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 At the time of COVID-19, former swimmer Khajan Singh remembers the ‘sporting lockdown’ at the Eric Arnold Swim Centre that drove him to the podium in Seoul. It was a self-imposed lockdown by Khajan Singh that propelled him to a podium finish at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul when he won the silver in 200m butterfly. “It was a lockdown indeed. This is for a national cause to fight COVID-19. What I experienced was my hard work in search of an Asian Games medal, a recognition for swimming which was so close to my heart,” Khajan Singh told Sportstar as he relived one of the glorious moments in Indian sports. Having begun his illustrious career with a 100m butterfly bronze at the 1979 Trivandrum junior nationals, Khajan took seven more years to reach the zenith of his swimming story which began in humble surroundings of Munirka Village in south Delhi. “It was a small pond near the Baba Ganganath Mandir where I developed my love for swimming,” said Khajan Singh . The lockdown phase for Khaj

 Sundar, who injured his shoulder while playing a County game in England, has been ruled out of the Zimbabwe tour.India will play the first ODI against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday. Shahbaz Ahmed has replaced all-rounder Washington Sunder in India’s squad for the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe starting from August 18. Sundar, who injured his shoulder while playing a County game in England, has been ruled out of the Zimbabwe tour.India will play the first ODI against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday.The same venue would also host the next two ODIs on Saturday and Monday. The 27-year-old Shahbaz has been rewarded for his stellar performance in the 2022 IPL season, where he turned out for Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Bengal left-arm spinner collected 219 runs and four wickets in 16 matches, leaving a mark. The Southpaw has a batting average of 41.64 and a bowling average of 19.47 from 18 first class games. India will be led by a stand-in captai

All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been suspended with immediate effect by FIFA due to third party influence. Now, Indian football is staring at an uncertain future All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been suspended with immediate effect by FIFA due to third party influence. Now, Indian football is staring at an uncertain future. The first drastic consequence is that India will be no longer be able to host the U-17 Women’s World Cup which it was slated to host later this year. FIFA will need to lift the suspension if the country is to host the tournament. While announcing its decision to suspend AIFF, FIFA had said: “The suspension means that the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022, scheduled to take place in India on 11–30 October 2022, cannot currently be held in India as planned.” It is important to note that if the suspension is not lifted and the tournament is hosted somewhere else, then it is not known whether India would be able to play in the tournament because original

  Khajan Singh Tokas , born on 6 May 1962, is an Indian swimmer, who remained national swimming champion of India, and won a silver medal at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. He was awarded an Arjuna Award by Government of India in 1984. Khajan Singh was chief sports officer with the CRPF and had won a silver medal in swimming at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. Currently he serves as the Deputy Inspector General in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in India. Khajan Singh Tokas “India is now well placed now to stand again on the podium at the Asian Games after eight years next year”, Tokas said. When asked why there was a huge gap between his Asian medal in 1986 and India winning another 24 years later, Khajan Singh replied that, “though I managed to qualify for the 1988 Olympics with a timing of 1:59s, I could not manage a medal”. He admitted it was tough to win a medal as a 26-year-old then. Tokas clocked 2:03.95s in the heats to finish 28th in 200m butterfly at the Seoul Games. Kha

Boxer Sagar Ahlawat won a silver at the recent Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. He talks about the medal being a perfect Raksha Bandhan present for his sister, Tamanna Ahlawat, and also shares the bittersweet emotions of having missed out on a gold finish. The pressure of performing well at the international level in the debut performance is hard to imagine. Yet, in his very first international appearance, boxer Sagar Ahlawat won silver at the recent Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Still trying to overcome a barrage of bittersweet emotions, he says,“Yeh mera pehla international competition hai aur maine apna poora effort diya. Main bahut khush hoon silver medal laakar. Lekin abhi thodi nirasha bhi mehsoos kar raha hoon kyunki gold nahi laa saka. But the hard work goes on, and I will keep giving my all in training.” ‘Next time gold lekar hi aana hai!’ In the men’s 92kg boxing category he came so close to gold and yet missed it. The 23-year-old continues to brim with immense self

