Monday to buy struggling tech firm Sun Microsystems for 7.4 billion dollars including debt and cash.The deal comes after Sun reportedly rejected a takeover bid from computer giant IBM. It will boost Oracle, the number two software firm, by giving it the popular Java programming language and Solaris operating software for computer servers."The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems," Oracle's chief executive Larry Ellison said in a statement."Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system -- applications to disk -- where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves," he said.Sun chairman Scott McNealy hailed the merger as "an industry-defining event."Company officials said Sun's board of directors have unanimously approved the deal which is expected to close this year pending approval from the company's stockholders and federal regulators.Sun is known for its open-source software program such as OpenOffice.org, OpenSolaris and Java, and was involved in efforts to build a network computer that would use alternatives to Microsoft's operating systems.

Ten killed in fresh Kashmir violence

Two security force personnel and a militant were killed during

 a fierce gunbattle in southern Doda district late Sunday, a police statement said

SRINAGAR At least 10 people, including four policemen, were killed in a string of recent firefights across Kashmir, police said on Monday, just days ahead of another round of voting in India's general election. Two security force personnel, a militant and a woman were killed during a gun battle in south Kashmir's Doda district late on Sunday, police said.Elsewhere two policemen, two militants and two civilians died in separate firefights on Monday.Indian security officials say violence and infiltration in Kashmir has increased in recent weeks, despite thick snow on mountain passes on the Kashmir border, apparently taking authorities by surprise.To provide adequate security, voting has been staggered over five phases in Kashmir, where separatist militants have called for a boycott, saying New Delhi is trying to boost the legitimacy of its rule in the region, which both India and Pakistan claim, by holding elections.Last year state polls in the troubled Himalayan region had a turnout of more than 60 per cent, a boost for New Delhi, though many saw it as a vote for better governance rather than acceptance of Indian rule.

India launches spy satellite

India has launched an Israeli-built spy satellite to boost its surveillance capabilities after last year's Mumbai attacks exposed glaring holes in its defence apparatus.The satellite, RISAT 2, was launched from the Sriharikota launch site, 90km north of the southern city of Chennai, on Monday."The launch was perfect and the satellite is in orbit," a spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.Monday's launch demonstrated the growing defence ties between India and Israel.In 2007, Israel replaced France as the second-largest arms supplier to India after Russia.The new satellite provides India with the capability to monitor its international borders, anticipate any troop build-up or infiltration attempts by armed groups and track incoming ballistic missiles, defence officials said.Last year, an Israeli satellite launched from an Indian base sparked a controversy as Iran claimed the satellite would be used to take images of Iran. But both India and Israel denied this.

Sharia won’t be restricted to Malakand: Muslim Khan

A Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesman declared Monday that 

Sharia law would not be restricted to Swat

PESHAWAR A Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesman declared Monday that Sharia law would not be restricted to Swat while NWFP’s Chief Minister separately announced that the government will take all possible measures to uphold its writ in troubled areas if militants refuse to stop their activities.In an exclusive interview with DawnNews, Swat spokesman for the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Haji Muslim Khan said that the Taliban will not lay down their arms unconditionally.Meanwhile, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haidar Khan Hoti told reporters in Peshawar that the provincial government planned to call a reconciliatory jirga soon to consult tribal elders and senior political leaders on security matters.He also said that the government will not allow a parallel system of governance to be established in Swat, and that the implementation of the Nizam-i-Adl was the responsibility of the NWFP government.

UN agency issues N Korea warning

North Korea could restart its nuclear facilities within months, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog has said.Pyongyang vowed last week  to restart its nuclear  programme and pull out of six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament in response to a UN Security Council statement condemning its rocket launch earlier this month.Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Monday that the resumption of nuclear the nuclear programme "could be a question of months".North Korea told the IAEA last week that it had stopped all co-operation with United Nations nuclear monitors and asked them to leave the country.US weapons experts working on disabling the Yongbyon nuclear plant have also been expelled.The UN Security Council statement said the North's rocket launch was violation of a resolution banning Pyongyang from conducting missile-related activities.Pyongyang insists the launch placed a satellite into orbit, and defended what it said was its sovereign right to a space programme.But the US military says no satellite has been detected after the rocket's upper stage and its payload apparently crashed into the Pacific. It says the launch was a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.

