Enticing India-Australia series could be overwhelmed by Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar scored only 112 runs against England before Christmas but is back for more against Australia. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

There is a whiff of deja vu about the build-up to the Test series between India and Australia, which starts on Friday morning. It was only last November when England breezed into Ahmedabad, declaring that they would stick to their original plans of playing a solitary spinner, Graeme Swann, a balance of attack they have always preferred, albeit on a surface devoid of live grass. Then they were thrashed by nine wickets. Then they had a rethink ? and a most productive one it was, too.

Now the Australians are in Chennai with a four-Test series on the horizon and they are bullish. Their coach, Mickey Arthur, sounding more Australian than the Australians, has declared "we'll play against their spinners aggressively". He has already indicated the make-up of his side.

Nathan Lyon will be the lone spinner alongside three pacemen and a fast-bowling all-rounder, Moises Henriques, who is set to make his debut. We do not know the India side yet. But rest assured they will have three spinners in their line-up. It is hard to imagine the Chennai groundsman watering his pitch in the next 24 hours.

For Englishmen looking on, this is an unfamiliar Australia side ? for the moment. We will know most of them intimately soon given that there are going to be three Ashes series within the next three years. In any case we always have to keep an eye on the Aussies, wherever they are. This series offers a measure of the standing of the two nations, not necessarily an accurate one but an irresistible one. England managed to win 2-1 in India before Christmas. How will the Australians do now? The sneaking suspicion is: not quite so well.

There is no longer Ricky Ponting in the Australia side and no Mike Hussey.

Michael Clarke stands out like a beacon at No5; he has batted quite brilliantly since his appointment as captain. Often he has had to in order to keep his side in the game. At the top of the order David Warner, converted one-day basher but a rare talent, is preparing to bat with a splint on a thumb. Alongside him Ed Cowan blocks diligently; then there is Phillip Hughes, humbled in England in 2009 but now remodelled and renascent.

Shane Watson, the chameleon, has another role. The erstwhile all-rounder turned belligerent opening batsman is for this series a non-bowling No4. He is now the vice-captain; he can look sublime at the crease; but he still averages only 37 in Test cricket. At the age of 31, he is still searching for his identity as a Test cricketer.

Matthew Wade is at No6; like Adam Gilchrist before him he is a wonderfully aggressive keeper/left-handed batsman. Yet the awesome Gilchrist batted at No7. That is where Henriques, probably the first Portuguese-born Test cricketer ? his parents moved to Sydney when Moises was 18 months old ? is likely to bat.

The burden on Lyon, the off-spinner and the twelfth tweaker to be tried by Australia since the retirement of Shane Warne, will be immense. He has done well in his 19 Tests, taking 61 wickets at 32 apiece. Clearly he is a conscientious and improving spinner. Equally clearly he is no Warne; he is no Swann either. But he is the best bet.

Australia's determination to stick with the solitary spinner route is, in fact, more understandable than England's decision in November.

Alastair Cook had a credible alternative in Monty Panesar, whom he soon selected after the Ahmedabad defeat. The options for Clarke are bleaker and highlighted by the fact that Australia originally shipped out spinners galore to India before this Test. They have Xavier Doherty there; they took Ashton Agar, a 19-year-old who had played just two games for Western Australia (though he has now gone back home) plus the part-timers Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell. Australia are still thrashing around for their spinners.

For this reason India will surely stick to the plan that did not work so well against England. They will rely on their spinners (two from Pragyan Ojha, Ravi Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, plus Ravindra Jadeja) for their wickets even though they were chastened by English batsmen not so long ago.

And their runs? This is where the sense of deja vu returns. Gautam Gambhir has been dropped. From the old guard Virender Sehwag survives. And then there is Sachin Tendulkar, whom they cannot drop. All through the series against England, in which Tendulkar scored only 112 runs and a solitary half-century, we wondered when he would go. We waited in vain for a signature innings to allow him to bid farewell with a smile. All that speculation and all those half-penned cricketing epitaphs resurface in a soap opera that threatens to diminish a most intriguing series for Indians, Australians and Ashes-pondering neutrals.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/feb/20/india-australia-first-test-chennai

Kyla Ross Ryan Lochte Montenegro Olympic Games Dana Vollmer phillies phillies

Humongous Near-Earth Asteroids Don't Look So Scary in a Time-Lapse

Most of us got a little distracted from uneventful passing of near-Earth asteroid DA14 after that unrelated meteorite decided to slam into Russia. Photographer Colin Legg keep his eyes—and camera—on DA14 though, and put together this time-lapse of its flyby that makes it seem like an insignificant little dot. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/vb-8mIVvQuE/humongous-near+earth-asteroids-dont-look-so-scary-in-a-time+lapse

prop 8 maria menounos proposition 8 ricky martin larry bird chauncey billups caucus results

3 British men convicted in terrorist bomb plot

LONDON (AP) ? They were very ordinary would-be terrorists, with big plans but bad luck.

