Sri Lanka crushes New Zealand by 97 runs in tri-nation cricket series

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Thilan Samaraweera's defiant century backed up by three wickets in a single over from Lasith Malinga gave Sri Lanka a crushing 97-run win over New Zealand on Tuesday in the opening match of the tri-nation cricket series which also features India.

Batting first Sri Lanka recovered from a disastrous start to reach 216-7 and later bowled the Black Caps out for just 119 in the 37th over.

Samaraweera made 104 and shared a crucial 127-run partnership with Anjelo Mathews (51) to give Sri Lanka's bowlers a competitive total to defend.

Like Sri Lanka, New Zealand made a poor start with the bat, losing their first three wickets for just seven runs.

Left-arm seamer Thilan Thushara made the initial breakthrough, trapping Jesse Ryder leg-before.

Nuwan Kulasekera had Martin Guptill caught behind by captain Kumar Sangakkara and later also trapped Ross Taylor lbw.

A brief 30-run stand between Brendon McCullum and Grant Elliot gave the tourists some hope but Malinga struck three times in the 19th over to end any chance of a New Zealand comeback.

Malinga bowled McCullum with a yorker and three balls later had Jacob Oram caught by Sangakkara. He then bowled Nathan McCullum with the last ball of the over.

Elliot top-scored for New Zealand with 41 runs. Malinga was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with figures of 4-28.

Earlier, Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat first, but his openers failed and the middle order crumbled under pressure as the hosts lost five wickets for 69 runs.

Samaraweera then came to the crease with his team struggling on 22-3 and, despite losing two batting partners early, he settled down with Mathews for a record stand for the sixth wicket between the two sides.

Samaraweera, who faced 124 balls and hit 10 boundaries, has long been regarded as a test specialist and had not been considered for limited-over matches for almost four years.

Mathews brought up his second limited-overs fifty off 60 balls including four boundaries.

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State to keep hawk eye on vulture growth

JAIPUR: They are a despised lot except to ornithologists. Seen as a harbinger of death, they have always been the most neglected lot even as they went about their business of keeping the environment clean from rotting carcasses and bodies.

Apathy and neglect have reduced the vulture population so much so that they have been included in the list of critically endangered birds. But all's not lost. A start has been made. The state forest department had observed the first Vulture Awareness and Conservation Day on September 5.

A day-long seminar was held at the Forest Training Institute to mark the occasion as Anil Chhagani, professor at the department of zoology, JVV University in Jodhpur, who has been keenly following vultures in the Rajasthan and Gujarat, gave a presentation on the status of the bird in the two states. The seminar also discussed ways of conserving and spreading awareness about the bird.

As a first step, according to chief wildlife warden, Rajasthan, R N Mehrotra, a circular will be issued during the forthcoming Wildlife Week beginning October 1 to all forest staff in the state to ensure that all nesting and breeding sites of vultures, spread mostly along the periphery of reserved forests are preserved.

Discussions for a captive breeding programme for vultures in the state was abandoned due to lack of space. Instead, as suggested by Chhagani, an in situ conservation programme was sought as a better alternative.

"In most cases whenever a young vulture takes its first flight it falls. This is the time when these birds are attacked by dogs and jackals. If we can just fix a net around its breeding site then one can put the bird back to the nest in case of a fall," Chhagani felt.

According to him, Rajasthan had more than 5,000 vultures with villages (that have a large cattle population) being their hotspots. Areas around reserved forests are also preferred by the bird.

"Seven species of vultures, including the Long-billed, White-backed, Red-headed, Egyptian, Himalayan, Eurasian and Cinereous vultures are present in the state. There is also a considerable flock of migratory vultures that start coming here between October and January-February.

"But traditionally, very little is being done to preserve them. On the other hand, there has been massive habitat loss due to mining, quarrying and blasting. Other reasons for the drop in the vulture populace has been scarcity of food, predation by dogs and death due to road accidents while feeding on carcass," he said.

"In fact, the change in land use pattern has also severely affected the bird population as several large tress have been felled to make way for crops," Chhagani said.

Explaining the importance of vultures, Chhagani said that these birds act as natural scavengers. "However, use of diclofenac as a drug for cattle has caused a decline in their population as this drug has an adverse effect on them," he said.

