Close England 241 for 7 (Prior 52*, Swann 5*) trail South Africa 291 (Kallis 108, Anderson 5-63) by 50 runs

Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn hauled South Africa right back into contention in the third Test at Newlands, and the series as a whole, claiming six wickets between them on an extraordinary day that began with a clatter of South African wickets and ended with England’s lower order fighting to avoid a first-innings deficit. Despite clear-blue skies that implied a perfect day for batting, 11 wickets fell in 83.4 overs, including seven in the morning session alone, four of which fell in 17 balls to bring South Africa’s innings to a swift and undignified end.

After the first 15 minutes of the day, England believed they had stolen all the momentum by reducing their opponents from 279 for 6 to 291 all out, but in reply, the first-over dismissal of Andrew Strauss, courtesy of his nemesis, Morkel, redressed the balance dramatically. Steyn, operating as first-change after an unconvincing comeback match at Kingsmead, then announced his return to strike-bowler status with two wickets in three balls, including Kevin Pietersen for a second-ball duck, and when Morkel pinned Paul Collingwood lbw for 19 after lunch, England were in danger of conceding an insurmountable lead.

For the remainder of the afternoon session, South Africa were thwarted by Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, whose fifth-wicket stand of 60 provided further evidence of the pair’s revived confidence, following their twin centuries in last week’s Boxing Day Test. For nearly four hours, Cook was bloodymindedness personified as he hung back in his crease and relied on the bowlers losing patience before he did, as he left outside off time and time again, feeding almost exclusively on tucks through the leg-side whenever they straightened their line of attack.

But whereas in Durban, nothing could crack Cook’s concentration, this time the tea interval unhinged his resolve. Once again it was Morkel who struck the mortal blow, in the first over of the resumption, as Cook was caught in two minds for the only time in his innings, and shovelled a half-hearted pull to Ashwell Prince at short midwicket. Bell responded to that dismissal with a classy stamp of authority, easing Steyn for three fours in the very next over, all through backward point, but just when it seemed he was ready and capable to carry the fight for his country, he gave his innings away on 48 with a loose wafted cut.

The ball, from Jacques Kallis, was a rank long-hop that was asking to be hit, but Bell’s eager slap flew straight to backward point, and as he departed with a grimace of self-admonishment, England’s innings had slipped back into the mire at 174 for 6. But Prior, playing a shot to almost every delivery but timing next to none, was joined by Stuart Broad, and together they ground out a 51-run stand for the seventh wicket before Steyn popped up with the new ball looming, and nicked Broad’s bails with a perfect delivery that zipped through the gate.

Tillakaratne Dilshan made 2009 his own, scoring ten centuries in all forms, and he didn’t start too badly in the new year either, compiling another robust ton to guide Sri Lanka to an easy win in the tri-series opener. Bangladesh gave a good account of themselves with the bat in getting to 260, but their bowlers lost the battle against Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and the dew.

Defending totals under lights will pose a challenge to all teams in this competition, with the dew factor kicking in, and tonight, Bangladesh were bitten after losing the toss. Shakib Al Hasan said this was a "minimum 250" wicket and his batsmen obliged. Early into the Sri Lankan chase, they realised that they were at least 30 short.

The opening over by the debutant Shafiul Islam was a sign of things to come, as he leaked ten runs. Upul Tharanga was in fine touch, caressing the ball square of the wicket on the off side with very little effort. Bangladesh had packed the off-side field to restrict the left-handers but both Tharanga and Sangakkara managed to pierce them.

However, Tharanga threw it away, chasing a delivery angled across him. Sangakkara was very harsh on anything wide of the off stump and played some delightful drives along the ground. The instinctive Dilshan didn’t mind hitting it in the air, clearing his back leg to pull and clip it over midwicket. In the process, he went past 4000 runs in ODIs.

