Tendulkar made an unbeaten 152

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar scored his 48th Test hundred to lead India’s fightback on the third day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Colombo on Wednesday.

The batting maestro reached his ton in 167 balls which was studded with 13 boundaries and a six.

Suresh Raina scored a fighting century on debut and Sachin Tendulkar made an unbeaten 152 as India avoided the follow on Thursday in the second test against Sri Lanka.

Resuming day four at 382-4 and needing 61 more runs to avoid the follow on, Raina and Tendulkar added 95 runs in the opening session to reach 477-4 at lunch. They had added an unbroken 236 runs for the fifth wicket.

Tendulkar recorded his 48th test century, facing 264 balls, hitting 20 fours and a six. Raina was unbeaten on 112, facing 213 balls and hitting 11 fours and two sixes. He became the ninth Indian to score a century on his test debut.

Sri Lanka scored 642-4 in its first innings and leads the series 1-0. With only eight wickets having fallen in 10 sessions, the game looked headed toward a draw.

India was vulnerably placed on 241-4 on Wednesday needing 200 more runs to avoid the follow-on when Tendulkar and Raina paired together.

Tendulkar made Sri Lanka pay for a dropped catch by wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene off seamer Dilhara Fernanado when he was 29 runs, scoring his sixth test century for 2010.

India started a strong reply to Sri Lanka's first innings score Wednesday with openers Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay sharing 165 runs, but Sri Lanka spinners Suraj Randiv and Ajantha Mendis struck back taking two wickets each.

India were vulnerably placed on 243/4 at tea on day three needing 200 runs to avoid follow on, but it reached 382/4 at stumps. India just need 61 runs to avoid follow on with six wickets in hand.

Tendulkar, who holds the record of scoring highest number of centuries, played brilliant cricket with Suresh Raina to dominate the day.

Sachin also equalled the former Australian captain Steve Waugh's Test record to have played the most number of matches (168).

Tendulkar shared an unbroken 141-run partnership for the fifth wicket with debutant Suresh Raina.

Tendulkar was unbeaten on 108 at stumps while Raina, who made a half-century in his maiden Test innings, was not out on 66 off 133 balls, including eight boundaries.

Earlier, VVS Laxman departed after a slow partnership with Sachin Tendulkar to leave India tottering at 243 for four at tea.

Tendulkar and Laxman almost batted through the second session but Ajantha Mendis broke the slow 68-run stand by trapping the stylish Hyderabadi 10 minutes before tea break.

Tendulkar, who was dropped on 29 by Prasanna Jayawardene off Dilhara Fernando, was batting on 39 and debutant Suresh Raina was yet to open his account.

Laxman (29) and Tendulkar dug in went about their business slowly and raised a stand of 68-run to deny the Lankan bowlers any success for almost two hours.

The mid-session produced 70 runs after the troubled opening session, which saw India being jolted by three quick blows including that of explosive Virender Sehwag.

Tendukar's runs came off 95 balls while Laxman consumed 98 balls for his 29-run knock.

The duo slowed down the proceedings by playing a lot of dot balls and relied on ones and twos to keep the scoreboard moving.

Laxman was lucky as his edges, off spinner Suraj Randiv and paceman Dammika Prasad, fell short of fielders.

Laxman finally got out as he failed to read a Mendis googly and was caught in front of the wicket.

Maradona Claims Betrayal by soccer officials

Maradona Claims Betrayal by Argentina Officials

Diego Maradona said he was lied to and betrayed by Argentina soccer officials who decided not to renew his contract as coach of the national team. Maradona, whose team was beaten by Germany in a World Cup quarterfinal, said Carlos Bilardo, the national team director, and Julio Grondona, the association president, worked to undermine him. Maradona, 49, read from a script in a restaurant in a Buenos Aires suburb and took no questions.

In a meeting Monday, Bilardo asked Maradona to continue without seven of his assistants. Maradona said he could not meet those conditions.

Diego Maradona said he was the subject of lies and betrayal by soccer officials after his contract as coach of Argentina’s national team wasn’t renewed.

Maradona, who guided his country to the World Cup quarterfinals this month, said yesterday that he was “lied to” by Argentine Football Association President Julio Grondona and had been “betrayed” by national team manager Carlos Bilardo.

