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 Fiji's participation at the Rugby World Cup has been thrown into doubt after the IRB wrote to the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) in the wake of their power struggle against the country's military government. The union's board was forced to step down earlier this month after the government refused to bankroll the team's World Cup campaign due to the alleged mismanagement of a lottery designed to raise funds for the team's participation. Sports Minister Filipe Bole forced the board's hand by refusing to provide the necessary F$3 million unless they quit, with a special general meeting called for January 29 in order to elect new officials. The Fiji Sun reports however that the meeting has been postponed and the resignation of chief executive Keni Dakuidreketi turned down following the letter from the IRB. "Any action in contravention of the constitution of the FRU will result in the union potentially not remaining in good standing as a member of th

 Edinburgh head coach Rob Moffat was left bemoaning the concession of too many "cheap points" after his side's 21-14 defeat by the Cardiff Blues at Murrayfield on Saturday evening. A try from Ben Cairns and nine points from the boot of Chris Paterson helped the hosts into a 14-9 lead but their discipline betrayed them in the final quarter as they gave away four penalties, all of which were converted by Blues winger Leight Halfpenny. "I thought we defended well for long stages but we gave way some cheap points," Moffat said after Edinburgh's fifth defeat from six games in Heineken Cup pool 1. "I thought we put a lot into the game and I couldn't fault the effort. "At 14-9 I thought we were on top and thought it would come down to the next score. I'm a bit frustrated because I thought we worked hard for 55-60 minutes but we didn't kick on and win the game. "Europe is a fantastic competition but you have got to be right at

 Northampton captain Dylan Hartley refused to get carried away after his side swept into the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup with a 23-12 victory over Castres at the Stade Pierre Antoine on Saturday evening. The Saints had already secured a place in the knockout stages having won all five of their previous games in Pool 1. However, there was still the significant matter of a home draw in the last eight to play for in France. Northampton were not at their best but still had too much for an under-strength Castres side and Joe Ansbro, Phil Dowson and Ben Foden all crossed as the visitors became the first English side to reach the end of the pool stages with their 100% record intact. "We started the game well," said Hartley. "We played in the right areas of the field, Stephen Myler did well in that respect. Everything seemed to go well tonight. We played at the right times, set-pieces could do with a bit of a tidy up but away from home we're very happy w

 Munster head coach Tony McGahan felt that his players salvaged some pride from an otherwise disappointing Heineken Cup campaign by producing a dramatic late comeback to see off London Irish 28-14 in Limerick on Saturday. The two-time champions were widely lambasted for their performance in last weekend's defeat by Toulon, a result which ended the province's proud record of having made the last eight of the tournament for the past 12 seasons. As a result, they were under pressure to deliver a morale-restoring performance against the Exiles. Munster looked set to suffer what would have been only their second defeat at Thomond Park in Heineken Cup competition when Sailosi Tagicakibau crossed for a converted try on 68 minutes which helped the visitors into a 14-7 lead. However, Munster responded with three tries of their own in the time remaining to put some smiles back of the faces of their 'Red Army'. "We were playing for our lives really," said

 Leigh Halfpenny landed four unanswered penalties in the final quarter as the Cardiff Blues came from behind to round off their Heineken Cup campaign with a 21-14 victory over Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Saturday evening. Edinburgh registered the only try of the game through centre Ben Cairns, with Chris Paterson adding nine points with the boot, but they end another hugely disappointing European campaign at the bottom of Pool 1. The Blues made a lively start and opened their account inside two minutes when Scotland fly-half Dan Parks slotted a 20-metre penalty. That breakthrough roused Edinburgh and the hosts restored parity when Paterson - starting at outside-half for the first time since rejoining the club from Gloucester in 2008 - thumped over a long-range kick after Andries Pretorius was penalised for an illegal tackle on Simon Webster. With neither side able to impose themselves, the Blues reverted to the boot to restore their advantage, and this time wing Halfpenny

 Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin was understandably ebullient after guiding the province into the pool stages of the Heineken Cup with a resounding 43-6 victory over Aironi in Viadana on Saturday afternoon. The Ulstermen had not reached the knockout stages of Europe's premier club competition since lifting the trophy in 1999. However, they sealed their place in this season's last eight by picking up the victory they needed to guarantee themselves one of the two available best runners-up berths. Ulster secured a bonus point in victory, with Pedrie Wannenburg helping himself to a hat-trick of tries, and Andrew Trimble, Chris Henry and Simon Danielli all claiming one apiece. The visitors also forced Aironi into the concession of a penalty try. However, despite picking up a maximum haul from their trip to Italy to finish level on points with Biarritz, they were pipped to top spot in Pool 4 by the Basques, who boasted a superior head-to-head record. As a result, Ulster

