Mumbai: The International Olympic Committee has set India a September 1 deadline for a new election to facilitate the country's return to the Olympic fold.
The IOC banned the country in December after refusing to recognise the results of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) elections due to government interference, which led to a tainted official being named its secretary general.
During crucial meetings in Lausanne this month, India assured the IOC of the Olympic movement's autonomy in the country in a first step towards mending relations and also discussed a roadmap towards getting the ban overturned.
"We believe that those meetings were fruitful and productive and, with the cooperation of all components and stakeholders of the Olympic Movement in India, will pave the way for a prompt resolution of the issues at hand," the IOC said in a letter, seen by Reuters....
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07:34 PM, May 24, 2013
Chennai: S.S. Rajamouli's Telugu blockbuster revenge-drama 'Eega' will be screened at the 18th edition of the Busan International Film Festival, South Korea. It is the fifth foreign film extravaganza for which the film has been chosen. It was recently selected for international film festivals in Cannes, Madrid, Shanghai and Puchon. "(I) got the official confirmation. 'Eega' is being screened at Busan International Film Festival in South Korea," Rajamouli posted on...
11:51 AM, May 20, 2013
Washington: Indian-American Srikanth Srinivasan inched closer to scripting history as the first South Asian judge after a key Senate committee confirmed his nomination to the DC Circuit Court, America's second highest. Described as "trailblazer" by US President Barack Obama, Chandigarh-born Srinivasan's nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was unanimously approved by the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. He was first nominated to...
03:16 PM, May 17, 2013
Washington: US President Barack Obama has forced the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service to resign amid furor over the tax agency's handling of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. "It's inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and...
01:59 PM, May 16, 2013
Rome: Women's doubles sixth seeds of Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands reached the second round of the Rome Masters here. The Indo-American pair beat Japanese-Latvian duo of Shuko Aoyama and Liga Dekmeijere 6-1, 6-3 in 58 minutes Tuesday. The winners broke their opponents five times in the match. They will face Italian-Australian unseeded pair Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur late Wednesday. India's Leander Paes will also play his men's doubles...
07:55 PM, May 15, 2013
Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd shares were down over 1 per cent in early trade on Tuesday after the generic drugmaker pleaded guilty to US felony charges related to drug safety and will pay $500 million in civil and criminal fines. The settlement is its largest-ever with a generic drugmaker over drug safety, according to the US government. Ranbaxy USA pleaded guilty to three felony counts related to the manufacture of...
10:13 AM, May 14, 2013
Washington: Even as there is a sense of positivity over Indo-Pak ties after the outcome of Pakistan polls, a former Pakistani diplomat believes a regime change is unlikely to bring any substantial shift in Islamabad's approach. Former Pakistan Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani noted this while giving an analysis of the post-election scenario in Pakistan. "We will have a kind of a hug-hug, embrace-embrace, but no substantial changed attitude...
09:21 AM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: Generic drugmaker Ranbaxy has been fined $500 million by the US government after its subsidiary pleaded guilty to sale of adulterated drugs manufactured in India. It is the largest settlement by a generic medicine maker till date. It includes $150 million in payments for a criminal fine and forfeiture and $350 million in payments for civil claims. The adulterated drugs were made in Ranbaxy's plants in India and...
08:30 AM, May 14, 2013
Washington: Nawaz Sharif's decision to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a "positive sign", the United States said on Monday, with an official confirming that Secretary of State John Kerry called the new elected leader of Pakistan to congratulate him on his electoral success. "We have seen those comments. I don't want to analyze it too much, but to say that it is a positive step and we look forward...
01:30 AM, May 14, 2013
Islamabad: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who is set to be Pakistan's Prime Minister for a record third time, on Monday issued a statement inviting Indian PM Manmohan Singh to his swearing-in ceremony. Reacting to India's congratulatory message, Sharif said, "Happy to invite PM Manmohan Singh for swearing-in ceremony in Pakistan as well as at any other time." Nawaz has already indicated his desire to normalise "roller-coaster" ties with India. Prime...