'Waterboard' row mars Obama visit

Barack Obama, the US president, is due to visit the headquarters of the CIA amid a fresh controversy over the US intelligence agency's use of its "waterboarding" interrogation technique.During his visit to the base at Langley, Virginia, on Monday, Obama is expected to seek to reassure agency officers they will not face prosecution for carrying out interrogations using such harsh methods.But the visit has been overshadowed by a New York Times report that CIA interrogators "waterboarded" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has confessed to planning the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001, 183 times, according to an official document.The 2005 US justice department memorandum also showed that Abu Zubaydah, an al Qaeda operative, was waterboarded 83 times, far more than the agency originally said, the Times reported on Sunday.A former CIA officer had previously said Zubaydah had only been subjected to 35 seconds of waterboarding, which simulates the sensation of drowning.Some critics have accused Obama of undermining the US intelligence community after he ordered the release of "top secret" memos on interrogation techniques that have largely been condemned as torture.

Handshake With Obama Belies Chavez's Contempt for America

When President Obama met Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Trinidad on Friday, he shook hands with a man who only four years ago called the United States the most "murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world."Chavez has hardly mellowed, either. Last month, in a radio address, he called Obama a "poor ignorant person," and in January he accused the new president of having the "same stench" as President Bush -- just the latest lashes in a long line of his signature anti-American speeches over the years.Here are just some of Chavez's anti-American blasts:-- "The U.S. has bombarded entire cities, used chemical weapons and napalm, killed women, children and thousands of soldiers. That's terrorism." (Sept. 25, 2005: Washington Post interview)-- The U.S. government under Bush is the "most savage, cruel and murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world." (Aug. 8, 2005: Caracas youth rally)-- "Our real enemy is called the U.S. empire, and on Sunday, Dec. 2, we're going to give another knockout to Bush, so no one forgets that is the battlefield." (Dec. 1, 2007: election speech in Caracas)-- "Capitalism will lead to the destruction of humanity ... (and America) is the devil that represents capitalism." (August 2006: speech in Vietnam)-- American policy in the Mideast is "a policy of permanent aggression, of war, of terrorism by the U.S. empire. That's the great guilty one, the great Satan, as they call it here." (April 1, 2009: Tehran, Iran)

More than 20 polo horses dead as mystery deepens in Florida

Florida agriculture scientists are performing necropsies Monday on 21 horses that died as they were prepared to compete in a Sunday polo match in Wellington, Florida."We'll be testing blood and tissue to see what the common denominator was here -- was it something injected, was it bad water and so forth," said Terence McElroy, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.The horses were part of the Venezuelan-based Lechuza Caracas team and were being kept at the team's trailers on the grounds of the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Fifteen horses that seemed disoriented died before Sunday's match, said McElroy, and their bodies were sent to the state-run Kissimmee Diagnostic Laboratories near Orlando, Florida.Two horses initially collapsed, and as veterinarians and team officials scrambled to revive them, five others became dizzy, Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the polo club, said Sunday.

Demonstrator killed in rally for ousted president

A demonstrator was killed in Madagascar as security forces fired warning shots and tear gas on supporters of the ousted president, Marc Ravalomanana, in the capital. Ravalomanana was forced out of office last month by the army-backed opposition.A demonstrator was killed Monday in Madagascar as security forces fired warning shots and tear gas to break up a rally by supporters of ousted president Marc Ravalomanana in the capital.At least 12 other people were injured, five of them seriously, as the security forces moved in to disperse the protest.A doctor at Antananarivo's main hospital said the dead demonstrator had sustained head injuries but that the exact cause of death was yet to be determined.Ravalomanana's supporters have staged a series of protests to demand the return of their leader who was forced out of office last month by his army-backed opposition rival Andry Rajoelina.

Israel criticism sparks UN walkout

Dozens of delegates have walked out of a United Nations conference on racism after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, described Israel as a "racist government".Ahmadinejad told delegates at the summit in Switzerland on Monday, that after the Second World War the United States and other nations had established a "cruel, oppressive and racist regime in occupied Palestine"."The UN security council has stabilised this occupation regime and supported it in the last 60 years giving them a free hand to continue their crimes," he told delegates at the Durban Review Conference hall in Geneva.Dozens of diplomats from countries including Britain and France left the hall in protest as he made the remarks.Ahmadinejad also asked the conference: "What were the root causes of the US attacks against Iraq or invasion of Afghanistan?

'Last warning' for Sri Lanka's LTTE

The Sri Lankan government has given the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) 24 hours to surrender or face a "final assault".Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE leader, has until noon on Tuesday (17:30 GMT) to give up or face a "military course of action",  government officials said.The warning came after the government said its troops had advanced into the last swathe of Tiger-held territory after breaching an earth barricade.Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's president, said on Monday: "The only thing Prabhakaran can now do is to surrender."I don't want him to take cyanide and commit suicide. He has to face charges for his actions."