Go Indi Go

January 11, 2009

Vaughan would ‘dearly love’ to play Ashes

Filed under: friends — admin @ 11:17 am

Michael Vaughan has said he “would dearly like” to be part of the England side during next year’s Ashes after missing out on the tour of the Caribbean. He also wrote, in his column in the Daily Telegraph, that he turned down the chance to tour New Zealand with the England Lions and instead focus on getting runs for Yorkshire as the best route to a national recall.

Opinion had been divided over whether Vaughan should be included in the touring party to the West Indies, but Vaughan said he “understood” the decision to exclude him. Vaughan was expected to press his case for selection during the Lions’ visit to India last month, but the tour had been called off after the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

“I still feel I am mentally fresh and dangerous as a player,” he wrote. “Now I just want to bide my time and enjoy a proper, settled pre-season with Yorkshire. Preparing for the summer and scoring runs at the start of the season is the best way for me to force my way back into the England side.

“If that happens then I will put the guys under pressure and still have the chance to play for England again.”

Vaughan, 34, was looking forward to being a part of Yorkshire’s Pro-Arch Trophy defence in Sharjah next March. Last season, Andrew Flintoff had played in the tournament during his bid to come back to the national fold after a long injury lay-off.

January 8, 2009

Vaughan misses out on West Indies

Filed under: Business — admin @ 11:16 am

Michael Vaughan has been left out of England’s 16-man Test squad to tour West Indies next month, leaving his international future in the balance. Ryan Sidebottom is back after injury while Adil Rashid is also named after being included for the India trip to gain experience.

The squad, named after a five-and-a-half-hour meeting, is a show of faith by the selectors in the players who went down 1-0 before Christmas, with Steve Harmison, Ian Bell and Monty Panesar facing an important tour after a disappointing time in India. Bell’s poor form at No. 3 was a possible route back for Vaughan but he has retained his place, though he faces increasing pressure from Owais Shah.

The plan had been for Vaughan to find some form with the Academy in India but that was disrupted by the Mumbai terror attacks, which forced the team home. Vaughan’s chances of having another crack at Australia now rest with his early-season form for Yorkshire after he also missed out on the Lions squad that will head to New Zealand in February.

“Michael Vaughan has not yet had an opportunity to prove his form in order to be considered for selection for the Test side,” national selector Geoff Miller said, “He does, however, remain very much in our thoughts as we continue to plan for the Ashes Test series against Australia later this summer.

“He will play a full part in Yorkshire’s pre-season programme, which will include a tour to Dubai, and we will continue to monitor his form closely once the domestic season begins in April.”

Rashid’s inclusion follows the time he spent with the squad during the Test series in India and shows the England management expect him to launch his international career sooner rather than later. The spin department is well stocked for the tour with Panesar and Graeme Swann likely to fight it out ahead of the first Test.

The quick-bowling stocks are also strengthened with the return of Sidebottom, who suffered a string of injuries during the second half of 2008 after being England’s main strike bowler. He struggled against South Africa and missed out on the one-dayers and Tests in India with a side strain.

“Despite losing the Test series in India 1-0, we felt the team performed creditably against strong opposition and all the players originally chosen for that series have been retained in the squad,” Miller said. “We are pleased to welcome Ryan Sidebottom back to both squads now that he is fully recovered from injury.

“Adil Rashid was added to the Test squad for the India tour and we have again included him in the party to tour West Indies. He is an exciting prospect for the future and his inclusion will enable us to continue to monitor his development closely as well as providing extra competition for places in the spin-bowling department.”

The one-day squad includes one new face with Steven Davies, the Worcestershire wicketkeeper-batsman, named in the 15-man party alongside current incumbent Matt Prior. Alastair Cook and Luke Wright have been dropped while Dimitri Mascarenhas is recalled.

“Dimitri Mascarenhas has performed well for England before in the shorter form of the game and we feel that his experience will serve the team well in the Caribbean,” Miller explained. “Steven Davies had an excellent season for Worcestershire in both forms of cricket and is a young player of tremendous promise whose performances we have been monitoring for some time. This is an exciting opportunity for him and I am sure he will be keen to impress.”

Miller added that it had been a close call between Davies and James Foster, the Essex wicketkeeper, who many feel is the best one-day gloveman in the country. Davies had a prolific Pro40 season in 2008, hitting two hundreds and three fifties as an opener, and provides the selectors with another option at the top of the order after Prior slipped down to No. 8 against India.

Robert Key has been named captain of the New Zealand-bound Lions squad, which includes Amjad Khan - who toured India for the Test series - and Sajid Mahmood. Gareth Batty, the Worcestershire offspinner, is given a chance to resurrect his international career, while Joe Denly’s progress will be monitored with interest. Davies will swap with Tim Ambrose after the Test series in West Indies is completed.

