Live! Will Lokpal panel be 8th time lucky?

Part II of the Lokpal committee meeting tomorrow. The meeting today, according to the government and civil society, went off well, without acrimony. But 15 per cent of issues remain to be ironed out.

Join us tomorrow for all the news as it happens, wherever it happens. And that's no mean boast...

A Japanese machine has become the fastest supercomputer in the world, making calculations three times faster than a Chinese rival. The K Computer, developed by Fujitsu Ltd and the state-funded RIKEN institute of physical and chemical research, has achieved 8.162 quadrillion calculations per second (petaflops), they said.

One quadrillion is made up of a thousand trillions. It overtook China's Tianhe-1A of the National Supercomputing Centre in Tianjin, which became the world number-one in November and is capable of operating at 2.6 petaflops.

The K Computer's performance was recognised by the authoritative biannual Top500 List of Supercomputers released today at the 2011 International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany

The Indian discourses on Afghanistan have often fancied about a 'Northern-Alliance option' for the policymakers in Delhi in a 'worst-case scenario'. This was all along a mistaken notion.

The NA ceased to exist a long time ago. In fact, but for the heroic and patient efforts by the then Iranian DFM Ala'eddin Broujerdi (presently the chairman of the Majlis commission on foreign and security affairs) in the 1997-98 period, there wouldn't have been NA in the first instance.

Read   more from MK Bhadrakumar's blog

Over the hill, yet managing to scale the peak, Hugh Hefner is getting over being ditched just five days before his wedding - with the help of another Playboy model. The Sun.co.uk reports that Playboy magazine boss, 85, has installed Anna Sophia Berglund, 25, as his new "main girl".

A take down on 1st Odisha Premier League | Puri Travel, Puri ...

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By Sidhanta Patnaik

Last night a thrilling final between easily the two best teams of the competition brought the curtains down on the inaugural edition of OPL (Odisha Premier League). Natraj Behera’s WSR (Western Samurai Rourkela) held their nerve to get past Biplab Samantray’s KBT (Katak Barabati Tigers) in a match that could have gone either way till the last ball was bowled. It was a rarity to see veteran campaigner Pravanjan Mullick unable to take his team home, an art which he has mastered in his illustrious career but credit goes to Basant Mohanty for the witty final over where anyone else with slightly lower self confidence could have meekly surrendered. In a way WSR’s victory not only gives the people of the state’s western belt a cricketing reason to celebrate but also might be a new beginning in Orissa’s cricket chapter which has usually been a monopoly of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. On cricketing terms the inaugural edition of OPL is a qualified success. Fresh talents from remotest of places were unearthed and cricketers were introduced to a financial security model. The huge turnout at the grounds every evening was an indication of local cricket’s continuing charm in the state and that can only be a good sign. The appointment of team brand ambassadors from various walks of life portrayed OPL as an inclusive occasion. However logistically OPL was a tragedy and its elements made the phrase ‘premier league’ obnoxious. With the positioning comes a certain amount of accountability and OCA (Orissa Cricket Association) failed in doing justice to the naming. Anyone without any prior knowledge of the developments could have easily concluded the tournament to be either ‘Odisha Cricket League’ or ‘City T20 Hungama’ or ‘Inter-city T20 Cup’ but not Odisha Premier League. One of the league’s unspoken aims is to produce cricketers who could at least fetch an Indian Premier League contract but for that to happen OCA needs to instruct its curators to work their way beyond substandard pitches and produce tracks that offer something for everyone. Throughout the league the average first innings score hovered from 110 to 120 as the batsmen labored their way for 20 overs.

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