Author: Mike Harrison

Panchkula will host the Commonwealth table tennis championship later this year.The announcement came from Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) president Dushyant Chautala at the closing ceremony of the National championship on Tuesday.Buoyed by the successful organisation of the National championship, Chautala, who is also the president of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation (CTTF), confirmed the hosting of the championship after having hinted about TTFI’s preparedness to host the event in Haryana.Meanwhile, Chautala is set to get re-elected unopposed as the TTFI president for another four-year term when the Annual General Meeting to be held at Panchkula on Wednesday. Arun…

The golfer had to be extricated from the vehicle with the “jaws of life” tools, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Golf star Tiger Woods suffered leg injuries Tuesday in a vehicle rollover in the Los Angeles area and is undergoing surgery, authorities and his manager said. His condition isn’t yet clear.Mr. Woods had to be extricated from the vehicle with the “jaws of life” tools, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. No other cars were involved in the wreck that injured the golfer.Mr. Woods was taken to the hospital by ambulance.…

N. Ram flags spread of propaganda, fake news Large parts of the media today are functioning as propaganda arms of the government and the “Hindu rashtra ideology”, said The Hindu Publishing Group Director N. Ram.Speaking during a panel discussion on the role of the media, organised by the media cell of St. Stephen’s College on Tuesday, Mr. Ram raised concerns over the propaganda as well as fake news seen in certain sections of the media.“It is an understatement to say the media have not being doing their job. In fact they have been doing awful things in many places,” he…

G. Sathiyan’s wait to lay his hands on the winner’s trophy of the National table tennis championship has finally ended. Playing his fourth final in seven years, Sathiyan ended the jinx by beating nine-time winner Sharath Kamal 11-6, 11-7, 10-12, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8 in under 50 minutes at Panchkula. The two Chennai-based players, ranked in the world’s top-50 bracket, produced some exciting times in patches though the title-battle failed to reach any great heights.Two years ago, when Sharath broke Kamlesh Mehta’s record of eight titles by beating Sathiyan in the final, the champion was candid in admitting that his younger…

NorthEast United FC (NEUFC) brightened its chances of making it to the playoffs by downing a 10-man SC East Bengal 2-1 in a 19th round fixture of the Indian Super League at the Fatorda Stadium on Tuesday.After a barren opening half, V.P. Suhair gave NorthEast the lead with his first ISL goal. East Bengal defender Sarthak Golui scored an own goal to double NEUFC’s lead but later scored to pull one back for his side. The opening half was a bit disappointing for NEUFC as it failed to make much of an impression in the opposition box. East Bengal, already…

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccination for the older population (over 50 years) is expected to start soon and that the immunisation programme would see greater private sector participation.Speaking at a Health Ministry press conference, Mr. Bhushan said more private hospitals will be utilised to increase the speed and coverage of COVID-19 vaccination in the coming days.Also read: More private hospitals to be utilised for increasing vaccination coverage and speed, says govt.“Approximately 10,000 hospitals are being used for administering vaccines in a day. Out of these, 2,000 hospitals are private. This shows how essential is…

The 34-year-old was sentenced at Dundee Sheriff Court after he had pleaded guilty. A relative of Queen Elizabeth II was on Tuesday sentenced to a 10-month prison term for sexually assaulting a woman at his ancestral home in Angus, Scotland.Earl of Strathmore Simon Bowes-Lyon, who is the son of a cousin of the 94-year-old British monarch, was found to have forced his way into the sleeping woman’s room during an event he was hosting at Glamis Castle. The 34-year-old was sentenced at Dundee Sheriff Court after he had pleaded guilty.According to the BBC, Sheriff Alastair Carmichael told Bowes-Lyon in court…

President Bhandari had also announced that polls should be held during April-May. In a major setback to the government of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, the Supreme Court of Nepal on Tuesday reinstated the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Nepalese Parliament. A special constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, which declared the verdict in response to 13 writ petitions, ordered that the 275-member House should convene within 13 days.The development comes two months after President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the lower house, following the recommendation from Prime Minister Oli-led cabinet. President Bhandari had also announced that polls…

The U.S. and Canada are close allies, sharing the world’s longest land border and trading hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods and services annually U.S. President Joe Biden will host his first-ever virtual bilateral summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday during which they will jointly unveil a new initiative, a roadmap for partnership between the two neighbours.The U.S. and Canada are close allies, sharing the world’s longest land border and trading hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods and services annually.“Today President Biden will jointly unveil a new initiative with our Canadian partners and…

Much remains unknown about what happened before and during the assault, and lawmakers are expected to aggressively question the former officials about what went wrong Congress is set to hear from former U.S. Capitol security officials for the first time about the massive law enforcement failures on January 6, the day a violent mob laid siege to the building and interrupted the presidential electoral count.Three of the four scheduled to testify on February 23 before two Senate committees resigned under pressure immediately after the deadly attack, including the former head of the Capitol Police.Much remains unknown about what happened before…