"The need of the hour is to monitor them state-wise, monitor their breeding sites, set up a special cell for coordinating vulture conservation and seek all zoos in the state to play a role in rescuing these birds," he added.

Closing down Airways an option, says Jet chief

NEW DELHI: Images of irate passengers being played out by TV channels throughout Tuesday finally made the 59-year-old Jet Airways chief Naresh Goyal come to a harsh decision by late evening. "I will not hesitate to close down the airline if the people who work for it no longer believe in its philosophy of discipline, guest care, safety and punctuality that has taken Jet where it is today," Goyal told TOI.

Goyal said this even as the airline claimed it was going to be firm on not taking back the two pilots sacked earlier allegedly for forming a union. Jet has said it’s going to dismiss three more pilots, including the chief of its association of Indian pilots.

"I have no disagreement with pilots. However, I cannot tolerate any breach of the basic principle of discipline. I am ready to reinstate the two sacked pilots (till then three more sackings were still to be announced) if they say they stand by our philosophy," Goyal said.

The Jet founder had two rounds of meeting with aviation secretary M M Nambiar and DGCA chief Nasim Zaidi on Tuesday morning. While the ministry expressed its concern at passenger discomfort due to flight cancellations and wanted the airline management to amicably resolve the issue with pilots, highly placed sources said Goyal was adamant on one word—discipline.

It is learnt that the meeting saw references being drawn to how indiscipline had led to the fall of some big airlines. "Almost every Indian airline will have to deal with HR issues shortly. How the government deals with the ongoing pilot crisis in Jet could well decide the way issues with other carriers are resolved in the future," said a source.

Whether Jet goes soft on the pilot crisis like it did last year after sacking close to 2,000 cabin crew remains to be seen, but so far it has been acting tough. Late on Monday night pilots, who were rostered to operateinternational flights to places like London, Brussels, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, started reporting sick. Almost immediately, Jet started sending doctors to their homes, who found the pilots airworthy but grounded due to dispute with the management.

However, cynics point out that Jet, like all other big airlines, is facing serious financial troubles and could be using this crisis to declare a lockout. After all, only last month, the Federation of Indian airlines had threatened to go on strike if its demands like reducing jet fuel prices were not met. While the demands weren’t met, the airlines had called off the strike.

Asked if this crisis was being used to draw attention to the critical situation in the Indian aviation industry, Goyal said, “Financial crisis or not, I won’t tolerate any compromise with Jet’s basic principles. This airline has set global standards and done India proud. For me, the country comes first, then the company and then individuals. If the people who work for us do anything that goes against this, I will not hesitate to close down.’’

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Pakistani troops kill 24 militants: military

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani troops on Tuesday killed at least 24 alleged militants in the lawless northwest Khyber district near the Afghan border, the military said.

The army launched an offensive in the tribal district, home to the fabled Khyber Pass into neighbouring Afghanistan, eight days ago after a suicide bomber targeted a border post killing 22 policemen.

"Security forces killed at least 24 militants and destroyed two militant headquarters and two hideouts in Bara town of Khyber," a statement from the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.

The current offensive is against fighters with the Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam), a militant group battling the government in Khyber that has some ties to the Pakistan Taliban.

On Monday, the military had claimed killing 10 militants in Khyber but such tolls are impossible to confirm independently.

Khyber is on the main land and supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where international forces are battling a Taliban insurgency.

Pakistan's government has claimed a number of military successes against the Islamist hardliners this year in and around Swat valley, but attacks continue across the country, mostly in the northwest.

The semi-autonomous northwest tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001.

Ishrat Jahan's family wants action against guilty Gujarat cops

"She was as patriotic and loved the country as much as you," said an impassioned Nusrat, the younger sister of Mumbai collegian Ishrat Jahan who was shot dead and branded a traitor by Gujarat police and whose killing has been proved to be a "fake encounter".

A day after an Ahmedabad court ruled that the killing of Ishrat Jahan, the 19-year-old college student gunned down with three of her friends in June 2004, was a "fake encounter", her family came out Tuesday to demand the sternest punishment possible for the guilty policemen.

Her younger sister Nusrat said the family knew right from the beginning that her killing in June 2004 was a "conspiracy".