Shakib wasn’t amused. Early in the chapter, he showed his frustration by placing his hands on his head, without a clue about what to do. He brought himself on in the sixth over after his seamers had already leaked 52. Not that the introduction of spin made any difference. Shakib, Abdur Razzak and Mahmudullah were impeded by the dew, which didn’t allow them to grip the ball properly.

Ashraful didn’t change gears after Mushfiqur departed and continued grafting against the spinners, this time with Mahmudullah for company. Incredibly, Ashraful picked up his first boundary off his 37th ball – a loft over extra cover off Thilina Kandamby – in sharp contrast to the way he normally plays. It’s a style of play he’s getting used to, after being criticised time and again in his career for throwing his wicket away after making a start.

His 75 was significant mainly because it kept the Sri Lankans at bay, helped the innings last the entire 50 overs, something Bangladesh have struggled to do in the past. Naeem’s final-over fireworks (off Suranga Lakmal) pushed the score past 250 and as the Bangladesh players walked off in satisfaction, there was hope of a contest. An hour and a half later, those smiles vanished.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government is on an austerity drive.

After insisting that bureaucrats and minister to fly economy class and avoid the five-star culture, it is the turn of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to put less economic burden on the government.

PMO is keen to take advantage of the ongoing tariff war amongst the mobile companies and wants to keep its mobile bills short.

PMO has asked telecom service operators for information on cheaper calls and SMS tariffs.

CNN-IBN has a copy of a letter written on January 4 in which the PMO has asked various service providers for details of their schemes on ISD, STD and roaming calls.

PMO is looking for 50 GSM connections with ISD and STD /SMS facilities, 25 compatible Blackberry connections, special number series, national and international roaming and internal building solutions for uninterrupted signals.

Manmohan Singh’s office also wants the telecom operators to ensure uninterrupted connectivity in the high security zone.

PMO has set a deadline of January 15 for all operators to send in their proposals.

Officials of the PMO currently use Bharti Airtel mobile service.

Telecom companies have cut rates drastically for calls and SMSs in the last three months.

The usually reclusive Shah Rukh Khan joined Twitter early Sunday morning at 2.38 am under the ID, iamsrk.

Almost immediately, Twitterverse went berserk. Everyone from Riteish Deshmukh to Abhishek Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar and Vivek Oberoi fell over themselves welcoming him, says a media report.

SRK’s best buddy, Karan Johar tweeted after Shah Rukh crossed the 10000-mark in 12 hours, “twitterverse in a tizz!!! iamsrk will am sure enjoy the twitterpower and add it to it in his own way….”

It was KJo who finally convinced SRK to join Twitter on January 3 after months of persuasion.

Says Karan, “I feel as if I am the unofficial brand ambassador of Twitter as I convinced so many people to join. Whereas Shah Rukh is concerned, I would get many comments on Twitter everyday and about 80 per cent of them would ask me to convey a message to SRK. I finally told him there were millions of people out there who had so much of love for him.”

Karan adds that till now Shah Rukh wasn’t keen on joining as he has so much happening in his life.

“Essentially Shah Rukh is a very shy person. Also, he doesn’t have too much time. Being a part of Twitter is like being in a relationship where you have to be faithful to your love (Twitter) and give it time every day. It’s your lover. When so many people love you, you make sure you deliver. Now SRK will be a committed lover on Twitter. He crossed the 10000 follower mark in half a day which shows how popular he is. Now that he has opened his heart, Shah Rukh will feel their love.”

He continues, “So finally yesterday Shah Rukh said okay. He understood the modalities and we (Shah Rukh, Karan and Kajal Anand) created his page.”

The next person who KJo is persuading to get onto Twitter is SRK’s My Name Is Khan heroine Kajol. “Kajol is very particular about keeping her personal life private so I don’t know if I will be able to convince her but I am definitely trying hard.”

