india

2011年6月26日星期日

BCCI adamant Indians will not play in Lanka T20 league (Reuters)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League will go ahead next month without the Indian cricketers after talks failed with the Indian board (BCCI), Sri Lankan sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told Reuters on Friday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) denied permission to its players because it suspects the involvement of Lalit Modi, the former Indian Premier League commissioner who was sacked on financial irregularity charges, in the IPL-style tournament, Aluthgamage said.

"Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials requested BCCI to change their stand but they refused," Aluthgamage said by phone.

"They think Lalit Modi is involved in this tournament. I have checked company profile and everything... and he's not involved."

An SLC delegation was expected to travel to India this week to try and convince BCCI officials to allow Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin and nine other Indian players to participate in the tournament.

"There is no use going to India to meet them. They said they don't want to change the decision. We are doing the tournament and there is no doubt about that," the minister said.

BCCI president Shashank Manohar and secretary N Srinivasan were not available for comment.

On Sunday, Manohar said the players had been denied permission because the league was being organised by a "private party".

"The Board's policy is not to allow players to take part in private party-organised tournaments," Manohar told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Kieron Pollard, Shahid Afridi and Daniel Vettori are among the foreign recruits of the July 19-Aug 4 Twenty20 tournament.

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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Phone gives clues to bin Laden's Pakistan links - NYT (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A cell phone found in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan contained contacts to a militant group with ties to Pakistan's intelligence agency, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing senior U.S. officials briefed on the findings.

The discovery indicated that bin Laden used the group, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, as part of his support network inside Pakistan, the newspaper said, citing the officials and others sources it did not identify.

The cell phone belonged to bin Laden's courier, who was killed along with the al Qaeda leader in the May 2 raid by U.S. special forces on bin Laden's compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad, the Times said.

"We cannot confirm this account," a U.S. official in Washington said when asked about the report.

The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the raid by Navy SEALs until after it was completed, humiliating Pakistan's armed forces and putting U.S. military and intelligence ties under serious strain.

In tracing calls on the cell phone, U.S. analysts determined that Harakat commanders had called Pakistani intelligence officials, the Times reported, citing the senior American officials.

The officials added the contacts were not necessarily about bin Laden and his protection and that there was no "smoking gun" showing that Pakistan's spy agency had protected bin Laden, the newspaper said.

The newspaper quoted one of the officials as saying the cell phone analysis was a "serious lead" in the hunt for answers about how bin Laden managed to evade notice by Pakistan's spy agency or military for years in the town, only 30 miles (50 km) from the capital.

The newspaper quoted analysts familiar with Harakat as saying it had deep roots in the area around Abbottabad. Its leaders have strong ties with both al Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence, the Times said.

(Writing by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Nepal shelter for ostracised gays a sign of change (Reuters)

KATHMANDU (Reuters Life!) – The first ever shelter for ostracised gays has opened in Nepal -- a growing sign, say activists, that the impoverished, conservative Himalayan nation is becoming more aware of the rights of its gay population.

Homosexuality is taboo in this majority-Hindu country and while there are no specific laws against gays or same-sex marriages, "unnatural sex" can result in up to one year in jail.

Run by Nepal's leading gay rights group, the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), the home and adjoining hospice open to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders provides shelter to people who have HIV/Aids and have been abused and abandoned by their families.

"These people need care and are very late with the treatment. They need to be looked after in their last days of life and even to perform their last rites after death," said Sunil Babu Pant, BDS's founder.

"The families don't even (want to) receive their dead bodies. So the BDS organises their burial or cremation."

The shelter, tucked away in a quiet residential area in the outskirts of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, can accommodate up to 30 people who receive free medical care from doctors, as well as a place to stay.

There is no sign board outside the brick-walled compound -- a deliberate attempt, say caretakers, to avoid local attention in a country where many will not even rent their premises to homosexuals.

People who visit the shelter are reluctant to talk about their problems, but happy for the support.

"It is a good place for people like us and we get good treatment here," said 27-year-old Raju Baral, who tested positive for HIV in 2007 and left home then so he wouldn't be an embarrassment for his family.

Since coming to the shelter, he has gained weight and his health has improved, he added.

MORE GAY-FRIENDLY

Nepal, famous for being the home of Mount Everest, is emerging from a decade-long civil war which ended in 2006 and has become more gay-friendly in recent years.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the government to end discrimination against gays and guarantee sexual minorities the same rights as other citizens.

Gay beauty contests are held and same-sex marriages are now taking place. Earlier this week, two American women tied the knot as a Hindu priest chanted Vedic hymns in a public religious ceremony outside a major shrine near Kathmandu.

There is even a travel agency run by gay men in Nepal, which offers same-sex wedding packages to the world's tallest peak, as well as to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha.

A specially elected assembly is now currently drafting the country's first constitution since the abolition of its monarchy in 2008, which is expected to guarantee the rights of marginalised groups, including gays and lesbians.

