South Asia Games Concludes in Bangladesh

DHAKA: The South Asian Games concluded in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, with India on top of the medal list.

India won 90 out of the 157 gold medals. Pakistan finished second on the medal tally with 19 golds while host Bangladesh grabbed 18. Sri Lanka won 16 while Nepal and Afghanistan both earned 7 golds. Bhutan and Maldives didn’t win any gold medal.

At the closing ceremony held in Dhaka Bangabandhu National Stadium, General Abdul Mobin, Bangladesh Olympic Association President, handed over the South Asian Games flame to Suresh Kalmadi, president of Olympic Association of India, the next host country of the games.

Bangladeshi President Zillur Rahman said at the closing ceremony he believed the South Asian Games created an opportunity for closer relations among the people of the region and deepened their fraternity.

Major Masood Haider said Pakistan athletics team with 100-meter champion Naseem Hameed will reach Karachi on Thursday afternoon.

India, Bangladesh to Cement Ties During PM Hasina Visit

NEW DELHI News: Talks between the leaders of India and Bangladesh in New Delhi later Monday were due to focus on strengthening the previously difficult bilateral ties between the two south Asian neighbours.

Cross-border relations have improved in recent years, and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was expected to sign cooperation agreements in areas ranging from security and crime to power supplies during her four-day visit.

Hasina, who has received strong support from Delhi since she came to power a year ago, was likely to discuss her crackdown on Bangladesh-based Indian separatist rebels with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

New Delhi has often accused Dhaka of providing shelter to militant groups active in India’s northeast, but Hasina has detained several senior rebels and handed them over to India.

Both countries resolved a bitter dispute on sharing the waters of the Ganges river in 1996, and will likely work to end disagreements over how to use waters of smaller rivers flowing through both countries.

Other thorny issues include Dhaka’s apparent reluctance to allow New Delhi transit rights through its territory to India’s landlocked northeast, and India’s refusal to grant Bangladeshi goods duty free access.

“Sheikh Hasina’s visit is an opportunity to lay the foundations of a much more stable relationship,” Arundhati Ghosh, a retired Indian official formerly posted in Dhaka said.

“It is India’s strategic interest to cooperate” with its small neighbour, she said.

Twins Separated from Bangladesh Intensive Care: Hospital

SYDNEY news update: Bangladeshi twins Trishna and Krishna have left intensive care as they continue their remarkable recovery from surgery to separate their conjoined heads, the hospital said.
The two-year-old girls, rescued from a Dhaka orphanage, moved to a shared room on the normal ward on Monday, just a week after the 32-hour operation to disconnect their fused skulls, brains and blood vessels.

“They are sharing a room together and settling into their new environment,” Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital said in a statement.

“The girls are getting to know the new staff who will be caring for them now that they have left intensive care.”

The twins’ heads remain heavily bandaged but they have appeared otherwise well, with Trishna awake and talking two days after surgery and Krishna blowing a signature raspberry when she was woken from a medical coma on Saturday.

Their condition has amazed medical staff who nursed them back to fitness after they arrived in fading health from Bangladesh two years ago, and gave them just a 25 percent chance of both recovering completely from the separation.

“We’re all so proud of our children’s hospital and we’re so proud of the quality of the nurses and the staff and the doctors that we’ve got there,” Victoria state Premier John Brumby told Fairfax radio.

“This was just another great example where these two children, who I think, to be honest, many of us thought were not going to get through, have come through, fingers crossed at this stage, with flying colours.”

The girls’ 22-year-old mother, who was unable to care for the sickly babies and handed them to an orphanage soon after their birth, has said she hopes to travel to Australia to see them.

Current Affairs Questions 2009

latest news about, Current Affairs Questions 2009: current affairs questions, current affairs, make your, general knowledge 2009, fudbalski rezultati uzivo CURRENT AFFAIRS JANUARY 2009

1. The new federal agency approved by the Indian Government to combat terror in India which will be empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states without special permission from the state ?

National Investigation Agency.

2. Who is appointed as Director General of the newly established National Investigation Agency (NIA).?

Radha Vinod Raju, Special Director General of Police in Jammu and Kashmir

3. “Man of the series” of recently held One Day series between Australia & South Africa?

Albie Morkel

4. Who became the country’s youngest international referee, after passing the world body FIBA’s exam ?

Zanim Mohammed Hashim from Thalassery, Kerala

5. The first Indian to win the prestigious Golden Globe Award for Best Original Music Score ?

A.R.Rahman for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.
Rahman’s song ‘Jai Ho,’ penned by lyricist Gulzar, was nominated for Best Original Music Score.