On Thursday, a London jury convicted the three young British men of being ringleaders of an al-Qaida-inspired plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded parts of Birmingham, England's second-largest city. The men had pleaded not guilty, but were recorded discussing plans for attacks that one said would be "another 9/11."

The trial exposed how the trio ? Ashik Ali, 27; Irfan Khalid, also 27; and 31-year-old Irfan "Chubbs" Naseer ? were foiled by a mix of police intelligence, personal incompetence, and lousy luck as they tried to spread terror.

They attempted to recruit others to their cause, but four young men they dispatched to Pakistan for training were sent home within days when the family of one man found out. Those four have since pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses.

The plotters initially raised cash as street collectors for Muslim charities. But when Rahin Ahmed, an alleged co-conspirator described as the cell's "chief financier," tried to boost the group's budget on the financial markets, he lost the bulk of the funds through his "unwise and incompetent" trading, prosecutor Brian Altman said.

Among the pieces of evidence at the four-month trial was a sports injury cool pack, which prosecutors said Naseer had mistakenly believed would contain ammonium nitrate, a key bomb-making ingredient.

The group considered a variety of outlandish attacks, including tying sharp blades to the front of a truck and driving it into a crowd. Naseer was heard talking about the possibility of mixing poison into creams such as Vaseline or Nivea and smearing them on car handles to cause mass deaths.

Despite the amateurish nature of some of their efforts, officials said the group was serious about sowing chaos.

The men were "the real deal" and, if successful, would have perpetrated "another 9/11 or another 7/7 in the U.K.," said Detective Inspector Adam Gough, the case's senior investigating officer, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people, as well as the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings, which killed 52 commuters.

Prosecutors described the men as a home-grown terror cell inspired by the anti-Western sermons of U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in a U.S. drone strike in September 2011.

Among evidence found by investigators was a partially burned note written by Naseer detailing how to make what an expert witness said would have been a viable bomb ? although no evidence of such an explosive was recovered.

Prosecutors said the men ultimately gravitated toward a plan to detonate up to eight knapsack bombs ? either on timers or in suicide attacks ? in a bid to bring mass carnage to Birmingham.

Judge Richard Henriques told the men they face life in prison when sentences are imposed in April or May. "It's clear that you were planning a terrorist outrage," he said at London's Woolwich Crown Court.

Police said the terrorist conspiracy was the most significant uncovered in Britain since a plot to blow up airliners in mid-air was foiled in 2006. However, no specific targets had been chosen and no bombs built when the men were arrested in a police swoop in September 2011. Twelve suspects were arrested in all, several of whom have pleaded guilty to terrorism offenses.

Prosecutors traced the plot's origins to Naseer and Khalid, who had traveled to Pakistan for terror training and learned details of poisons, bomb-making and weaponry. The pair also made "martyrdom videos" justifying their planned attacks.

On their return to England in July 2011, prosecutors said they began their recruitment and fundraising drive, and also began experimenting with chemicals, aided by Naseer's university degree in pharmacy.

Fatally for the plot, by mid-2011 the men were under surveillance by police and the intelligence services. Their car was followed and their safe house bugged.

Naseer was recorded talking about knapsack bombs going "boom, boom, boom everywhere," while Khalid said the attack would be "revenge for everything, what we're doing is another 9/11."

On the recordings, the trio spoke of themselves as martyrs and jihadi warriors ? but also, tellingly, compared themselves to the hapless protagonists of the 2010 British comedy film "Four Lions," which tells the story of four clueless jihadists whose attempts to wage holy war degenerate into farce.

Ali was recorded saying to his ex-wife: "Oh, you think this is a flipping 'Four Lions.' We're one man short."

Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the foiled plot bore the hallmarks of a decentralized al-Qaida, in which local cells operate independently, often after receiving rudimentary training.

He said that "the time spent training foreign fighters by al-Qaida or affiliated networks is now being constrained because there is the threat of drone strikes" on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

"The command and control element is drawing back," he said. "It has a negative impact on their capacity to launch attacks because people aren't being trained as well. There is sometimes a clownish element to it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-british-men-convicted-terrorist-bomb-plot-131529518.html

kombucha tea separation of church and state dale earnhardt oscar predictions nba all star game 2012 academy awards 2012 nominations academy awards

Legislature appeals Florida redistricting ruling

By BILL KACZOR | The Associated Press
Published: February 18, 2013 Updated: February 18, 2013 - 12:00 AM

TALLAHASSEE ? The Republican-dominated Legislature has asked the Florida Supreme Court to throw out a legal challenge to its 2012 redistricting plan for the state Senate.

