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A gutsy-half century from Nathan McCullum guided New Zealand to 206 against Australia in a World Cup Group A match here Friday.

Nathan (52) and captain Daniel Vettori (44) added a valuable 54 runs for the eighth wicket that helped New Zealand recover from a precarious 73 for six on a damp wicket at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium in Jamtha here. Once the partnership was broken, New Zealand folded up quickly in in 45.1 overs.

Heavy overnight rain prompted Australian captain Ricky Ponting to field and his fast bowlers made the dents with a wayward Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson sharing seven wickets between them. Tait had figures of three for 35 from seven overs while Johnson ended with four for 33 from 9.1 overs.

Though there was not a great deal of movement, the New Zealand batsmen failed to apply themselves on the moist pitch and only had themselves to blame for playing rash strokes.

Pace spearhead Brett Lee opened with a maiden, but his new ball partner Tait gave away nine runs in the second over, including a four by Brendon McCullum (16).
In his next over, Tait again found himself at the receiving end of Brendon's fury with two crisply-timed fours, but the wicketkeeper-batsman mistimed the fourth ball and holed out to Jason Krejza at the third-man boundary.

Opener Martin Guptil crawled to 10 before being bowled out by Shane Watson and double strikes from Johnson in the 14th over removed Jesse Ryder (25) and James Franklin in a space of three deliveries.

Ryder, who struck six fours, hardly moved his feet during his 31-ball knock and edged Johnson to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin. Franklin, who was promoted up the order, departed in a similar way chasing a wide delivery.

Veteran Scott Styris went for a wide slash off Tait and edged to Haddin while Ross Taylor's (7) stumps were rattled by a fast in-swinging yorker from Tait.

Nathan and Jamie How (22) then added 48-runs for the seventh wicket that helped New Zealand cross the 100-run mark. Nathan struck three fours in his 76-ball stay while Vettori hit five fours during his valuable 43-ball knock.

US space shuttle Discovery has lifted off on its final scheduled flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to deliver a storage room to the International Space Station (ISS). According to NASA TV, the

shuttle blasted off at 4.53 pm (2153 GMT) on Thursday. "Good to be here", Discovery Command
er Steve
Lindsey radioed soon after the three main engines shut off and the external fuel tank was jettisoned.


After eight and a half minutes, Discovery reached orbit and was on its way to the station, Xinhua reported.

Discovery will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module to the station, a spare module that will provide additional storage for the station crew.

The mission will feature two spacewalks to do maintenance work and install new components. The Robonaut 2 (or R2), the first human like robot in space after flying on Discovery, will become a permanent resident of the station.

Discovery was supposed to lift off on November 1, 2010, but gas leaks, electrical problems and bad weather forced NASA to postpone its launch.

This is the 39th flight for Discovery, the first of the three surviving space shuttles to be retired this year. It has logged 230 million km since its first flight in 1984.

The Swiss government has frozen all assets of a bellicose Muammar Gaddafi and his associates with immediate effect to prevent misappropriation while the autocratic regime is still in office in Libya.

A government order issued last evening blocked the assets of Gaddafi and 28 other members of his clan, including his wife Safia al-Barrasi, his sons and his only daughter Aisha as well as several relatives and leaders.

"In view of the developments, the Federal Council has decided to block with immediate effect any possible assets of Muammer Gaddafi and his entourage in Switzerland," the Swiss foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the past weeks, the Swiss government had frozen the assets of the ousted Tunisian President Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, but only after they were swept out of office by the popular uprisings against their regimes.

The Swiss government has been following with great concern the use of force against anti-government demonstrators by Gaddafi's regime and the civil war-like situation, which in the last few days claimed hundreds of lives and caused injuries to numerous other people, the statement said.

The government condemns in sharpest terms the Libyan regime's use of force against the country's population to suppress their demands for a democratic change, it said.

The statement said freezing of the Libyan assets is a precautionary measure to protect them from the "risk of misappropriation" by the regime.

The government's decision bans with immediate effect the sale or any kind of transfer of Gaddafi assets, including properties, for a period of three years.

Media reports said huge assets of the Gaddafi clans are not expected in Switzerland because billions of dollars of Libyan funds deposited in the Swiss banks were already transferred in the wake of a diplomatic crisis between the two countries following the arrest of Gaddafi's son Hannibal in Geneva in July 2008.

According to the estimates of the Swiss National Bank, Libyan deposits in the Swiss banks shrank from 5.7 billion francs to 630 million francs as a result of the transfer. It is still unclear how much wealth belongs to the Gaddafi clan, the reports said.

Actor-politician Vijaykanth has decided to join hands with Jayalalithaa to take on DMK chief Karunanidhi in the upcoming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. The decision came on AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa's birthday yesterday.

Vijaykanth's six-year-old DMDK, originally formed as an alternative to both the DMK and the AIADMK, had around ten percent vote share in the last Lok Sabha polls.

