'The man who never knows when he is beaten deserved, on the day he played what will be his last World Cup game, mates who were not beaten in the mind before they were beaten on the field.' Prem Panicker salutes 'India's best one day captain by a long margin who led superbly throughout the tournament.'

Photos from the ICC World Cup match played between South Africa and Ireland on Tuesday.

In his penultimate State of the Union address, Barack Obama said that the economy is improving.

The year gone by saw the high and mighty of the corporate world face the music in the Delhi High Court which held that the telecom majors are amenable to CAG audit and Mukesh Ambani's RIL struggling hard to get rid of an FIR lodged on gas pricing by the 49-day-old AAP regime.

These yoga practices will help you manage your metabolism in peak condition.

Kumar Sangakkara laid the foundation before Angelo Mathews completed a nervy chase as Sri Lanka beat England by six wickets in the fourth One-Day International.

More than two decades on as an onscreen devil, this action star refuses to slow down!

David Warner's third consecutive Test century could not stop Pakistan from taking control of the first Test against Australia on Friday after the tourists squandered a strong start and were all out for 303 in their first innings.

Markets ended flat, amid a volatile trading session, as investors booked profit at higher levels.

'Imagine a scenario where a terror strike by Pakistan-supported jihadis causes thousands of deaths in India. India in retaliation destroys terror camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.' 'There is a clamour for revenge in Pakistan and that country begins to fuel its missiles for a nuclear strike against India and that is detected by Indian satellites.' 'No sane government in India will then wait for the nuclear bombs to fall on Delhi before launching its own strike. To be effective, this may well involve nuclear weapons.' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) says the change in the 'No First Use' pledge in the BJP manifesto is long overdue.

This is a brisk, enjoyable film, and while the climactic race is somewhat marred by an overdose of melodrama - Gupte's far better at subtler strokes than the few broad ones he tries - it is rare to find a Hindi film hero more deserving of our cheers than Arjun. That unfortunate hint of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag in the final race doesn't alter the fact that this is an earnest, important and evocative film.

L K Advani's observation on Narendra Modi, an attempt to cut the BJP's prime ministerial nominee down to size, billing him a mere event manager like Vijay Raaz in Mira Nair's film Monsoon Wedding, speaks volumes about their differences... In the coming days, the Congress and BJP may lock horns over the AgustaWestland chopper deal. In an Italian court, Guido Haschke, one of the accused middlemen who allegedly bribed the Indian side, has sought a plea bargain to reduce his jail term if convicted. On or around April 11, we will know how much Haschke is ready to reveal. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt detects which way the political wind is blowing these days.

Former Indian Army chief General V K Singh on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and claimed that it was the only "nationalist" party in India.

IT and pharma companies again save the day; mask pain in domestic consumption.

'No one talks about the Mumbai riots anymore, though like Delhi 1984, the guilty have not been punished. In Gujarat, many powerful leaders of the state's ruling party are in jail for their role in the riots... In Mumbai, only one politician of the Shiv Sena, a former MP, was convicted of hate speech, along with two other Shiv Sainiks, one of whom was a corporator and the other a junior functionary... So why the apathy? Could it be because despite these statistics and the widely-publicised findings of the Srikrishna Commission, what remained in public consciousness was the violence by the Muslims, thanks to a highly efficient Sena propaganda machine? There's no demand for it, but would an SIT probe into the closed cases of the Mumbai riots help today?' The fadeout of Mumbai's riots from public debate can be called a triumph of the communal State, argues Jyoti Punwani.

'With any luck and a certain amount of rationality, we should be able to survive,' historian Antony Beevor tells Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya. 'We should learn that genocides and elimination of minorities achieve nothing and only sets a nation back. If we don't learn from our mistakes, then humanity doesn't deserve a chance to survive.'

Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot intoned, "Recent incidents will certainly dampen business confidence and investment sentiment, both domestic and foreign; and perhaps also negatively affect decision making by bureaucrats and policy makers."

Voters in Sri Lanka's Tamil majority Northern Province on Saturday began voting in the first local elections in 25 years to elect a council to govern the former war zone, four years after the military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after decades of bloody civil war.

