Gaddafi killed by bullet in stomach

Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, covered in blood, is pulled from a truck by NTC fighters in Sirte in this still image taken from video footage on October 20, 2011.

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Win over England not revenge, says Dhoni

Mohali, (AFP): India's One-day series win over England should not be regarded as revenge for the side's humiliating defeats to their rivals a few months ago, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said. The Indian captain added he was disappointed atEngland's behaviour on the field, saying the strategy to intimidate the opposition was clearly not paying dividends.

"Revenge is a very strong word and should not be used in sport," Dhoni said after the world champions scored a five-wicket win in Mohali on Thursday night to take a 3-0 lead in the five-match series. "On one hand we talk about the spirit of the game and on the other we talk about revenge. It should not be like that."

Young batsman Ajinkya Rahane top-scored with 91 as India surpassed England's challenging 298-4 with four balls to spare after Dhoni smashed two boundaries in the final over.

The series win came after a disastrous tour of England in July-September when India were blanked 4-0 in the Tests to concede the number one spot and also lost the one-dayers 3-0. "I am quite happy with the performance of the team when it comes to the one-day format. Victory is always a good feeling," said Dhoni, who led India to World Cup glory in April.

India won without seven top stars, including Sachin Tendulkar, who were part of the team that beat Sri Lanka in the World Cup final in Mumbai. Dhoni, however, warnedEngland to tone down their aggressive behaviour on the field, which earned the wrath of the umpires during the second game in New Delhi on Monday.

That match was marred by verbal exchanges between Indian batsmen and England's fielders, and the tension also appeared to spill over on the field in Mohali.

"There were lots of gestures flowing around in the field when it came to the Englandside," Dhoni said. "But I don't think that strategy is working. It's not only about 'giving it' to the opposition. You have to be fair. If our players are saying something to the opposition, which happens at times, I don't want them to get really personal or say things that are not within the guidelines."

"A bit of chit-chat is fine, because that makes the game interesting. You don't always want a friendly series, as long as things don't get too personal. "But I think they (England) should change the plan for the next two games," the Indian captain said.

England fast bowler Tim Bresnan was quoted earlier this week as saying that his team was using verbal volleys to intimidate batsmen since Indian pitches offered no assistance to the bowlers.

"It's part of the game," Bresnan said. "We can't really use the ball to intimidate as much as we would like, so we have to do other things to get into the batsman's bubble, like a little bit of a word or a look or a stare."

England captain Alastair Cook was, however, more concerned about trying to avoid a 5-0 whitewash. "We prepared as well as we could have prepared, but just have not quite delivered," Cook said.

"But we've got two more games to go and need to pick ourselves up when we've already lost the series. That is the challenge. There was desperation out there to try to win, and we've got to keep that desperation for the next two games."

The fourth one-dayer will be played in Mumbai on Sunday before the final game in Kolkata on October 25. Englandwill end the tour with a one-off Twenty20 international in Kolkata on Oct 29.

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No more fine on pre- payment of home loans

HOUSING finance regulator National Housing Bank ( NHB) has directed all housing finance companies ( HFCs) to stop levying penal charges on customers for pre- payment of home loans with immediate effect.

These prepayment penal charges are levied mainly by the private sector banks and housing firms and could be as high as four per cent. The move is expected to provide relief to lakhs of home loan borrowers from HFCs.

The NHB notification asked HFCs not to charge pre- payment levy or penalty for preclosure of housing loans under two situations — pre-closed through any source, where the housing loan is on floating interest rate basis; and loans pre-closed by the borrowers out of their own sources of funds, where the housing loan is on fixed interest rate basis.

The expression 'own sources' for this purpose means any source other than by borrowing from a bank/ HFC/ NBFC and/ or a financial institution, NHB said.

"The move benefits only HFC borrowers at present. But if the move spurs the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to follow suit, that will relieve all the borrowers, including home and auto loan borrowers, from the prepayment charges," said a personal finance advisor, who wished not to be identified.

"The pre- payment charges were restraining customers from moving around," NHB chairman and managing director ( MD) R. V. Verma said.

"It is very difficult to quantify the loss arising from the new norm. But it can only be a small component," said Darpin Shah, banking analyst, Almondz Global Securities.

