Live Updates: DC home in on their first win

PUNE WARRIORS INDIA INNINGS

17th over: Pune 129 for 6. Pune's last hope Steven Smith has been dismissed by Theron. Trying to go for his fourth six, the Australian gets caught at long-on. But Mithun Manhas pulls one off to get his first six. 49 needed off 18 balls. It's been done before in this tournament but looks difficult with Mithun and Alfonso Thomas at the crease.

Steven Smith c Duminy b Theron 26 (13)

Sania Mirza gives up on singles till Olympics

Sania feels her doubles performance has improved after giving up singles. (AP Photo)

KARACHI: The injury-prone Sania Mirza has given up playing singles in the lead up to theLondon Olympics following her third surgery in the last five years, adding that it was "impossible to pursue a singles and doubles career together" and preferred focusing on one.

"Tennis, and the surgeries, take a lot out of you. I realized at the start of the year that keeping my physical state in mind, it was impossible for me to pursue a singles and doubles career," Sania told Pakistan newspaper Express Tribune.

She feels her doubles performance has improved after giving up singles. "Ever since I've given up on my singles career, my performance in doubles matches has been really good. I even reached a career-best seventh in the world. That's why I've decided to concentrate solely on doubles."

Sania, meanwhile, has turned down an offer to partner Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi on the international circuit despite the Pakistani expressing interest to play alongside the Indian tennis star several times in the past. She is currently partnering Mahesh Bhupathi, who is ranked 15th in doubles, a place behind Aisam in the mixed-doubles competitions on the international circuit.

Aisam is now playing limited mixed-doubles events, partnering Czech Republic's Andrea Hlavackova on the court.

"I'm playing quite well with Bhupathi in Grand Slams, so I don't think I need to change anything right now," Sania, who is ranked eighth in doubles, said. "Playing with Aisam right now is not possible," she added.

Sania also ruled out playing in Pakistan in the near future despite an invitation from thePakistan Tennis Federation.

Sony to roll out four new DSLR cameras

Kolkata: Sony will roll out four new digital still cameras in the next couple of months in a bid to increase its market share in the segment, a top company executive said Wednesday.

"We are hundred percent seriously looking at the DSLR market increase. We are launching four new models in the DSLR segment… Now we are ready to launch the models in the next couple of months," Sony India General Manager (marketing) Tadato Kimura told reporters here.

The company currently has only five percent market share in the DSLR segment.

In the fast-growing compact camera market, Sony is the market leader. Kimura said the total market size for the compact camera in the country would be about 4.3 million units this year. "Last year it was 3.3 million units," he said.

10 GB for your emails: Google adds 2.5 GB to your Gmail storage

New Delhi: Google launched Gmail as an invitation-only beta on April 1, 2004 and it has gradually over a span of eight years increased the storage from 1 GB to 7.5 GB.

Now to celebrate the launch of its much anticipated Google Drive cloud storage and sync product Google has announced that it is giving Gmail users 2.5 GB of additional storage.

In a post on the official Gmail blog, Nicholas Behrens, software engineer at Google's Gmail team, said, "Today, we're happy to announce that we're increasing everyone's free storage in Gmail from 7.5 GB to 10 GB (and counting) to celebrate today's launch of Google Drive."

Your Gmail storage counter will not immediately jump up by two-and-a-half gigs but is expected to happen gradually.

Gmail storage is not fixed and keeps gradually increasing. On its first anniversary Gmail had announced that it would "keep giving people more space forever." This means that your 10 GB will also also keep increasing, albeit at a slow pace.

Google Drive: Top 10 things you must know

New Delhi: Google has recently come up with its Google Drive cloud-storage service that lets you store up to 5GB of data on Google's servers for free. But before you start driving with Google's new cloud service, here is all the basic information that you must know about it.

1. Google Drive is Google's newly launched cloud-based storage service that lets users store data online on Google's servers, and access the same anywhere, anytime. In other words, it is a place where users can create, share, collaborate, and keep all their stuff.

2. If a user runs the free Google Drive application, he will get a folder on his computer (Windows or OSX) where he can drag his files in to. Any data stored in that folder is kept on your hard disk and is also copied to account in the cloud. Users can anytime, anywhere access those files from drive.google.com or from other computers, including mobile devices.

3. Google Drive is offering the first 5GB of storage per account for free. Additional storage will be sold for prices starting at $2.49 per month for 25 gigabytes.

4. Users can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB. This will be a bonus for you!

Excerpt: Business Etiquette by Shital Kakkar Mehra

Shital Kakkar Mehra is one of the most experienced practitioners of corporate etiquette and international protocol in India today, having trained over three thousand executives, focusing on the specific requirements of the global Indian. Her articles have been published across business dailies and magazines. For the past 4 years, and has been invited as guest speaker to several business schools, including the Indian School of Business, IIM Bangalore and IIM Lucknow.

