External Affairs Minister S M Krishna began crucial talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar on Saturday to review the second round of resumed dialogue with issues like terrorism to be on top of the agenda.

The one-to-one meeting between Krishna and Khar was followed by delegation-level talks between the two sides.

Indian officials earlier said that terrorism will form the core of New Delhi's discussions, particularly the slow pace of the Mumbai attack case trial.

The Hague, Sep 7: A prosecution witness in the trial of wartime Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic has said she witnessed Serb paramilitary forces raping Muslim women in 1992.

The protected witness, listed as RM-032, told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that the rapes took place in Mladic's hometown of Kalinovik.

Dozens of women were detained in a Kalinovik school from July to September 1992 and paramilitary forces regularly came to take them out and rape them, she said.

"Some of the girls taken away never returned," she said.

Maria Sharapova refused to lick her wounds after her US Open semi-final loss to Victoria Azarenka, opting instead for the consoling taste of a New York-style vanilla ice cream.
The Russian insists her casual response to failing yet again to make the final of a tournament she last
conquered in 2006 is an indication of a new, mature Maria, one learning to take defeat, as well as victory, in her stride.

"I'm looking forward to checking out the ice cream truck that's around the corner from my hotel. Vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. It has been haunting me," said Sharapova.

"I'm telling the driver, like, 'Get out of here. I can't look at you anymore.' So I'll have time for that."

Sharapova -- whose Grand Slam title haul remains at four from wins at Wimbledon in 2004, New York two years later, the Australian Open in 2008 and this year's French Open -- believes her new, easy-come, easy-go attitude is a legacy of her battles with a career-threatening shoulder injury.

At half past 11, just as the players trickled into the dressing room after a warm-up game of football, Yuvraj Singh held Harbhajan Singh’s legs in jest. Bhajji raised his hand as if to bless his team mate. Cameras caught the act of bonhomie and the two walked away laughing. Moments later,

Bhajji looked at the stands and said, “aap sab ko aashirwaad. Sau saal jiyo (Bless you all, live for a hundred years).”

Yuvraj shouted, “Marna bhi chaaho gey to nahin maroge. (Even if you want to die, you won’t).” Although it was in a lighter vein, it didn’t evoke laughter from the handful of people, who were looking at someone who’d just won a fight to live.

Tighten your purses because petrol is likely to get dearer by Rs.5. According to sources the oil ministry has agreed to the demands of Oil Marketing Firms (OMCs) and the price hike will be anytime on Friday.

Incidentally, the oil ministry may actually allow OMCs to announce the hike.

According to sources, the government gave OMCs the okay to increase prices just after the monsoon session of the Parliament, which is slated to end on Friday. While there is no confirmation on the quantum of the hike, sources said after number crunching OMCs indicated an increase in the range of Rs.4 to Rs.5 per litre.

The CBI may ask some chief ministers and ex-chief ministers to spell out why their governments recommended some private-sector companies, which were later found to be ineligible, for coal block allocations. As most of the coal allocations under the CBI scanner have been made in


Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa , their respective CMs — Raman Singh, Arjun Munda and Naveen Patnaik — and two Jharkhand ex-CMs — Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren — may be questioned.

The vice-principal of Don Bosco School at Bandel in West Bengal’s Hooghly district was on Thursday sent to seven days in judicial custody for assaulting seven students with a can of foam. Subir Mondal was arrested on Wednesday after the boys’ parents filed a police complaint.

Mondal had found the class 4 students playing with a can of foam. He seized the can and hit them on their heads. Two of the students bled profusely and had to be given several stitches.

Accepting the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention, Obama gave a more down-to-earth follow-up to his 2008 "hope and change" message. Weighed down by wars, high unemployment and political gridlock, he projected a tone that was more subdued, less exuberant.

Obama told Americans they face starkly different paths in choosing between him and Romney in the November 6 election. He said his way may be hard but will bring economic renewal.

"America, I never said this journey would be easy, and I won't promise that now," he said. "Yes our path is harder - but it leads to a better place. Yes, our road is longer, but we travel it together."

Large contingents of the Pakistan army and local police have been moved to one of the country’s biggest nuclear facilities at Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province fearing a Taliban strike, a local daily reported Thursday. Later in the day, the bodies of three terrorists were recovered from
a building 30km from the plant, police said. An officer said the facility was the target but the terrorists’ suicide vests malfunctioned and exploded.

The Express Tribune, quoting a Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission official, said red alert was sounded at the military site after the ISI intercepted a phone call in which Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan men were heard discussing a suicide attack.

The government and army have not commented on the report.

Tendulkar, 39, was clean bowled three times out of three in the just-concluded two Test-series between India and New Zealand, triggering a spate of negative comments. Even Manjrekar and Sunil Gavaskar, who were doing television commentary when Tendulkar was bowled in the first innings of the second Test, questioned his lack of foot movement.

Now, Manjrekar says Tendulkar still adds value to the batting line-up and must be part of the team in the four-Test series against England at home.

Also a Mumbaikar like Tendukar, Manjrekar argued that the maestro was not first one to have struggled with full-length deliveries.