Malawi, making their first African Nations Cup appearance for 26 years and only their second overall, stunned World Cup qualifiers Algeria 3-0 in their opening Group A match on Monday.

Travellers from 14 nations, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia flying into the United States will face additional screening starting Monday, US officials have said. The heightened security procedures include full body pat downs before boarding, checking of carry on baggage, and random checks on US bound flights.

From additional details of the terror attempt on December 25 by a Nigerian member of Al Qaeda to cause an explosion in a plane of the US North-West Airlines flying from Amsterdam to Detroit as it was approaching Detroit to land there, it is evident that it was not a lone wolf terrorist attempt by an angry individual to give vent to his anger against the United States.

The 2010 football World Cup draw pits Brazil with Portugal, Ivory Coast and N Korea in the same group.

France striker Thierry Henry could be banned from the start of the World Cup finals next year after FIFA president Sepp Blatter said his blatant handball against Ireland would be investigated by the world body.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said its flagship export model, A-Star, has crossed one lakh-mark of overseas shipments in less than a year of selling the car in the global markets.

France, World Cup winners in 1998 and finalists in 2006, missed out on a place in the eight top seeds for Friday's draw, announced by FIFA on Wednesday.

India's space agency has in its pipeline eight foreign satellites for launch and is scouting to acquire such spacecraft from abroad to expand capacity in the field of communication transponder back home.

Whatever surprises the draw for South Africa 2010 provides in Cape Town on December 4, the path to glory at the first African World Cup will be a familiar one.

FIFA will hold an extraordinary meeting before next month's World Cup draw to discuss Thierry Henry's handball in the qualifiers and the discovery of a match-fixing ring by German police.

The final line-up of teams for next year's World Cup in South Africa was settled on Wednesday after six drama-charged play-offs on three different continents.

Cameroon and Nigeria reached the World Cup finals on Saturday but the last available African berth for the 2010 finals was left hanging by a dramatic last-gasp goal in Cairo.

The eighth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy ended on October 12 attracting bids for 36 out of the 70 areas that had been offered.

Talisman Didier Drogba came off the bench to secure Ivory Coast a place in the World Cup finals with a 1-1 draw against Malawi on Saturday.

In a move to boost export of automobiles from India, the government has announced additional incentives on overseas shipments of cars and good carriers to 13 countries, including Australia and Brazil.

'It will get worse if we continue to behave like it is business as usual. At all levels at the central, state official level and the people's level, we are not treating it as seriously as we should' says Ashok Jaitly, director of water resources at The Energy Resources Institute.

Noted Indian filmmaker and human rights activist Tapan Bose believes the only way there can be some progress towards a resolution of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan is through third party intervention.

'I believe that the world is headed for the biggest health crisis ever because of the lack of transparency.'

China on Wednesday responded to reports claiming that Al Qaeda would target Chinese interests overseas to avenge the killings of Muslims in the Urumqi riots recently.

Top TV director and producer Rajan Shahi lists his favourite shows.

Amid uncertainty and global gloom, there is good news round the corner as the job market in India is showing substantive signs of recovery with the current hiring level soaring to as much as 47 per cent, a study says.

This financial year will not be easy, mainly due to lack of pricing opportunities. Still, if volume growth remains robust, profit expansion will be good, says Dabur India CEO Sunil Duggal.

United States President Barack Obama has nominated US ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O Blake, who has also served as the Deputy Chief of US Mission in New Delhi, as the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. If approved by the US Senate, Blake would replace Richard Boucher, who is currently Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs. However, the communique did not mention Central Asia being part of Blake's portfolio.

Foreign Service Officer Robert Orris Blake, Jr, who is currently the United States' Ambassador to Sri Lanka, before which he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in New Delhi from 2003 to 2006, is the top contender for the post of the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, currently held by diplomat Richard Boucher.

Jihadi terrorism emanating from the sanctuaries in Pakistani territory has assumed a pan-subcontinental dimension equally threatening all the countries of the subcontinent -- Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is time these countries constitute a common counter-terrorism brains trust to deal with this threat jointly, says B Raman

Nicole Vaidisova became the first woman to be fined at this year's Australian Open on Friday, joining 18 men penalised for bad behaviour at the season's first Grand Slam. The Czech received a $2,000 penalty from the International Tennis Federation for failing to appear at a news conference after her 6-2, 6-1 first round loss to Severine Bremond of France.

The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch four foreign satellites this year as it seeks to make further inroads into the international satellite-building and launch services market in 2009.

Three major undersea cables -- the Sea Me We 4, Sea Me We3, and FLAG -- were cut, considerably slowing down India's internet and voice traffic. The extent of the damage is still being assessed.

Arriving in Oran, Algeria, ahead of an Opec ministerial meeting on Wednesday, Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia's powerful oil minister, said Opec had so far cut a total of 1.7m barrels a day, with Saudi Arabia accounting for 1.2m b/d.

The world economy will consume in the next five years far less oil than previously assumed, the western countries' energy watchdog said on Friday in a further sign of the impact of the global economic crisis on commodities markets.

Two first-half goals by Steven Gerrard gave Liverpool a 2-1 win at Olympique Marseille in their opening Champions League Group D match on Tuesday.

Indian pugilists had mixed fortune with medal prospect Vijender Kumar breezing into the second round of the 75kg category while compatriot Dinesh Kumar's campaign in 81kg was knocked out in the first round at the Beijing Olympic on Saturday.

Indian fertiliser companies are planning to invest around $5 billion (Rs 21,000 crore -- Rs 210 billion) in overseas joint ventures over the next three years. These companies are in negotiations for 19 such ventures, said government officials. These joint ventures are aimed at sourcing nitrogenous, phosphatic fertilisers and other raw materials.

India has received a positive response from the Non-Aligned Movement countries, which are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group on the Indo-US nuclear deal after it briefed them on the safeguards agreement, which the global nuclear watchdog will consider on Friday.

Reliance Industries, India's most alued company, and state-run GAIL India will next week mount pitch with Qatar for jointly setting up a $.3 billion mega petrochemical plant in the gas rich nation.

The life and times of the famed Leftist revolutionary Che Guevara.

An IB dossier on the organisation indicates that SIMI split in 2006. The IB says SIMI provides logistical support to the Laskhar-e-Tayiba and Harkat-ul-Jihadi.

Oil billionaire T Boone Pickens has predicted that crude oil will touch $150 soon. And he also says the one commodity that will grow bigger than oil is natural gas. In the last one year, natural gas prices across the world, especially in the US, UK and Russia have more than doubled.

"We are ready with our money but it's so difficult to get a business visa to India,'' said Dr Abdul Rahman A Al Rabiah, managing director of Alrabiah, a consulting and engineering services company. Quoting instances, Rehman said, "Business leaders who have five-year multi-entry visa into the UK and Europe are merely given a three-month visa for India.''

Wheat is among the planet's most important food crops, but it has a natural enemy that can turn the crop into a black tangle of broken stems. Cornell University hopes a new $26.8 million grant can help them combat the emergence of deadly new strains of rust disease and help avert a pandemic that could produce catastrophic wheat crop losses worldwide.