Robson out for 19 in second England knock

LONDON: Australia-born Sam Robson fell for 19 in the second innings of his England debut in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lord´s on Sunday.

The opener, on his Middlesex home ground, had been in for over an hour when he was late pushing forward uncertainly to Sri Lanka seamer Shaminda Eranga and was bowled off the inside edge by a delivery that nipped back after he´d left a significant gap between bat and pad.Robson faced 50 balls and struck two fours.

His exit meant Robson´s first Test had seen him score just 20 runs in total after he was caught behind for one off Nuwan Pradeep in England´s first innings 575 for nine declared.

Robson´s dismissal on Sunday left England 51 for two, an overall lead of 173 in the first of a two-match series.

Previously, Eranga also had England captain Alastair Cook caught behind for 28 as he removed both openers in a burst of two wickets for one run in 10 balls.

The 24-year-old Sydney-born Robson, the son of an English mother, was selected for a Test debut after England dropped Michael Carberry following their 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia.

Although there was some controversy regarding his decision to opt for England, Robson said last week when the squad was announced that he felt no conflict of loyalties.

"I grew up in Australia until I left school but moved here when I was 18 and have lived here for my whole adult life really," Robson told BBC Radio. "This is my home; this is where my cricket has taken me.

"I love living in London; I love England, and this is where my life is," he insisted. (AFP)

Maria Sharapova wins French Open in second longest final

PARIS: Maria Sharapova won her second French Open and fifth career major on Saturday with a 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 win over Romania´s Simona Halep in the tournament´s second longest final.

At 3hr 02min, it was just two minutes shy of the 1996 final between Steffi Graf and Aranxta Sanchez.

Sharapova, the seventh seed, won her first Roland Garros title in 2012 and was runner-up last year to Serena Williams.

Halep, the fourth seed, was playing in her maiden final at a Grand Slam and was hoping to become the first Romanian champion since Virginia Ruzici in 1978.

Saturday´s win took Sharapova, 27, level with Martina Hingis as a five-time Grand Slam title champion. (AFP)

Yusuf ‘s fastest fifty powers KKR to second

KOLKATA: There were 321 runs in 34.2 overs, and it was hard to say by the end of it if there had been more runs off the middle of the bat or its edges. There were dropped catches, run-outs, run-outs arising from dropped catches, and, in the middle of all this, a mad dash to make up a net-run-rate deficit. For most part, the match had been a comedy of errors, but by the time it ended, it was a genuine Twenty20 classic.

Kolkata Knight Riders needed to chase 161 to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad. They needed to do it in 15.2 overs to knock Chennai Super Kings off second place, and get two shots at reaching the final.

When Yusuf Pathan walked in, they needed 106 from 47 balls. He was dropped before he had scored a run. He was dropped again when he was on 15. Neither was a difficult chance.

And then, out of nowhere, it all came together for him. Till today, Adam Gilchrist had held the record for the fastest IPL fifty. It had come off 17 balls. When Yusuf mowed Dale Steyn over deep midwicket for the fifth six of his innings, he had reached 50 in 15 balls. He took 26 off that over - 4, 6, 6, 4, 4, 2. By the time Yusuf holed out for 72 off 22 balls, the equation had come down to less than a run a ball. Knight Riders beat Sunrisers with 34 balls left to play. They beat Super Kings to second with a cushion of six balls.

The defeat knocked Sunrisers out of the tournament, leaving Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals to battle it out for fourth on Sunday. Sunrisers started the game with only a small chance of qualifying. Their selections - they left out Aaron Finch, and played Jason Holder and S Anirudha, neither of whom had played a match for them this season - and the general quality of their play only made it even more improbable. In the end, they were left needing to bowl Knight Riders out for 23 to overhaul Royals' net run rate.

Mini-sub on second mission after first MH370 search aborted

PERTH: A mini-sub searching for missing Flight MH370 was again sweeping the Indian Ocean seabed Wednesday after drawing a blank on a first mission aborted at daunting depths in a laborious operation that could take months.

The unmanned submarine equipped with sonar gear was deployed Tuesday night after data analysis of the first failed foray produced nothing of interest, Australia´s Joint Agency Coordination Centre said.

After more than three weeks of hunting for black box signals, the autonomous sub had been deployed for the first time on Monday night from the Australian ship Ocean Shield, which has spearheaded the hunt for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard.

"The autonomous underwater vehicle was again deployed last night (Tuesday) from ADV (Australian Defence Vessel) Ocean Shield," JACC said.

"The data from Bluefin-21´s first mission has been downloaded and analysed. No objects of interest were found," JACC said.

The US navy explained that the Bluefin-21 had automatically aborted after six hours upon breaching its maximum operating depth.

