The Indian Super League (ISL) match between ATK and FC Goa, slated to take place at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan here on Wednesday, has been delayed by at least an hour in the aftermath of a MiG-29K aircraft catching fire after skidding off the runway at Goa’s Dabolim International Airport.

“Hero Indian Super League’s home match of ATK will be delayed by an hour today, due to unavoidable circumstances.

“The League match number 37 was to kick-off at 8:00 pm (IST) but now has been pushed by an hour considering the expected late arrival of FC Goa to Kolkata,” Football Sports Development Limited, the organisers of the ISL, said in a statement.

“The match between ATK and FC Goa will be delayed for a minimum of one hour,” the statement added.

The Goa team was initially scheduled to arrive in the city on Tuesday night, but a technical fault in their aircraft forced them to stay put and take the next day’s flight.

The runway was closed for an hour after the incident, which meant that a chartered flight from New Delhi scheduled to fly the players from Goa to Kolkata on Wednesday morning also got delayed.

“The runway is operational again and as we speak the chartered flight has taken off from New Delhi some time ago. It should land in Goa by 5:30 in the evening and then it will take another two hours for the team to reach Kolkata.

“The match will not start before 9 p.m. at least. There are chances of a 10 p.m. kick-off also,” an ISL official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

The last time such an incident happened was on December 4, 2015 when Mumbai City FC reached Kolkata on matchday due to Chennai floods. They went to win the inconsequential tie 3-2.

Stranded in Chennai where the submerged airport had shut operations, MCFC, who were to arrive on Wednesday had landed only on Friday after travelling by road to Tirupati Air Base.

Meanwhile, looking to get back to winning ways, the delay will certainly not please the Goa team management and players who will virtually have to take the field moments after landing in the city.

Till Wednesday afternoon, the FC Goa team management was in the dark about whether the match will be held or not.

On Tuesday, Goa assistant coach Derrick Pereira had complained of the rescheduled tie (the match was originally scheduled for December 31) being a cause of worry keeping in mind back-to-back matches against ATK and then NorthEast United on January 6.

“We were ready to play on the 31st. Then all of a sudden we had to postpone the game for tomorrow. That’s one thing we were a bit worried about. Not this match but next match. We are not going to focus on that match now. We got two extra days,” Pereira had told reporters on the eve of the match.

Goa are fifth in the points table with 12 points from six matches.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar called off its ‘Maharashtra Shutdown’ which left large parts of Mumbai and rest of the state virtually paralysed for 10 hours since dawn on Wednesday.

“The shutdown was peaceful and has evoked a huge response all over. I thank all my supporters for making it a success,” Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, told media persons.

He demanded that the state government should slap murder charges on the perpetrators of the violence and subsequent death of a youth in Koregaon-Bhima incident of January 1.

Ambedkar cited the names of Shivjagar Pratisthan President Sambhaji Bhide Guruji and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti President Milind Ekbote, against whom complaints have been lodged by Pune police.

“They should be arrested and face the same punishment as Yakub Memon (who was accused in the March 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts and subsequently hanged),” Ambedkar demanded.

He said the shutdown action was not only for the Dalit cause but to highlight the plight of the state’s downtrodden people and seek justice for them.

With the shutdown call withdrawn, it is expected that normalcy will soon return to Mumbai and Maharashtra by late evening.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor traded barbs in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday over making Hindi an official language at the United Nations.

Tharoor questioned the need to push it while the Minister called his remark “ignorant”.

Sushma Swaraj, in her reply to a question, said: “It is often asked why Hindi is not an official language in the UN. Today, I will want to tell the House, the biggest problem is the procedure.”

The Minister explained that as per the procedure, two-thirds of the 193 members of the organisation which comes to 129  will have to vote in favour of making Hindi an official language and also share the financial expenditure that would be incurred in the process.

“The problem comes when apart from voting, the burden of the amount also falls on them. Economically weaker countries that support us shy away from this. We are working on it, we are making attempts to get support of countries like Fiji, Mauritius, Surinam… where people of Indian origin are there.

“When we get that kind of support and they are also ready to bear the financial burden, it will become an official language,” she said.

