2016 Rio Olympics: Shuttlers PV Sindhu & K Srikanth Enter Quarter-Finals

Rio de Janeiro: Day 10 of 2016 Rio Olympics was similar to the week gone by for India, with several ousters and few silver linings. And the silver lining was brought by badminton players PV Sindhu and K Srikanth, both of whom have entered quarter-finals of men’s singles and women’s singles respectively.

India's two standing badminton players, Srikanth and Sindhu kept the country's slim medal hopes alive with wins in the quarterfinals. However, both their next matches will be against higher ranked Chinese players, and will be their toughest draws of the campaign so far.

Srikanth, ranked 11th in the world, topped Group H and became the second shuttler after P Kashyap in the 2012 London Games to reach the last eight in men’s singles. Srikanth continued his commanding form to register a 21-19, 21-19 win over Denmark’s Jan Jorgensen in just 42 minutes.

In a hard fought first game, both shuttlers started on an attacking note, but it was Srikanth who managed to maintain the lead with some bodyline smashes. Jorgensen, bronze medalist in the 2014 World Championships, gave a tough fight at the end but it was the Indian lad who proved superior to clinch the first game 21-19.

In the second game, the Danish player upped the ante and played a disciplined game to maintain the lead from the start. But with some swift court movements, the Indian diminished the lead to stay at 17-17 and then took a one-point lead to make it 19-18 before wrapping up the game to advance into the quarter-finals.

Srikanth will now face the tough task of beating China's Lin Dan, the two-time defending champion and five-time world champion.

PV Sindhu, two-time World Championship bronze-medallist, advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's singles, after notching up a dominating straight-game win over Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying.

Interestingly, before Monday's match, Tzu-ying had enjoyed a 4-2 advantage in head-to-head encounters against Sindhu. But the 21-year-old was in superb form and dominated her opponent throughout.

Tzu-ying gave Sindhu a tough fight in the early stages. Even with the Indian serving for the match at 20-12, Tzu-ying managed to save three match points and pull back to 20-15. But Sindhu didn't have to wait long to celebrate, as another unforced error by Tzu-ying handed her the game and the match.

Sindhu will face World No two Wang Yihan of China, which is expected to be a much tougher challenge.

Suspect Held Over Kolkata Woman Murder

Kolkata: On Monday, police arrested a hotel manager in connection with the suspected murder of a woman whose body was found on the footpath in Ripon Street area of the city on Saturday.

The body of the woman with injury marks all over her body was found on the footpath of Ripon Street and police were awaiting the autopsy report, Kolkata Police said.

A senior Kolkata Police officer said the manager of the hotel knew the victim and her male friend - the suspected murderer who had put up at his hotel. 

The woman, who was in her mid-20s, is suspected to have been murdered inside the hotel room which had been rented by her male friend on Friday, he said.

“The duo used to frequent the hotel and the manager knew both of them quite well. We had questioned him in connection with the mishap but his replies were found to have discrepancies for which we arrested him,” the officer said. 

The manager had reportedly said during grilling that the suspect had come rushing to him saying that the woman had committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling. He had also reportedly said the suspect then went out looking for a doctor. But when he did not return the manager had asked the hotel workers to dump the body on the footpath adjacent to the hotel.

 Police have tracked down the woman’s residence in the Jorabagan area of the city from the tattoo on her left hand and a search for the suspect has been initiated.

Michelle Dockery Hints at Possibility of Downton Abbey Movie

London: In what is coming in as a relief for millions of fans around the globe, English actor Michelle Dockery who played Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey has hinted the possibility of a Downton Abbey movie.

“I think there is potential for a film,” the actress who played Lady Mary Crawley told British newspaper The Telegraph. “That is something I would wholeheartedly consider, so we will see. It may not be over yet.”

“Downton Abbey was an incredible journey for six years and we were very sad to say goodbye, but it was the right time and it was very exciting actually leaving and going on to something like this and a whole new path in my career,” she said.

Dockery will next be seen on the TNT drama Good Behavior, in a role that is dramatically different to prim and proper Lady Mary. London-born Dockery plays Letty Dobesh, a drug-abusing petty thief and con artist who vomits and falls down drunk.

“I’m no longer anonymous but it comes with the territory,” she said. “‘Downton Abbey’ was something that surprised us all and was a huge springboard into America for many of us, which has obviously led to opportunities like this.”

Dockery is also currently filming a Western series for Netflix called Godless.

Downton Abbey is a British-American TV series created by Julian Fellows. It started airing since 2010. It has produced six season and 52 episodes. Downton Abbey has received critical acclaim from television critics and won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award For Best Miniseries Or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award For Outstanding Movie Or Miniseries. It was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011. It earned the most nominations of any international television series in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, with twenty-seven in total (after two series). It was the most watched television series on both ITV and PBS, and subsequently became the most successful British costume drama series since the 1981 television serial of Brideshead Revisited. By the third series, it had become one of the most widely watched television drama shows in the world.

Academic Ranking Of World Universities 2016 Results Announced

The 10 universities ranked at the top of Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) last year have all retained their place in the top 10 for 2016, despite some shuffling up and down.

