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Blast in Sri Lankan capital
A small bomb exploded in the centre of the Sri
Lankan capital today, leaving five people with
minor injuries, police said. Six vehicles were
badly damaged in the blast, which took place in
Colombo's heavily fortified commercial area, an
AFP photographer at the scene said.
Security is extremely tight in Colombo as fighting
rages between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels
in the north of the island. ‘It was a small
bomb, about 100 grammes, that went off under a
brown coloured parked van,’ police spokesman
Ranjith Gunasekara said. He said two people, including
a female traffic warden, sustained minor injuries
and were rushed to Colombo's main hospital.
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Zardari gets fatwa
The prayer leader of the infamous Lal Masjid
in the heart of Islamabad has issued a fatwa against
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari for his "You're
gorgeous" compliment to US vice-presidential
candidate Sarah Palin. Maulana Abdul Ghafar said
the act was un-Islamic and unbecoming of a head
of state of a Muslim country.
He said Zardari shamed the entire Pakistani nation
by publicly making indecent gestures towards the
American Republican vice presidential candidate
Sarah Palin in Washington last Thursday.
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Punjab eyes Rs 200-cr revenue from lotteries
The lotteries department of Punjab has set an
ambitious target of earning revenue of around
Rs 200 crore in the financial year 2008-09. The
state government which earned Rs 68.36 crore as
revenue in the year 2002-03 got Rs 168.70 crore
in the year 2006-07 and reached to Rs 175 crore
as revenue in the year 2007-08.
The popularity of Punjab state lotteries can
be gauged from the fact that on an average, the
department sells around six lakh tickets per month.
However, the highest revenue comes from the Diwali
bumper sale and interestingly, the department
sold around 14 lakh tickets during diwali last
year. This time, the department hopes to sell
15 lakh tickets during the festival season of
Diwali.
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Sensex crashes
Indian markets tumbled post sun-outage break
on dismal cues from global markets. Players frenziedly
cut positions on fears there will be more corporate
failures and the US bailout plan may fail to resolve
the credit crisis.
The failure of US financial services sector is
now spilling over to European companies. Fortis,
the largest Belgian financial service firm, recently
filed for the bailout. Bradford & Bingley
Britain's biggest lender to landlords may also
be taken over.
At 2:11 pm, National Stock Exchange's 50-share
Nifty dropped 4.33 per cent to 3812 and BSE Sensex
was at 12490, down 4.67 per cent.
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Alonso wins Singapore night
GP
Renault's Fernando Alonso pulled off an extraordinary
win in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, while
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton extended his Formula
One championship lead. Starting from 15th on the
grid after a fuel pump failure in qualifying looked
to have wrecked his weekend, Alonso benefited
from an early safety car period that turned the
race around.
The Spaniard won his first race since last year's Italian Grand Prix and the
20th of his career. Williams' Nico Rosberg was
second - his best-ever grand prix finish - while
Hamilton was third. Hamilton extended his championship
lead to seven points due to a remarkable turn
of events that cost title rival Felipe Massa of
Ferrari any points.
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