 Northampton Saints defeated Castres 23-12 at the Stade Pierre Antoine on Saturday to secure a home quarter-final in this season's Heineken Cup. The Saints scored tries through Joe Ansbro, Phil Dowson and Ben Foden to end Castres' proud unbeaten home record, with Stephen Myler kicking eight points as the Premiership side also became the first to complete a clean sweep of a Heineken Cup group since Cardiff Blues in 2008-09. Castres replied in the form of tries from halfbacks Pierre Bernard and Sebastien Tillous-Borde but the Top 14 team were unable to break down some well-drilled defence from the visitors, who look set to take their last eight tie to Milton Keynes following an ERC edict that all quarter-final venues must have a capacity of over 15,000. The visitors put out a strong side, with Mark Sorenson the only change from last weekend's 37-0 triumph over Edinburgh - the lock replacing Christian Day. Castres had seen their slim hopes of progressing evapora

 Ospreys director of rugby Scott Johnson admitted that he was taken aback by the performance of the returning Shane Williams in Saturday's Heineken Cup victory over Toulon and feels the Wales winger is now in contention to face England in the opening game of this year's Six Nations. Williams, who had been out of action for ten weeks with a shoulder injury, was sprung from the bench just before the hour mark of the game in Swansea with his region trailing by five points. The former British & Irish Lion quickly set about turning the game in the Ospreys favour, creating a try for Nikki Walker just four minutes after his introduction, which ultimately sparked a fightback that saw the hosts run out 29-17 victors. "I didn't expect that," Johnson said. "He had done some work but he didn't look as sharp as that in training. There is no logical reason after watching him train that he could have done that but it was amazing when he came on how s

 Sri Lanka Under-19s Test series against England Under-19 ended in stalemate with another high-scoring draw in the second game at the P Sara Oval in Colombo. While Sri Lanka bossed the first two days, Yasoda Lanka compiling a double hundred and slow left-armer Supeshala Jayathilake taking 5 for 57 to force England to follow on, the visitors' batsmen continued to fight in their second innings and the match was called off 84 overs into the fourth day. A 166-run partnership between Lanka and captain Bhanuka Rajapaksa formed the mainstay of Sri Lanka's innings. Conditions were heavily in favour of the batsmen once again and there was little joy for England's bowlers after they came together in the 30th over. Rajapaksa was the more aggressive of the two, reaching three figures in just 127 balls and hitting 12 fours and three sixes in his 129. Lanka batted on after Rajapaksa was finally prised from the crease, caught behind off the bowling of medium-pacer Shiv Th

 South Africa Under-19 completed a clean sweep of Zimbabwe across both limited-overs formats with a crushing eight-wicket win in the second Twenty20 at Northerns-Goodwood Cricket Club Oval in Cape Town. Quinton de Kock's imperious hundred helped his team to easily overhaul Zimbabwe's 151 for 8, the landmark coming from just 51 balls as victory was achieved with 25 balls to spare. Zimbabwe gave themselves a chance of scoring a consolation win to close their tour when Matthew Bentley bowled Regardt Verster to reduce South Africa to 68 for 2 in the eighth over. That was as good as it got for them, however, and the match slipped rapidly away in the course of de Kock's whirlwind innings. He had looked a threatening prospect in the first match at Paarl, making 49 in 29 balls to go with 118 runs in three innings during the one-day series, and took full toll today hitting 13 fours and three sixes. Only Roy Kaia and Liberty Nherera escaped the full wrath of de Kock&#

 England fought back well with the ball on the second day at the Bankstown Oval, running through Australia to put the value of Charlotte Edwards' unbeaten 114 into stark perspective. England's tail clung on stubbornly in the morning session, Holly Colvin stretching her stay to 98 balls, and the bowling attack then combined to reduce Australia to 9 for 159 before the hosts declared. England's openers then negotiated a tricky couple of overs to increase the lead to 57 at stumps. Edwards' ton propped England up on the first day, and she remained firm on day two, receiving good support from a determined Colvin. Their partnership was worth 49 when Colvin missed one from offspinner Lisa Sthalekar to be bowled for an obdurate 15 with the score at 196. Lauren Griffiths managed to stick around for 23 balls before she fell to Sarah Elliott, and she was back in the action - behind the stumps this time - shortly afterwards as England's new-ball bowlers nipped out

 A determined bowling performance from West Indies women helped them level the three-match series against India women at 1-1 with one to play. The visitors made a poor start after choosing to bat, with Deandra Dottin falling for a duck in the first over, but Juliana Nero and Stafanie Taylor steadied West Indies. They added 54 for the second wicket, but once their partnership was broken, the innings collapsed. Priyanka Roy worked magic with her legbreaks and spun through the middle order, taking 4 for 19. West Indies slumped from 54 for 1 to 88 for 7. The tail dragged them towards three figures and the innings ended on 107. The Indian chase suffered from a frequent fall of wickets, which crippled any attempts to build momentum. Of the top seven batsmen, only Poonam Raut and Harmanpreet Kaur made double-figure scores. Their contributions of 30 and 33, however, weren't enough to secure a series win. Tremayne Smartt picked up 3 for 9, while Anisa Mohammed took 2 for 1

