India denies Oz reports of warm-up game boycott

Team India has denied all reports of the team walking out of the ongoing three-day warm-up game against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI. Australian media reported that the Indian team wanted to boycott the game and head to Melbourne for better practice.

"The story is completely

baseless. There is no truth in it. Rain is part of cricket. You don't leave a venue only because it's raining," said the Indian team's media manager G S Walia in Canberra on Tuesday.

It rained heavily on the night prior to the start of the three-day game between the tourists and Cricket Australia Chairman's XI, forcing the game to begin only after lunch on Monday.

The Australian media has gone to town stating that India were contemplating heading for Melbourne for better practice sessions, leading up to the first Test starting there on December 26.

The reports said that a member of the support staff, travelling with the Indian team, had actually enquired with the groundsman at the Manuka Oval about the effect persistent rain would have on the three-day match.

The groundsman has also been quoted as saying that a "mysterious" member of the Indian team's camp suggested they might move to Melbourne for practice.

"I don't know who is this member of the Indian squad they are referring to. There is none amongst us who has or could have made this suggestion," said Walia.

The team, on its part, is treating the episode as a "comic relief" and joking about the identity of this "mysterious" person who could have made the suggestion.

While stirring up the matter, the Australian media has drawn parallel with the "monkeygate" episode of the Sydney Test of the previous tour four years ago and mentioned about the high-handed manner in which Indian Cricket Board operates.

India takes Gita issue with Russian Federal authorities

India has strongly taken up the demand for banning Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita, which a group linked to the Christian Orthodox Church has described as 'extremist', with the Russian authorities, Indian ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra said.

"The matter has been taken up by the

Indian embassy in Moscow with the Russian government at senior official level, seeking its favourable and positive intervention in the matter," Malhotra said, as the court in Tomsk postponed its ruling on the petition banning Bhagawad Gita as 'extremist' and allegedly 'sowing' social-discord in Russia.

Describing Bhagawad Gita as extremist, a group linked to the Christian Orthodox Church has demanded ban due to conflict of interests between the Russian followers of Lord Krishna and the local authorities in the Siberian region of Tomsk.

Malhotra personally and his mission have publicly expressed their support to the local chapter of International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

The final hearing in the Tomsk district court is scheduled for December 28, as the court agreed to seek the opinion of the Russian Ombudsman on Human Rights in Tomsk Region and of Indologists from Moscow and St Petersburg (all of whom favour dismissal of the case).

The case pertains to the legal relationship between a Russian registered socio-cultural organisation and the local authorities.

Nevertheless, the embassy in Moscow has been publicly supportive and sympathetic in the matter.

Table set for climate talks, India under pressure to do deal

UN climate talks on Monday enter their second week entangled in a thick mesh of issues with no guarantee that negotiators and their ministers will be able to sort them out. The 194-nation process is facing, for the second time in two years, the prospect of a bustup, even as scientists warn against the mounting threat of disaster-provoking storms, droughts, flood and rising seas made worse by global warming.

The 12-day Durban conference is eyeing a deal which secures the future of the Kyoto Protocol, set to be cast into limbo just a year from now.

It also would seek to coax China, the United States, India and Brazil into a new treaty on emissions curbs.

Wendel Trio of Greenpeace said everything now depended on four days of talks among environment ministers, due to start on Tuesday.

"There is progress on some of the smaller technical issues, but the big political questions will have to wait till ministers arrive," he said.

The conference's high-level session begins on Tuesday afternoon.

At the heart of the manoeuvring is the future of Kyoto, which stipulates legally-binding targeted curbs in greenhouse gases for rich countries.

The European Union (EU) -- nearly alone -- has offered to extend its Kyoto pledges after they expire at the end of 2012.

But it will do so, it says, only if major emitters -- including the United States and emerging giants such as China -- back plans for a new binding pact that would be completed by 2015 and take effect by 2020, when the current roster of voluntary pledges runs out.

This would achieve what the nearly disastrous Copenhagen Summit of 2009 failed to do: forge a worldwide treaty binding all the big parties to emissions constraints.

After a week of mixed signals, China declared on Sunday that it could envisage post-2020 binding commitments -- provided a range of conditions, including the survival of Kyoto, were met.

"I don't know if this is a shift in China's position, but it is clearly a signal that China intends to be flexible and constructively negotiate over the next week," said Alden Meyer, a veteran observer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington NGO.

If so, that would set the scene for a game of climate poker between the top two carbon polluters.

For now, the United States has resisted the EU roadmap, saying it cannot sign up to a legal framework the contents of which have not been spelt out.

Domestic politics weighs heavily in this thinking. There are presidential elections less than a year away, with the risk of a backlash from a bailout-weary public worried about the cost to their wallets of a climate treaty.

But Meyer said that this obstacle could be overcome if -- in the next few days -- the US prodded the Chinese into being clearer and more ambitious in what they were offering.

"If the US delegation could come home with an agreement where they could legitimately say that China was willing to negotiate post-2020 legally binding commitments for China, that would be a huge accomplishment for the US," he said.

Whether this may happen, though, is far from clear.

The US reaction on Sunday was muted. A senior US official acknowledged he had not seen the details of the Chinese proposal but was initially skeptical that it contained anything new.

"I don't think that there is anything different," he said. "The question is, what are they prepared to agree to here in Durban," said the official, speaking on condition on anonymity.

The other big question is this: could India, and also Brazil, be drawn into the roadmap-plus-Kyoto deal?