6. Which Malayalam Writer won the “Odakkuzhal Award ” ?

K.G.Sankara Pillai

7. Who became the fastest bowler to take 50 wickets in one-day internationals ?

Ajantha Mendis , completed his 50-wicket haul in his 19th one-day international. He surpassed the record of India’s Ajit Agarkar who took 23 matches to reach the milestone.

8. Who has been appointed as the General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Management and Budget in the upcoming administration of U.S.President Barack Obama?

Preeta Bansal, Leading Indian-American lawyer

9. Name the Indo-Russian supersonic cruise missile with speeds of Mach 2.5 to 2.8, which is world’s fastest cruise missile and is about three and a half times faster than the U.S.A’s subsonic Harpoon cruise missile?

Brahmos, The acronym ‘BrahMos’ is perceived as the confluence of the two nations represented by two great rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.

10. Who is the Man of the Series in the recently held Zimbabwe –Bangladesh One Day Series held in Bangladesh?

Shakib Al Hasan

11. The first Bangladesh player to top one of the International Cricket Council’s player rankings?

Shakib Al Hasan He tops the ICC ODI Rankings for all-rounders

12. Jharkhand Chief Minister who resigned from his post following his defeat in the Tamar assembly by-poll?

Shibu Soren

13. Music Sensation A.R.Rahman won how many Oscar nominations for the film “Slumdog Millionaire” ?

Three nominations (Music, Songs (Jai Ho, O Saya))

14. Indian sound engineer from Mumbai, born in Kerala, nominated for the Oscars for Best sound mixing in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’?
Source: questionforall.blogspot.com

ICC Announces World Cup 2011 Schedule

MUMBAI: ICC Announces World Cup 2011 Schedule, Pakistan, who were wary of playing in India due to political tensions between the two nations, will play its six league matches of the World Cup 2011 in Sri Lanka.

India will clash with Bangladesh in the opening match of the 2011 World Cup in Dhaka on February 19, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Monday.

The first match takes place two days after the opening ceremony of the 14-nation showpiece at the same venue in Dhaka on February 17, according to the schedule released by the ICC here.

The final of the 43-day tournament, being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will take place at the renovated Wankhede stadium in India’s financial capital of Mumbai on April 2.

The teams have been divided into two groups of seven each for the preliminary league, with the top four from each group advancing to the quarter-finals.

Defending champions Australia head group A which includes Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and two qualifiers, Canada and Kenya.

The other group comprises India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh and qualifiers Ireland, Netherlands.

India will host 29 matches at eight venues, Sri Lanka 12 at three venues and Bangladesh eight at two places, after Pakistan were removed as co-hosts by the ICC due to security fears in the volatile nation.

Pakistan, who were wary of playing in India due to political tensions between the two nations, will play its six league matches in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka will host five of its matches at two new venues in southern Hambantota and Pallekele, near the hill town of Kandy, where cricket stadiums are under construction.

The remaining seven games in the island nation will be held at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo.

India has picked eight regular Test centres — Mumbai, Mohali, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi — for its matches.

The Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka will host six matches and the opening ceremony, while two games will be played in the port city of Chittagong.

The 2011 event is a week shorter than the one held in the Caribbean in 2007 and will have 49 matches, two less than the previous tournament.

Shahid Afridi, To Join South Australia For Twenty20

KARACHI: South Australia have signed Shahid Afridi for the Twenty20 Big Bash this summer as a replacement for the spinner Ajantha Mendis.

The Redbacks had announced the recruitment of Mendis in July but he is now unavailable due to Sri Lanka’s planned tri-series with India and Bangladesh in January.

South Australia’s Big Bash campaign begins on December 29, when Pakistan will be involved in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

However, Afridi has not played Test cricket since 2006 and is not expected to feature in their Test squad, which would leave him free to take part in the full Twenty20 competition.

“We narrowly missed out on finals last season and these signings are definitely a boost to our quest to qualify for the Champions League this year,” South Australia’s high performance manager Jamie Cox said.

“I have made no secret of the fact that I view the Big Bash competition as the most commercial on the domestic calendar and the inaugural Champions’ League also provides fantastic opportunities for young players to showcase their skills on the world stage.”