 Tim Bresnan has been ruled out of the remainder of the one-day series against Australia with a torn calf muscle as England went 3-0 down in Sydney but is expected to be fit for next month's World Cup. Bresnan picked up the injury during the second ODI at Hobart and required a runner when he batted. Subsequent scans have revealed the extent of the problem and he'll return to the UK for treatment. Steven Finn is being retained in the squad for the rest of the tour before heading to the Lions tour in the West Indies. It is another blow for England, who already have a depleted bowling attack due to the absence of Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann. Kevin Pietersen also missed the Sydney match with a groin strain as the schedule began to take its toll but Andrew Strauss refused to make excuses after the team's four-wicket defeat. "That is how injuries occur and that is why with the schedules we have the rotation policy is in place," he said. "You've

Otago clinched a low-scoring contest against Auckland in Oamaru by two wickets with ten balls to spare. Aaron Redmond, the Otago captain, chose to field and his bowlers backed up his decision by reducing Auckland to 99 for 6. The lower-middle order offered resistance with Roneel Hira top scoring with 44, but Auckland were eventually dismissed for 199 in the 43rd over. Darren Stevens and Nick Beard took three wickets apiece for Otago. Redmond anchored the chase at the top of the order, with a steady 66 that took 106 balls, but wickets fell at the other end as Colin de Grandhomme worked his way through the middle order. His three wickets reduced Otago to 150 for 5 and the chase clipped further when Redmond fell. Redmond was caught by Kyle Mills off Colin Munro, leaving Otago on 171 for 6, and they lost their next two wickets for the addition of only one run. Derek de Boorder, however, shepherded the tail and secured victory in the penultimate over with an unbeaten 29.

 India's bowlers will be thrilled this tour is coming to an end as that means less sparring with Hashim Amla, who has plundered more than 1100 runs in the past 11 months against them in Tests and one-dayers. He collected another century in the series-decider in Centurion to push South Africa to a strong 250 for 9 in a rain-affected game. On Friday, Amla's 67 had been a boundary-filled innings, but today there were fewer attacking strokes and he got 30 successive singles to reach his half-century. After Graeme Smith's troubles against Zaheer Khan continued - again unsure of how the ball will jag around, he nicked to second slip - Amla let No. 3 Morne van Wyk be the aggressor. van Wyk, given a couple of matches ahead of Colin Ingram, could have failed for the second successive game but his Chinese cut barely evaded the stumps before racing for four. He grew in confidence as the innings progressed, unleashing a series of powerful cuts whenever he was given width

 Johann Myburgh scored 88 off 58 balls to lead Hampshire to a competitive total against Windward Islands , after which Hamza Riazuddin's four-wicket spell helped secure a narrow victory, and with it a spot in the Caribbean T20 final. Hampshire had a solid start to their innings, with Jimmy Adams and Myburgh adding 47 in 6 overs before Adams was run out. Myburgh provided the acceleration, striking six sixes during his half-century, while James Vince made 36 off 32 balls. Myburgh, who was eventually bowled by Mervin Matthew with the score on 160, was the only batsman dismissed by a Windward bowler. The other three wickets in the score of 166 for 4 were run out. Windward lost Johnson Charles early but Andre Fletcher and Devon Smith steadied the chase. They didn't score at breakneck speed but they led Windward to 75 in the 10th over, when Riazuddin struck for the first time, getting Smith caught behind. Keddy Lesporis was run out for 6 but Windward were still in it,

 Australia put themselves within touching distance of taking the one-day series with a four-wicket victory at the SCG. David Hussey guided them home in an uncertain run chase with an unbeaten 68 alongside Victoria team-mate John Hastings after Brad Haddin's aggressive 54 set the early pace. England were kept interested by early wickets and a double for Paul Collingwood but there were always too few runs on the board for a depleted bowling attack. It was an important innings for Hussey, who reached his fifty with a six, after he was named in the World Cup despite not playing ODI cricket for 18 months and he showed the finishing skills that have so often been evident for his domestic teams. He had important support from Steve Smith (26) after Australia wobbled on 5 for 114 then, after Smith departed to a horrid swipe, Hastings showed why he's off to the World Cup with a composed 18. It was a match low on batting quality as England limped to 214 only thanks to Jona

As all know, it’s the season of remakes all the way… And as mentioned earlier our B-town’s macho hero Salman Khan is doing yet another remake of Malayalam movie ‘Bodyguard’. Directed by Siddique (who did the original), the film has been now titled ‘My Love Story’ for Hindi audience. After receiving fabulous response in Malayalam, the filmmaker made Tamil version of the movie, titled ‘Kavalan’ starring Vijay and Asin. Salman will again share the screen space with Bollywood’s hot property Kareena Kapoor in ‘My Love Story’ – after their last film together ‘Mr. and Mrs. Khanna’. According to sources, the shooting of the film has already started in Pune from January 17. The project is being produced by Atul Agnihotri (brother-in-law of Salman) while Reliance Big Pictures will be marketing the film. ‘My Love Story’ is planned for October 2011 release.