The Minister said the government was ready to spend any amount of money to get Hindi listed as an official language but spending money would not serve the purpose.

Sushma Swaraj also highlighted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and she had spoken in the UN in Hindi.

“Even when we have (foreign) guests, if they speak in English, we speak in English. If they speak in their own language, we speak in Hindi. As far as glory of the language is concerned, the External Affairs Ministry never had so much work done in Hindi as now,” she said.

Tharoor, who worked in the UN and announced his retirement after finishing second in the 2006 election for UN Secretary-General, questioned the need to push for Hindi, which he pointed out was not even the national language of India.

“Hindi is not the national language, it is an official language. Seeking to promote Hindi raises an important question. Why do we need an official language in the UN? Arabic does not have more speakers than Hindi, but Arabic is spoken by 22 countries, whereas Hindi is only used as an official language by one country us,” he said.

“The question is what purpose is being served by this. If indeed we have a Prime Minister or Foreign Minister who prefers to speak Hindi, they can do so and we can pay to get that speech to be translated. Why should we put our future Foreign Ministers and Prime Ministers who may be from Tamil Nadu in a position…” he said.

“The government has to defend its position. I understand the pride of Hindi-speaking people, but people of this country who do not speak in Hindi also take pride in being Indian,” he said.

The statement did not go well with several members of the treasury benches who raised the pitch in protest.

Sushma Swaraj said Hindi was spoken in several other countries as well as by the Indian diaspora abroad. “Saying Hindi is spoken only in India is your ignorance.”

In a written reply, she said India was in touch with 129 countries to make this happen.

“Game of Thrones” sound designer Paula Fairfield says the noises made by the dragon Drogon are actually recordings of mating tortoises.

The giant flying lizard is the ‘child’ of Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, played by Emilia Clarke. The hit HBO fantasy show, which is based on the novels by George R.R. Martin, features three fire-breathing creatures owned by Daenerys, but it is only Drogon that gets its voice from the peculiar source.

Fairfield talked about the source of the sound during WNYC radio show Radiolab on Tuesday, reports dailymail.co.uk. “The groan of the male actually became, with some work and adjustments and stuff, the basis of Drogon’s purr with Daenerys. I have sounds I might choose simply by certain personality traits that I might want to push forward.

“She named that dragon after Khal Drogo, her hot late husband, so Drogon is like her lover.” As a way of bringing the mythical creatures their own flair, Fairfield decided to give each dragon their own personalities and sounds.

“They’re very powerful, they can be very scary, they can be very destructive. But what’s kind of magical in ‘Game of Thrones’ is that the intimate scenes also melt your heart and bring you closer to these characters that should be burning your face off,” she said.

Australia will aim to extend their supremacy over a hapless England side when they face off in the fifth and final Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground here from Thursday.

Having already regained the urn with an unassailable 3-0 lead, the hosts were further bolstered by the return of their pace spearhead Mitchell Starc after recovering from a bruised heel and skipper Steven Smith brushing off concerns about his fitness on the eve of the match.

Starc, who claimed 19 wickets in the first three Tests to help Australia wrest back the Ashes, missed the drawn Boxing Day fourth game in Melbourne before confirming his fitness on Wednesday.

Confirming the playing XI with the inclusion of Starc as the only change in place of Jackson Bird, Smith said he would be leading his side out on Thursday despite missing training on Tuesday because of a bad back.

“It’s a little bit stiff but nothing I haven’t dealt with before. I’ll have a good hit and a good catch today and I’ll be fine tomorrow,” Smith told reporters here.

“I love batting out here at the SCG, it’s my home ground and I’ve made a few good scores. So hopefully I can continue the run,” added Smith, who has accumulated a series-leading 604 runs so far.

In contrast, the visitors will hand a debut to leg-spinner Mason Crane after all-rounder Chris Woakes was ruled out of the match with an injury, captain Joe Root confirmed on Wednesday.

Woakes pulled up a side strain after the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which was rated as “poor” by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The 27-year-old’s enforced absence will be the only change to a struggling English side, which will aim for a turnaround in fortune in the new year.

Woakes’s injury has probably resulted in a reprieve for out-of-form all-rounder Moeen Ali, who had been expected to make way for 20-year-old Crane.

