Tag Archives: technology
Sreesanth, Chavan banned for life for IPL spot fixing
Sreesanth, Chavan banned for life for IPL spot fixing (IANS) / 13 September 2013 Rajasthan Royals cricketers S. Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan have been banned for life on Friday for their involvement in the spot fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi, who too have been found involved in the scandal, have been handed down bans for five years and one year respectively. The bans were announced by the disciplinary committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Young left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh has been let off with a warning while Ajit Chandila’s case will be taken up later. “Sreesanth and Chavan have been banned for life for their involvement in the spot fixing scandal. Amit Singh has been banned for five years while Siddharth Trivedi for one year. Harmeet Singh has been let off with a warning for not reporting to the authorities that the bookies had approached him,” BCCI vice-president Niranjan Shah told IANS. BCCI president Narayanaswami Srinivasan chaired the meeting with vice-presidents Niranjan Shah and Arun Jaitley, who were the other members of the panel. “The evidence was different against each of the accused. The decision of the disciplinary committee is binding. Since the decision is about the players, it need not be ratified by the annual general meeting or any other body,” Jaitley told reporters. The cricketers were caught in the IPL scandal and chief of BCCI’s anti-corruption unit Ravi Sawani recommended ban on them in his report submitted to the board last month. Sawani, a former chief of the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit, was asked to investigate the alleged involvement of Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila in conceding a pre-determined number of runs per over in exchange for money during the IPL’s sixth edition which concluded recently. Continue reading
UAE hopes to build capacity for Somalia
UAE hopes to build capacity for Somalia Allan Jacob / 11 September 2013 While the international community and navies have succeeded in bringing down Somali maritime piracy, problems on land remain. Al Shabab militants are striking at will as shown by their attempt on the life of the president of that country last week and the killing of 15 innocents recently. The fledgling government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud requires long-term support to rebuild the nation still struggling to find its feet after decades of civil war. A good start was made at last year’s conference where, led by the efforts of the UAE, the leaders of Somalia and breakaway Somaliland agreed to begin stalled negotiations after 20 years. At the third counter-piracy conference starting in Dubai today, the UAE and other regional countries hope to build capacity and foster long-term development in the Horn of Africa. “Central to the UAE’s counter-piracy strategy is the recognition that the capability and capacity of countries in the region to combat piracy are varied and at different stages of development. Determining specific gaps thus allows the UAE to target assistance where it can have the greatest impact, thereby advancing regional partners’ security and stability,” said Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in a statement. The plan is to help countries like Somalia which are affected by civil strife to develop their own counter-piracy capability, strengthen their rule of law, and protect their sovereignty and territory against the scourge of maritime piracy, said the minister. He said the UAE had strengthened its military’s maritime security capability, engaged and trained private industry on best practices in areas such as port security, and used the legal system as a tool for prosecuting and deterring piracy-related offences. “The recent reduction in piracy in the Indian Ocean region is the result of exactly these kind of strategic, focused and multi-disciplinary approaches that include security operations, investments in economic and social development, humanitarian assistance, and capacity building for local security forces and legal systems,” Shaikh Abdullah said. Credit is due to international naval patrols: Eunavfor, Nato Operation Ocean Shield, and CTF-151, as well as efforts by China, India, Japan and South Korea, which curbed the phenomenon, but Oceans Beyond Piracy, a think-thank, said their mandates would expire in 2014 and gains could be reversed if the global community dropped the ball on Somalia. “It is vital that the international community continues to engage with the government in Mogadishu to provide them assistance and support. It is only when the conditions ashore become stable and there is commerce and employment, that piracy will cease to be a threat to ships at sea,’’ Pottengal Mukundan of the International Maritime Bureau said from London. Maritime forces like the Eunavfor continue to engage with the Somalis. Last week, it hosted the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, onboard the Dutch Eunavfor flagship, HNLMS Johan de Witt. The Somali officials met the EU’s Special Envoy to Somalia, Michele Cervone d’Urso; the EU Naval Force Operation Commander, Rear Admiral Bob Tarrant; and the Head of Mission of EU Capacity Building Mission (EUCAP) Nestor, Etienne de Poncins. The Dubai counter-piracy conference will be followed by the ‘New Deal for Somalia’ summit in Brussels on September 16 where countries will endorse a ‘Compact’ between Somalia and the international community that identifies the key political, security and socio-economic priorities. “Somalia welcomes cooperation with the EU to improve maritime security as part of the broader engagement of the EU in Somalia. Maritime cooperation will have important effect on the stabilisation and development of coastal areas in my country,’’ said President Mohamud in a statement. Public-private partnership The two-day conference in Dubai is jointly convened by the UAE Ministry Foreign Affairs, global ports operator DP World and Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC). The organisers said 500 participants comprising foreign ministers, senior government officials, military officers, executives of global maritime-sector companies, and leading experts are expected to attend. DP World called on the private sector to identify mechanisms to further create an environment for sustainable development of Somalia’s emerging economy and address the root causes of maritime piracy. allan@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Nadal tops Djokovic for 13th major title
Nadal tops Djokovic for 13th major title (AP) / 10 September 2013 Hard to believe this is the same Rafael Nadal who was home during the U.S. Open a year ago, nursing a bad left knee. Hard to believe this is the guy sent packing in the first round of Wimbledon in June, losing against someone ranked 135 th . Looking fit as can be and maybe even better than ever, the No. 2-ranked Nadal pulled away from No. 1 Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Monday in a taut, tense U.S. Open final for his 13 th Grand Slam title. “Very, very emotional, no?” Nadal said during the on-court trophy presentation. “Probably only my team knows how much (this) means for me.” They started in sunlight and finished at night, a 3-hour, 21-minute miniseries of cliffhangers and plot twists and a pair of protagonists who inspired standing ovations in the middle of games. There was no quit in either of them, during points that lasted 15, 25, even more than 50 strokes. “Probably nobody brings my game to the limit like Novak,” said Nadal, who collected $3.6 million in prize money, including a $1 million bonus for results during the North American hard-court circuit. This was their 37 th match against each other, the most between any two men in the Open era, and Nadal has won 22. It also was their third head-to-head U.S. Open final in the last four years. Nadal beat Djokovic for the 2010 title, and Djokovic won their rematch in 2011. They know each other’s games so well, and play such similar hustle-to-every-ball styles, but in the end, it was Nadal who was superior. “He was too good. He definitely deserved to win this match today and this trophy,” Djokovic said. “Obviously disappointing to lose a match like this.” Nadal improved to 22-0 on hard courts and 60-3 overall in 2013 with nine titles, including at the French Open, which made him the first man with at least one Grand Slam trophy in nine consecutive seasons. The 27-year-old Spaniard’s total of 13 major championships ranks third in the history of men’s tennis, behind only Roger Federer’s 17 and Pete Sampras’ 14. Nadal no longer wears the strips of white tape he once did to bolster his left knee, and the way he covered the court against Djokovic — switching from defense to offense in a blink — proved that while he says he still feels pain in that leg, he definitely does not have problems moving around. These are the same two who played the longest Grand Slam final in history, a nearly six-hour struggle that left both needing to sit in chairs during the ceremony after Djokovic’s victory at the 2012 Australian Open. This time, when it ended with a forehand into the net by Djokovic, Nadal dropped to his back on the court, saluted by an Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd that included the Queen of Spain. Nadal was relentless from shot to shot, yes, and from point to point, too, but what might have been most impressive was the way he stayed steady when Djokovic recovered from a rough start and began asserting himself. Continue reading
