Tickets for Indo-Pak cricket series online: http://pcbtickets.cricket.org, http://pcb.cricket.org, www.cricinfo.com.

Terror strikes Srinagar (Go To Top)

          Srinagar: Two terrorists stormed into a building housing the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and Jammu and Kashmir Information office here after hurling grenades and firing indiscriminately on Tuesday evening, official sources said. Eyewitnesses said two terrorists stormed the building, injuring two security force personnel guarding it. The terrorists first exploded hand grenades and then fired indiscriminately at around 6.25 pm before storming the building, the sources said.

          Security forces have surrounded the three-storied building and the operation to flush them out was on. The operation was being led by Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) K Rajendra Kumar. Several offices of local dailies and correspondents of national and international news organisations were located in the area.

EC orders removal of all ad hoardings (Go To Top)

         New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday instructed the central and state governments to remove all advertisement hoardings that violated the model code of conduct that came into effect after polls were announced. "The Commission has issued a general instruction to the Central government and to all state governments to remove all hoardings and advertisements at the cost of public exchequer," Deputy Election Commissioner A.N. Jha told a news conference here. The EC had earler banned the "India Shining," which sought to play up achievements of the government in the run-up to the national elections.

Andaman and Nicobar polls advanced by 20 days (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Elections in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands have been advanced by 20 days in view of the monsoon. The Election Commission announced this decision today, saying that polls would now be held on April 20 instead of May 10. Under the revised election schedule, the notification for the April 20 poll would be issued on March 24. The last date for filing nominations is March 31, while the scrutiny will take place on April 1 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 5. The counting of votes will take place on May 13 and the date before which the election shall be completed is May 25.

Prominent Haryana leaders join Congress (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Congress received a shot in the arm, especially for its Haryana unit, on Tuesday when former chief minister of the state Bhajan Lal introduced four prominent leaders to the party. The development came on the sidelines of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in the Capital. While two sitting Independent MLAs - Uday Bhan (from Hasanpur, Faridabad) and Tejbir Singh (from Pindri, Kaithal) declared their support for the Congress, former state ministers - Ch. Mahendra Pratap Singh (from Faridabad) and Jaswant Singh (from Narnaund, Hisar) - formally joined the party. According to party sources, Pratap Singh had lost his last assembly election by a slender margin of 161 votes.

         Besides, two other important leaders - Ch. Hasan Mohammad (from Nooh, Gurgaon) and Master Hari Singh (from Adampur, Hisar) also joined the party. According to Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Vishnoi, Hari Singh was his father's bete noire since the duo came into active politics, but now he decided to work for the party. With today's development, Bhajan is said have scored a point over his opponent within the party - Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Once considered a `right hand man' of Indira Gandhi, especially for engineering defections in opposition parties and "buying MLAs" in hordes, Bhajan is known to be facing a tough fight from Hooda as far as ticket distribution in Haryana is considered.

BJP seeks foothold in Karnataka (Go To Top)

          Bangalore: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which along with its allies is tipped to win this year's general elections, is confident of retaining the prestigious parliamentary constituency in South Bangalore. Former Urban Development minister Ananth Kumar, who now heads the Karnataka state unit of BJP, has represented this seat since 1996. The BJP, which won just seven of 28 parliamentary seats from the state in the last parliamentary elections, is hopeful to increase its margin after a powerful backward class leader S. Bangarappa and his son Kumar Bangarappa from the Congress party joined it. The Congress, which rules the state, had bagged 18 seats.

          Claiming credit for the development of southern Bangalore constituency, Ananth Kumar said he was confident of retaining the seat for the fourth time. The south Bangalore constituency has more than 1.3 million voters. But the poor people of the country's tech capital say development has not improved their lives. Akaiahmma, who has spent her life in the city's slums, is a disillusioned woman. "We have been living here since generations. My parents died here. I have become old and I am going to die and the same will happen with my children. There is no change in our lives. What have these politicians done for us? Nothing. Poverty is the reality," she said nonchalantly.

          The Congress party admitted that local issues like traffic bottlenecks in the metropolis could influence votes. "Mainly it is a traffic problem...there are millions of vehicles in the city and traffic management is bad. It is a very big problem," senior Congress leader Chandrashekhar said.

          Karnataka is also going in for early state polls to coincide with the general elections. Analysts say the Congress party, which had swept the last state polls by winning 134 seats of the 234-member legislature, is likely to get a tougher challenge from the BJP, which is riding high on the popularity of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Pakistan test-fires 2,000 km range Shaheen II missile (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday test-fired its long-range nuclear-capable missile Shaheen-II. Islamabad has so far test-fired short and medium range missiles, Shaheen-1 with a range of 280 km, Hatif-1 also called Ghaznavi- 600 kms and Hataf-3, a short range missile which could carry nuclear or conventional war head upto around 290 kms. Pakistan test fired its last missile in October, 2003.