"To take a political stand is one thing and to share seats is another. We want to oust the DMK government and that is why we have joined the AIADMK," said Panruti Ramachandran, DMDK Presidium Chairman.

Jayalalithaa already has the support of the MDMK, the communists and Pudhiya Tamizhagam. The ruling DMK meanwhile has firmed up its ties with the Congress, the PMK and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal.

With Vijaykanth's birthday gift to Jayalalithaa, the alliance arithmetic of the Dravidian arch rivals has turned formidable and clear. As both sides work on the nitty-gritty of number of seats, the political temperature in the state is set to soar.

Libyan government has given landing clearance for two Air India planes per day from Saturday for evacuation of Indian nationals, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said here today.


He said two flights have been given clearance to operate by Libyan authorities for ten days.



"As per schedule informed by Air India today, two flights per day from tomorrow to March 7 will be operated," the minister said.


He said the country has also requested the Libyan government to extend the flight clearance if the evacuation was not completed within the given time period.



India had already chartered ships to evacuate its nationals numbering about 18,000 in strife-torn Libya and they have set sail from Egypt. India was also considering dispatching three warships including its largest amphibious vessel INS Jalashwa.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today questioned former Telecom Minister Arun Shourie as part of its ongoing 2G Spectrum scam probe to find out possible criminal aspects and irregularities in the telecom policy since 2001.

Shourie appeared before the CBI to explain his role in awarding licenses on the 'first come first serve' basis and other crucial policy decisions taken during his term.

Shourie had held the telecom portfolio between January 2003 and May 2004 during the NDA regime.

Earlier this month, Shourie had been approached by the CBI, asking him to appear before it in connection with the Preliminary Enquiry (PE) registered by the agency following the Supreme Court's direction.

Officials said that the PE was registered against "unknown persons" with an aim to ascertain whether the "first-come-first-serve basis" provision passed by the then Cabinet led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was followed or not.

Last year the Supreme Court had directed the agency to widen the scope of its investigation to cover the grant of licenses by both the NDA and the UPA regimes between 2001-2007 and submit a report.

Shourie is expected to explain his role in awarding licenses to operators on the first come-first-serve basis and other important telecom policy decisions taken during his term.

According to the CBI, nearly 50 licenses were given on the first-come-first-serve basis and Bharti, Vodafone and Idea were among the beneficiaries of the policy.

The CBI will look into the documents of the companies who have been awarded the contracts as part of the investigation and is likely to go over the minutes of the meetings held by successive telecom ministers, which include the late Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran.

India's railways minister vowed to support the "common people" as she unveiled her third annual budget on Friday that promised to invest 576.3 billion rupees ($12.68 billion) in the network in the financial year 2011/12.

The railways budget could be a possible barometer of Monday's national budget when the government is expected to present a populist spending programme to help it contain voter anger over inflation and corruption ahead of key state elections.

Mamata Banerjee , an ally of the ruling Congress party, pushed private sector involvement in the network with initiatives such as setting up wagon factories with private partners. She also unveiled plans for a 700 MW captive gas-based power plant.

But, with an eye on winning elections later this year in the populous state of West Bengal that would shore up support for a government under fire over a string of corruption scandals, she kept focus on making the network affordable for the common man.

"We have taken a two-point approach," Banerjee told parliament. "On the one hand by sustainable, efficient and rapidly growing Indian Railways, and on the other, by an acute sense of social responsibility towards the common people of this nation."

"We have attempted to combine a strong economic focus ... with a human face," she added.

The creaking railway system has suffered from decades of low investment and unimaginative policies and fallen far behind emerging market peer China in building a network fit for Asia's third-largest economy.

Banerjee was criticised before her third budget for a refusal to tinker with low passenger fares and enthusiasm for flagging off new passenger trains, crowd-pleasing measures that put strain the sector's finances and derailed freight growth.

Singh's government plans to spend $1.5 trillion on infrastructure over a decade to slash its huge power shortages and unclog supply bottlenecks that have slowed India's rapid growth and helped stoke inflation. Railways could end up a laggard as the network receives 5 percent of funds from private money, the lowest figure of any major infra sector.

Any problem watch here

BJP leader L.K. Advani on Friday apologised to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi over her name being mentioned in a party report on black money.

Advani wrote to Sonia and regretted her family being dragged into the black money issue.

Advani regrets dragging Sonia's family name into black money issue
Sonia had written to Advani after the BJP's task force on black money alleged that she had accounts in foreign banks. She clarified that she did not hold any offshore accounts.


In his letter, Advani said he wished Sonia's clarification had come earlier. "While I wish the clarification had come earlier, I regret your family's name being dragged into this," the letter said.

The BJP has been hammering the UPA government over alleged inaction on black money stashed in Swiss accounts. The government has been pulled up on the issue by the Supreme Court as well.

In his interaction with TV editors on Wednesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that his government was working on treaties with several nations to get information on black money kept abroad.