Commerce, Connectivity, Consular and Community -- External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has urged Indian ambassadors in Central Asia to find ways to explore the massive potential that the strategically-important region offers. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, who travelled to Tajikistan with the foreign minister, reports.
Photos from the Champions League matches played across Europe on Tuesday
Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 7-6 in the first round of the Dubai tennis championships on Monday while US teenager Sloane Stephens was eliminated in three sets to cap a miserable debut trip to the Gulf.
Belgium make Wales wait after Hazard's strike, while Czechs beat Latvia to qualify
A battle-tested Serena Williams booked her spot in the semi-finals of the Toronto Cup on Friday after overcoming a sluggish start to grind out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Czech Lucie Safarova.
Balwinder Beniwal (64kg) was the third Indian boxer to make it to the semi-finals at the 2011 ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships in Incheon, South Korea. However, while the 2008 Youth Commonwealth gold medallist got in line for his second international medal with a resounding triumph, the other three Indian boxers in the fray, on Day 9 of the competition, fell by the wayside.
Commonwealth champion Paramjeet Samota (91kg) and CWG bronze medallist Amandeep Singh (49kg) advanced to the semi-finals of the 2011 ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships in Incheon, South Korea, on Monday. But there was disappointment for the Indian camp, as three other boxers lost in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Indian pugilists Lalitha Prasad Polipalli (48kg), Manish Kaushik (52kg) and Sandeep Kumar (57kg) continued their winning run, reaching the quarter-finals in the second AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Monday.
India's challenge at the China Open boxing tournament came to a close when Indian women pugilists Monica Suan (60kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) lost their respective semi-final bouts in the at the Guiyang Sports Gymnasium in Guiyang.
Olympian Jitender Kumar (56kg) and Santosh Harijan (52kg) lost in the semi-finals to settle for bronze medals in the 16th Elite Men's International Boxing Tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Dr Singh is in the Kazakh capital as part of his two-nation tour, which earlier took him to Sanya in China, where he attended the summit of Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa grouping.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday left for Kazakhstan, completing his three-day stay in Sanya during which he attended the BRICS Summit and held bilateral talks with the presidents of China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa.
Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta won a silver by pocketing seven points out of nine games while Tania Sachdev turned out to be the best woman performer for India with a bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad, that concluded in Istanbul Turkey on Sunday.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw as black against World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the seventh round of the 'A' group of 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee on Sunday.
Five-time world champion M C Mary Kom (51kg) and Kavita Goyat (75kg) assured India of at least two bronze medals in women's boxing by advancing to the semifinals with contrasting wins at the Asian Games, in Guangzhou on Monday.
World number one Rafa Nadal advanced to the semi-finals of the Thailand Open with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin on Friday.
With exactly a year left for the 2012 Olympics, in London, Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), founded by sports legends Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, had their new website unveiled by actor Deepika Padukone, in Delhi, on Tuesday. OGQ said it will be working closely with sports technology company Sports Mechanics to provide high-performance video analytical solutions to its athletes to aid their preparations.
M C Mary Kom (48kg) remained firmly on course for a historic fifth successive gold by advancing into the semi-finals along with Kavita (+81kg), to assure India two medals at the sixth Women's World Championship in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Riders were in a state of shock on the first rest day of the Tour de France after Sunday's chaotic and crash-strewn ninth stage.
Vijender Singh continues to scale new heights. The Beijing Olympics bronze medallist was given top billing in the middleweight category while three Indians were also seeded for the World Boxing Championships, starting in Milan on Tuesday.
Tejaswini Sawant scripted history on Sunday by becoming the first Indian woman shooter to clinch a gold medal at the World Championships with a world-record equalling score in the 50m Rifle Prone event in Munich, Germany.
"India has consistently articulated its desire to play a more constructive and meaningful role as an observer at the SCO," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said, addressing the 10th summit of the forum in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.
England secured an emphatic 4-0 victory in Kazakhstan on Saturday to move closer to qualifying for next year's World Cup finals.
Four-time world champion M C Mary Kom notched up her third Asian title while L Sarita Devi clinched her fourth, as Indian boxers finished fourth in the event with two gold, a silver and five bronze medals in Astana, Kazakhstan on Sunday.
Four-time world champion M C Mary Kom got a walkover after her semi-final opponent failed to turn up, while two others notched up contrasting wins to make the finals on a mixed day for Indian boxers in the Asian Women's Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Top seed Novak Djokovic eased into the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters with a 6-2, 6-3 win over France's Florent Serra on Wednesday. Serbian Djokovic will next face Stanislas Wawrinka, seeded 13th, for a place in the quarter-finals after the Swiss beat Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 6-1, 6-4.
India and Kazakhstan will soon wrap-up inter-governmental negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation, a move that came after meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kazakh President Noorsultan Nazarbayev.
Top seed and defending champion Vera Zvonareva booked her place in the final of the Pattaya Open on Saturday after a tough 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova. Zvonareva will meet home favourite Tamarine Tanasugarn in Sunday's final after she overpowered another Kazakh, Sesil Karatantcheva, 6-2, 6-0 to reach the 10th final of her 16-year professional career.
BCCI's decision to not send Indian teams for the Asian Games drew sharp criticism from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Saturday, which accused the influential cricket board of treating the sport just as a business venture.
India's in-form shooter Jitu Rai gave the country its first gold medal in the 17th Asian Games, cutting through a tough field to finish on top in the 50m pistol event in Incheon on Saturday.
Alexander Vinokourov returned to cycling on Tuesday after a two-year doping suspension looking relieved and relaxed in a low-key race in France.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs last evening gave OVL, the overseas arm of the state-run explorer, approval to invest its share of $204 million in the oilfield. Over and above these, the two have committed a minimum exploration investment of $165 million and an additional optional exploration expenditure of $235 million.
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has turned down an offer to extend his contract with Astana and wants to leave the Kazakh-funded team, his brother and agent was quoted as saying on Friday. Astana had made the rider a lucrative offer to sign for another four years but the Spaniard declined it, Fran Contador told French sports daily L'Equipe.
Russia began their Euro 2008 preparations in style by crushing Kazakhstan 6-0 in a Moscow friendly on Friday.
Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh maintained his rampaging form to sail into the semi-finals and join six other Indians who have booked a medal each for themselves in the Asian Boxing Championships in Zhuhai, China, on Thursday. Vijender out-punched Kyrgyzstan's Karipov Ruslan for a 19-4 victory in the middleweight quarter-finals and assured himself at least a bronze in the event, in which he clinched a silver medal in the previous edition.
Dinesh Kumar (81kg) scored a sensational knock-out victory while fellow-Olympian Jitender Kumar (54kg) was equally dominating in his quarter-final triumph as three Indians stormed into the semi-finals of the Asian Boxing Championships in Zhuhai, China, on Wednesday.
Sandeep Singh was the lone Indian to enter the final of the World Junior Boxing Championships, thus assuring himself a silver medal at least, while three of his compatriots settled for bronze after losing their semi-final bouts in Yerevan, Armenia, on Friday. Opening the day for India, Sandeep (46kg) defeated Javlonbek Eshmatov of Uzbekistan 8-4 to set up a summit clash with Armenian Koryun Soghomonyan.
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