Here's an excerpt from the book 'Business Communication':

What's the fine art of communicating in business? Is it about putting forward your views aggressively? Using uzzwords to impress your business associates? Or, is it the ability to keep the conversation flowing while striking a fine balance between speaking and listening? At times, I have noticed that managers suffer from the teacher-student hangover, reminiscent of schooldays; managers assume the role of teachers, belting out instructions, completely forgetting that communication is a two-way street.

Business communication is the communication used to promote your products/services, your firm, even yourself before an outsider. Within the firm, it's used to provide information to employees, peers, seniors and juniors.

Communicating effectively in business:

- Builds rapport

- Attracts buy-ins from business partners/counterparts

- Gets your point across succinctly and achieves the desired results

Today, there are multiple communication tools available and it's important that managers learn to use the correct one.

Sania Mirza turns down offer from Aisam

Karachi: Sania Mirza has turned down an offer to partner Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in the international circuit despite the Pakistani expressing interest to play alongside the Indian tennis star several times in the past. Sania is currently partnering India's Mahesh Bhupathi, who is ranked 15th in the doubles, a place behind Aisam in the mixed doubles competitions on the international circuit. While Aisam is now playing limited mixed doubles events, partnering Czech Republic's Andrea Hlavackova on the court.

"I'm playing quite well with Bhupathi in grand slams so I don't think I need to change anything right now," Sania, who is ranked eighth in doubles, told the Express Tribune.Playing with Aisam right now is not possible," she added.

Sania, who is married to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik, also ruled out playing in Pakistan in the near future despite an invitation from the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF). The PTF has been keen on getting Sania to play exhibition matches or give coaching in Pakistan ever since she got married to Malik.

The Indian, however, ruled that out too, citing complete absence of international tournaments in Pakistan. "I haven't asked for a huge pay cheque in order to feature in charity matches in Pakistan. But as far as competitive matches are concerned, there are, unfortunately, no international tournaments taking place in Pakistan for obvious reasons. So there's no chance I can play there," she said.

Muslim lawyer pledges to 'cover Russia in blood'

Moscow: Police in the Russian capital said on Wednesday they will examine a video in which a prominent Muslim lawyer pledges to "cover Russia in blood" if the authorities refuse to establish courts to implement Islamic law.

"May be you are foreigners here, and this is our home. We will set our rules, whether you want this or not," Dagir Khasavov, a lawyer and aide to an Upper House committee chairman, said in an interview with the REN TV channel.

"Any attempts to stop this will result in blood. We will turn the city (Moscow) into a second dead sea," he was quoted as saying.

Russian Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin condemned Khasavov's statement.

Geidar Dzhemal, head of an influential group called Islamic Committee, said there might have been a "misunderstanding".

Sergei Mitrokhin, co-head of the liberal Yabloko party, wrote on Twitter that he would ask prosecutors to bring extremist charges against Khasavov.

Khasavov recently announced plans to establish an international Muslim union to be governed by a system of Shariat courts.

Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin warned against "restricting the Islamic community in living by their own rules" but said it was unacceptable to "impose these rules on others outside your community".

Stricter visa conditions for Indian students who want to work in UK

New Delhi: Indian students who wish to work after their studies in the UK will now need to apply for a job with a licensed Tire 2 sponsor, the government said on Wednesday.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Human resource Development D Purandeswari said the Post-Study Work visa, which earlier allowed students to work in the UK for two years after they completed their studies, is closed from April 6, 2012.

"Students who intend to work after their studies now need to apply for a job with a licensed Tire 2 sponsor if they do so before their student visa expires," Mr Purandeswari said.

The sponsor would be a UK-based organisation that wants to employ overseas applicants from countries outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

As per the new rules, the applicants "can only work only in areas commensurate to their field of study subject to a minimum salary threshold of 35,000 pounds per year", the Minister noted.

Changes to UK student visas, which have come into force from April 6, were announced on March 22, 2011.

Rocket in Syria's Hama kills 12, wounds dozens

Beirut: Security forces fired rockets that ripped through a building in Syria's central city of Hama on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more, activists said, in a bloody violation of the shaky ceasefire in the country.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Hama district of Mashaa al-Teran had been hit by heavy fire. The grassroots Local Coordination Committee put the death toll from the shelling at 15, with 30 wounded.

Hama, a centre of revolt in the year-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, is hosting a small team of United Nations observers, who are preparing the way for a larger UN mission which will arrive to monitor the ceasefire.

India's Soniya bags bronze in Asian Weightlifting

New Delhi: N Soniya Chanu bagged a bronze in women's 48 kg category to open India's medal account on the opening day of the Senior Asian Weightlifting Championships at Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Soniya, who won a silver in the Delhi Commonwealth Games, finished third in snatch with an effort of 75 kg in the first competition of the championship, which is a London Olympic Qualification event. She was fifth in clean and jerk with an effort of 100 kg and finished fifth overall with a total lift of 175 kg.

Three medals are awarded in each of the snatch, clean and jerk and total lift in each weight category.

Another Indian in the fray in 48 kg category, K Sanjita Chanu, finished 10th in snatch (71 kg), 11th in clean and jerk (91 kg) and 11th in total lift (162 kg).

India are being represented by 15 weightlifters, including seven women.