Yuki Bhambri and Arjun won a silver medal each in tennis and discus throw respectively as Indians returned their best medal haul of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games on the seventh day of the competition in Singapore on Saturday.

Yuki Bhambri pulled off an upset victory to storm into the final of the tennis event but the hoopsters and swimmers came up with disappointing performances on a mixed day for the Indians in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore on Thursday.

Yuki Bhambri braved cramps to get the better of Ireland's John Morrissey and enter the semi-finals in the boys' singles of the tennis event at the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore on Wednesday. The sixth seed Indian defeated Morrissey 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals at Kallang Tennis Centre.

The Indian men maintained their winning spree despite their spearhead Achanta Sharath Kamal losing a tie, while the women suffered their third successive defeat in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow on Tuesday. India defeated Argentina 3-1 to register their third win on the trot in the men's section while their women, after losing to Denmark and Malaysia earlier, went down to group leaders Turkey 1-3.

Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal's impressive form helped Indian men register their second successive victory, while their women counterparts continued their dismal performance in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow on Monday.

Securing a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council is India's top priority for the year and it seems "eminently doable" with India putting a concerted effort, Indian envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri has said.

Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta finished joint first at the Reykjavik International Open Chess Tournament after playing out a quick draw with local star Hannes Stefansson in the ninth and final round in Iceland on Thursday.

India inched closer to getting a non-permanent seat on the 15-member UNSC with its sole competitor from Asia, Kazakhstan, backing out of the crucial race.

VfL Wolfsburg striker Grafite is optimistic the German side have the team spirit to end Manchester United's impressive Champions League home record when the sides meet in Group B on Wednesday.

European champions Spain continued to set the standard on Saturday when they along with Italy, Germany and the Netherlands took a significant stride towards next year's World Cup finals. Spain, FIFA's top-ranked team, beat Turkey 1-0 in Madrid to stretch their unbeaten run to 30 matches and make it 15 points out of 15 in Group Five before they travel to Istanbul for the return fixture on Wednesday.

The recent bailout of Romania by the International Monetary Fund puts the spotlight back on the East European block of countries and what it means for the Western European banking sector. If evidence is anything to go by, things are turning for the worse. In fact, if a block of countries could be termed 'sub-prime', Eastern Europe seems to qualify as the countries seem to have been battered and bruised big time by the ongoing global financial turmoil.

The Indian men's and women's teams registered identical 3-1 victories over Czech Republic and Slovenia respectively, in the 10th and penultimate round of the 32nd Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, on Monday. The women's team, with 14 points, improved to joint-seventh while the men's team moved to joint-ninth place.

The Indian men's and women's teams scored identical 2.5-1.5 victories over Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy respectively, in the sixth round of the 32nd chess Olympiad now underway in Dresden, Germany. The Indian men moved to joint-third place with 10 points out of a possible 12 in the Open section and are now behind Russia and Armenia, who share the lead on 11 points each. The women took their tally to nine points and share sixth place.

Fascinating places with bad reputations: These places may have a bad rap -- but we think you'll have a great (and safe) vacation!

Croatia squad penpix for Euro 2008.

In its first ever list of World's Top 50 Microfinance Institutions, the US business magazine has named Bangalore-based Bandhan at the second position.

Thanks to celebrity activism and widespread media attention, the magazine notes, HIV, malaria and starvation are well-known diseases of the third world. But there's another resource-draining plague afflicting these countries - smoking.

In Moscow, Russia rallied to beat England 2-1 and keep their hopes alive for a berth in the finals.

Musharraf observed that military solution was not an answer to resolve the Kashmir issue as the option of using force to settle bilateral disputes between Pakistan and India never worked in the past.

Mittal, who is partnering HPCL for the project, will bring to the joint venture his vast expertise in project execution and unparalleled skills in managing governments.

The 54-year-old was offered an extension to his two-year contract and he accepted it.

India had a disappointing finish at the 37th Chess Olympiad in Italy.

Grandmaster Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine won the Dubai Open chess tournament on a better tie-break score.

India stands 40th in 'network readiness' in the world, having slipped from the 39th spot it held last year. However, it is above China (50th) and Pakistan (67th) and Sri Lanka (83rd).

Milosevic was facing 66 counts in connection with numerous crimes committed in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991 to 1999 when he was found dead in his cell on Saturday.

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'Whether in Kuwait, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, in Afghanistan, where the Muslim population was freed of one of the worst regimes in the 20th century, the Taliban,' says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Singapore is the world's most successful economy in exploiting ICT developments; US fifth, China 41st.

Indian men finished sixth after beating Bulgaria 2.5-1.5 in the 14th and final round of the 36th Chess Olympiad.

But their medal hopes remain dim after the 13th and penultimate round of the 36th Chess Olympiad.

P Harikrishna and S S Ganguly lost their games as India went down to defending champions Russia in the Chess Olympiad.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat Gabriel Sargissen to help the Indian men register a 2.5-1.5 victory over Armenia in the fifth round of the 36th Chess Olympiad.

The Indian Grandmaster beat GM Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan in the third round of the Masters' section in the Abu Dhabi Chess Festival.

The former world chess champion was held by immigration authorities for an apparent passport violation.

A UN report obtained by the Financial Times wants "substantial" international asistance for Afghanistan.

In the Global Corruption Index, a survey of 133 nations conducted by Transparency International (an anti-graft watchdog), India stood 83rd, recording a score of 2.8 out of 10.