IPL 5: Kolkata eye crucial win against Rajasthan

Jaipur: Unarguably the biggest underachievers in the Indian Premier League, the Kolkata Knight Riders did not get their IPL 5 campaign to the most auspicious of starts by ending on the losing side against Delhi Daredevils by eight wickets. The task does not get any easier for them as they now take on Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday, who were victorious in their opening fixture against Kings XI Punjab.

Kolkata - who reached the last-four stage of the competition for the first time in 2011 - will be aiming for a quick turnaround in order to get back to winning ways. They can also be assured of their full quota of 20 overs this time around should they need it, unlike last time when the match was reduced to a 12-overs per side affair because of a downpour at the Eden Gardens.

Live Updates: Chennai maul Deccan by 74 runs

Deccan Chargers innings:

18th over: 119 all out It's all over for Deccan. Bollinger gets the final wicket. Ankit Sharma lofts Bollinger but doesn't get the required elevation, giving an easy catch to Albie Morkel at mid-off.

Ankit Sharma c Morkel b Bollinger 15 (8)

IPL 5, Match 5: As it happened

Click to expand

Delhi Daredevils innings:

20th over: Delhi 137 for 7. Royal Challengers Bangalore open their IPL 5 campaign with a solid win by 20 runs against Delhi Daredevils. Vinay Kumar bowls last over and only five runs came off it. Muttiah Muralitharan was the game-changer for Bangalore.

German industrial production falls

Frankfurt: Germany's industrial production fell by 1.3 per cent in February after bitter winter weather hit construction activity, adding to the risk that the country had slipped into a technical recession.

The month-on-month fall, reported by the Berlin economics ministry on Thursday, highlighted the weakness of Europe's largest economy at the start of the year. The ministry blamed the decline on February's cold snap, which led to an unexpectedly-steep 17.1 per cent fall in construction activity compared with January.

Germany's economy contracted in the final three months of last year as the eurozone crisis escalated. A second consecutive quarter of falling gross domestic product would amount to a technical recession.

However, Dirk Schumacher, economist at Goldman Sachs in Frankfurt, said that even if March's industrial production levels remained unchanged from February's, the German economy could still have expanded modestly in the first quarter. That would "put to rest" some of the worst fears about the impact of the eurozone debt crisis on Germany's economy although the improvement since late 2011 was "nothing spectacular," he said.

US to ease sanctions on Myanmar

Washington/Tokyo: The US is to begin easing sanctions on Myanmar following the weekend by-election victory by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her allies, starting with a relaxation of restrictions on travel by Myanmar officials and on financial transactions and investment.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who made a historic trip to Myanmar in December, said the elections represented real change in a country dominated by military rule for decades and that the US would consider further steps if the pace of reform were maintained.

"We applaud the president [Thein Sein] and his colleagues for their leadership and courage," she said. The country had embarked on "a historic new path".

The announcement came as the European Union, Japan and Australia all said they were considering ways to ease sanctions and restrictions on doing business as a result of the by-elections, in which Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won 40 of the 45 seats at stake.

The decisions underline the remarkably rapid turnround in attitudes towards Myanmar, which was treated as an international pariah for years but whose leaders have consistently surprised the international community with their commitment in recent months to political and economic reform.

New Delhi heaps pressure on Coal India

New Delhi/Mumbai: The battle between India and a UK activist hedge fund over political interference in Coal India is set to intensify after New Delhi issued a rare presidential decree demanding that the coal miner agree to increase supplies to the country's power groups.

The move is designed to boost India's electricity generation and reduce blackouts. But it is likely to trigger a reaction from The Children's Investment Fund, Coal India's largest minority shareholder, which recently launched a public campaign against political meddling in the world's largest coal miner by production volumes.

The demand, which follows intense lobbying by industrialists who have seen their plans to spend about $36bn on new power plants stalled by coal shortages, will penalise the state-run miner if it fails to meet at least 80 per cent of targeted production, and may force it to import more expensive coal from abroad. Previously there had been no such requirement.

If Coal India fails to boost production under the agreement, it would be forced to pay power companies between 20 and 40 per cent of the average additional cost caused by the state miner's inability to provide them the fuel, an official told the Financial Times.

It was unclear whether the board of Coal India would sign the agreement. In theory, it is legally bound to do so, but it has previously objected to a similar scheme put forward by Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister.