Kuala Lumpur: India suffered a 0-5 thrashing at the hands of formidable China in their opening group match of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship here. Only P V Sindhu could offer a semblance of a fight in her 21-19, 16-21, 14-21 women's singles loss to Wang Yihan while the four other Indians were outclassed by the Chinese at the Putra Stadium.
The Group A match began with the mixed doubles contest which Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in straight games to the pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 10-21 13-21 in just 29 minutes. In the second tie, P Kashyap was no match for world number two Chen Long, who won 21-11 21-9 in men's singles.
The combine of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra gave a tough fight to Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan in men's doubles before losing 23-25 18-21 while their women counterparts Ponnappa Ashwini and Gadre Pradnya lost 18-21 11-21 in women's doubles. Without Saina, it was going to be tough for India but Sidhu displayed a brilliant performance against world number Wang Yihan.
Sidhu won the opening game and looked like there could be an upset on the card but the world number 13 Indian lost the plot later on to go down fighting in one hour and six minute match. World number 11 Kashyap were completely outplayed by his world number two Chen Long in the 33-minute match in which the Chinese was ahead in all departments of
05:30 PM, May 19, 2013
Milan: Sampdoria became the only team to beat Juventus twice in the league under Antonio Conte as they secured a 3-2 victory over the newly-crowned Serie A champion on Saturday. Eder, Lorenzo De Silvestri and Mauro Icardi helped Sampdoria come from behind after Fabio Quagliarella had scored against his old team. Emanuele Giaccherini reduced the deficit in stoppage time. Juventus striker Nicklas Bendtner fractured his wrist in the game and...
08:35 AM, May 19, 2013
Kuala Lumpur: Badminton's world governing body (BWF) will create a separate commission to deal with match-fixing problems, Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen said after being elected president on Saturday. Denmark's 1996 Olympic men's singles gold medallist Hoyer Larsen beat Indonesian Justian Suhandinata to claim the role after an election at the BWF headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. The 47-year-old, the only European to win a badminton gold at the Olympics, will replace South...
03:59 PM, May 18, 2013
Seoul: North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defence Ministry said, but the purpose of the launches was unknown. Launches by the North of short-term missiles are not uncommon, but the ministry would not speculate whether these latest launches were part of a test or training exercise. "North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off...
01:59 PM, May 18, 2013
New York: Two passenger trains heading in opposite directions collided during rush hour in southwestern Connecticut, injuring 60 people, five of them critically, and closing the key corridor between New York and Boston. A Metro-North train heading from New Haven to New York City derailed around 6:10 pm on Friday, hitting the other train in Bridgeport, Connecticut, about 60 miles northeast of New York City on the Long Island Sound,...
09:30 AM, May 18, 2013
Boston: A judge has rejected a request from lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who want to take periodic photos of him in prison. US Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler on Friday said the prison where Tsarnaev is housed has a policy against visitors bringing cameras. Tsarnaev's lawyers argued the photos could provide evidence on the voluntariness of his statements and be used in an argument to mitigate his...
07:15 AM, May 18, 2013
Washington: A purported new issue of an English-language al Qaeda magazine, linked to the Boston terrorist attacks, has been posted on the web but its contents were hacked. The "Inspire" magazine, produced by al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate - al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which regularly includes how-to instructions for followers to carry out terrorist attacks in the West - has received significant scrutiny in recent weeks. Investigators believe that...
05:42 PM, May 17, 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday in connection with the culmination of the Kerala Yatra, led by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala. Senior Congress leaders including Defence Minister AK Antony and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy would also address the concluding session of the Yatra, which began from Hosangadi near Manjeswaram in Kasaragod on April 18, Chennithala told reporters. The yatra,...
04:21 PM, May 17, 2013
Boston: Thousands of runners whose Boston Marathon was cut short by the deadly bombings at the finish line will be invited back next year, the organizer of the world-famous race said on Thursday. The Boston Marathon attracts runners from the United States and all over the world who sometimes train for years to qualify, with most competitors required to post fast times in other 26.2 mile (42.2 km) races to...