 When she left a bad marriage, Sania Khan said some members of her South Asian Muslim community made her feel like she had “failed at life”. Through TikTok, she found support and comfort in strangers — until her ex returned and murdered her. Sania Khan This story contains details that may be upsetting to some readers. Her bags were packed. She was ready to be free. The 21st of July was to be the day Sania Khan, 29, left Chicago, Illinois — and the trauma of a relationship gone wrong — to begin a new solo chapter in her native Chattanooga. Instead, that day, she returned home to Tennessee in a casket. Three days earlier, officers had found Khan unresponsive near the front door of the Chicago condominium she had once shared with her estranged husband, Raheel Ahmad, 36. She had a gunshot wound to the back of her head and was pronounced dead at the scene. Upon arrival of the police, Ahmad had turned the gun on himself, taking his own life. According to police reports shared with the Chicag

 Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) says that the FBI confiscated his cell phone after three agents approached him while he was traveling with his family on Tuesday. Perry, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News in a statement that he was handed a warrant as agents requested the device, just one day after the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. It is not clear what the FBI is allegedly looking for in Perry’s cell phone. The agency declined to comment on the matter, as did the Department of Justice (DOJ). Perry’s office did not immediately return a request for comment. “This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone. They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish. I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress,

 The Enforcement Directorate attached to the Kochi office here on Wednesday started simultaneous raids at the residences of five accused in the Rs 312 crore fraud at the CPI-M controlled Trissur-based Karuvannur Cooperative bank. Incidentally, of the five accused where the raids began, four are out on bail. The ED officials involved in the raids were being guarded by the armed CISF guards as a matter of precaution. The Karuvannur Cooperative bank fraud in Thrissur district came intolimelight a year ago, but not much headway has been made in the probe by the police. Trouble broke out very recently when a depositor after desperate pleas for getting his money back for treatment passed away. Since then the fraud in the CPI-M controlled bank has made frequent headlines and even saw the Kerala High Court intervening. Last week the Court directed the scam-tainted coop bank to stop all payments barring the emergency ones and asked the Pinarayi Vijayan government to prepare a roadmap aimed at p

 One person has been killed after blasts rocked a military base in Crimea, the head of the Russia-appointed regional administration there said. Sergei Aksyonov wrote on social media that the blasts had taken place at the Saky military base near Novofedorivka on the peninsula’s western coast. Footage circulating on social media appeared to show multiple explosions. Russia’s defence ministry later said ammunition was detonated, but this has not been independently verified. The ministry said there was no “fire impact” on the ammunition storage area, Russia’s state-run Ria news agency reports. The Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014 is a popular destination with Russian tourists, and one video appeared to show visitors fleeing from a beach as smoke rose in the background. Read more : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62482425

 After Sri Lanka went bankrupt due to economic profligacy on count of white elephant Chinese funded projects, Bangladesh has joined Nepal by saying a big NO to any further loans from China. The two countries are now only interested in grants. Nine years after it was launched by President Xi Jinping, the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) appears to have lost steam with virtually no new Chinese investment in third countries post-Covid pandemic. While a section of Beijing watchers believe that this is an indicator of the hit that the Chinese economy has taken during the pandemic and as a result of its zero-Covid policy, the BRI appears to be under revaluation with recipient countries wary of the debt trap and its economic feasibility. Bangladesh Finance Minster AHM Mustafa Kamal has publicly blamed economically unviable Chinese BRI projects for exacerbating economic crisis in Sri Lanka. He has warned that developing countries must think twice about taking more loans through BRI as global inflati

 Doha has taken part in efforts alongside international actors to quickly halt hostilities in Gaza and avoid more casualties. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has hailed the truce that ended days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group in the Gaza Strip, saying it was a result of concerted “active diplomacy”. The truce, brokered on Sunday by Egypt with help from the United Nations and Qatar, has so far been held after three days of Israeli bombardment killed at least 44 Palestinians, including 15 children. Majed al-Ansari, spokesman of the Qatari foreign ministry, told Al Jazeera that Doha engaged in phone calls with all relevant parties from Friday to stop the “waste of blood”. “This agreement should not be broken in any way to ensure an appropriate amount of time where parties can work at the diplomatic level to avoid an escalation,” al-Ansari said. “I believe that what we are see[ing] now … is the result of active diplomacy — not just on the part

Russia has told the US it has “temporarily” suspended on-site inspections of its strategic nuclear weapons, under an arms control treaty known as New START. The Russian foreign ministry said the US was seeking advantages and had deprived Russia of the right to carry out inspections on US territory. It said US sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine had changed conditions between the countries. The treaty came into force in 2011. It is the last remaining arms reduction agreement between the former Cold War rivals. It caps at 1,550 the number of long-range nuclear warheads that each country can deploy. The ministry said the suspension was allowed under the treaty terms “in exceptional circumstances”. The suspension comes a week after US President Joe Biden said he was ready to work on a new nuclear arms deal with President Vladimir Putin. The current one will expire in 2026. The ministry accused the US of ignoring “existing realities” such as “the suspension of normal” air links. Read M