“All my team and I were ready to continue,” Maradona, 49, told reporters on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. “They called me to put out a fire and we put it out. I’ve given everything.”

The association’s executive committee “unanimously resolved” not to extend his deal two days ago because Maradona rejected requests to change his aides, committee member Rafael Savino said. Maradona told Argentine television this week that he wouldn’t continue in the post he took in late 2008 if the association insisted on changes to his backroom team.

“I stand by all my people, from the masseuse to the equipment man,” Maradona said yesterday, reading from a prepared statement. His staff included two doctors, two assistant coaches, two physical trainers, a press officer and a kitman.

Maradona said that Grondona told him after the World Cup quarterfinal loss to Germany on July 3 that he wanted him to continue. When the pair met three days ago, Grondona said that seven of his aides had to leave, according to Maradona.

‘Impossible’

“By telling me that, he was in fact telling me that he didn’t want me to stay,” Maradona said. “He knows that it would have been impossible for me to continue if my aides wouldn’t continue.”

Association spokesman Ernesto Cherquis Bialo didn’t return a phone call from Bloomberg seeking comment.

Maradona, who led Argentina to its last World Cup title in 1986 and the final four years later, took over the national team in November 2008. He used more than 100 players, winning 18 and losing six of his 24 international games in charge.

Argentina lost six matches in 2009, the first time since 1919 that it had so many defeats in a calendar year. Maradona didn’t oversee that year’s loss to Catalonia because he was banned for a profanity-laced tirade toward journalists following a World Cup qualifying game.

In South Africa, Argentina exited in a 4-0 defeat to Germany that was its most lopsided World Cup loss in 36 years.

Maradona’s team finished fifth at the tournament, according to soccer governing body FIFA, Argentina’s best result since losing in the 1990 final.

Batista, Bilardo

Sergio Batista, the coach of Argentina’s under-20 team, will lead the senior squad in its next match, an Aug. 11 exhibition against Ireland. Batista played with Maradona at the 1986 World Cup and coached Argentina to the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Bilardo, who coached Argentina at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, will continue in his role, Cherquis Bialo said two days ago. Bilardo took the position when Maradona was named coach in 2008. Last year, Bilardo told reporters he would quit if Maradona left the national team.

Argentina is scheduled to host next year’s Copa America as it seeks a first major trophy at the senior level since 1993.

Pakistan Plane Crash

A total of 152 people were confirmed to have been killed in a plane crash that occurred Wednesday morning in the Margalla hills in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, reported local media.

Among the killed, there were six crew members including two pilots and 146 passengers, said the report, adding that all the people aboard the plane have been killed in the disaster, including at least 20 women and seven children as well as two Americans.

It was the worst plane crash ever in Pakistan, and rescue workers battled fires and muddy conditions as they searched in vain to find survivors on the densely wooded hillside where the flight went down.

The crash left twisted metal wreckage hanging from trees and scattered across the ground on a bed of broken branches. Clouds of dense gray smoke rose up from the burning wreckage as a helicopter hovered above.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said the government does not suspect terrorism.

The plane left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for a two-hour Airblue flight to Islamabad and was trying to land during cloudy and rainy weather, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official.

Airblue is a private service based in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, and Wednesday's flight was believed to be carrying mostly Pakistanis.

Rescue workers scouring the heavily forested hills recovered nearly 80 bodies from the wreckage, said Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority in a statement.

The flight was carrying 146 passengers and six crew members, said George. The aircraft was an Airbus A321, and the flight number was ED202, he said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik initially said five people survived the crash and were rescued, but those reports turned out to be wrong.

The crash site covered a large area on both sides of the hills, including a section behind Faisal Mosque, one of Islamabad's most prominent landmarks, and not far from the Daman-e-Koh resort.

At the Islamabad airport, hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarmed ticket counters desperately seeking information. A large cluster of people also surrounded a passenger list posted near the Airblue ticket counter.

Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan's ARY news channel he was on a family outing in the hills when he saw the plane looking unsteady in the air. "The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down," he said, adding he heard the thunderous crash.

The Pakistan Airline Pilot Association said the plane appeared to have strayed off course, possibly because of the poor weather.

Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the airline, said an investigation would be launched into the cause of the crash. The plane had no known technical issues, and the pilots did not send any emergency signals, Ahmed said.

