Bhajji Loses Cool Again

Bangalore: Harbhajan Singh finds himself in the middle of a controversy all over again after the off-spinner jabbed at a cameraman at the Bangalore International Airport Wednesday.
The feisty off-spinner, often in the news for all the wrong reasons, jabbed at the cameraman after his camera brushed his head
Harbhajan glared at the cameraman even as a security person tried to push back the pack of lensmen who had the cricketer virtually mobbed.
The Punjab spinner has a rather dubious disciplinary record, having been penalised for various offences during his career.
The most infamous of these has been 2007’s ‘monkeygate’ incident involving the off-spinner and Andrew Symonds.
In the same year, Harbhajan, playing for Mumbai Indians, was banned for the remainder of the IPL matches for ‘slapgate’ — which was him slapping S. Sreesanth.
These flare-ups of a temperamental sportsman will be of little help to the offie in his dream of leading India some day because that is one honour that Harbhajan covets.
So, although the soft-spoken Virender Sehwag does not want to lead Team India, the feisty Harbhajan thinks it’s a challenge worth taking up.
However, some of the national selectors, including chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth, said they were not aware of Sehwag’s comments.
Sehwag had said that a new vice-captain be appointed with an eye to grooming him to take over from Dhoni. Harbhajan said Mahendra Singh Dhoni was “doing a fantastic job” at the helm but he made no secret of his desire, saying he would not shy away if the captaincy came his way.
“Whoever plays for India wants to lead the side at some stage and it’s no different with me.
“At the end of the day, it’s a huge honour for a player,” Harbhajan said before leaving for the tri-series in Sri Lanka.
Incidentally, Harbhajan had a taste of captaincy, leading Air India Blue to the Sahara BCCI Corporate Trophy final where his team lost to the Yuvraj Singh-led Air India Red.

Vijender Does It Again, Breaks Medal Jinx At World C'ships

Indian boxing's jinx-breaker Vijender Singh achieved yet another historic feat as he ensured the country's first medal in the World Championships by advancing to the middle-weight semifinals in Milan, Italy.The world number two and top seed Vijender out-punched Ukrainian Sergiy Derevyanchenko 12-4 late last night to become the first Indian to make the last-four stage of the prestigious event."I am on cloud nine...it's a feeling that cannot be described in words. I have broken another jinx for India and I am very happy," the 23-year-old who won India's maiden Olympic medal -- a bronze -- in Beijing last year, told PTI from Milan.

Paes-Bhupathi To Face-Off In Men's Doubles Final

New York: The US Open men's doubles final will see estranged Indian partners Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi facing each other.
It is the first time the two players, who won three slams together, will be up against each other in a Grand Slam final.Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, seeded third, won 6-4, 6-2 against the fifth seeded pair of Belarussian Max Mirnyi and Israeli Andy Ram in the semi-final.In Images: Paes on target for doubles celebrationEarlier, in the other semi-final, the fourth-seeded pair of Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic overcame a stiff challenge from top-seeded American twins Bob and Mike Bryan 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) and avenged their defeat in the title-round here last year.Paes and Dlouhy held their nerves in the tense decider to pull off a thrilling match in an hour and 51 minutes. The deciding set lasted 55 minutes with Paes and Dlouhy wasting a match point in the 10th game off left-hander Bob's serve.Dlouhy struggled with his serve initially in the third set. Federer's record run continues He was down 0-40 in the first game, but managed to hold after saving three break points in the game that stretched to 16 points.Bob and Mike served strong and won three straight service games at love to level 3-3. Paes' service was under attack in the seventh game and he had to ward off four break points to hold after being down 0-40.The Indo-Czech pair had a match point at 5-4 on Bob's serve, but could not convert and the set went to the tie-breaker.Paes and Dlouhy raced to a 5-0 lead in the tie-breaker, before Bob and Mike fought back. Fan charged for kissing Nadal courtside at US OpenThe Americans saved four match points at 6-2 to draw level. Finally Paes and Dlouhy wrapped it up in their sixth match point with Paes showing great reflexes at the net and putting away a volley.For Bhupathi and Knowles, it wasn't as tough a task and the duo took 76 minutes to wrap up the match in straight sets.Paes, who won the title here in 2006 partnering Martin Damm, entered the US Open title round for the fifth time. He has also advanced to the mixed doubles final with Zimbabwean Cara Black. The duo are the defending champions.

Chandrayaan Enables Study Interaction Without Magnetic Field

BANGALORE: A Chandrayaan-1 moon mission payload has enabled scientists to study the interaction between the solar wind and a planetary body like moon without a magnetic field, a meeting convened by ISRO was told.

