Thursday

You're welcome: Five excuses guaranteed to let you watch the India-Australia match at home

So you need to take off work to watch the World Cup semis between India and Australia? Here's five innovative excuses you could try.

Syrian troops recapture majority of key town

Damascus, Oct 24 (IANS) The Syrian army Thursday recaptured vast part of a strategic town in central province of Hama after battles with the armed militant groups, the state media reported. The Syrian government forces wrested back control over the vast majority of the key town of Mork in the northern countryside of Hama, as part of the military's ongoing offensive to dislodge the rebels from Hama's northern countryside, Xinhua quoted the TV report as saying.

Sevilla earn two-goal cushion against Valencia

Stephane MBia and Carlos Bacca were on target for Sevilla as they took a big step towards reaching the Europa League final with a 2-0 victory over Valencia on Thursday.

CNN-IBN journalist gets Chameli Devi Award

New Delhi, March 20 (IANS) Anubha Bhonsle, senior editor and anchor with TV news channel CNN-IBN, was Thursday conferred the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding woman media person. A TV journalist for the past 15 years, Bhonsle was given the award for her stories on marginalised sections. The citation recognised her coverage in the aftermath of the Muzaffarnagar riots and Uttarakhand floods

Rupee still up; foreign fund flows strong

Reuters Market Eye - The rupee is still up at 62.15/16 per dollar versus its close of 62.26/27 on Thursday. Local stocks trading with gains, up 0.7 percent with gains in Asian FX also helping INR. Overseas investors bought Indian shares worth 2.06 billion rupees on Thursday, extending their buying streak to a seventh session, provisional exchange data shows

Security beefed up in Gorakhpur ahead of Modi rally on Thursday

A state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson said Wednesday that Modi, who is also the Gujarat chief minister, will make a brief stopover in Varanasi where he will arrive in a special aircraft from Ahmedabad.

Italy's Monti brushes off latest Berlusconi switch

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti faced increasing pressure on Thursday to stand as a candidate in next year's election after Silvio Berlusconi's surprise offer to drop his bid for a fifth term as premier. At a meeting of the European People's Party in Brussels, an umbrella group of centre-right parties, Berlusconi repeated the offer to stand aside if Monti agreed to run against the centre-left, who are tipped to win the election. "There were a lot of expressions of support for a Monti candidacy," a member of the European parliament told Reuters

Facebook to enable pre-approval for tagged photos

The moment of sheer annoyance is when you log in to your Facebook account and see an embarrassing party picture of you.