However, HFCs are likely to feel more punch in the notification that seeks to maintain uniformity in rates between old and new customers." Charging of higher interest rate to the old customers against the new customers puts them ( the former) at a great disadvantage, besides being a discriminatory practice. For the growth of a healthy and sound housing finance system, it is considered necessary that pricing of the products by the lending institutions are transparent, non- discriminatory and objective," NHB said.

Typically banks and HFCs charge higher interest rate to old clients in order to attract new customers.

Already, HFCs are crying foul over the NHB moves and are seeking a level playing field with banks, which are not barred from levying pre- payment charges. " The impact of these norms will be limited if they are implemented across the financial sector. Otherwise, it will be discriminatory," said an HFC source.

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Maruti Suzuki loses $307 million revenue on strike

Continued labour unrest at the Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's Manesar plant is worrying the auto giant and the vendors in the Haryana auto belt. The auto major has incurred a revenue loss of $306.7 million since Aug. 29.

"Our production has suffered because of the labor issues. We have made 50,000 fewer cars so far because of the unrest," the company's chairman RC Bhargava said earlier this week.  For Delhi-headquartered MSIL, the disruption in production has meant a loss of a whopping 54,775 units.

The situation continues to be grave with production dwindling to a mere 600 units at Gurgaon on Wednesday. It has already halted at Manesar.

The workers have been on strike since Oct. 7 demanding the reinstatement of 44 colleagues who weren't taken back by Maruti after a 33-day dispute ended Oct. 1. Earlier the workers went on strike in August when the compnay asked their workers to sign a "good conduct bond". While the management maintains that the current strike is in violation of the agreement signed by the workers with the company management on October 1, workers allege that the company has refused to induct around 1,100 contract workers after a 33-day standoff that began in end-August.

The ongoing strike is expected to impact its sales this festive season. Lower production will also likely extend the waiting period on Maruti's bestselling Swift hatchback for which it has more than 100,000 pending orders. The company said that they are negotiating with the striking workers but nothing concrete has been worked out.

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India pip England in one-day thriller- India beat England, win ODI series

Mohali, October 20 (AFP): Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed two fours in the final over as India beatEngland by five wickets on Thursday to take a decisive 3-0 lead in the five-match one-day series.

Young batsman Ajinkya Rahane top-scored with 91 and Gautam Gambhir hit 58 as the world champions surpassed England's challenging 298-4 with four balls to spare in a thrilling day-night match.

India were struggling at 235-5 in the 42nd over before Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja steered the hosts home with an unbeaten 65-run stand for the sixth wicket.

With 17 needed off the last two overs, the pair took 10 runs in the 49th bowled by Jade Dernbach, before Dhoni smashed the first two balls of the final over from Tim Bresnan for boundaries to clinch victory.

Dhoni returned unbeaten on 35 and Jadeja was on 26 as the new-look Indians, without seven players who won the World Cup final against Sri Lanka in April, took the series.

The tourists, who were thrashed by 126 runs and eight wickets in the previous two games, needed a win to stay afloat in the series.

England began well as an unbeaten 98 from Jonathan Trott inspired a batting revival that helped them post 298-4.

Samit Patel pounded an unbeaten 70 off 43 balls and Kevin Pietersen scored 64 asEngland's batting finally came good after skipper Alastair Cook won the toss in the day-night game.

When India batted, Rahane put on 79 for the first wicket with Parthiv Patel and 111 for the second with Gambhir to lift India to a comfortable 190-1 by the 34th over.

England hit back with four wickets for 45 runs as fast bowler Steven Finn removed Gambhir and Rahane, Bresnan dismissed Suresh Raina for zero and Graeme Swann trapped Virat Kohli leg-before for 35.

But Dhoni and Jadeja turned the game around with a match-winning stand in front of 25,000 excited home fans.

Earlier, Trott and Pietersen, who came together at 53-2, put on 101 for the third wicket on an even-paced pitch ideal for shot-making.

Trott then added 103 for the unbroken fifth with Patel, who hit two sixes and seven fours as England plundered 91 runs in the last 10 overs.

Trott, who was on 94 at the start of the final over from Vinay Kumar, took three runs from the first two deliveries but managed only a single off the fifth to be denied a fourth one-day hundred.

The fourth one-dayer will be played in Mumbai on Sunday.

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