Bye now… lemme figure out if i do really snore or not…will keep a recorder on tonite… God… so much for being shy and private. (at 4 am today)

Love conquers all things…except poverty and toothache…Mae West…i think even snoring is a problem love can’t conquer. (at 3.50 am today)

film release coming up. will have lots of public speaking. my first rule of public speaking…if u don’t strike oil in 3 mins… stop boring ! (at 2.30 am today)

the first tweet: hi everyone. being extremely shy i never thought i would be here. but my friend @kjohar25 insisted that i should learn to share my life. (at 2.38 am on January 3)

His words staggered the erudite audience gathered at a technology conference in Oxford last summer.

On the shore of Lake Geneva, this brilliant, eccentric scientist is building an artificial mind. A Swiss – it could only be Swiss – precision- engineered mind, made of silicon, gold and copper.

The end result will be a creature, if we can call it that, which its maker believes within a decade may be able to think, feel and even fall in love.

Professor Markram’s ‘Blue Brain’ project, must rank as one of the most extraordinary endeavours in scientific history.

If this 47-year-old South-African Israeli is successful, then the world will witness the first of the Frankensteins. The world will be on the verge of realising an age-old fantasy, one first imagined when an adolescent Mary Shelley penned Frankenstein, her tale of an artificial monster brought to life – a story written, quite coincidentally, just a few miles from where this extraordinary experiment is now taking place.

Success will bring with it philosophical, moral and ethical conundrums of the highest order, and may force us to confront what it means to be human.

But Professor Markram thinks his artificial mind will render vivisection obsolete, conquer insanity and even improve our intelligence and ability to learn.

What Markram’s project amounts to is an audacious attempt to build a computerised copy of a brain – starting with a rat’s brain, then progressing to a human brain – inside one of the world’s most powerful computers.

This, it is hoped, will bring into being a sentient mind that will be able to think, reason, express will, lay down memories and perhaps even experience love, anger, sadness, pain and joy.

‘We will do it by 2018,’ says the professor confidently. ‘We need a lot of money, but I am getting it. There are few scientists in the world with the resources I have at my disposal.’

There is, inevitably, scepticism. But even Markram’s critics mostly accept that he is on to something and, most importantly, that he has the money.

Tens of millions of euros are flooding into his laboratory at the Brain Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne – paymasters include the Swiss government, the EU and private backers, including the computer giant IBM. Artificial minds are, it seems, big business.

In a new twist to the Aarushi murder case, the CBI has sought permission to carry out narco analysis tests on Rajesh and Nupur Talwar — parents of the teenager found dead under mysterious circumstances at her Noida residence less than two years ago.

An application in this regard was moved a week ago before a special CBI court here seeking permission to conduct the tests on the dentist couple.

14-year-old Aarushi Talwar was found murdered in her Noida house on May 16, 2008.

Satish Tamta, counsel for Talwar said an application was moved by the CBI for narco analysis. “Both of them have given their consent,” he said.

Narco analysis involves psychotherapy which is conducted while the patient is deeply sedated with medication so that inhibitions are reduced and responses will be more truthful.

Incidentally, Rajesh, who was arrested by the Noida police, was let off after the CBI gave him a clean chit.

“The CBI had about a week back sought our consent to carry out the narco tests. We have given our written consent as our final objective is to get the killers. We are suffering and if the CBI has any doubts, we are happy to help them,” Rajesh told PTI.

“Last year too, we had given our consent for Narco but the CBI did brain mapping and lie detector test. After that they said the Narco was not needed. Now they want it again and we have no problems with that.”

Asked whether the CBI had told them why they wanted to carry out the tests, Rajesh said, “We didn’t even have a chance. We were surprised by their request.”

“CBI would be able to answer better for you,” Nupur said on being asked why the agency wanted to carry out the tests on them. Besides Aarushi, their domestic help Hemraj was found murdered at their Noida house on the intervening night of May 15 and 16, 2008.

“CBI has again decided that they wish to put us through narco tests. The agency claims it is in the interest of justice for Aarushi that we have to undergo this and help in getting her culprit caught,” she said.

“Even if we have to undergo five to ten times of such tests, we are ready to go through with them,” she said.

The case has had its own twists and turns with the CBI yet to make any breakthrough.