Crane, who played at the SCG for New South Wales last year during a highly successful stint with the Gordon club, will become the youngest England spinner to make his Test debut for 90 years.

Teams:
Australia: David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (Captain), Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (WK), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon.

England: Mark Stoneman, Alastair Cook, James Vince, Joe Root (Captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Moeen Ali, Mason Crane, Tom Curran, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

Pakistan Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir on Wednesday rejected the notion that the country has acted against Hafiz Saeed due to pressure from the US, saying that all action against the Mumbai terror attacks mastermind was under the ambit of the country’s own anti-terror operations.

Dastagir, in an interview with BBC Urdu, said that although a number of organisations have been banned internationally, Pakistan would assess the situation and take steps accordingly.

“Action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa is being carried out in light of a well thought out strategy for a safer Pakistan where terrorists are never able to gun down school children ever again,” Dastagir said during the interview.

“It is not that we will take up arms against our own country, that time has passed,” he said, adding that Pakistan will now take calculated decisions.

Saeed is accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that left over 160 people dead, including foreigners.

Discussing the recent rift between Pakistan and the US, the Defence Minister termed Trump’s tweet as a “point of view”.

“Instead of learning counter-terrorism from Pakistan, the US is cursing us,” he said.

He added that there had been positive dialogue between Pakistan and the US in the past few months but the relationship was given “a negative colour on the public level”.

Dastagir also accused India of playing an “indirect role” in the deteriorating relationship between Pakistan and the US.

The Defence Minister’s statements come a day after Washington confirmed suspension of $255 million in military aid to Pakistan.

Military aid to Islamabad was cut after Trump, in a tweet, accused Pakistan of “lies & deceit”.

Actress Nora Fatehi, who will be next seen in Samir Soni’s My Birthday Song in a pivotal role, was so fabulous in her audition that the director just can’t stop appreciating the actress.

Samir Soni, who will be directing the upcoming film, believes Nora is the surprise package of his film.

“Nora’s character was most difficult to audition, it’s very complicated, complex, but her vulnerability and her sensuality put together made her the perfect fit for the role. She will be our surprise package,” Soni says.

According to Soni, Nora’s persona helped her to perfect her on-screen character, which needed innocence and seduction at the same time.

“Nora’s character is enigmatic, it’s tough to play not anyone can do it. It needed innocence, seduction and hardness. Nora is an elegant girl, sweet and she has seductive element to her persona,

Nora being from Canada just like her character is a strong and independent individual and that’s where she derives the toughness from,” Soni adds.

My Birthday Song is a psychological thriller written & directed by Samir Soni. It features Sanjay Suri, Nora Fatehi & Miss India Australia Zenia Starr in lead roles. The film is slated to release on January 19, 2018.

The Maharashtra shutdown called by Dalit groups on Wednesday disrupted the shooting schedule of film and TV projects here.

The shooting of three television shows “Piyaa Albela”, “Aisi Deewangi Dekhi Nahi Kahi” and “Kundali Bhagya”, was interrupted, while some of the shoots went on as per schedule.

According to a channel source, the cast and crew of Zee TV’s popular show “Kundali Bhagya” reached for the schedule at the Killick Nixon studio in Marol, but the protesters started pelting stones and disrupted the shoot. All the members of the unit, including actors Manit Joura, Shraddha Arya and Anjum Farikh, parked themselves inside their vanity vans and waited for the situation to normalize.

The shoot of “Piyaa Albela”, which was supposed to happen at the Basra Studio, had to be rescheduled. It is shot at a studio located in Kandivali where violence has been reported. Due to security reasons, the shooting unit decided to change the shift from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Now has been scheduled from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.

At the “Aisi Deewangi Dekhi Nahi Kahi” shoot at the Future Studio, located at Goregaon East, work was disrupted because of stone-pelting by the protesters, the channel source said.

Two film-related events were also been cancelled to avoid the disrupted situation in the city.

“Due to Maharashtra bandh today, we have decided to push our ‘My Birthday Song’ trailer release to tomorrow January 4, 2018. Thank you,” tweeted the movie’s producer and actor Sanjay Suri.Even the song launch of director Luv Ranjan’s upcoming film “Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety” was cancelled “owing to the current situation in the city”.