"I think after the restoration of democracy there is a big demand for inclusion of various groups, including the sexual minority," said lawyer Sabin Shrestha, who works on gay rights issues.

"Existence of sexual minorities is a reality and we are more and more positive towards their issues compared to earlier days."

(Reporting by TrustLaw, www.trust.org/trustlaw; editing by Nita Bhalla and Elaine Lies)

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At least 20 killed in suicide bombing in east Afghanistan (Reuters)

PULE ALAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed at least 20 people, and possibly as many as 35, in an attack at a hospital in a remote district of eastern Afghanistan on Saturday that damaged its maternity ward, officials said.

Estimates of the casualties, which included patients and medical staff, varied widely in chaotic scenes outside the hospital in the remote Azra district of eastern Logar province, which is just south of Kabul.

Dozens more were wounded in one of the worst attacks this year.

Deen Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the Logar provincial government, said as many as 35 people were killed, although Afghanistan's Interior Ministry put the death toll at 20.

"The exact target is still not clear," Interior minister deputy spokesman Najib Nikzad said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility and said the Islamist insurgents never attack hospitals.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in which he said "tens of civilians" were killed. The United Nations said the maternity ward was hit in the bombing.

"This is a despicable attack against civilians who were seeking medical care, as well as visiting family members and health workers," Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. chief in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Tensions have flared over civilian casualties, with insurgents and the Afghan government alike criticising NATO-led forces for killing innocent Afghans while hunting for militants.

United Nations figures however show that insurgents are responsible for three-quarters of civilian deaths.

Military and civilian casualties hit record levels in 2010, the most violent year of the war since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

This year is following a similar trend, with violence growing across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

U.S. commanders had already said they expected a rise in attacks as insurgents hit back after U.S. and NATO forces made gains during operations in the Taliban heartland in the south over the past 18 months.

The United Nations said two weeks ago that May had been the deadliest month for civilians since it began compiling statistics four years ago.

It said it had documented 368 "conflict-related" civilian deaths, 82 percent of them caused by insurgents.

The latest violence comes as seven areas across the country prepare to take over security responsibilities from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting an increasingly unpopular war that has dragged on for 10 years.

That will coincide with the start in July of a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops. U.S. and NATO troops plan to hand over security responsibility for all of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, although critics warn the handover date is premature.

While most of the ISAF gains have been in Taliban strongholds in the south, the insurgency in eastern provinces like Logar and Kunar near the border with Pakistan is much more fragmented.

Taliban fighters often slip across the border from safe havens in Pakistan's largely lawless northwest but other groups like the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network also operate extensively in the area.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Monsoon to enter lull phase next week - sources (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India's monsoon rains are likely to ease next week, sources in the state-run weather office said on Friday, raising concerns there could be a slowdown in planting of crops such as cane, rice, cotton and oilseeds.

India, one of the world's biggest producers and consumers of grains and sugar, relies on the June to September rains for 60 percent of its farms and failure of the monsoon can force it to import, sending international prices higher.

The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday lowered its estimates for the seasonal rains to be just below normal from expectations of a normal monsoon in April.

So far the rains have been above normal and were 23 percent above average in the past week, helping to fill reservoirs higher than last year and encouraging early planting of crops.

"Decreased rainfall activity is expected next week over the central region," said one of the sources.

Industry bodies Soyabean Processors' Association of India and Solvent Extractors' Association of India said rains were already delayed in some soybean growing parts of central India.

Sowing of oilseed crops such as soybean and groundnut has lagged due to below average rains in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Oilseed acreage overall is 36 percent below last year currently, while lentils have been planted over 8 percent less area.

Any fall in oilseeds output could force India, the world's top cooking oil importer, to raise edible oil purchases, especially of cheaper palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Delay in soybean planting reduces the maturity period and hits prospects of higher production ," said A. S. Chandel, a New Delhi-based soybean expert.

Sugar cane has already been planted over 5 percent more acreage than last year but any prolonged halt to rains could damage plant growth.

A reduction in farm output could also hit domestic prices, pushing up food inflation, which is already around 9 percent.

"If the weak phase gets stretched beyond two weeks in the main planting month of July, there will be a negative trigger in the market," said D.K. Joshi, chief economist at Crisil Rating.

A U.S. forecaster said the south-west monsoon could be weak over western India this year.

"We expect lower rainfall over oilseeds and cotton growing areas of western India," said Drew Lerner, senior meteorologist at the Kansas-based World Weather Inc.

Lerner said patchy monsoon rains could hit rice output in eastern parts of the country.

"We are not expecting higher rice production from India this year," he added.

India, the world's second-biggest rice grower, produced 94 million tonnes of the grain in the 2010/11 crop year, up 6 percent from the previous year when output was hit by the driest season in over three decades.

But rice prices are unlikely to surge as the government is holding massive stocks. India's rice inventory was 27.64 million tonnes on June 1 against a target of 17.1 million tonnes.

(Editing by Jo Winterbottom)

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Men savvier networkers than women - study (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Life) – When it comes to professional networking, men around the world are savvier than women, according to new data.