The agency had recently re-constituted the entire investigating team probing the case. The CBI had earlier alleged that Krishna, Vijay Mandal and Rajkumar, all domestic helps, were accused in the double murder case but are yet to file a chargesheet against them.

Source @ PTI

Actress Soha Ali Khan might have inherited acting skills from her Bengali mother Sharmila Tagore, but she says she is “a disgrace” to her “maternal side” because she can’t speak Bengali.”I don’t know Bengali… That ways I am a disgrace to my maternal side but I am working on it. I am learning it,” said Soha. Sharmila, however, came to her daughter’s rescue. “She is good. The thing is she is very careful. She can’t speak spontaneously but she does her homework and picks up the lines and then speaks them fluently,” Sharmila said.

The mother-daughter actress’ duo were in the capital on the first day of the first ever Pravasi Film Festival for the official screening of their first outing together Life Moves On.Turning around the cultural conflict between a father and his youngest daughter, with different sub-plots shown in flashback, it is a English-Bengali bi-lingual. Directed by debutante Sangeeta Datta, it also stars Girish Karnad, Om Puri, Rez Kempton, Neerja Naik, Mukulika Banerjee, Christopher Hatherall, Stef Patten and Aria Gitanjali Banerjee Watts.

Asked if Soha’s siblings – Saif and Saba – can converse in their mother’s tongue, Sharmila said: “They cannot because it is not the language spoken at home.” Soha, however, said: “I’m the best (at speaking Bengali amongst the three).”

The new year seems to have kicked off on a controversial note for the SRK camp. As if talks about the supposed crack between Shahrukh Khan and Farah Khan weren’t enough, now reports suggest that Farah’s husband Shirish Kunder is planning to do a movie with the badshah’s arch-rival, Salman Khan.

Salman’s all-male birthday bash recently saw him and Shirish discussing a film jointly, which will be produced by Farah.Shirish and Salman had in the past worked in the former’s directorial dud debut, Jaan-e-Mann.Shirish claims that SRK turned him down when he asked the King Khan to work in his film, Tees Maar Khan.

The buzz goes that Shirish then decided to rope in his wife in the project, hoping that her ‘best friend’ SRK would then agree to do the film.But Shah Rukh still turned the project down. lastly, Farah approached Akshay Kumar for the film.

Kangana Ranaut is on a dissimilar mission these days. The actress is house hunting for herself. The reason being that Kangana wants her entire family to shift with her since her current residence is proving to be too small for that. Kangana, who hails from Manali is keen to call her parents over to stay with her.

But, her present house is not spacious enough to accommodate the whole family. Now, in order to set things straight, Kangana is looking for a duplex flat between Bandra and Juhu.Ever since she shifted to Mumbai, Kangna has been living without her family.

Though, her elder sister Rangoli lives with Kangana, but the actress is not going to enjoy till she calls her entire family over.

On the eve of the game, Bangladesh announced the debut of right-arm seamer Shafiul Islam, from Bogra, who was one of the leading wicket-takers in club cricket. Bangladesh will naturally rely heavily on their spinners, though it will be interesting to see if they can grip the ball properly once the dew sets in.

There were no debutants for Sri Lanka, but a couple of changes were made to the side which faced India in New Delhi recently. Chamara Silva was recalled to bring a bit of experience to the middle order, which has struggled for consistency in recent times. Silva is a solid finisher and Sri Lanka needed an aggressive hand at the end of the innings. Nuwan Kulasekara, who looked out of sorts in India, was given a chance to make amends.

Sri Lanka: 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Thilan Samaraweera, 5 Thilina Kandamby, 6 Chamara Silva, 7 Suranga Lakmal, 8 Muthumudalige Pushpakumara, 9 Suraj Randiv, 10 Nuwan Kulasekara, 11 Chanaka Welagedera

Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Mohammad Ashraful, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Raqibul Hasan, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 8 Naeem Islam, 9 Abdur Razzak, 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Shafiul Islam