World number one Roger Federer slumped to a surprise 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 defeat by unheralded Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the second round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday. Top seed Federer, who had a first-round bye, made an unusual high number of unforced errors to fall to the unseeded Benneteau, ranked 49th in the world.
Announcing the measures, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the Reserve Bank of India had agreed to release Rs 25,000 crore immediately to lending institutions.
Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo scored two goals apiece and defender Luisao was also on target as Benfica thumped Everton 5-0 in the Europa League on Thursday.
Premier League clubs return to Champions League action next week with fans and bookmakers both believing a winner will emerge from last season's finalists of Manchester United and Chelsea.
To avoid risk of consolidation leading to concentration of assets.
Some experts say that if there is a perception that the industry you are working for is likely to suffer in this meltdown, banks may want to reduce their exposure to you on a war-footing, something employees in financial, automobile and business process outsourcing sectors discovered last year.
India will seek continuance of the stimulus package that was devised to get the global economy out of the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh on Friday pitching at the same time strongly against any attempts at protectionism and advocating reforms of the international financial institutions.
UEFA Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk thrashed Club Bruges 4-1 away on Thursday when top-level football began experimenting with five-man refereeing teams in the opening Europa League group stage games.
Turkey goalkeeper Rustu Recber has announced his international retirement following Wednesday's 3-2 defeat by Germany in the Euro 2008 semi-finals. The match in Basel, which the Turks were unlucky to lose, was his 118th final cap.
Philipp Lahm scored a 90th minute winner to give Germany a thrilling 3-2 victory over Turkey on Wednesday and a place in the Euro 2008 final.
The excitement is building in Germany which has about 2.7 million people of Turkish origin, more than in any other country in western Europe.
Semih Senturk has scored both his Euro 2008 goals after coming off the bench but the Turkey forward has no qualms about starting the semi-final against Germany.
The 23-year-old has reinvented himself as a midfielder to great effect, scoring three times and playing a key role in the quarter-final win over Portugal.
Turkey beat Croatia 3-1 on penalties after their Euro 2008 quarter-final finished 1-1 following extra-time on Friday. They will meet Germany, who beat Portugal 3-2 on Thursday, in the first semi in Basel on Wednesday.
Turkey showed their battling qualities in the group stages, rallying from 1-0 down to defeat Switzerland 2-1 and scoring three times in the last 15 minutes against Czech Republic to snatch a thrilling 3-2 win.
Germany moved up a gear after some unconvincing group games to beat Portugal 3-2 on Thursday and advance to the semi-finals of Euro 2008.
Russia produced their best performance of Euro 2008 just when it was most needed on Wednesday, beating Sweden 2-0 to snatch second place in Group D and earn a quarter-final meeting with Netherlands. Russia, who had never beaten Sweden in their five previous meetings spanning 95 years, had to win to progress while a draw would have been enough for the Scandinavians to advance.
Second-half goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie gave Netherlands a 2-0 triumph over Romania on Tuesday, wrecking their hopes of qualifying for the Euro 2008 quarter-finals. Huntelaar sidefooted home in the 54th minute from a right-wing cross by Ibrahim Afellay and Van Persie made sure of victory with a fierce left-foot drive in the 87th after expertly controlling a free kick by Demy de Zeeuw.
Michael Ballack struck a thunderbolt free kick to send an unconvincing Germany through to the Euro 2008 quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over co-hosts Austria on Monday.
The Indian cricketer presented Hakan Yakin with the man of the match trophy after the Euro 2008 game between Switzerland and Portugal.
Switzerland will get a rare chance to grab the limelight when the joint hosts and rank outsiders face Czech Republic in Saturday's Euro 2008 opener.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has just won a Champions League and Premier League double with Manchester United, could complete a remarkable treble of winners' medals by leading Portugal to victory in Euro 2008 this month. The 23-year-old winger, who scored 42 goals in all competitions for United last season, will be the key as Portugal look to ease their way past co-hosts Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Turkey in Group A in Basel and Geneva.
In a move that may take some sheen off derivative deals, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday proposed to increase the provisioning requirements for banks for off-balance sheet items such as forex and interest-rate derivatives and gold trading. Higher provisioning will make bankers cautious while hawking derivatives, which have been the source of growing controversy between some banks and companies, since they will now be required to set aside more capital and raise costs.
Patrick Mueller's decision to leave Olympique Lyon without permission to play for his national team last week was rewarded on Wednesday with a place in Switzerland's 23-man squad for Euro 2008.
Liverpool have signed Borussia Dortmund's Switzerland defender Philipp Degen.
Flamboyant Bollywood actor John Abraham has been roped in as brand ambassador for the UEFA European Football Championship 2008, to be held next month in Switzerland and Austria. Making the announcement, Managing Director ESPN Software India R C Venkateish, unveiled a detailed promotional campaign Bach Ke Kahan Jaoge for the tournament, which kicks-off on June 7.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated talks with accounting standards regulator Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to advance the mandatory implementation of accounting standards for derivatives transactions by Indian banks and companies from its present 2011 deadline.
Basel-II mandates banks to set aside more capital for advances to unrated companies. From Apr 09, the problem will grow bigger since all loans above Rs 20 cr will require similar treatment unless companies get themselves rated. Basel-II is the 2nd of the global banking accords that provide banks with guidelines to measure various types of risk they take. Indian banks have to be Basel-II-compliant from this fiscal. Banks will have to assign 20% risk weight to AAA-rated firms.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles' lost to Mike and Bob Bryan in the finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
While banks are busy firming up business plans for 2008-09, some of them have already conveyed to the Reserve Bank of India about prospects of a moderation in the credit growth. In March, many banks held talks with RBI on resource conditions and growth prospects. In fact, Bank of India has already scaled down the estimate for the current financial year to 17-18 per cent compared with the 24 per cent rise it had targeted in the just-concluded financial year.
So, Tim Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, is fighting chronic uncertainty with transparency. The results of the "stress tests", an exercise to identify undercapitalised banks so the government can make sure they have enough capital to recover, will be announced on Thursday.
Swiss world number one Roger Federer, a three-times champion at Indian Wells, said he is happy with his game on Friday after recovering from a recent viral problem. Federer, top seed at this week's Pacific Life Open, has competed in only two ATP events this season after succumbing to mononucleosis at the end of last year.
The Indian challenge at the Swiss Super Series badminton tournament ended with Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal going down to their more fancied rivals.
The world number one, who has won 12 Grand Slam titles, said his aim is also to surpass Pete Sampras's record of 14.
RBI has underlined the need for effective risk control mechanism in banks to avoid scams and banking frauds.
The Reserve Bank of India has finally cleared the long-pending transfer of Thailand-based Surachan Chawla's 38 per cent stake in Catholic Syrian Bank.
Have the supervisory agencies in the main financial centres learnt their lesson and adjusted their policies accordingly
Former UEFA Cup winners Galatasaray and Bayer Leverkusen will meet in the first knockout round of the UEFA Cup with a possible clash with Hamburg SV awaiting the winners.
Andy Roddick put USA's Davis Cup win over Russia on par with his 2003 US Open title
The government may infuse about Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) as equity capital in nationalised banks in addition to an identical amount in the country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI). Nationalised banks with the government holding closer to the floor of 51 per cent are likely to receive the capital infusion support.