Protesters also gathered outside the Film City gate.Asked if the shooting is affected by the situation, Ashoke Pandit, member of Indian Films and Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA), told IANS: “Shootings at Film City, Madh area have been cancelled as the unit members, especially the actors, could not reach the venue due to the situation outside.”

He also tweeted: “Film and TV shootings have come to a halt.”

The shutdown happened a day after angry Dalits staged rail, road blockades and took out processions in Mumbai and agitations in different parts of Maharashtra on Tuesday to protest against violence in Pune a day ago which left one youth dead.

A speeding bus rammed into a tractor-trolley in Sikar in Rajasthan on Wednesday, leaving 11 people dead and 25 critically injured.

Official sources said reckless driving by the bus driver was the prime reason for the tragedy. The bus was on its way from Sardarpurshahar to Churu.

The bus was trying to overtake another bus in village Rohalsahabsar when it hit the trolley coming from the opposite direction.

Such was the impact of the accident that the bus split into two and the passengers were left stuck inside.

Locals who rushed to help had a tough time taking out the dead and injured from the bus.

The injured were taken to the Fatehpur Government Hospital. Those in critical condition were shifted to Jaipur.

Grieving relatives found it difficult to identify the mangled bodies. Most victims were identified with the help of their clothes and identity cards.

The administration has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 for the families of the deceased and Rs 10,000 for the injured. Seven of the dead were from Churu.

India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been suffering from viral illness for the past two days, while opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan has recovered from an injury ahead of the first cricket Test against South Africa, it was announced on Wednesday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that its medical team in consultation with the local medical team has decided that Jadeja will be taken to a hospital for treatment and said it expects him to fully recover in the next 48 hrs.

“The BCCI Medical Team has been monitoring him and is also in touch with the local medical team in Cape Town,” the statement said.

“The BCCI’s decision on his availability for selection for the opening Test against South Africa will be taken on the morning of the match on Friday,” it added.

Left-handed batsman Dhawan hit the nets at the morning training session at the Newlands Stadium on Wednesday as he recovered from an ankle injury. The injury was deemed “minor”.

Dhawan is fit and is available for selection for the first Test.

India have three options for the opening batting roles. Murali Vijay and Lokesh Rahul are the other two openers in the squad.

India squad for the three-match Test series: Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.

For his sterling performances this season and the last one, Chelsea star Eden Hazard has been named the Belgian football federation KBVB’s “Devil of the Year”, seeing off competition from Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester United forward Romelu Lukaku.

Hazard succeeded Dries Mertens, earning 10,280 votes in an internet poll organised by his country’s national federation, to become Belgian national team’s top man.

That put him well ahead of De Bruyne, who polled 4,710 votes, with Lukaku third on 3,223.

Hazard’s Chelsea teammates Michy Batshuayi and Thibaut Courtois were also in contention for the award along with United’s Marouane Fellaini, Napoli’s Dries Mertens, Crystal Palace forward Christian Benteke, Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen and West Bromwich Albion’s Nacer Chadli.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) for capacity augmentation of navigation on National Waterway-1’s (Ganga river) 1,380-km Haldia-Varanasi stretch.

According to a cabinet communique, the Rs 5,369 crore project, which is expected to be completed by March 2023, will bring down the logistic cost in the country and lead to major infrastructure development like multi-modal and inter-modal terminals, roll on-roll off (Ro-Ro) facilities, ferry services, and navigation aids.

The JMVP will create an alternative mode of transport that will be “environment friendly and cost effective” and generate “huge” employment, it said.

“NW-1 development & operations will lead to direct employment generation to the tune of 46,000 and indirect employment of 84,000 will be generated by vessel construction industry,” said the release.

The World Bank has provided technical assistance and financial support to the project, which will cover states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the JMVP in his July 2014 Budget speech to enable commercial navigation of at least 1,500 tonnes vessels in Ganga.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has pledged a loan of $375 million (Rs 2, 512 crore) for the project while the Indian government will incur expenses of Rs 2,556 crore – to be sourced from budgetary allocation and proceeds from bond issue.

