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Black magician roasted alive by 67 women
by Narendra

     Hyderabad: A barber suspected of indulging in black magic was burnt alive in Andhra Pradesh's Mahbubnagar District. District police have arrested 67 women in Muddireddypalli village in connection with the crime that took place this Tuesday. According to a Pioneer newspaper report, about 150 women attacked the shop of barber Parvathalu and burnt him alive, as they felt he was responsible for the death of a woman, Y Venkatamma on Monday night. In her dying declaration,Venkatamma blamed Parvathalu's black magic for her fate. One of the arrested women lodged at the Balanagar police station said, on the condition of anonymity, that several women had thrashed Parvathalu at his shop before setting it afire with him inside. Tension continues to prevail in the village, though a majority of its residents have reportedly moved out after locking their houses. The police is still looking for the remaining 83 women involved in the attack.

God told Bush to attack Afghanistan and Iraq (Go To Top)

     London: Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his Information Minister Nabil Shaath have revealed, that in June 2003 US President George Bush had told them that God had directed him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, and that he then felt that the God was telling him to play the role of a peacemaker between Palestine and Israel, by helping the Palestinians in getting their state and Israelis their security. Shaath, who was then (in 2003) the Palestine foreign minister, said: "President Bush said to all of us, I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me: George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...and I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me - go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it'." Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, recounted that Bush had told him that he had a "moral obligation" to help the Palestinians in getting their state after resolving the dispute with Israel: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state," the Palestine premier, in an interview in the BBC2 programme "Elusive peace: Israel and the Arabs", quoted Bush as saying, according to a report in The Telegraph. The White House has, however, denied the claim as "absurd".

Ganguly fails fitness test, out of Challenger series (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly failed a fitness test and a medical examination on Friday, which effectively ruled him out of next week's Challenger one-day series. Indian team physio John Gloster and Dr Anant Joshi examined Sourav's elbow and tested his level of fitness and declared him unfit after an hour's drill. The Challenger Trophy is to be played in Mohali on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Ganguly was appointed the captain the India Seniors team last week. On Monday, Ganguly had consulted Kolkata orthopaedic Dr. Kalyan Mukherjee, who advised an MRI, the report of which was shown to John Gloster and Dr Anant Joshi today. Ganguly and Mukherjee had remained silent about the nature of the injury but speculation is rife that it could be the early stage of a tennis elbow, which had troubled Sachin Tendulkar for over a year and forced him to go in for surgery in London and take an enforced lay-off of about 16 weeks.

Sachin Tendulkar begins net practice  (Go To Top)
by Sushil Pareek

     Mumbai: Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who will make his comeback after elbow surgery in a domestic one-day tournament this month, on Friday said his training and fitness are back on track. The batsman will play in the Challenger Trophy tri-series in Mohali from October 10-13 and kicked off with season extensive net practice in his hometown Mumbai. "Yes things have progressed as per the plan. Not on a daily basis, but couple of days here and there. On the whole, in the last four and half months things have gone according to our plan," he said. Tendulkar, 32, underwent surgery in May for a nagging elbow injury which first flared up in August last year. He has not played since the home one-day series against Pakistan in April. Slow recovery forced him to miss a one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka and a one-day and Test tour of Zimbabwe in August. He was also forced to opt out of the Super Series in Australia between a World XI and the world champions. The Challenger Trophy should give Tendulkar useful practice before the team is selected for the home one-day series against Sri Lanka starting on October 25. Tendulkar, who has remained one of the world's top batsmen since bursting onto the international scene as a 16-year-old in 1989, has suffered hand, foot, back and ankle injuries in the last six years, largely attributed to the wear and tear of constant playing.