Airbus said it would provide technical assistance to Pakistani authorities responsible for the investigation. The aircraft was initially delivered in 2000, and was leased to Airblue in January 2006. It accumulated about 34,000 flight hours during some 13,500 flights, it said.

The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board.

Airblue flies within Pakistan as well as internationally to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom.

The only previous recorded accident for Airblue, a carrier that began flying in 2004, was a tail-strike in May 2008 at Quetta airport by one of the airline's Airbus A321 jets. There were no casualties and damage was minimal, according to the U.S.-based Aviation Safety Network.

The Airbus A320 family of medium-range jets, which includes the A321 model that crashed Wednesday, is one of the most popular in the world, with about 4,000 jets delivered since deliveries began in 1988.

Twenty-one of the aircraft have been lost in accidents since then, according to the Aviation Safety Network's database. The deadliest was a 2007 crash at landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil's TAM airline, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.

The crash left twisted metal wreckage hanging from trees and scattered across the ground on a bed of broken branches. Clouds of dense gray smoke rose up from the burning wreckage as a helicopter hovered above.

"I'm seeing only body parts," Dawar Adnan, a rescue worker with the Pakistan Red Crescent, said by telephone from the crash site. "This is a very horrible scene. We have scanned almost all the area, but there is no chance of any survivors."

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said the government does not suspect terrorism.

Rescue workers scouring the heavily forested hills recovered nearly 80 bodies from the wreckage, said Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority in a statement.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik initially said five people survived the crash and were rescued, but those reports turned out to be wrong.

The crash site covered a large area on both sides of the hills, including a section behind Faisal Mosque, one of Islamabad's most prominent landmarks, and not far from the Daman-e-Koh resort.

At the Islamabad airport, hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarmed ticket counters desperately seeking information. A large cluster of people also surrounded a passenger list posted near the Airblue ticket counter.

Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan's ARY news channel he was on a family outing in the hills when he saw the plane looking unsteady in the air. "The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down," he said, adding he heard the thunderous crash.

The Pakistan Airline Pilot Association said the plane appeared to have strayed off course, possibly because of the poor weather.

Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the airline, said an investigation would be launched into the cause of the crash. The plane had no known technical issues, and the pilots did not send any emergency signals, Ahmed said.

Airbus said it would provide technical assistance to Pakistani authorities responsible for the investigation. The aircraft was initially delivered in 2000, and was leased to Airblue in January 2006. It accumulated about 34,000 flight hours during some 13,500 flights, it said.

The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board.

Airblue flies within Pakistan as well as internationally to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom.

The only previous recorded accident for Airblue, a carrier that began flying in 2004, was a tail-strike in May 2008 at Quetta airport by one of the airline's Airbus A321 jets. There were no casualties and damage was minimal, according to the U.S.-based Aviation Safety Network.

The Airbus A320 family of medium-range jets, which includes the A321 model that crashed Wednesday, is one of the most popular in the world, with about 4,000 jets delivered since deliveries began in 1988.

Twenty-one of the aircraft have been lost in accidents since then, according to the Aviation Safety Network's database. The deadliest was a 2007 crash at landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil's TAM airline, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.

Obama Deception Censored from You Tube

“The Obama Deception", one of Alex Jones’ most popular documentary films has been censored on You Tube. The most viewed online version of the film, which had more than 6.5 million views, has been illegally removed from the You Tube account “ChangeDaChannel”. The URL link of the said video ranked among the top results of the keyword “Obama”.

Marketing ploy or blatant breach of constitutionally protected free speech. That is the choice being left to the people after an alleged hack of right-wing radio host's handle on YouTube.com. Radio host Alex Jones claims on a YouTube video that someone, or some agency, hacked into his organization's YouTube account and started deleting his files, specifically a movie titled "The Obama Deception."

Since ChangeDaChannel’s upload of the video has been deleted, numerable links to this version of the film throughout the web are now dead.

Verifiable facts: The movie Obama Deception Censored in question is documentary-style film that focuses on the Obama and Bush administrations' connection to the New World Order conspiracy. The film was written, directed and produced by Alex Jones, a conservative radio talk show host who openly supports what many would describe to be conspiracy theories. The film, "The Obama Deception" was released in 2009 in the United States, according to the Internet Movie Database, IMDB.com. A trailer for the film can be found on YouTube here.