Mango crop hit by bad weather, pests in Tamil Nadu (Go To Top)

          Toonamallee (Tamil Nadu): Mango growers in Tamil Nadu are facing massive losses as bad weather and continued pest infestation have hit crops. Over 70 percent of the region's orchards are struggling with massive shedding. Untimely rains in the first week of February made matters worse as the dampness left the few remaining flowers susceptible to pest attack. Growers are expecting a yield of only ten tonnes per hectare. Farmers in Toonamalee, barely 40 km from capital Chennai, say they have tried switching pesticides, but with little success. "Every year we used to spray Endosulfan but this year we sprayed Tatafem, the flowering was a little better but only a very small quantity survived as there was massive shedding. The Rumani variety has fared slightly better but the Banganapalli variety is badly hit," Ganeshan, who has lost 60 percent on his produce, said.

          Besides Toonamalee, the mango belt in Dharampuri, Salem and Hosur districts has also been badly hit. India is the world's biggest mango producer contributing 59 percent of total production but its share in the world mango market is less than 15 percent. It exports about 30,000 tonnes of mangoes every year to nearly 40 countries including Britain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

Rampant black marketing of tickets by PCB officials alleged (Go To Top)

          Karachi: Some officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board might have been involved in a scam that resulted in a lesser number of tickets being available for Saturday's first One-day International between Pakistan and India at the National Stadium here. While Sohail Ahmed, the CEO of Cricinfo Pakistan, an online cricket information service, claimed that the tickets were sold out within a couple of hours on Monday, the Dawn revealed that thousands of genuine cricket fans were left stranded without tickets because some PCB officials reportedly connived with the ticketing agency and law enforcement personnel on duty. to deliver excess tickets to their "favourites".

          Tickets in the denominations of Rs.1500 and Rs.1200 were apparently not available on Monday for the majority of the general public as sponsors, corporate houses and PCB officials had already booked them in advance through an online service. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had announced that one person could not purchase more than five tickets after showing the national identity card to the competent authority. But in sharp contrast to the announcement, some of these 'favourites' managed to grab as many as 20 tickets to fleece innocent souls at exorbitant prices.

          Eyewitnesses also claimed that tickets worth Rs.800 fetched as much as Rs.2200 for these black marketers on Monday itself. Potential black marketers had a field day with reports of Rs.100 tickets being sold between Rs.500 to Rs.1000. Several questions are now being asked like who thought of computerizing the sale of tickets without informing the public in a timely manner and why was an online cricket website specifically chosen by the PCB to handle ticketing matters, instead of banks, which have handled such operations successfully for years? Was it the PCB's deliberate strategy to hire a company that had no idea about ticket selling just to sabotage the series itself?

No cricket invite for Vajpayee, Advani: Jamali (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: No invitation has been extended to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee or his deputy LK Advani to come to Pakistan to watch upcoming Pak-India series, said Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Talking to journalists at Liaqat Gymnasium here, he was quoted by Online News as saying that Pakistan and India should not engage in "cricket diplomacy", but play the sport as a sport.

PCB to support shifting of ICC Trophy to India (Go To Top)

          Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has indicated that it support plans to move the ICC Champions Trophy tournament to India from England. PCB CEO Ramiz Raja told the News that this was a popular decision taken at the executive board meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) this week. He further went on to confirm that PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan had gone to attend the board meeting being held in Auckland this week with a clear mind. "Our policy is very simple. We will go along with the popular decision. England touring or not touring Zimbabwe is not our major concern," Raja said. "If the ICC and other members want the tournament shifted from England we will support such a move. But if they wish for the tournament to remain in England we have no problems with that," he added. England is due to host the Champions Trophy in September. The tournament is now the direct property of the ICC like the World Cup and profits from the events are distributed evenly by the ICC among its member countries.

Pak clears 120-strong Indian journo team (Go To Top)

         Islamabad: Pakistan has issued visas to 120 Indian journalists and media persons, including TV commentators for the coverage of forthcoming Pakistan-India cricket series starting from March 13. According to the News, Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued instructions to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to provide the visas to Indian media representatives wanting to cover the series, which is taking place on Pakistani soil after a gap of nearly 15 years. A spokesman of the ministry was further quoted as saying that the department is acting in close coordination with the PCB and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), in making special arrangements for the Indian journalists.

          Meanwhile, PCB sources have confirmed that no other camera crew will be allowed to cover the event because of its contractual obligations with the Dubai-based Ten Sports TV channel, which has exclusive telecast rights. "No other foreign TV channel is being allowed visas to cover the matches," one of the board's sources was quoted, as saying.

India beat Canada to enter semis (Go To Top)

          Madrid: India booked their place in the Athens Olympics hockey after beating Canada 6-4 in the final Pool B match of the qualifying tournament. The win also put India, with 10 points, in the semifinals of the competition. The second semifinalists from the pool will be decided after the match between Pakistan and New Zealand later in the day. Score: India 6 (Deepak Thakur-3; Arjun Halappa, Dilip Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey) beat Canada 4 (Sean Campbell-2, Rob Short, Paul Wettlaufer).

 

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