Here’s is yet another chance for our foreign kudi Katrina Kaif to prove her acting skills. This ‘Sheila’ is really becoming one big hot property, we say….. For, she will be soon following the footsteps of the likes of Hema Malini and Sridevi. Buzz is that she has been approached to play double roles in the remake of the popular classic movie ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’! Yeah as if we are not enough with her ‘jawani’, industrywalas are gonna give double mazaa of the beauty…. Some sources believe that this is like following an age-old Bollywood tradition. With examples they justified saying, “When Hema Malini was at her peak Ramesh Sippy made ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ with her. Likewise when Sridevi was riding a crest of popularity, Pankuj Parasher made ‘Chaalbaaz’ with her. Now, since Kat is the golden girl of Bollywood, a film corporation that has bought the rights for ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ wants to make a new version of this film with Katrina." Gossip mills have it that Dibakar Bane

This ‘Lakhan’ is really going great guns, globally! Recently he had been in Toronto for the premier of McGuinty, held at Queens Park…. And now the actor was invited for the Canada's award-winning television talk-show George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight (a popular talk show about current affairs). Anil Kapoor will grace the show along with Christopher Plummer, a Canadian theatre, film and television actor, who is best known for his role in ‘The Sound Of Music’. As a matter of fact, Anil and Preity Zinta are promoting IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) at Toronto, Canada; the 12th destination of the prestigious award ceremony. Hmmmm, Anil is surely proving to be the perfect ‘Mr. India’ by garnering enough recognition from international shores.

Folks, get ready to welcome yet another import from south on our screen….. And introducing you yet another Anushka….. (No, not Sharma) Anushka Shetty – the sensation of Telugu and Tamil industry. Buzz is that Rohit Shetty is considering the beauty for his next Ajay Devgn-starrer project, which is in fact the remake of Tamil movie ‘Singam’, featuring Suriya-Anushka. Confirming this, Rohit said, “Yes, we are in talks with Anushka. But a decision has not been taken yet. Hopefully things will be finalised in a week’s time.” It is said that the ‘Golmaal’ series famed director was impressed with the actress’s performance when he watched ‘Singam’. “He feels Anushka had done a fantastic job,” sources say. ‘Singam’, one of the blockbusters of Tamil cinema in 2010, was dubbed and released in Telugu as ‘Yamudu’. It is now being remade in Kannada as ‘Kempe Gowda’. After delivering comedies, Rohit is turning back to an actioner with this film. He had made his directorial debut with

A R Rahman will be performing at the Marina Bay Sands Grand Theater in Singapore from 17 to 21 March where audiences from around the globe will be enthralled by the captivating performance from the gifted singer-composer. “A four-night performance has been planned for the Singapore leg of this global tour. Rahman has teamed up with creative director Amy Tinkham, best known for stage collaborations with Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and Mariah Carey,” a press release said. According to Marina Bay Sands president and chief executive officer Thomas Arasi, “Rahman has proved to the world that the Indian entertainment industry has come of age when he took home Academy and Grammy awards. We are proud to deliver what we promised the world.” Base Entertainment Asia vice-president and managing director Milan Rokic said, “We are thrilled to present A R Rahman to audiences in an intimate setting within Marina Bay Sands Grand Theater. Audiences will get up close and perso

Frantic activity bordering on hysteria was precipitated earlier this week when Mallika Sherawat performed an item song with Akshay Kumar. Anees had to borrow her dates from Indra Kumar who was shooting some intricate group shots with Sanjay Dutt (who plays Mallika's husband), Kangna Ranaut, Riteish Deshmukh and Arshad Warsi for Double Dhamaal . Says a source, "Indra Kumar's first impulse was to say no. He had the combined dates of all the busy stars and they were shooting in a huge bungalow in Karjat that was supposed to represent Macau. There was no way he could let Mallika go. But Anees and Akshay were adamant. They left the good natured Indu with no choice." Apparently, Indra Kumar had to fudge Mallika's shots in the group scenes pretending about her presence when in fact she was at a different venue shaking her booty with Akshay Kumar to the song ' Razia Goondon Mein Phans Gayi '. The song was apparently called ' Sheila