Google Trends rankings showed the film as the number one searched term – in a matter of hours subsequent to Jones’ challenge to drive the “The Obama Deception” to the top of search engine listings. The aforementioned video’s hits or view count rose to almost 100,000 on that same day.

As a result of the film being a top online trend since Jones’ rallying call last week, dozens of articles and reviews have been published by online newspapers and blogs, thus increasing the attention the film has been receiving.

Is it really just a coincidence that the most viewed version of the film has been illegally deleted after it became the top search engine result when a person so much as types the word “Obama”?

“This was a criminal act, and You Tube needs to investigate, track the IP and find out who did it,” Alex Jones said. “The Obama Deception was getting more and more popular, and the establishment doesn’t like the fact that it exposes the Left-Right paradigm and identifies Obama as a puppet,” he added.

Before the Obama Deception even released, FBI officials have visited Jones’ office in an attempt to gather information about the documentary and the office employees. Thus, it is not surprising that “The Obama Deception” has been getting a lot of criticisms since its release in March 2009. Aside from attempts to discredit the information the film endorses, effort has also been focused on limiting and ultimately, blocking access to the film online.

At the moment, the film is currently being re-uploaded. This procedure is somewhat lengthy due to file compression issues with You Tube.

The Accusation: Alex Jones, in a statement posted to his YouTube channel, claimed that someone had hacked into his channel by figuring out the channel's "pass code." Once in, he claims, his director saw that someone was deleting the files that contained Mr. Jones's movies, specifically "Police State 4" and "The Obama Deception." Fortunately, they were able to change the pass code before any additional damage could be done.

Who could have perpetrated such an act?

Alex Jones does not attempt to lay blame for the incident on any one individual or agency or organization, but he say that "this was an inside job, by either a YouTube or Google employee, or someone they gave the pass code to, and YouTube needs to launch an investigation and track back the IP addresses from where this originated..." He goes on to explain how the deletion of the movies are serious crimes against free speech and that his movies are being censored because they openly criticize the government and the larger New World Order.

Tiger Woods switched back for final golf

Tiger Woods changes putter again for final round of the British Open at St. Andrews. Woods changed to a Nike Method putter prior to the tournament in an effort to conquer the slower greens of the Old Course. He took 99 putts in his first three rounds, including 35 yesterday, to fall 12 shots behind leader Louis Oosthuizen.

At the start of the week Woods ditched the putter which has won him 13 of his 14 majors, including the past two Opens over the Old Course by eight and five shots, in favour of a Method model which he hoped would help him deal with the slower speed of the greens on the Old Course.

Tiger Woods has switched putter for the second time in a week in a last-gasp bid to revive his Open Championship chances at St Andrews today.

But after taking 99 putts in the first three rounds to lie 12 shots off the lead, held by South African Louis Oosthuizen, Woods abandoned the experiment and saw it pay instant dividends.

With his trusty Scotty Cameron putter, made by Titleist, the world No1 holed from seven feet on the first and five feet on the third for birdie, improving to five-under par and within 10 shots of Oosthuizen, due out with England's Paul Casey in the last group shortly after 2pm.

Scotland's Paul Lawrie recovered from 10 shots behind after 54 holes to win the Open at Carnoustie in 1999 – an Open championship record – but needed a large helping hand from Jean van de Velde to do so.

Europe's most recent major champion, the US Open winner Graeme McDowell, was five-under alongside Woods, going to the turn in 33 and adding another birdie on the 10th after a superb approach to within two feet.

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008, having earned an estimated $110 million from winnings and endorsements.

Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time.[6] He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 16 World Golf Championships, and has won at least one of those events each of the 11 years they have been in existence.

Woods has held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times,[7] the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons.

On December 11, 2009, Woods announced he would take an indefinite leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by over a dozen women, through many worldwide media sources.[8][9] Woods returned to competition for the 2010 Masters on April 8, 2010,[10] after a break lasting 20 weeks

NYC Triathlon Took Place Today

Wassner Twins On Top At Nautica NYC Triathlon' Osaly Wins Men’s Race

UK Today News : New York City Triathlon Takes Place Today – Filip Ospaly and Rebeccah Wassner Win Triathlon NYC Triathlon The 2010 Nautica New York City Triathlon took place today, July 18, 2010 in New York City. The Olympic distance triathlon takes place every year in the month of July and on an average sees more than 3000 people participating in the event.