January 5, 2009

Image Comparer Software

Filed under: Misc — admin @ 8:12 pm

Have you tried showing a set or a large collection of digital snapshots to a friend or relative? Weren’t they underwhelmed and a little bored by the number of all-too-similar shots of the same subject? Get rid of the duplicates automatically! Image Comparer™ scans your entire collection of images, analyzes their contents and locates files that look alike. Since v3.3 Image Comparer is able to highlight image differencesYou probably don’t need picture comparison software. You’ve got hundreds, maybe thousands, of digital photos on your computer and you know that some of them are duplicates that can go. It is also called as duplicate image finder. Maybe some photos with red-eye got touched up and you never deleted the originals-saving the original is a good safe practice, so that while you’re working with a photo you can’t destroy the original image. You’re careful, and you’ve saved every one. But then you didn’t go back and delete the red-eye or too dark or slightly angled photograph once you’d played with the image and made it picture perfect.But despite that, you just won’t need picture comparison software to get all those duplicates off your machine. You relish the challenge of doing it yourself.

Selectors expect Hayden to play on

Filed under: finance — admin @ 11:15 am

Matthew Hayden will not use the Sydney Test as a farewell and he remains in Australia’s plans for 2009, according to the chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch. Hayden has held onto his spot for the third Test at the SCG and he is in a 12-man squad with the Victoria allrounder Andrew McDonald and the fast bowlers Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger, who won selection because of injuries to Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson.

Hayden, 37, has been under pressure to justify his position in the side following a lean few months but Hilditch said the selectors did not expect next week’s game to be Hayden’s last. “I very much doubt it,” Hilditch said. “It’s not the way he’s practising, it’s not the way he’s playing and it’s not the type of person he is.

“I don’t like testimonial Tests for anybody. He’s in the side because he’s in our best Australian side. That’s not an issue at all from our perspective.”

Hayden has made 79 runs at 11.28 in Australia’s four home Tests this year and he has not posted a century since last season. However, with tours of South Africa and England coming up in 2009, Australia’s selectors remain keen for Hayden to be a fixture at the top of the order.

“He deserves the opportunities he’s been given,” Hilditch said. “He’s having a rough trot. Obviously he’s had some issues with decisions which probably haven’t gone his way and he’s had some run-outs and it hasn’t been an easy return from injury.

“But we are really confident he’ll do the job for us in Sydney. It’s important he’s given that opportunity because moving forward we’d still like him very much to be part of our plans.”

Hilditch said it was not a time for chopping and changing the side and the younger players needed support, although three alterations were forced for the Sydney match. Watson will be unable to bowl for up to six months due to back stress fractures and Lee will have foot surgery after hurting himself during the nine-wicket defeat at the MCG. Symonds, who was also part of the series loss, will have an operation on his knee.

McDonald has been a steady performer for Victoria and is primarily a batsman who bowls effective medium-fast. He has played 44 first-class games, averaging 38.11 with the bat and 30.20 with the ball, and will play at the SCG.

“Andrew has been a very consistent allrounder for Victoria for several seasons,” Hilditch said. “He is in very good form and as well as batting in the top six will give us the flexibility we need with our bowling attack.”

January 1, 2009

Jaiswal also considered, the militants had put conditions

Filed under: finance — admin @ 11:13 am

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh after the Union Minister of State for Home Sriprkash Jaiswal also said that the Mumbai attacks by terrorists in front of the Government had tried to keep the terms, but the Central Government and Surcshablon show the tough position it refused.
Jaiswal in Kanpur Sriprkash said this on Monday. Significantly, Maharashtra’s Home Minister Jayant Patil told a newspaper that a demand by the terrorists was not kept.
Earlier, in Indore on Sunday, the Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said that the hostages by the terrorists locked up in jail instead of the release of some militants had demanded that the Manmohan Singh government refused. However, his statement on Monday would look clean.

December 30, 2008

Pak, a two is not acceptable to the government: Gilani

Filed under: finance — admin @ 11:11 am

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that in a country with two governments can not. Clearly, their signal to the terrorists and the army might have.
Geelani also said that Pakistan’s use of land for terrorism can not be. Mumbai attacks on Pakistan from all over the world after heavy pressure to take action.
The last two - three days from the signal is coming from Pakistan, they feel the same in view Tevron that has some flexibility. Prime Minister Gilani’s recent statements have pointed to this.
Another good news is that a day before the two countries, Director General of Military Operation Dijimo That spoke to one another. To reduce the tension between these two discussed.

December 25, 2008

NC -Congress in the coalition, Omar will be Sim

Filed under: Business — admin @ 11:07 am

Jammu - Kashmir’s National Conference and the Congress government will be mixed. Omar Abdullah, met Sonia Gandhi announced after the fact. Omar Abdullah, chief minister of the state will be. Other details of the government coalition parties of the two senior leaders will discuss it later.
Are the source told the National Conference to support the decision of Sonia Gandhi’s meeting Monday night took in the Ghulam Nabi Azad, Saifuddin Soz, Jammu - Kashmir in charge of Prithviraj Chauhan and Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel were involved .
Sources also say that in the Congress and PDP were two opinions about the National Conference. Ghulam Nabi Azad wants to go with the National Conference, the PCC chief Saifuddin Soz, have since left the National Conference, the PDP was his choice.