The high court put the case on a fast track Monday, setting tight deadlines for additional filings. Former Justice Raoul Cantero submitted the petition on behalf of the House and Senate on Friday. Cantero argued that only the Supreme Court can decide legislative redistricting cases and that the justices already have done so.

He's asking the high court to order a trial judge to dismiss a challenge to the Senate map lodged by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Common Cause, National Council of La Raza and several individual plaintiffs. The justices ordered the plaintiffs to respond by Feb. 28 and gave the Legislature until March 5 to reply.

Circuit Judge Terry Lewis rejected the Legislature's claim last month in Tallahassee and ordered the case to proceed. Lewis wrote that the Legislature's argument "flies in the face of case law." He cited prior Supreme Court and appellate rulings that said trial courts have jurisdiction over redistricting challenges.

The pending lawsuit alleges the Senate map violates an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the Florida Constitution by favoring incumbents and the GOP.

Information that has emerged in connection with the lawsuit, as well as a similar challenge to a new congressional map, includes emails showing top GOP officials met in late 2010 to brainstorm redistricting with political consultants and legislative staffers involved in the remapping process that's done every 10 years.

The state's "Fair Districts" amendment also requires that redistricting maps protect the ability of minorities to elect candidates of their choice and follow city and county or natural boundaries whenever possible.

A similar amendment imposes the same requirements on congressional redistricting. The challenge to the map lawmakers drew for Florida's 27 congressional districts will not be affected by the Supreme Court's ruling in the Senate case.

That's because the Florida Constitution requires the justices to automatically review only legislative maps, which is the crux of the Legislature's appeal.

"The constitution's express grant of jurisdiction to this court removes such cases from the jurisdiction of circuit courts," Cantero wrote.

Lewis disagreed, pointing out that the Supreme Court itself wrote that it conducted only a "facial review" while the lawsuit plaintiffs contend they are mounting a more detailed "as applied" challenge.

Cantero argues the Supreme Court "did not conduct a mere facial review" even though he acknowledged it had used that term. He cited the justices' use of various computer software programs and registration and elections data to analyze Senate and House maps to show the high court's review was more detailed.

The justices initially upheld the House plan but ruled the Senate map violated the Fair Districts requirements. The Legislature then revised the Senate plan and the Supreme Court upheld the second map.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tbo/politics/~3/7nkfj2tyNpA/

leprechaun night at the museum pope shenouda bolton muamba sxsw crystal cathedral st. patrick s day

Supreme Court Narrows Scope Of Previous Immigration Ruling

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court says there can be no retroactive application of its ruling that lawyers have to tell their clients if pleading guilty to a crime could cause their deportation.

The high court's 7-2 ruling came Wednesday in the case of Roselva Chaidez.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that immigrants have a constitutional right to be told by their lawyers whether pleading guilty to a crime could lead to their deportation. Chaidez had already been convicted for mail fraud and was in a deportation proceeding. She then asked the courts to allow her to take advantage of the new ruling.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the 2010 ruling was a new rule, so it doesn't apply to convictions that came before. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/supreme-court-immigration_n_2725403.html

mlk being human being human chicago news chicago news golden girls robert e lee

UK patient dies from SARS-like coronavirus

LONDON (AP) ? A British hospital says a patient being treated for a mysterious SARS-like virus has died.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham says the coronavirus victim was an outpatient being treated for "a long-term, complex unrelated health problem" who had a compromised immune system.

A total of 11 people in Britain have been identified with the disease, which was first identified last year in the Middle East. Most had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan, but the person who just died is believed to have caught it from a relative in Britain.

Of 12 cases around the world to date, six people have died.

The coronavirus is part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS, which killed about 800 people worldwide in 2003.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-patient-dies-sars-coronavirus-110739376.html

American Music Awards turkey brine Imessage Not Working mc hammer pecan pie recipe Hector Camacho Jill Kelly

Celebrating President's Day with the Redlands Lions Club

Grand Junction, Colo. (KKCO) ? Monday was President's Day, and there are those who wanted to help make a very public display while celebrating the holiday.

For many who live in the Redlands celebrating President's Day by displaying our nation's flag has become a tradition. The Redlands Lions Club offers a flag service for several holidays throughout the year including Presiden't Day.

They put out American flags in front of their customer's homes and say the tradition is a way to display patriotism for our country. The club puts out the flags for 9 holidays each year for a donation of $30. "To drive down the streets and see the American flags being portrayed and demonstrated to the world that we are proud of what we have and what this country is about. The Lions Club uses this as a fundraiser but yet it also provides a show of support of patriotism to the United States," says David Mcilnay, who is with the Lions Club.

Club members started putting theflags up this morning at 7 and are taking them down that same night. They put flags out for about 600 customers.

Source: http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/Celebrating-Presidents-day-with-the-Redlands-Lions-Club--191769161.html

barbara walters tupelo honey limp bizkit stations of the cross nike foamposite galaxy bill maher seabiscuit