India leave out in-form Yuvraj for first Pakistan test

- In-form India batsman Yuvraj Singh has been left out of the team for the first test against Pakistan starting on Thursday in favour of the experienced Saurav Ganguly and Vangipurappu Laxman.

"It's unfortunate, but at least for this game for sure he will have to wait," new captain Anil Kumble told reporters on Wednesday. "More than deciding on the composition, it is tough for Yuvraj."

Yuvraj amassed 272 runs including four fifties in the recent one-day series win over Pakistan.

"He is really important for Indian cricket moving forward and I'm sure the entire batting will revolve around him very soon," Kumble said.

Leg spinner Kumble was delighted to begin his captaincy at his favourite Ferozshah Kotla ground where he became only the second bowler in test history to take all 10 wickets in an innings, against Pakistan in 1999.

"Delhi has been really nice for me personally and also for India," he said. "I hope we have a good start and it continues."

India will be without injured fast bowlers Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh. Replacement Munaf Patel is set to share the new ball with Zaheer Khan.

Kumble also said he would partner off spinner Harbhajan Singh, who will make his test comeback after being missing recent tours of Bangladesh and England due to poor form.

London mayor gets taste of Mumbai madness

MUMBAI (Reuters) - And Londoners thought the Northern line was bad.

London mayor Ken Livingstone pushed through a swell of passengers hanging from the door of a commuter train on Wednesday, fulfilling a wish to experience rush-hour Mumbai when more than 550 people cram into a carriage built for 200.

Livingstone, in India on a six-day visit, boarded a packed train to make a 25-minute journey, as thousands of commuters looked on at the security arrangements and hordes of journalists.

The mayor pushed past passengers hanging from a door-less first class coach and was quickly offered a seat by some commuters. He then sat by the window and spoke to reporters.

"This is amazing how people cope," the mayor said, in a comparison with the more orderly crowds of the London Underground.

As arteries that keep Mumbai's economy ticking, its suburban trains carry some six million people a day to offices, shops and factories.

But arriving safe and sound for work after a trip is no mean feat. An average 4,000 people die every year on Mumbai's railways, crushed under trains, electrocuted by overhead power lines or killed as they lean from jam-packed carriages to gasp for air.

Livingstone travelled on one of the dozens of new trains built with German help to replace rakes that have been running on technology from the 1920s.

Uphaar case: Ansal brothers, others seek release on probation

In an bid to avoid jail terms, Uphaar cinema owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal and 10 other convicts in the fire tragedy case on Wednesday pleaded before a court that they be released on probation or be let off after being fined.

All the 12 convicts were arguing on the quantum of their punishment before Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal, who had convicted them yesterday in the decade-old tragedy case in which 59 cine-goers were killed.

The arguments on quantum of punishment remained inconclusive today and are likely to continue tomorrow. The judge said she might pronounce the sentence on Friday.

The Ansal brothers, who were convicted for causing death by their negligent act and face a maximum imprisonment of two years, pleaded for release under the provisions of the Probation of Offenders Act saying they neither did they have any criminal record nor did they pose any threat to society.

"The sole purpose of sentencing is to safeguard the society from the hazards of acts, which may be committed by the accused but in the present case, there is no such apprehension," noted criminal lawyer R K Naseem, appearing for Sushil Ansal, told the court.

The error of judgement - on the part of the convicts - was held to be act of criminal negligence but the court must consider that it was contributed by several other agencies like Delhi Vidyut Board, Delhi Fire Service and civic bodies diminishing the culpability of the convict to the minimum, Naseem argued.

"Every human life is precious and I absolutely believe in value of life," Naseem said, adding it was a fit case to release Sushil Ansal after a fine or on probation otherwise as the charges against him were not substantial in nature.

Seven other convicts held guilty under stringent penal provisions - which carry a maximum punishment of life imprisonment - also contended that the benefit of probation should also be extended to them keeping in view that they had no intention whatsoever to commit the alleged offence.

Govt offers 100 acres of land for ISROs' space institute

HIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Seeking to end the long-drawn row over the land for ISRO's Space Institute here, Kerala Government on Wednesday offered 100 acres of land free-of-cost close to the Ponmudi, a hill station in the district, to the space agency.

Disclosing this during his weekly cabinet briefing, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan denied reports in a section of media that the proposed land at Thennur village was forest land.

"There is no dispute over the land. It comes under the Revenue department and not at the disposal of the Forest department," the Chief Minister said when his attention was drawn to reports that Divisional Forest Officer in charge of the area had raised objections to the transfer of the land.

To a question that if he thought that this decision would bring all the related controversy to an end, he said "there has never been any dispute between ISRO and the state government." He had a dig at the media saying "so long as you (journalists) are there, controversies will keep coming up."

The earlier plan of ISRO to acquire an estate at Ponmudi to locate its Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology had run into trouble after it was found that the land under question was notified as Ecologically Fragile Land a few years back.

India, UN Agency to Start Nuclear Talks

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -India and the International Atomic Energy Agency have agreed to start talks meant to give the U.N. watchdog an overview of much of New Delhi's civilian nuclear program, the agency said Wednesday.

The decision moves India closer to finalizing a controversial nuclear cooperation deal with the United States.

An IAEA statement said Indian Department of Atomic Energy Chairman Anil Kakodkar and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei agreed to ``initiate consultations on an India-specific safeguards agreement,'' with the two sides hold their first technical meeting later this week.

Washington has hailed the agreement as cornerstone of a new partnership between emerging power India and the United States, and India's government depicts it as crucial to still the country's growing energy needs and bring it into the nuclear mainstream after decades of outsider status.

But critics say it undermines the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement by rewarding a nation that circumvented it to develop a nuclear weapons program at a time when Washington is trying to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions out of fears it, too, seeks nuclear technology to build weapons.

They argue that any ``India-specific'' safeguards could allow New Delhi to place restrictions on the number of civilian reactors open to inspection, while leaving others free from IAEA oversight - and freeing them up to produce uranium for India's weapons program.

Before the deal is signed, it still has to be approved by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a group of nations that export nuclear material. Some countries in that group remain opposed to any agreement with India that would circumvent NSG rules calling for full-scope safeguards on all nuclear facilities of all countries except the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - the formally declared nuclear weapons states - as a condition of doing business.

It also must face another review by U.S. lawmakers, some of whom fear the extra fuel the measure provides could boost India's nuclear bomb stockpile. That, they worry, could spark a nuclear arms race in Asia, where neighboring Pakistan and China also already have nuclear weapons.