"She was as patriotic and loved the country as much as you and we do. We are happy that finally the blot on our family has been erased and she has been proved innocent," the 22-year-old said.

Nusrat added that all those people who had viewed the family with suspicion had been given an appropriate answer by the Ahmedabad court verdict.

Her mother Shamima Jahan added tearfully that Ishrat's killing had branded their entire lives and affected the job and educational prospects of her six other children.

With the terrorist slur finally being removed, "our lives can come back on track", she said.

Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra suburb in Thane district, was a second year B.Sc student at Mumbai's Guru Nanak Khalsa College. Having lost her father two years before her death in 2002, she embroidered clothes and gave tuitions to help support her family of eight -- including her mother and six brothers and sisters.

On June 15, 2004, Ishrat and three of her friends, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani were gunned down by Ahmedabad Police's Crime Branch (Detection) on the outskirts of the city.

Police claimed that the four were members of a Lashkar-e-Taiba module and were on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

On Monday, that lie was nailed when an Ahmedabad court ruled that the killings were a case of "fake encounter".

Her family expressed their gratitude to the media and their team of lawyers led by Vrinda Grover and Shilpa Shah for supporting them in their darkest hours. link...

Barack Obama's school speech urges students to take responsibility

Mr. Obama's has been accused of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively to his audience of children Photo: GETTY

"We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems," Mr Obama will say, according to a text of his speech published by the White House. "If you don't do that - if you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."

The president will deliver the talk at Wakefield High School in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia. The speech will be broadcast live on a cable television network and on the White House Web site.

Mr Obama's has been accused of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively to his audience of children.

However Laura Bush, wife of Mr Obama's Republican predecessor George W. Bush, yesterday backed Mr Obama's decision to address the nation's school children.

"There's a place for the president of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children" to stay in school, Mrs. Bush, a former school teacher, said in a CNN interview. However, she also said parents who object to the president's address had the right to keep their children at home.

Mr Obama made no reference in his prepared remarks to the uproar surrounding his speech.

Schools don't have to show the speech. And some have decided not to, partly in response to concerns from parents. link...

Pakistan resumes polio vaccinations in Swat

ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Pakistan's Swat Valley have resumed vaccinating children for polio, an act once banned by Taliban militants, now beaten back by an army offensive.

The last vaccinations were administered nearly a year ago, an official said Tuesday.

The Islamist militants, who began spreading their reign in the valley in 2007, had declared that vaccinating against the potentially crippling disease was un-Islamic because it was a foreign-funded campaign. Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazullah said the vaccinations were a Western conspiracy to make Muslim children infertile.

The army says it has killed more than 1,800 suspected militants in Swat since launching its latest offensive there four months ago. The government is now trying to bring the valley back to normal. Most of the 2 million people displaced in the offensive have returned home.

Government official Khurshid Khan said six cases of polio have been discovered since vaccinations resumed Monday. Some 215,000 children are a target of the three-day campaign, said Khan, himself a physician.

He said Pakistani health officials had to quit their campaign last September after several attacks by the militants. The department made another attempt to restart in January, but that was quickly abandoned after another attack.

"Our staff was beaten and our equipment were snatched," Khan told The Associated Press.

Swat resident Yar Mohammad said the people of the valley welcomed the resumption of the campaign.

"The militants have been depriving our children of our basic right. It is our national responsibility to secure our kids against all diseases," said Mohammad, who lives in the valley's main city, Mingora.

Polio has been eradicatd in most countries. But in Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan and India it remains "endemic," according to the World Health Organization.

The disease mostly strikes children under age 5 and is spread when people come into contact with the feces of those with the virus. It usually attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis, muscular atrophy, deformation and sometimes death.

Pakistan still faces threats from Taliban fighters and other militant groups throughout its northwest.

In the Orakzai tribal region on Tuesday, suspected militants killed four high school students, officials and a resident said.

Government official Mohammad Yasin could only confirm that gunmen fired on students in the Kalaya village area. However, the resident, Yousuf Mohammad, said he saw masked gunmen killed four boys. Others were wounded.

The children were Shiite Muslims, an intelligence official said. He said their tribe was fighting a gunbattle with the militants. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to media.

Orakzai is the main base for new Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, but no group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, and the tribal region has been the past scene of sectarian violence. link...