ICC World Twenty20: What should be India's 15-man squad for the tournament?
Tomorrow will be a big day for Indian cricket as the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) selectors will announce 15-man squad for ICC World Cup Twenty20.
While there aren’t many changes expected in the T20I squad that won a historic 3-0 series against Australia recently, Sandeep Patil & Co could pull off some surprises for the event.
Here is what we think selectors might opt for:
Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ashish Nehra, Jasprit Bumrah
Others in fray: Hardik Pandya, Manish Pandey, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh
Hardik Pandya might be new to international cricket, but considering the way he performed in the last IPL season and also considering he is a handy batsman lower down the order who can also bowl medium pace, selectors might stick with him.
Bumrah too is another name which doesn’t have enough experience under his belt, but ever since he replaced injured Mohammed Shami during the Australia tour, he kept impressing everybody and his unorthodox action makes him a difficult nut to crack for the best of batsmen.
Since Umesh Yadav has been dropped for the three-match T20I series vs Sri Lanka, the selectors have possibly given up on the pacer considering his lack of control over line and length.
Pandya and Bumrah are two names who haven’t left many options before the selectors, who will have to let go of some of the big names like Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa and Yusuf Pathan, who are all T20 specialists and could have easily been a part of India’s plans to win their second World T20 title.
NASA's Juno spacecraft prepares for rendezvous with Jupiter
NASA`s solar-powered Juno spacecraft, set to arrive at Jupiter this year, successfully executed a maneuver to adjust its flight path on Wednesday.
The maneuver refined the spacecraft’s trajectory, helping set the stage for Juno’s arrival at the solar system’s largest planetary inhabitant five months and a day from now.
“This is the first of two trajectory adjustments that fine tune Juno`s orbit around the Sun, perfecting our rendezvous with Jupiter on July 4,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
The Juno spacecraft`s thrusters consumed about 0.6 kg of fuel during the burn and changed the spacecraft`s speed by 0.31 metres per second.
At the time of the maneuver, Juno was about 82 million kms from Jupiter and approximately 684 million kms from Earth.
Launched on August 5, 2011, thee spacecraft will orbit the Jovian world 33 times, skimming to within 5,000 kms above the planet`s cloud tops every 14 days.
During the flybys, Juno will probe beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and study its aurorae to learn more about the planet`s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.
The next trajectory correction maneuver is scheduled on May 31.
According to NASA, the name Juno comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife — the goddess Juno — was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter’s true nature.
Maharashtra Governor's nod to CBI to prosecute ex-CM Ashok Chavan
In a major embarrassment to the opposition Congress, Maharashtra Governor CV Rao here on Thursday accorded sanction to the CBI to prosecute former chief minister Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh Society scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through its letter dated October 8, 2015, sought the governor`s sanction to prosecute Chavan under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code after “fresh incriminating material” was allegedly found against Chavan.
Chavan is currently a Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra and chief of the state unit of the Congress party.
CBI included a report by a two-member Commission of Inquiry, comprising Justice J.A. Patil (retd) and former chief secretary P. Subramanian, besides Bombay High Court observations in a criminal revision application filed in 2014.
Accordingly, Rao granted the sanction to prosecute Chavan under Section 197 of CrPC and Sections 120-B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society case.
The Maharashtra cabinet, at a meeting last week presided over by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, recommended to the governor to accord the sanction.
In its report, the commission of inquiry had indicted four former chief ministers — Chavan, late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil, also revenue minister at the relevant time — besides several top bureaucrats and other officials for their role in the high-profile scam.
The commission was set up in January 2011. However, its report and recommendations were rejected by the then Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in December 2013.
Modi should not join war against ISIS; SP govt ignoring Muslims in UP: Asaduddin Owaisi
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi attacked the ruling Samajwadi Party and the BJP for ignoring ‘Muslims and the downtrodden’ in Uttar Pradesh during his first rally in the state.
Coming down heavily on the ruling party, the AIMIM chief said, ”The poor are dying, farmers are in penury here, but neither the SP nor BJP cares about them.”
Owaisi also criticised SP for not fulfilling its promise of providing reservation to poor Muslims in UP.
Shifting his focus to dreaded terrorist outfit Islamic State, the AIMIM leader said that he and his party has nothing to do with ISIS.
”We condemn ISIS. We have no connection whatsoever with ISIS,” Owaisi said.
However, he also warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to join international community’s war against the ISIS.
”Modiji should not think of sending forces to fight ISIS. That is not our war,” Owaisi said while addressing his supporters in the Faizabad district of UP.
Condemning PM Modi’s recent Lahore visit, he said, ”The way PM met his counterpart in Lahore it was as if two separated brothers are meeting.”
This was his first rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad ahead of the February 13 Bikapur bypoll.
The AIMIM, which is planning to stake a huge claim in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls of 2017, is willing to create a “Dalit-Muslim vote bank”.
“My focus will be on Samajwadi Party which has betrayed both Dalits and Muslims,” the AIMIM chief had said earlier.
Owaisi’s party had made its agenda clear when it declared Pradeep Kumar Kori, a Dalit, as its Bikapur candidate for the upcoming bypolls here.