Chelsea rode their luck to emerge with a second win in as many English Premier League games on Wednesday after Branislav Ivanovic escaped a red card and then his marker to head them to a 2-1 win over Aston Villa.

Shikhar Dhawan capitalised on three reprieves to slam his third ODI century as India crushed Zimbabwe by 58 runs in the second One-dayer in Harare on Friday.

His action after the Godhra train violence doesn't support the picture of an effective and no-nonsense deliverer of good governance, says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

Officers at Army headquarters say the chief has personally initiated this reshuffle, reports Ajai Shukla

India's post 2014 Afghanistan policy appears to be glued to the best-case scenarios of a successful democratic transition. New Delhi hopes that it would remain 'business as usual' and would not necessitate a drastic revisiting of its continuing strategy. This, in short, is a strategy of convenience, says Shanthie Mariet D'Souza.

'Indian diplomacy should be allowed a free hand and politicians should step aside. It is difficult to see that happening, but it can happen -- and it should in the spirit of a mature democracy,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

India's regional policy has fallen between the two stools of pragmatism and principle. It's time India revisited and rectified its approach. Relations with neighbours deserve nothing less, says Praful Bidwai.

Ajai Shukla gives the inside story of the controversial AW-101 helicopter deal and finds that corruption is endemic to overseas defence deals in India

Subsciption costs $100 for up to five devices for home users.

Noted American experts and analysts argue that Foreign Terrorist Organisation designation of the Haqqani Network is meaningless unless Pakistan's intelligence agency is reined it. Aziz Haniffa reports

Oh My God is a brave and absorbing blend of satire, fable and fantasy that brings our attention to the misuse and commercialisation of religion, writes Sukanya Verma.

Markets ended in the red after a lacklustre session of trade, owing to soft cues from global peers. The Sensex after touching a high of 17,912, slipped back into the red and ended at 17,847 - down 38 points. Nifty ended down eight points at 5,413.

The official premise that Maoism is India's 'greatest internal security threat' is profoundly mistaken. The Maoists aren't about to capture power, destroy India's unity, or undermine her security. They pose a civil law-and-order problem, which should be tackled by normal police methods, says Praful Bidwai.

Let the Jaitleys and Swarajs struggle for political supremacy while Modi can be the power behind the throne. In short, he could play the Sonia Gandhi card. In a country so enamoured with symbolism, that may yet prove to be a political masterstroke, says Rohit Pradhan.

'The public perception at this stage of the battle is that the victory thus far belongs to Anna and his followers, but in reality it may turn out to be a victory of mixed proportions,' says B Raman.

As long as millions of our poorest, hungriest, youngest and oldest citizens continue to get the short end of the stick, we will remain nothing but a hollow version of a democratic nation, says Sanchari Bhattacharya as India readies itself to celebrate its 64th Independence Day.

Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been fined $34 million for "damaging the economy" by enforcing a shutdown of telephone and internet connections during the country's popular uprising. In the first clear ruling against the 83-year-old Egyptian dictator since he left office in February, a Cairo court slapped a fine of $34 million (20 million pounds) for cutting off access to internet and mobile phone services.

Veteran Sourav Ganguly marked his belated return to the Indian Premier League with a gutsy batting display as Pune Warriors notched a comfortable six-wicket victory over Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Pakistani journalist and Rediff.com contributor Hamid Mir interviewed Osama bin Laden thrice. Mir, who works for Pakistan's Geo TV network, was the only journalist to interview bin Laden after 9/11.Hamid Mir, who is writing bin Laden's biography, reveals what the world's most wanted terrorist was really like.

Noting that the military action by the coalition forces has significantly degraded the ability of the Libyan regime to defend itself, United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the people themselves would throw Muammar Gaddafi out of power.

Zehra Cyclewala is a leading figure in the reformist movement against the tyranny of Syedna Burhanuddin, the head-priest (dai-e-mutlaq) of the Daudi Bohra Ismaili Shia sect. In a conversation with Yoginder Sikand, she relates the story of her decades-long personal struggle against priestly tyranny