JACC added that it had "exceeded its operating depth limit of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) and its built-in safety feature returned it to the surface".

The sub was undamaged and had to be re-programmed, said US Navy Captain Mark Matthews.

"In this case the vehicle´s programmed to fly 30 metres over the floor of the ocean to get a good mapping of what´s beneath," he told CNN from Perth after the aborted dive.

"It went to 4,500 metres and once it hit that max depth, it said ´This is deeper than I´m programmed to be´, so it aborted the mission."

BJP’s Modi files papers as election enters second stage

VADODARA: Indian election frontrunner Narendra Modi waved to thousands of cheering supporters as he filed his papers to stand in the country's mammoth six-week election which entered its second of nine phases on Wednesday.

Modi, a hardline Hindu nationalist widely tipped to emerge as prime minister when results are published on May 16, is standing from the Vadodara constituency in the western state of Gujarat.

Making a rare public outing in a jeep, Modi waved at crowds waving the saffron-coloured flag of his Bharatiya Janata Party, which is forecast to inflict a crushing defeat on the ruling Congress party.

In the remote northeast of the country meanwhile, voting began amid tight security in constituencies in four insurgency-wracked states close to the disputed border with China.

Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland are the second wave of voting in the election process which has been staggered to allow security forces to re-deploy in between stages.

Voters flocked early to polling stations in Arunachal Pradesh, an eastern stretch of the Himalayas that China claims as its own, despite pouring rain overnight, the Press Trust of India reported.

During campaigning in February in the area, the scene of a 1962 war between India and China, Modi had warned Beijing to shed its "expansionist mindset".

Hundreds of extra security forces have been deployed in neighbouring and underdeveloped Nagaland, where rebels from tribal groups have waged a decades-long campaign for more rights.

Security was also tight in nearby Meghalaya, where ethnic and separatist groups have also long fought against the state, and the border with Bangladesh has been closed, Press Trust of India news agency said.

Six seats are up for grabs on Wednesday ahead of the third phase of voting Thursday which will be by far the biggest to date with constituencies in 14 states including the capital region heading to the ballot box.

The opposition BJP is expected to sweep to power in the world's biggest election at a time of low economic growth as well as anger over corruption and rising food prices.

As well as a Vadodara, Modi is also set to stand from a second seat in the northern holy Hindu city of Varanasi on the river Ganges in the battleground state of Uttar Pradesh.

Second death anniversary of Bashir Quraishi today

KARACHI: Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) observing the second death anniversary of its former chairperson, Bashir Khan Quraishi, on Monday (today), Geo News reported

Bashir Khan belonged to a poor family of Ratodero, Larkana. Quraishi died on April 7, 2012, in Sakran taluka, Benazirabad. The party and his family believe that he was poisoned and have been demanding that an FIR be registered against the government and law enforcers.

Bashir Quraishi was a true disciple of the founder of Jeay Sindh Movement, G.M. Syed, whose non-violence policy attracted him to join the Jeay Sindh Students Jderation in 1976.

Later, he was elected JSQM chairman in 1998 and played an important role in making the party popular among the students and the people of the province of Sindh.

Bashir Quraishi died at the age of 52 and his death still remains a mystery as even after lapse of two years no convincing investigation could reveal the cause of his sudden death.

Second Australian gallery removes stolen Indian artefact from display

A second Australian art gallery has removed from display a centuries-old statue following allegations the artefact was stolen from an ancient site in India and sold by a tainted Indian art dealer.

The decision by the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW) follows a similar move by Canberra-based National Gallery of Australia that on Monday, pulled from display the bronze $5.6-million statue, purchased in 2008 from New York art and antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor.

The stone Ardhanrishvara idol was sold to the NSW Art Gallery at a price of over $300,000 from Kapoors in 2004.

Both the statues — allegedly stolen and sold by Kapoor, who is on trial in Chennai for running antiquities smuggling — were removed from display following written requests from Indian government to return them back.

“The request for the return of the Ardhanariswara Idol is now a matter for the Australian Government through the Ministry for the Arts in the Attorney-General’s Department,” the Art Gallery of NSW said in a statement.

The gallery said the item has been removed and that it will continue to cooperate fully with the Australian government and relevant authorities towards a resolution.

Reacting to the issue, Chairman AusHeritage and CEO India Vision Institute Vinod Daniel said the two galleries should return the statues to India calling it “the appropriate thing to do.”

“The appropriate thing for these galleries to do is to repatriate these cultural objects back to India, especially for objects such as the ‘Dancing Shiva’ which would have been used for worship in Tamil Nadu,” he said.

Daniel said the Australian Museum in 2000 had sent 33 three objects back to the Government Museum in Chennai.