09:14 AM, May 17, 2013
Guna: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday expressed doubt as to whether giving autonomy to CBI would serve the purpose. "There is a question mark on the issue," he told reporters in Guna. "Giving autonomy to CBI...may be like giving autonomy to a police inspector," Singh said. "Is the common man in favour of giving autonomy to an inspector?" he asked. The issue of CBI's autonomy has come to...
01:42 AM, May 17, 2013
Boston: The lone-surviving Boston bombings suspect has claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attack in a note written on the wall of the boat he hid in, saying it was retribution for US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Boston bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, left a note in the boat he hid during a massive manhunt for the April 15 attack on the Boston Marathon that killed three people and...
10:50 PM, May 16, 2013
London: Jenson Button, the last driver to win a grand prix for Honda, was thrilled to discover on Thursday that the Japanese carmaker was returning to Formula One as engine partner to his McLaren team from 2015. The British 2009 World champion, who won the Hungarian Grand Prix for Honda in 2006 and drove for them until they quit the sport two years later, said the announcement in Tokyo was...
02:49 PM, May 16, 2013
New Delhi: The Indian Navy has been hit by fresh charges of wife swapping. CNN-IBN spoke to the wife of a naval officer, who last month accused her husband of wife swapping. She said that the practice is common in the Navy. Defence Minister AK Antony has ordered an inquiry into the matter. "It's very common in the Indian Navy. The thing is that everybody doesn't dare to file a...
08:29 AM, May 16, 2013
Tokyo: Honda will return to Formula One in 2015 as McLaren engine partners, replacing Mercedes, sources close to the company said on Wednesday. Honda's Chief Executive Takanobu Ito is set to make an official announcement as early as Thursday, one of the sources added. The Japanese automaker quit the sport at the end of 2008, handing over their team to then-principal Ross Brawn who went on to win both titles...
07:00 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Oil Ministry's proposal for an across-the-board near doubling of natural gas prices has been rejected by the Cabinet Secretariat saying a ministerial panel headed by Defence Minister AK Antony did not have powers to do so. The Ministry had sent a draft proposal for the consideration of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to price all domestically produced natural gas - be of state-run ONGC or private sector...
04:18 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Against the backdrop of several alleged sex scandals in the force, Defence Minister AK Antony on Tuesday asked the Navy to take "sternest possible action" against its officers who are found involved in such "inappropriate behaviour". Referring to some isolated incidents of inappropriate behaviour by a few personnel, Antony urged top Commanders to take sternest possible action against those who tarnish the image and prestige of the armed...
07:50 PM, May 14, 2013
Lhasa: Tibetans are committing self-immolations at the instigation of Dalai Lama, a top Tibetan official has alleged. "Since March 2012, there have been some cases of self immolation of monks at the instigation of the Dalai Lama," Tonga, Director general of Ethnic, Religious, Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee of the People's Congress of Tibet Autonomous Region, told a group of visiting foreign journalists. He, however, said that all these...
01:31 PM, May 14, 2013
Washington: A passenger was booted off an American Airlines flight en route from Los Angeles to New York Monday when she would not stop singing Whitney Houston's hit 'I Will Always Love You'. The plane's pilot made an unscheduled stop in Kansas City about halfway through the six-hour flight after passengers and crew complained about the woman's incessant singing. American Airlines spokesman Joe McBride told local Kansas City KCTV that...
11:40 AM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: After incursions in Ladakh, China has now flexed its muscles in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy has expressed concern about increasing presence of Chinese navy's submarines and warships in the region. Defence Minister AK Antony will open the bi-annual Naval Commanders Conference in Delhi on Tuesday. The minister, fresh from flagging off the Navy's first MiG-29K squadron in Goa, is expected to highlight concerns over the increasing...
07:40 AM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: A section within the Congress party is keen on replacing Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, sources said on Monday. According to the sources, the leaders want Singh replaced before the monsoon session of Parliament. While there is no consensus yet on the alternative name, sources said that Defence Minister AK Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram could be considered. Meanwhile, a few leaders are in favour of...
06:13 PM, May 13, 2013