The payload in question is a joint one of Sweden and India -- Sub KeV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) which covered the entire lunar surface several times, ISRO said in a statement at the end of a meeting of payload scientists from India and abroad connected with the Chandrayaan-1 mission. Scientists from ISRO, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA, and European Space Agency (ESA) met here yesterday and today and reviewed the data sets obtained from the 11 payloads (scientific instruments) on board the lunar craft. The scientists discussed results obtained from that data, some of which are being reviewed by a peer review committee. ISRO said the 11 payloads have largely met their objectives of studying the moon from different perspectives. Among those, four instruments -- Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), Hyperspectral Imager (HySI) and Smart near Infrared Spectrometer (SIR-2) -- have provided extensive data on moon's topography, mineralogy and chemistry. "TMC and HySI payloads of ISRO have covered about 70 per cent of the lunar surface, while M3 covered more than 95 per cent of the same and SIR-2 has provided high-resolution spectral data on the mineralogy of the moon", ISRO said. Indian Space Research Organisation said interesting data on lunar polar areas was provided by Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) and High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) of ISRO as well as Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) of the USA. LLRI covered both the lunar poles and additional lunar regions of interest, HEX made about 200 orbits over the lunar poles and Mini-SAR provided complete coverage of both North and South Polar Regions of the moon. Another ESA payload -- Chandrayaan-1 imaging X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) -- detected more than two dozen weak solar flares during the mission duration. The Bulgarian payload called Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) was activated on the day of the launch itself and worked till the mission's end. ISRO said scientists from India and participating agencies expressed satisfaction on the excellent performance of Chandrayaan-1 mission as well as the high quality of data sent by the spacecraft. They have started formulating science plans based on the data sets obtained from the mission. It is expected that in the next few months, interesting results about lunar topography, mineral and chemical contents of the moon and related aspects are expected to be published,ISRO said. ISRO terminated the Chandrayaan mission, which was to last two years, on August 30 after it failed to re-establish contact with the lunar craft ,ten months after it was launched.

Rare Gold Watch Stolen From Shastri Memorial

NEW DELHI: Thieves struck at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial in high security Ashoka Road area last week, and made away with a rare gold watch a symbol of friendship between erstwhile USSR and India.

The unidentified thieves took away a gold wristwatch presented to second Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri by his counterpart Alexei Kosygin when the former visited Moscow just before the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war. The watch was kept in a glass case at the memorial which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005. "I was in first year of college. I remember that my father was unaware that it was a gold watch. He told me that he came from a humble family and he did not know how to handle expensive gifts. He presented the watch to me. I wore the watch for 40 years before handing it over to the memorial museum,'' said Anil Shastri, Lal Bahadur's Shastri's son and special invitee to the Congress Working Committee. He is also the holding trustee of the museum which displays over 800 items belonging to the late Prime Minister. The theft came to light on September 3 but the authorities of the memorial, located adjacent to the AICC headquarters, reported the matter to the police only four days later. According to curator Kundan Singh, the theft was detected by memorial director professor A K Das around 3.30pm, hours before the visiting time was to end. "Das reported the incident to me. We immediately formed an internal committee and probed if any of the 15 staff members or security staff were involved. The probe was initially to be completed in two days but the director wanted to be absolutely sure before he approached the police. The complaint was lodged four days later on September 7,'' said Anil Shastri. A case of theft has been registered at the Tughlaq Road police station. "We sent our crime team to lift fingerprints but sadly the police was called in late. The caretaker was on leave that day. There are no CCTV cameras at the memorial and neither is any alarm system in place. We are investigating the matter,'' said Shankar Dash, additional commissioner of police, New Delhi district. According to Anil Shastri, CPWD had been approached for installation of CCTV cameras and alarm system. "Our own investigations have revealed that a particular couple had been lingering in the gallery area for a long time that day. We have informed the police about this,'' he said. A senior investigating officer maintained that even the basic security drill at the museum was not being carried out. "It is shocking that visitors coming out are not properly checked. The glass casket containing the watch was stuck with chemicals and kept in the display room that exhibits Shastri's personal items like glasses and his favourite Mont Blanc pen. It takes time to cut through the glass cover. But none of the three attendants supposed to keep an eye on the gallery noticed it,'' added the officer. "It is a personal loss for the family. Not only did that watch have an emotional and historical connect, I presume it was one of the rarest Russian-made watches in the country. It's value in the auction market will be no less than several lakhs,'' said Anil Shastri. He added that he had not expected such a theft to take place at the memorial of an "honest man". Meanwhile, this is the third high-profile theft in the national capital in the last one week. On September 4, police received a complaint that the office of President Pratibha Patil's officer on special duty had been burgled in the high-security Rashtrapati Bhavan complex. A day later, the OSD to Sonia Gandhi
reported a theft in his daughter's car.

Grounded UAE Plane Takes Off

A China-bound UAE military transport plane laden with weapons and detained in Kolkata, earlier this week took off on Thursday morning (September 10). The UAE Air Force aircraft was detained at the NSC Bose International airport in Kolkata and now has been given the green signal by the custom authorities. Sources stated that the defense ministry has been told to released the plane after the crew were found to be cooperative. The plane, detained on September 7th was held up and it's nine member crew questioned after finding a large cache of arms and ammunition onboard. Embarrassed by the incident, the United Arab Emirates were quick in expressing regret and described the incident as a "technical error".