Business networking site LinkedIn, which analyzed information from members in 13 countries, found men were the overwhelming winners in networking.

"Men are broader and quicker at assessing if there is an opportunity," said Nicole Williams, the company's connection director. "They are quicker to makes moves."

The company, which has more than 100 members worldwide, defined online professional networking savviness in two ways: a ratio of the number of connections men and women have; and the ratio of male members on the site to female members.

They found that women, often seen as better communicators and relationship builders, are less likely to extend themselves for fear of rejection.

"Networking is seen as inherently risky," Williams explained. "We take rejection more personally when asking for a raise, promotion or connections."

Instead women are better at developing deeper networks, while men aim for a network with more breadth. With the U.S. job marketing still struggling, Williams said networking now is all about who you know in order to generate opportunities.

"Networking in an economy like this is key to finding opportunities," she said. "A qualified referral is so essential in the market place. You have to actively be looking for people to connect with."

When it came to making contacts among executives, women were savviest in Australia, the Netherlands and Britain, while men were ahead of the game in Italy.

The findings also showed that the minority sex in industries were often more aggressive and successful networkers. For example, women in Brazil and Canada in the assumedly male dominated ship building industry, make the most contacts.

"As the minority, you are using any in and every available resource," Williams explained. "You are looking at all opportunities."

She cited a similarly surprising example in the cosmetics industry in the U.S., where men are the most effective networkers. But women excelled in the ranching and tobacco industries.

The U.S., Canada, France, Germany, India, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Britain were included in the study.

(Reporting by Paula Rogo; Editing by Patricia Reaney)

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Sensex surges over 500 pts on global cues, Greece (Reuters)

MUMBAI (Reuters) The BSE Sensex logged its first weekly gain in three weeks, rising 2.9 percent on Friday, with support from global markets that displayed some relief after Greece reached an agreement for an austerity plan to avoid a debt default.

Financials led the rise with State Bank of India , ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rising between 2.1 and 5.7 percent. The Bank Index gained 3.1 percent on the day.

Greece won the consent of international lenders on Thursday for a five-year austerity plan intended to avoid looming bankruptcy and its prime minister pledged to push radical economic reforms through parliament.

The benchmark 30-share BSE index ended the day 513.19 points higher at 18,240.68, with all but two of its components closing in the positive zone.

"The market is responding to overseas cues and positive developments on commodity inflation which is easing. There is definitely an expectation of moderation in oil prices," said K.K. Mital, head of portfolio management services at Globe

Capital.

Brent crude rebounded by more than $1 from a four-month low on Friday to $107, but oil prices are more than 20 percent off their early May peaks.

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs slashed forecasts for crude prices in the third quarter after the International Energy Agency announced the release of 60 million barrels of oil next month to shore up the economic recovery.

Investors, however, remained wary as India is expected to make a decision on raising state-controlled prices of fuel such as diesel and cooking gas at 1330 GMT, which could push up an already sticky inflation, which in May hovered over 9 percent.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised interest rates last week for the 10th time in just over a year to combat stubbornly high inflation and signalled more increases to come even as growth in Asia's third-largest economy is slowing down.

Foreign funds have been dumping Indian stocks recently, on worries over rising inflation and a slowdown in economic growth in the world's second-fastest growing major economy after China.

They have sold a net $628 million of shares in a total of eight sessions to June 21.

State-run oil marketing companies Indian Oil , Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum , which would benefit from any increase in fuel prices, were up between 2.46 percent and 6.14 percent.

The 50-share NSE index closed up 2.84 percent at 5,471.25 points.

The index is down 11 percent year-to-date, and is the worst performer among major Asian markets. By comparison, MSCI's measure of Asian shares other than Japan is down 1.8 percent so far in 2011.

The Sensex is headed for its second annual decline in a decade as persistently high inflation, rising interest rates and slowing growth keep investors at bay, a Reuters poll showed.

In the broader market, 1,162 gainers outnumbered 278 losers on a volume of 648 million shares.

The MSCI world equity index was up 0.59 percent by 0740 GMT, while the emerging markets equities index rose 1.09 percent.

STOCKS THAT MOVED

* Unity Infraprojects Ltd rose 5.15 percent to 66.10 rupees, after a top company official told Reuters that the company was scouting for infrastructure building contracts abroad and mulling a foray into power and railways in the country.

* Sugar producers rose for the second day after the government on Thursday allowed another 500,000 tonnes of sugar exports. Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd was up 4.22 percent at 60.45 rupees, while Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd and Dhampur Sugar Mills gained 2.76 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

* SpiceJet gained 19.85 percent on the day, after the company said it has sought the central bank's approval to raise $270 million from Canada's export finance agency Export Development Canada (EDC) for aircraft purchases.

TOP THREE MAIN STOCKS BY VOLUME ON NSE

* Unitech on 34.2 million shares

* Lanco Infratech on 26.2 million shares

* GTL on 24.7 million shares

(Editing by Malini Menon)

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