December 20, 2008

Oracle sees up to 10% fall in sales

Filed under: finance — admin @ 5:33 am


BOSTON:Business software maker Oracle posted a drop in new sales and said they could fall up to 10% in the current quarter, but relieved investors who feared even worse sent the shares up 3.4% in extended trade on Thursday. The forecast of a drop in new license sales of nil to 10% met Wall Street targets and analysts said the No 3 software maker is keeping costs in line and achieving reasonable sales in the midst of the economic downturn. “They are managing through this downturn relatively well,” said Jeff Gaggin, an analyst with Avian Securities.
Oracle blamed adverse fluctuations in the currency market for the drop in software sales, saying the strengthening of dollar will dent the change in that revenue growth.

Toyota faces1st parent-only loss in 71 years

Filed under: Business — admin @ 5:30 am



TOYOTA Motor, the world’s biggest automaker, is likely to report its first annual parent-only operating loss in 71 years, hit by plunging sales and the soaring yen, Japanese media reported on Friday. Toyota is set to issue revised forecasts for its parentonly and consolidated profits for the business year to March 31, 2009, at a year-end news conference scheduled on Monday, the Chunichi Shimbun and Kyodo news agency said.
Toyota last posted an operating loss at the parent level, which doesn’t include its subsidiaries, in its first year of operation in 1937/38. A Toyota spokeswoman declined to comment on the reports.
Toyota made a parent-only operating profit of ¥140 billion ($1.6 billion) in the first half after incurring currency losses of ¥300 billion, making a fullyear loss a near certainty if the current dollar rate of about ¥89 persists. Toyota is assuming a more favourable dollar rate of ¥100 in the second half, after it averaged ¥106 in the first. Shares of Toyota lost 2% to end at ¥2,900 in mixed trade for auto stocks, as conflicting reports emerged.
The Nikkei business daily predicted Toyota would also report an operating loss at the consolidated level, including subsidiaries, for the full year, while the Mainichi newspaper said the company would not issue a profit warning this month.
The Nikkei this week incorrectly reported that Japan’s No 2 automaker, Honda Motor, would lower its annual operating profit forecast to about ¥300 billion, instead of the actual ¥180 billion

$17.4 b BAILOUT APPROVED

Filed under: friends — admin @ 5:16 am


CITING danger to the national economy, the Bush administration approved an emergency bailout of the US auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in rescue loans in exchange for deep concessions from the desperately troubled carmakers and their workers. The government will have the option of becoming a stockholder in the companies, much as it has with major banks, in effect partially nationalising the industry.
At the same time, Treasury secretary Henry Paulson said Congress should release the second $350 billion from the financial rescue fund that it approved in October to bail out huge financial institutions. Tapping the fund for the auto industry basically exhausts the first half of the $700 billion total, he said. President Bush said, “Allowing the auto companies to collapse is not a responsible course of action.” Bankruptcy, he said, would deal “an unacceptably painful blow to hardworking Americans” across the economy. Some $13.4 billion will be available this month and next, $9.4 billion for General Motors and $4 billion for Chrysler. Both companies have said they soon might be unable to pay their bills without federal help. Ford Motor has said it does not need immediate help.
Bush’s plan is designed to keep the auto industry running in the short term, passing the longer-range problem on to the incoming administration of presidentelect Barack Obama. The last $4 billion of the loans announced on Friday would depend on release of the second half of the big Troubled Asset Relief Program fund. Bush said the rescue package demanded concessions similar to those outlined in a bailout plan that was approved by the House but rejected by the Senate a week ago. It would give the automakers three months to come up with restructuring plans to become viable companies.
If they fail to produce a plan by March 31, the automakers will be required to repay the loans, which they would find all but impossible. “The time to make hard decisions to become viable is now, or the only option will be bankruptcy,” Bush said. “The automakers and unions must understand what is at stake and make hard decisions necessary to reform.” He said the companies’ workers should agree to wage and work rules that are competitive with foreign automakers by the end of next year.
And he called for elimination of a ‘jobs bank’ program — negotiated by the United Auto Workers and the companies — under which laid-off workers can receive about 95% of their pay and benefits for years. Early this month, the UAW agreed to suspend the program. Some congressional Republicans decried Friday’s announcement.
House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio called the deal “disappointing news” and said that by using federal TARP funds “Washington has failed both autoworkers and taxpayers.” Under terms of the loan, GM and Chrysler must provide the government with stock warrants giving it the option to buy GM and Chrysler stock at a specific price. The automakers would also be required to agree to limits on executive pay and eliminate perks.
Paulson said that with help for the carmakers, the government will have allocated the first half of the largest government bailout program in history. He said he was confident that the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance have the resources to address a significant market crisis if one should occur before Congress approves the use of the second half of the rescue fund.
Paulson said he would discuss the process with congressional leaders and Obama’s transition team. Friday’s
rescue plan retains the idea of a ‘car czar’ to make sure the auto companies are keeping their promises and moving toward long-term viability. The short-term overseer will be Paulson. But the White House deputy chief of staff, Joel Kaplan, said that if the Obama team wants someone else installed, Bush is open to that. The White House package is the lifeline desperately sought by US automakers, who warned they were running out of money as the economy fell deeper into recession, car loans became scarce and consumers stopped shopping for cars. –– AP

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress