Indore : Mumbai’s Mudit Dani, Siddhesh Pande from Thane and Archana Kamat from Bengaluru will represent India in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Circuit Finals to be played here today.
The three-day event is the culmination of 30 tournaments across six continents from which 16 boys and girls each have qualified. The 32 players in the competition will represent more than 15 countries.
In the USD 36,000 prize money event, with the winner in each category getting USD 3,800, no player would want to settle for anything less than the title and the biggest prize purse – a just reward after a year-long hard work a paddler has put in his fledgling career. Even those finishing 13 and beyond will not go empty handed as they are set to earn USD 462.50, the least from the competition.
Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic and Romania’s Adina Diaconu head the lists of boys and girls, respectively, thanks to their consistent performance in the year gone by.
Without a doubt, the Slovenian, whose potent weapon is the powerful backhand, will be the guy to beat and who can do it better than Korea’s An Jaehyun, who along with Romania’s Cristian Pletea or American Zhang Kai, each of whom have two titles. The Korean won the Slovak and Poland events while Pletea picked the first two titles of the year at Bahrain and the Czech Republic, Zhang in Canada and Portugal. Zhang, a powerful right hander, may well be the dark horse here and is a real contender for top honours.
Among two competitors, Qatari Mohammed Abdulhussein secured one ITTF Junior Circuit Boys’ Singles title during the year as did Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto, Brazil’s Isaac Zauli and Egypt’s Youssef Abdel-Aziz.
Closely on the heels of Romanian Adina with two titles each are Hong Kong’s Zhu Chengzhu, Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi, the winner of World Cadet Challenge in Egypt, Spain’s Zhang Xuan and Thailand’s Tamolwan Khetkhuan.
But one cannot ignore the presence of Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chia-Hsuan, Pauline Chasselin of France and Romania’s Andreea Dragoman who all have a top-podium finish each like Angela Guan of the US, India’s Archana Girish Kamath, Egypt’s Amira Yousry and Chinese Taipei’s Miyuu Kihara.
Incidentally, Brazil’s Takahashi and Leticia Nakada had competed in Asuncion, Paraguay at the 2014 ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals last year. However, for all the 16 boys it is their first appearance in the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals.
@ Agency report
Canberra : India surrendered to 9 wickets for 46 runs to give Australia a 25-run victory in the fourth ODI, here today after outstanding centuries by Shikhar Dhawan (126) and Virat Kohli (106).
Chasing a substantial 349 for their first win in the series, the visitors were given a great start by Rohit Sharma, who hit a breezy 41 off 25 balls before Dhawan and Kohli set up a rollicking partnership of 212 runs for the second wicket off 177 balls to take the team to 277 without any further loss when Dhawan fell to mark a long procession of Indian batsman returning to the pavilion.
Kohli hit 106 off only 92 balls for his second successive century in the series before a soft dismissal and then Dhoni (0) lasted only three balls to dash India’s hopes with another frontline batsman Ajinkya Rahane injured although he did come into bat making only 2 runs.
India’s fourth successive defeat in the five-match series came a day after Team Director Ravi Shastri had said that “there is absolutely no shame in the way they have played despite recent results,” but after the match Dhoni took responsibility of the loss.
@Agency news.
At least three gunmen entered the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, some 50 km south-west of Peshawar, and opened fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels, media reports said.
“Armed men stormed into the university premises early this morning,” police said, adding that two explosions were heard inside the building and firing was still going on.
Geo TV reported that Professor Hamid of the chemistry department was killed while 10 other persons were injured.
“A teacher of the varsity after evacuation said Chairman Chemistry Department Hamid has been martyred by the firing of the militants,” it said, adding the terrorists barged into Hamid’s room and fired at his head, killing him instantly.
At least 10 persons, including security guards, sustained multiple injuries in the terrorist attack, police said.
The injured were shifted to hospital. An emergency has been imposed in all hospitals in the town.
University Chancellor Dr Fazal Rahim said there are over 3,000 students present inside the university along with an additional 600 guests who are present for a poetic symposium to mark the death anniversary of Khudai Khidmatgar Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan alias Baacha Khan who died on January 20, 1988.
The terrorists barged into the university where the event was being attended by a large number of students.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Member of Provincial Assembly Arshad Ali said the attackers entered the university after scaling its walls, Dawn reported.