Tanzanian student was not stripped, Bengaluru incident not a 'racial attack': Karnataka home minister
The Karnataka government on Thursday said that it was seriously probing the brutal assault on a Tanzanian student while assuring full safety of foreign students staying in the stte capital.
Addressing a press conference, G Parmeshwara, Karnataka Home Minister said, ”We are taking this case very seriously,” adding, ”There are 12,000 foreign students in Bengaluru, their protection is our foremost duty. These kind of incidents should not happen.”
Explaining the sequence of events that ked to the brutal assault on the African student, Parmeshwara said, ”Had the Sudanese man not killed someone in the accident maybe this incident would not have happened.”
A man called Sanaullah and his wife were hit by a car driven by a Sudanese national identified as Mohd Ismail, who was under influence of liquor. The woman died on the spot after which an infuriated mob set the car on fire and went on rampage, he informed.
Rejecting allegations of laxity on part of local police, Parmeshwara said, ”The cops registered the case at that time itself.”
“We have formed special teams to trap the culprits and render justice to the victim who declined to file complaint against the accused fearing attack again,” he stated.
Some more arrests are going to be made depending on enquiry. The case has been transferred to Central Crime Branch for investigation, he added.
However, he maintained that it was not a racist attack, saying ”this is just a response to an accident. Bengaluru doesn’t have such kind of attitude.”
“The allegations that her clothes were torn off and they were paraded naked have not been verified as per the investigation so far,” he added.
The DGP and Commissioner also went to spot today and spoke to affected students and assured all help to them, he informed. Parmeshwara further stressed that there are times when foreign students stay even after their passports get expired and, therefore, they are going to pursue such cases.
Five suspects have been arrested by police in this connection and they are being interrogated. We have duly apprised the MEA about the progress in the case, Parmeshwara said.
Meanwhile, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today asked the Karnataka government to explain the incident and send the report immediately.
The BJP today dubbed the reaction of Rahul Gandhi on Tanzanian student assault as a ‘political stunt’, saying that the former is seeking report from Karnataka Chief Minister only after seeing media reports on the issue.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had yesterday condemned the attack on the Tanzanian student and asked for stringent punishment for the guilty.
The Tanzanian student was beaten and then stripped by a group of locals in Bengaluru after they assumed she was part of an incident in which a Sudanese man had run over a local woman.
The incident took place on Hesaraghatta Road in Bengaluru on Saturday night after a Sudanese national ran his car over a 35-year-old woman resulting in on the spot death of the woman.
The Tanzanian student was travelling in another car, a Wagon-R, along with four others. The young woman, who arrived on the spot around 30 minutes later, was dragged out of the car and paraded naked after being stripped by the mob.
The victim told the police in her complaint that when she tried to get on a bus in order to escape the assault, people on the bus pushed her back towards the mob.
Earlier, the local residents set fire to two cars belonging to the African students, who studied in local colleges in Ganapathinagar on Hesaraghatta Road.
Bangabandhu's image 'distorted' on Chittagong Awami League MP MA Latif's billboards
Airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan destroy Islamic State radio station
American and Afghan officials say airstrikes on a remote eastern region of Afghanistan have destroyed a radio station operated by the Islamic State group.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media on the subject.
In an official statement, US Army Col Mike Lawhorn, spokesman for the US-NATO mission in Afghanistan, said “two counter-terrorism airstrikes took place in Achin district” in Nangarhar province yesterday.
Lawhorn had no further details.
The Islamic State group emerged in Afghanistan in the past year. The radio station was broadcasting illegally across Nangarhar, in an attempt to boost recruitment.
Two more sentenced to death for Bangladesh war crimes
A Bangladeshi tribunal sentenced two former pro-Pakistan militia fighters to death Tuesday for war crimes during the country`s 1971 independence conflict.
Lawyers for 66-year-old Obaidul Haque and Ataur Rahman, 62, immediately announced that they would seek to overturn the ruling by the International Crimes Tribunal.
It has so far convicted two dozen people of atrocities in the brutal conflict, in which what was then East Pakistan broke away from the rest of the country to become Bangladesh.
Both men were convicted of killing seven people and raping a woman in the northern district of Netrokona and of torturing six others to death after abducting them.
A total of 23 prosecution witnesses had testified against the pair since charges were laid against them last year.
Prosecutors had told the tribunal that Haque was not only one of the leaders of a pro-Pakistani political party in 1971 but also a head of a militia group behind a series of brutal attacks on civilians.
Rahman was accused by witnesses of being a member of the same militia.
“We will challenge the verdict with the Supreme Court and hope our clients will be proved not guilty and be acquitted,” defence lawyer Gazi Tamim told reporters after the sentence was handed down.
Twenty-four people have so far been convicted of war crimes by the tribunal, a domestic court which lacks international oversight.
Most of them were senior figures in Jamaat-e-Islami, the country`s largest Islamist party. Three of the Jamaat leaders have so far been executed, along with a senior leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Previous convictions and sentences from the tribunal have triggered deadly violence, with some 500 people killed, mainly in clashes between opposition activists and police over the last three years.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina maintains the trials are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict. But the opposition say they are an attempt to eradicate its leadership.