J. M. Muskar, the head of the Indian delegation, took a strongly conservative line.

"Our objective in these negotiations should not be to launch a new process for a new climate treaty, but (...) enhance implementation of the principles and provisions of the existing and valid climate treaty," he told reporters, referring to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the so-called Bali Roadmap, laid down in 2007.

US, India and Japan to meet, discuss China

US President Barack Obama and Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attend the gala dinner during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and East Asia Summit in Nusa Dua on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. In the backdrop of China's increasing assertiveness, Washington will for the first time host a trilateral official-level dialogue with Japanese, Indian and US diplomats on December 19 to build convergence over regional maritime security and non-proliferation in East Asia and Pacific region.

The dialogue earlier scheduled for October 8 in Tokyo was postponed on a US request.

Government sources said top Indian officials from the disarmament and non-proliferation, East Asia and America divisions of the ministry of external affairs will interact with their US counterparts such as assistant secretary (South Asia) Robert Blake and assistant secretary (East Asia and Pacific Affairs) and their equivalents from Japan's foreign ministry.

The dialogue will ramp up to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's visit to India on December 28.

While major bilateral initiatives like an agriculture corridor and trans-Asian Buddhist circuit are in the pipeline during Noda's visit, New Delhi and Tokyo will for the first time explore the possibility of joint research in the defence sector.

Driven by Tokyo and finalised during then foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's visit to Japan in April 2010, the dialogue is also part of New Delhi's effort to go beyond the stated Look East policy and engage North Asia as well.

US President Barack Obama and recently secretary of state Hillary Clinton had talked about the need for India to reach out to East Asia.

While Japan is a treaty ally of the US, India is being approached by South-East Asian countries and even Australia for trilateral initiatives in the face of Beijing's claims over the oil-rich South China Sea at the East Asia Summit in Bali last month.

New Delhi on its part plans to calibrate this trilateral initiative in a way that it is not seen as a platform against China.

India vs West Indies: Bravo stars as West Indies pile on 575

The talk before the start of the Test had been about West Indies' line-up having only seven centuries on their resume while India's boasted 20 times as many, but two days into the match it was the less-decorated batting unit that had put on 575. Darren Bravo crafted his third hundred in four Tests to lead the way, while Kirk Edwards and Kieran Powell were left to rue missing centuries on a shirtfront at the Wankhede.

Scorecard

Marlon Samuels partook in the run-fest after tea, to make it only the fifth time in Test history that each of the top six made half-centuries. Varun Aaron, the debutant fast bowler who was ordinary for much of the innings, showed plenty of tenacity to bowl a quick spell even as West Indies' total swelled past 500, earning three wickets to spark a late collapse.

The tone for the day was set by Bravo, who caressed the first two deliveries of the morning between the bowler Aaron and mid-off for four. West Indies plundered 111 runs before lunch, after which India went completely on the defensive - spreading the field, and giving the part-timers, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, extended spells. The strategy reduced the boundaries but there was no flagging of the run-rate, as an untroubled West Indies marched towards 500.

Like on Tuesday, there was little to encourage India's fast bowlers. Bravo showed how easy the track was to bat on as he pulled an Aaron bouncer wide of mid-on for four. His partner Edwards continued to showcase his driving skills, and a muscular style that favours the on-side. Edwards was more tentative than Bravo and he eventually fell short of a third Test century when he nicked a short of length ball to the keeper, giving Ishant Sharma reward for a long, tight spell.

That brought in Powell, who started shakily - getting knocked on the back of his helmet by Ishant on his first delivery. That didn't faze the 21-year-old, though, and he showed off his footwork against spin, dishing out a boundary an over. Powell initially dominated his partnership with the well-set Bravo, making his intentions clear early on by charging and lofting offspinner R Ashwin over his head, a stroke he repeated several times against the spinners.

Bravo was briefly starved of the strike when Powell got going, but he didn't lose his rhythm. He continued to favour the off side, using the graceful back-foot punch between cover and point heavily. His century came up with a slice past cover for four a few overs before lunch. There was no Lara-like leap in the air to celebrate the milestone this time, just a kiss of the bat and wave of the cap.

There were a couple of close calls for the West Indies batsmen after lunch: two overs in, Powell was nearly run out by MS Dhoni, and in the next over Bravo nicked a delivery between the keeper and leg slip. That raised India's hopes, but the breakthrough remained elusive. One of the few times the paltry crowd found its voice again was when their favourite, Tendulkar, was brought on to bowl.

With minimal risk, Powell and Bravo collected the singles, hardly hassled by the spinners, who sent down an astonishing 22 overs in the hour after lunch. A maiden century for Powell seemed inevitable, but he was caught behind for 81 off a quicker delivery from Pragyan Ojha, ending a partnership of 160.

Dhoni brought on the fast bowlers to attack the new batsman, Samuels, but though there were a couple of outside edges, Ishant slanted the ball too often into the pads to gift easy runs. Bravo was unflustered as ever, continuing past 150 to have a maiden double-century in his sights. He didn't get there, though, as his innings ended on 166, giving Dhoni a catch while chasing a slightly wide delivery.

That strike sparked a rare period of Indian dominance, with five wickets going down for 48 runs. Aaron and R Ashwin did the damage for India in that spell, during which Samuels unleashed some eye-catching drives to reach his half-century. An awaited declaration didn't come on the day, and neither could India bowl out West Indies, which meant Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir didn't have to bat after spending almost two entire days in the field.