Private sector participation in the project under Public-Private Partnership mode will be Rs 301 crore.

City football giants Mohun Bagan on Wednesday announced the appointment of Shankarlal Chakraborty as the head coach for the rest of the I-League season after the previous incumbent, Sanjoy Sen, resigned on Tuesday night.

Chakraborty was anointed from the assistant coach’s job to take the reins of the team struggling at fifth position in the points table after four games without a win.

“The club management have decided to elevate Mr. Sankarlal Chakraborty, as the Head Coach for the remainder of the 2017-18 season. Mr. Chakraborty has been there with the team since July 2014,” a statement from the club said.

Chakraborty was at the helm of affairs during Mohun Bagan’s Calcutta Football League (CFL) campaign as well. The green and maroon brigade finished second to arch-rivals East Bengal, who went on to win their record eighth title.

Currently in the I-League, East Bengal lead the charts under coach Khalid Jamil and the challenge for Chakraborty would be to arrest the freefall his club is witnessing at the moment.

Sen, who helped Mohun Bagan win the I-League in the 2014-15 season, stepped down from his position after Tuesday’s harrowing 1-2 defeat at the hands of lowly Chennai City FC. Despite having the numerical advantage for close to an hour, Mohun Bagan failed to score and were lacklustre to say the least in the second half.

In the previous three home games also, Mohun Bagan have been winless, managing three back-to-back draws.

Colombia’s Junior de Barranquilla football club have announced the signing of Peru international centre-back Alberto Rodriguez and forward Vladimir Hernandez for the 2018 season.

Rodriguez joins the club from Peruvian first division outfit Universitario, while Hernandez has parted ways with Brazil’s Santos, Junior said on their official Twitter account on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

Former Sporting Lisbon defender Rodriguez, who has been capped 71 times for Peru’s national team, spent just one season at Universitario following his December 2016 transfer from their Peruvian rivals Melgar.

Hernandes, capped once for Colombia, endured a frustrating 2017 in Brazil, managing just one goal in 27 matches for Santos.

Junior finished sixth in Colombia’s 2017 aggregate standings, which collates results from the Apertura and Finalizacion tournaments.

Dil Chori Sada Ho Gaya, the latest song from Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, has become a popular number among the listeners and topped the chart busters on New Year.

The song has been composed by Yo Yo Honey Singh and the singer has even rapped for the song making it even more popular as fans had been craving for Honey Singh’s party songs for so long.

The chartbuster song had garnered 10 million in just 20 hours of its release only on YouTube and has grossed more than 35 million views and is still counting.

Yo Yo Honey Singh, who has rapped and composed the party anthem, took to his Twitter and tweeted about the same: “#DilChori has crossed 40 Million plus views across youtube. Much love and respect for all your love and support…. https://t.co/C4KjJCrpyc”

The song has hit on the right note with the fans and is one of the most played songs in Discos and cafes that is making everyone groove on its tunes.

The song is a remix of the original song of the same name sung by popular Punjabi singer, Hans Raj Hans.

True to his style Yo Yo has delivered yet another desi dance number with ‘Dil Chori…’ from Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.

Work in courts in 20 districts of Uttar Pradesh remained suspended on Wednesday after the state bar association declared a strike over the removal of a statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar from the Ghaziabad court compound a day ago.

The Bar Associations of Baghpat, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Shamli, Noida and several other districts joined in the agitation, said Ghaziabad Bar Association President Rakesh Tyagi Kakra.

The lawyers on Wednesday put up a photo of B.R. Ambedkar at the same spot from where the statue was removed just hours after it was installed.

The police later removed the photo as well, leading to a clash between the police and the lawyers.

Finally the matter was resolved after the civic administration intervened. A request application was submitted to the administration for approval of installing the statue.

However, the Bar Association declared a day’s token strike.

The police has registered an FIR against 17 members of the Bar Association here for illegally grabbing public land and installing statue without government permission.

The FIR was lodged in Kavi Nagar police station by the Collectorate against executive members of the Bar Association.

“The approval of the district administration was a mandatory formality which was not sought prior to the statue’s installation, so the statue was removed,” said Additional District Magistrate Gyanendra Singh.