The NYC Triathlon includes a 1500m swim in the Hudson River, followed by a 40k bike race on the West Side Highway in Manhattan and ends with a 10k run through one of the National Historic Landmarks of USA Park.

According to reports, the 2010 NYC Triathlon has ended and the winners have been announced. Filip Ospaly and Rebeccah Wassner are the winners of this year’s NYC Triathlon. In the warmest running of the Nautica NYC Triathlon to date, some 3000 triathetes turned out for the annual Olympic distance event touring the Upper West Side and Central Park. Suitably, New Yorker Rebeccah Wassner successfully defended her title in the women’s division, finishing in an unofficial time of 2:01:30.

Swiftly following her into the chute was twin sister Laurel Wassner, a professional triathlete and cancer survivor. In addition to representing Livestrong and the Ulman Fund, the Wassners were recently inducted into the New York Athletic Club’s new triathlon team, a local honor steeped in the city’s tradition of supporting Olympic caliber athletes.

In the men’s division, Filip Osaly from the Czech Republic captured his first Lifetime series victory after finishing fourth at Lifetime Minneapolis. American Matt Reed was expected to dominate the day, but disappeared early in the race, reporting through Twitter that he “wiped out trying to run bike into T2. No way I could run,” adding that he had a “charlie-horse” after kneeing the railing while getting out of the Hudson.

Giving the Nautica event additional national exposure was the entry of Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who told the New York Daily News how much he trained to prepare for the event:

“About 7-10 hours per week. I have three kids and I’m married, so I had discussions with my wife early on to see if this would even be feasible – my kids are 5, 3 and 1 and my wife is a big runner too. I was trying to incorporate the kids into my training as much as possible. I did long training on weekends. We would go to park with the kids and I would do an open water swim there. We have jogging strollers and would push them around. I got a trainer for my bike and would put it in my living room and burn miles while I read [the kids] a book. I think it’s good for kids to see their dad or mom exercising and putting importance on it.”

Zsa Zsa Gabor was rushed to a hospital

Zsa Zsa Gabor rushed to the hospital after she fell out of bed, breaking her hip and several other bones. She's reported to be in serious condition., her husband said. John Blanchette, the 93-year-old actress' publicist, said she was in serious condition with broken bones. Her husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, told The Associated Press early Sunday that she had broken her hip. He declined to provide other details. Blanchette said Gabor was watching television in her Bel Air home when she reached to answer the phone and tumbled to the floor.

"She was watching her favorite show, 'Jeopardy,' when the phone rang," he said. "She reached over to pick it up and fell." He said several bones were broken, but said he didn't know any other details of her injuries. Von Anhalt called an ambulance and Gabor was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.The hospital said early Sunday that family members were by her side but did not disclose any other details.

The actress is partially paralyzed from a 2002 car accident, which forced her to use a wheelchair. She also reportedly had a stroke in 2005.

"She was watching her favorite show, Jeopardy, when the phone rang," her husband Prince Frederic von Anhalt says. "She reached over to pick it up and fell." He called an ambulance and she was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

The actress is partially paralyzed from a 2002 car accident, which forced her to use a wheelchair. She also had a stroke in 2005. The condition of the Hungarian-born star, who is 93, is not known. Gabor is partially paralysed and uses a wheelchair following a car accident in 2002. She also suffered a stroke five years ago.

Gabor starred in films such as Moulin Rouge, Lili and Touch of Evil.

Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes to get back together

KATE Winslet and Sam Mendes are reportedly planning to save their marriage — with a romantic summer break, according to a new report.

UK newspaper the Sunday Express claims the estranged couple — who announced in March this year that they’re to split after seven years of marriage — is planning to take time out of the spotlight to head to their Gloucestershire, England, manor house to work on their relationship.

“Sam hasn’t any film commitments at the moment so they are going to stay at the house with the children this summer and see if they can reignite their spark,” a source said.

“Sam has always been able to walk away from girlfriends before but now there are children involved he wants to see if he can work it out with Kate.”

Previous reports claimed Kate and Sam’s marriage hit the rocks when they started arguing about their careers when were filming Revolutionary Road in 2007.

“Sam told friends Kate would talk about the film the moment they woke up, and it was overbearing,” said one insider.

“They went stir-crazy and argued more than ever.

“Kate told Sam, ‘Your career is not more important than mine.”