It quoted a woman inside the university as saying that intense firing is underway.
Citing DSP Charsadda, the state-run PTV said three armed men entered the university premises and opened fire.
A large contingent of security forces had reached the site and started evacuating students. Army troops, police and personnel of Elite Force engaged the militants into gunfight.
Security forces are not sure how many terrorists are holed up inside the university.
The Taliban militants massacred over 150 people, mostly students, in an attack on an army-run school in Peshawar in December, 2014.
@ Agency news.
Lucknow : A local court discharged producer late Yash Johar and director Karan Johar from a criminal complaint for playing national anthem in movie “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” without caution causing “dishonour” to it.
“Karan Johar had filed revision petition before sessions court which was heard by Additional District Judge Dhruv Raj, who allowed the revision and discharged Karan Johar from the case today,” Johar’s lawyer Chandra Shekhar Sinha said.
The complaint alleged that in the movie the national anthem was sung and some people in the picture hall stood up while some kept sitting as there was no caution before playing the song which caused dishonour to the national anthem.
The magistrate had passed a summoning order on April 17, 2002 and it was challenged by Karan Johar in high court, which had stayed the proceedings on July 18, 2002.
The high court vide judgement dated September 1, 2009 had directed the magistrate to consider discharge application but the magistrate rejected it vide order dated October 20, 2014, following which the revision petition was filed before the sessions court.
@Agency news.
New Delhi : Supreme Court on Monday asked whether Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Kashmir can be treated as minority, as it commenced hearing to decide the correctness of a 2007 Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict holding that Sikhs cannot be granted 50 per cent quota in Sikh educational institutions in Punjab.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, while issuing notice to the Centre, sought the assistance of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and appointed senior advocate T R Andhyarujina as amicus curiae in the matter.
“Can Muslims, who are in majority in Kashmir, still be treated as minority? Can Sikhs be minority in Punjab? Can Christians be minority in Meghalaya,” the bench, also comprising Justices F M I Kalifulla, A K Sikri, S A Bobde and R Banumathi, asked.
The bench was informed by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) that the contesting parties were students who may not be interested any more in the outcome of the case having got admission elsewhere.
“This is a serious issue on which we need assistance of the Centre,” the court said and issued notice to the Minority Affairs Ministry and asked the Attorney General to assist it.
The move by the apex court could have a bearing on other communities as well. The question came up before the court in an appeal of the SGPC challenging the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which stripped Sikh educational institutions of their minority status, holding that Sikhs were not a minority community.
The High Court had set aside the state government notification, issued on April 13, 2001, that Sikh institutions can reserve 50 per cent seats for members from the community.
The SGPC has sought reconsideration of a three-judge bench ruling of 2005 in Bal Patil versus Union of India in which the issue of declaring minorities was discussed. The verdict had held that a numerical head count cannot be the sole criterion for declaration of minority.
“Linguistic and religious minorities are covered by the expression ‘minority’ under Article 30 of the Constitution. Since reorganisation of the States in India has been on linguistic lines, therefore, for purpose of determining the minority, the unit will be the State and not the whole of India. Thus, religious and linguistic minorities, who have been put on par in Article 30, have to be considered statewise…,” the verdict had held.
New Delhi : A Joint study conducted by researchers at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and Evidence for Policy Design group at Harvard University found that the volume of respirable pollutants in the Delhi’s air reduced by 18 per cent during the odd-even scheme that regulated the plying of four-wheelers on roads for a fortnight. The study found “stark reductions” in pollutants around the noon hours from January 1 to 15.
While absolute pollution levels increased across the National Capital Region (NCR) in January as compared to the previous month, the levels in Delhi saw a “smaller increase” owing to the pilot license plate policy, the US-based study stated.
The impact was much “higher” during the hours when the scheme was in force as the gap between Delhi’s pollution and the neighbouring regions widened steadily until at least midnight, the study said.
The study has based its findings on Central Pollution Control Board and private portal IndiaSpend data.
The conclusion was arrived at by comparing Delhi’s pollution figures to that of Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida, where the scheme was not enforced, as the NCR region has very similar weather conditions and are “equally exposed” to external factors affecting such as crop burning in the nearby states.
@Agency news