04:30 PM, May 13, 2013
New Delhi: The crucial Lausanne meeting between the Indian officials and the International Olympic Committee to find a way for the country's return to the Olympic fold will proceed as per schedule on May 15 despite the dramatic pull-out of IOA acting president V K Malhotra and IOC member Randhir Singh. The IOC has sent a message to the Swiss Embassy here to expedite the visa formalities of all the...
06:14 PM, May 10, 2013
Los Angeles: Sophia tops the list of names for American baby girls for the second year in a row, while King and Messiah are becoming increasingly popular names for boys, the U.S. Social Security Administration said on Thursday. Jacob has become a standby for boys' names, topping that category for the 14th straight year. Liam and Elizabeth broke into the Top 10 at No. 6 and No. 10 respectively, the...
04:07 PM, May 10, 2013
London: Britain's 2008 Olympic sailing champion Andrew Simpson was killed when his yacht capsized during a training session in the United States, his team said Friday. "The entire Artemis Racing team is devastated by what happened," CEO Paul Cayard said. Simpson, who won an Olympic gold in the Star class at the games in Beijing and silver in London last year, was one of the 11-man crew aboard Artemis Racing's...
02:19 PM, May 10, 2013
Caracas: Venezuela brushed off criticism from US President Barack Obama on Sunday and maintained its accusation that an American detainee in Caracas is a spy pretending to be a filmmaker. During his visit to Latin America, Obama said on Saturday the allegations against Tim Tracy, 35, were "ridiculous." But Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres insisted that intelligence agents tracking Tracy since late 2012 had uncovered ample evidence he was plotting...
12:30 PM, May 06, 2013
Mumbai: A 27-year-old man from Mumbai, Hamid Ansari, who went to Afghanistan in November 2012 to find a job, has gone missing. Ansari's family fears he might have crossed into Pakistan. "He promised to return on 12th, I waited till the 15th. Then I got Kabul airport's number from the Internet and called them to ask if my son's name was in the passenger list. There was no such passenger,"...
08:58 AM, May 05, 2013
Coimbatore: A lab assistant in a local private college today allegedly threw acid on two staff injuring them and two girl students, and later tried to commit suicide by consuming cyanide, police said. Police said Muthusamy (47) threw acid on Ravisankar and Laxmansamy this afternoon over some personal dispute. Some acid also fell on two girl students. Both the victims were admitted to different private hospitals while the two girls...
03:46 AM, May 04, 2013
Boston: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the lone surviving Chechen-origin Boston bombings suspect, texted 'LOL' in a chilling response to a message from his friend who warned him that police was on the look out for him. When the alleged Boston Marathon bomber was told by one of his friends that he resembled one of the suspects in the widely released surveillance video, he sent a chilling response, "Lol, you better not text...
07:10 PM, May 02, 2013
New Delhi: Top seed P V Sindhu and R M V Gurusaidutt entered the quarterfinals of the women's and men's singles, respectively, after registering contrasting victories at the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. While Sindhu prevailed over Ngan Yi Cheung of Hong Kong 11-21 21-18 21-10 in a three-game women's singles second round match, Gurusaidutt, seeded 11th, beat Riichi Takeshita 21-19 21-16 in 37...
01:04 PM, May 02, 2013
Golf's governing bodies ruled on Wednesday that Augusta National officials made the correct call not to disqualify world number one Tiger Woods for an improper ball drop at the Masters. The Royal & Ancient (R&A) and United States Golf Association (USGA) released a joint statement explaining in lengthy detail the controversial events that occurred during Woods's second round and sent the year's first major into a frenzy. Woods controversially avoided...
12:23 AM, May 02, 2013
Chennai: Slamming the Jayalalithaa government for opposing the Sethusamudram project, DMK on Wednesday announced state-wide public meetings on May 15 to press the Centre for speedily completing the project. "Not realising that this project, once implemented, would help the State to grow economically and to further prosper, the AIADMK regime by opposing it has become an anti-people government", DMK said in a statement. It said the meetings were being organised...
04:59 PM, May 01, 2013