 Joe Biden calls the sentence against the WNBA star, who was arrested at a Moscow airport in February, ‘unacceptable’. A Russian court has found US basketball star Brittney Griner guilty of drug smuggling, and sentenced her to nine years in prison in a ruling US President Joe Biden called “unacceptable”. The court “found the defendant guilty” of smuggling and possessing “a significant amount of narcotics”, Judge Anna Sotnikova told a court in the town of Khimki just outside Moscow. The player was also fined one million rubles ($16,300). Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs by police after the verdict, turning to reporters and saying: “I love my family”. Biden condemned the verdict and reiterated calls for the 31-year-old’s release. “My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possibl

 A ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants held overnight, following three days of violence. Isolated weapons fire from both sides in the minutes before and just after the Sunday night deadline failed to derail the Egypt-brokered truce. At least 44 people have died in the most serious flare-up since an 11-day conflict in May 2021. US and United Nations leaders urged both sides to continue to observe the ceasefire. In a statement, US President Joe Biden praised the truce and called on all parties “to fully implement [it] and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza”. He also urged reports of civilian casualties to be investigated in a timely manner. Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62457780

  Sanamacha Thingbaijam Chanu (born 2 October 1978) is an Indian weightlifter who competed in the women's 53 kg weight class at the 2004 Summer Olympics. The 43 year old Chanu, is one of the most successful woman weightlifters in the country. She is an Arjuna awardee of the year 2000. She is from Imphal in Manipur state. Sanamacha Chanu  shares her experiences and the path through which she had to travel to reach the success in her life. Her career in sports started at a very young age. The start of the weightlifting career in her life was in 1992, when she was 14 years old. Her teacher was the one who sow the seed of sports in her life. She played the most important role in taking her weightlifting career to greater heights. She was the one who encouraged Sanamacha Chanu by sharing with her the stories of leading female sportspersons in the country. Sanamacha Chanu was immediately drawn to activities in sports and made up her mind to be a great sportsperson and make the country pr

 Taiwan said it was closely watching the Chinese drills and that it was prepared for conflict, but would not seek it. Beijing: China’s largest-ever military exercises encircling Taiwan kicked off Thursday, in a show of force straddling vital international shipping lanes after a visit to the island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi left Taiwan Wednesday after a trip that defied a series of stark threats from Beijing, which views the self-ruled island as its territory. Pelosi was the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, and said her trip made it “unequivocally clear” that the United States would not abandon a democratic ally. It sparked a furious reaction from Beijing, which vowed “punishment” and announced military drills in the seas around Taiwan — some of the world’s busiest waterways. The exercises, which began around 12 pm (0400 GMT), involve “live-firing”, according to state media. “Six major areas around the island have been selected for this act

 After nine hours of search at his residence and six hours of questioning at the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) zonal office in south Mumbai, Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut, belonging to the Uddhav Thackeray faction, was arrested by the directorate. The case pertains to money laundering linked to irregularities in a chawl redevelopment scam. The Case Of Money Laundering There were financial irregularities found in more than Rs 1,000 crore Patra Chawl redevelopment project, commissioned in 2002. A tripartite agreement was signed by Guru Ashish Constructions Private Limited, a subsidiary of Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL), with the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). The aim was to provide flats to 672 tenants of Patra Chawl, develop flats for MHADA, and sell the remaining area to private developers. As per ED investigation, the directors of Guru Ashish Constructions, including a close associate of Sanjay Raut, Pravin Raut,

 The Tamil Nadu Police is among the few police forces in the country to receive the coveted ‘President’s Colours’ Vice-President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu presented the prestigious ‘President’s Colours’ for the Tamil Nadu Police to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in a customary ceremony in Rajarathinam Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Mr. Stalin announced that a medal would be awarded to every police personnel in the force to mark the feat. The Tamil Nadu Police is among the few police forces in the country to receive the coveted ‘President’s Colours’. Though the ‘President’s Colours’ for the Tamil Nadu Police was approved as early as August 19, 2009 when late leader M. Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister, it could not be presented in all these years. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Naidu said the Tamil Nadu Police was one of the best in the country, which was known for its commendable service. Even as he noted that Tamil Nadu had the first women commando unit in the country, he said, “a lot rem