Afridi should be a valuable Twenty20 asset for South Australia; he was the player of the tournament at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and averages 21.05 with the bat and 15.73 with the ball from his 24 Twenty20 internationals. Other international signings for the Big Bash include Chris Gayle (Western Australia) and Dwayne Bravo (Victoria).

Lasith Malinga was to join Tasmania and Victoria had attracted Muttiah Muralitharan but both men are likely to be unavailable for the same reason as Mendis. The West Indies allrounder Kieron Pollard is on New South Wales’ radar and the states have until Christmas Eve to confirm up to two international recruits.

Mumbai To Host Final, Two Other Matches of 2011 World Cup

Mumbai will host the final, along with two other matches, while Mohali will host one of the semifinals of the 2011 cricket World Cup to be organised jointly by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Local Organising Committee met on Wednesday to finalise the venue-based distribution of the 29 games that India is scheduled to host.

The full schedule of the 14-nation tournament is due to be announced in Mumbai on 9th November.

The rest of the 20 games of the 49-match event have been awarded to Sri Lanka (12) and Bangaldesh (8).

The committee decided to give two other matches to Mohali apart from the semifinal.

Ahmedabad has been given a quarterfinal and two other games, while Kolkata and Delhi will host one India and three other matches each, BCCI secretary N Srinivas said in a statement.

Jaipur has been left out of the list of venues with Nagpur, Chennai and Bangalore getting one India game each.

India’s share of World Cup matches increased by eight after the games scheduled in Pakistan were shifted to other co-hosts due to security concerns of the participating countries.

Pak, India Urged To Bring Into Force The CTBT

NEW DELHI : The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, promoted by Australia and Japan, has called for bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force and singled out India, Israel and Pakistan as the three countries which must contribute to make the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty universal.
Co-chaired by the former Foreign Ministers of Japan and Australia, the participants at a meeting of the panel here were optimistic that the renewed focus of major powers on disarmament, led by the US and Russia, offered an opportunity for progress and noted that the NPT had “near-universal acceptance.”

“It was widely recognised that the contributions of the three States outside the treaty — India, Israel and Pakistan — were vital to global efforts to stem proliferation.

Regional security dynamics were analysed along with the scope for confidence-building measures. Views were divided on whether regional nuclear arsenals could be contained in the absence of progress in resolving regional tensions,” noted a press release.

Organised in the run-up to a review of the NPT in May next, the two-day meeting brought together former high-ranking diplomats and service officers, besides members of the strategic community from several countries, many from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Besides co-commissioners Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi, those attended the meeting included Frene Noshir Ginwala (South Africa); Gen. (retired) Klaus Naumann (Germany); Baroness Shirley Williams (U.K.); Nobuyasu Abe (Japan); Louise Frechette (Canada); Prasad Kariyawasam (Sri Lanka); Rory Medcalf (Australia); George Perkovich (US); Maj. Gen. Sheikh Md Monirul Islam, Md. Mosharraf Hossain and Nahida Sobhan (all Bangladesh); Brajesh Mishra, Satish Chandra, Shyam Saran, Maj. Gen. (retired) V.R. Raghavan, Narendra Sisodia, K. Subrahmanyam, and B.G. Verghese; Lok Raj Baral and Madan Kumar Bhattarai (both Nepal); Rifaat Hussain, Tariq Osman Hyder, Gen. Talat Masood and Brig. (ret.) Naeem Ahmed Salik (all Pakistan).

The discussion was structured around the three pillars underlying the NPT: pursuing nuclear disarmament, preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and facilitating the safe and peaceful uses of nuclear technology to meet the growing regional energy demand.

Tea Prices Up By Rs50-Kg

KARACHI: Prices of packed tea have been increased by Rs40-50/kg.
General Secretary of Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) told Geo News that one kg pack and 400 gram pack now cost Rs460 and Rs198, respectively, as compared to Rs418 and Rs180.
Pakistan Tea Association chairman Mohammad Hanif Janoo said that good quality Kenyan tea now costs Rs380-390 as compared to Rs280-290 per kg a month back.

People, he said, have reduced their consumption of tea owing to increase in prices.

He said production of Kenyan tea has dropped after drought coupled with no rains. As a result, high quality Kenyan tea is now priced at $4.10 per kg as compared to $2.60-2.80 two months back.

Similarly, Sri Lankan and Bangladesh tea price are now tagged at $4.50 and 2.25 per kg as compared to $2.50 and 1.60 per kg.

Indian tea rates have soared to $1.85 from 1.30 while Vietnam tea rates have increased to $2.75 from 1.75 per kg.