The 2016 Shanghai Ranking results confirm Harvard University as number one in the world for the 14th year running. Stanford University also retained second place while Berkeley and University of Cambridge both dropped one place.

Eight of the top universities are in the United States, with Oxford and Cambridge completing the list of elite institutions in the top 10. One Swiss and one Japanese university make it in to the top 20.

Asia has broken new ground in this year’s ranking, with universities in China and Singapore in the top 100 for the first time. Tsinghua University in China is the country’s best university in 58^th position, and the National University of Singapore is the country’s top entry at position 83.

ETH Zurich (19^th overall) takes first place in continental Europe, while the University of Copenhagen (31st) in Denmark overtakes Pierre & Marie Curie (39th) in France as the second best European university outside the UK. The University of Melbourne in 40^th place is the highest performing country in Oceania.

In total, 500 universities are ranked from across the world based on six indicators. These include the number of award-winning staff and alumni and the number of articles published in prestigious journals Nature and Science.

Outside the top 100, universities are banded into groups of 50 or 100 to accommodate statistically insignificant variations in scores at this level.

The ARWU has been published annually since 2013 by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.

The highest ranking Indian university features in the 301-400 bracket — Indian Institute Of Science.

Hyderabad: Poisonous Gas Inside Manhole Claims 4 Lives

Hyderabad: Four men including three manhole-cleaning sanitary workers, choke to death in Madhapur — the city's IT area, after inhaling poisonous gases like methane that are usually emitted inside a closed manhole. The fourth man was a Samaritan, cab driver Gangadhar, who saw the trio going in to clean, but not exiting the manhole for a significant amount of time. He lowered himself to rescue them but did not come out alive himself.

That the tragedy occurred just 36 hours before the nation turned 70 only emphasizes that India@70 is still inside a manhole. That even seven decades later, India has not been able to give freedom to sanitary workers who have to clean the city’s sewage that includes faeces, dead rodents and garbage, manually. It is something that no country that believes in dignity of a human being would do.

You would think that the more progressive part of Hyderabad, that showcases its T-Hub, its start-up ecosystem and software export figures to the world, would move away from this primitive practice of employing men to clean the underbelly of the city. But the tragedy shows that if you scratch the veneer of fake sophistry and gloss, everyone remains logged into the same abominable practice — of treating some men worse than animals.

In this case, like it happens in most cases, the workers did not wear safety gear when they got into the 25 feet deep manhole. They were apparently unskilled labourers, who walked into a deathtrap. The compensation amount of Rs 2.5 lakh that the government has announced is nothing but a way of washing its hands of any guilt.

The Hyderabad Water Board officials say the agency which undertook this cleaning up job had been blacklisted for similar negligence earlier and undertook this task without permission.

Even though the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 had spoken of eliminating hazardous manual cleaning of sewer and septic tanks and their rehabilitation, the action on the ground has belied the promise. It is almost farcical that only death gets the families of victims some compensation but in case of the workers suffering injuries or infections, there is no social security cover.

Dengue Death Toll Reaches 17

Kolkata: With two more deaths, the dengue toll in West Bengal, since January, went up to 17 on Monday, a senior health department official said. One of the victims was from Dum Dum and the other from North 24 Parganas’ Bangaon. Both were women and died on Sunday.

“The death count has now become 17. Most of the victims were from North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts,” he said. Satpathy said, 77 fresh cases of dengue were reported in the last 24 hours. “The number of dengue cases in the state since January now stands at 2,870,” he said.

There has been a sharp rise in dengue cases across the state this monsoon. With most of the affected patients undergoing treatment at Dr B C Roy Memorial Hospital For Children and Beliaghata ID hospital, the leave of all doctors and paramedical staff, including nurses and lab technicians, have been cancelled.With dengue cases multiplying each passing day, and patients crowding the hospitals, the state government might cancel the leave of all health staff across the state in the near future.The move comes in the wake of hospitals struggling to deal with the influx of patients.

Meanwhile, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) suspended 30 municipal staff and two doctors for not working properly. KMC Mayor-in-Council, Health, Atin Ghosh while speaking to the media said, “late arrival” and “non-performance” of duties were the reasons behind the notices issued.

The chief minister had sought to reassure worried citizens few weeks back after she held a high-level meeting with the responsible authorities.

Petrol Prices Cut By Rs 1/Litre, Diesel By Rs 2

New Delhi: Petrol price was today cut by Rs 1 per litre while diesel rate was lowered by Rs 2 per litre. Revised prices will take effect from midnight.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 60.09 per litre, and diesel will cost Rs 50.27 a litre. Fuel prices were last revised on July 31, when the price of petrol price was lowered by Rs 1.42 a litre while that of diesel was reduced by Rs 2.01 per litre.

Petrol and diesel prices are deregulated in India, which means they are linked to market rates. State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) revise rates of the fuels on the first and 16th of every month based on the average oil price and foreign exchange rate in the preceding fortnight.

The rupee finished at 66.88 per dollar on Friday. The Indian currency has appreciated by 13 paise, or 0.2 percent, since last price revision.

Speaking on the issue, ICO said, “The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and rupee-dollar exchange rate warrant a decrease in selling price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision.”

 The movement of prices in the international oil market and rupee-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes, IOC added.