Attorney-General’s Department is currently processing the Indian government’s request of returning the allegedly stolen artefacts.

Australia replaced India in second position in ICC Test Team rankings

Australia on 5 March 2014 replaced India at the number two position in the Test team rankings of cricket. This place was achieved by Australia after they defeated South Africa by 245-run in the third and final Test match in Cape Town.

Australia who replaced India at the second position in test rankings entered the three test-matches series with South Africa at third position.
• This second-position has won Australia a cash award of 370000 US dollars
• India will have to settle with 265000 US dollars
• South Africa at the top position will receive 475000 US dollars
• England which is at forth rank will receive 160000 US dollars

Rankings of test playing cricketing nations

Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	South Africa	34	4332	127
2	Australia	43	4946	115
3	India	39	4359	112
4	England	44	4713	107
5	Pakistan	29	2890	100
6	Sri Lanka	33	2953	89
7	New Zealand	37	3224	87
8	West Indies	29	2516	87
9	Zimbabwe	11	372	34
10	Bangladesh	19	359	19

Nokia Lumia 1520 preview: Second encounter

Introduction

Lagging behind Android in hardware specs for what seemed like ages, WP8 managed to catch up in one fell swoop. With the Lumia 1520 at the spearhead, Nokia evened the playing field with a massive 1080p screen and a Snapdragon 800 chipset, then tilted it in its favor with a 20MP OIS-enabled PureView camera.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 in white, red and yellow
The Lumia 1520, along with the midrange Lumia 1320, are the first Nokia-made phablets and the first for Windows Phone 8 altogether. The 1320 has last year's hardware though, unlike the Lumia 1520, which is virtually on par with the best Android flagships.

Nokia Lumia 1520 at a glance

• Dimensions: 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7 mm, 209g
• Display: 6" ClearBlack IPS display of 1080p resolution, Gorilla Glass 2, 367ppi
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 800; quad-core Krait 400 at 2.2GHz, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB RAM
• OS: Windows Phone 8 GDR3 with Nokia Black
• Camera: 20 MP, Carl Zeiss optics, optical image stabilization, autofocus, LED flash, PureView technology
• Video camera: 1080p @ 30fps video capture with main camera
• Storage: 32GB built-in, microSD card slot with support of up to 64GB, 7GB SkyDrive cloud storage
• Connectivity: NFC, A-GPS+GLONASS, WLAN (2.4/5Ghz) a/b/g/n/ac, microUSB 2.0, BT 4.0 LE
• Battery: 3,400mAh with built-in wireless charging (Qi compatible)
• Misc: Nokia Camera app, FM Radio, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor

Windows Phone's market share is rising - it's a distant third at the moment - but it's the low-end devices like the Lumia 520 making up the bulk of that growth. Meanwhile flagships have failed to make much of a splash and even the Lumia 1020 isn't exactly flying off the shelves. Can the 1520 be the first flagship WP8 device to claim a piece of market share matching its size?
It certainly has all the right ingredients. Windows Phone is known for simplicity and efficiency - it runs smoothly on much less powerful hardware and doesn't bury you under a mountain of gimmicky features like some Android smartphones do. The Lumia 1520 does pack the latest Windows Phone 8 updates - GDR3 and Nokia Black, so there are further improvements over previous WP devices we've handled.
The screen is pleasantly crisp - only made possible by the jump to 1080p resolution - and features Nokia's ClearBlack tech, which provides some of the best viewing under direct sunlight. The Nokia PureView camera is equally responsible for some of the best cameraphone experience ever.

Nokia Lumia 1520 in our office
In terms of imaging, this is midway between the Lumia 1020 and the 920. The sensor is bigger than most, but not so big that it takes a hump to accommodate, while it still packs enough resolution for Nokia's supersampling magic. There's optical image stabilization too, which is a confident display of superiority over the non-stabilized cameras on competing phablets. There's no xenon flash on the Lumia 1520, but that would have required room for another bulky component.
Software is the only place the Nokia Lumia 1520 can stumble - WP8 is still young compared to Android and iOS, which have been around for a few years longer. But before we have a look at that, we'll discuss the hardware and the screen of Nokia's phablet on the next page.

360-degree spin

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is inevitably a large device, the 6" screen alone is huge for a pocketable device. That said, it's actually reasonably sized for what it is - it measures 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7mm and weighs 209g. Put that next to the HTC One Max with a 5.9" screen, which stands at 164.5 x 82.5 x 10.3mm and weighs 217g, despite the 0.1" smaller screen.

Design and handling

The Lumia design has been pretty much set in stone though there are some variations. The Nokia Lumia 1520 is actually very similar to the Lumia 925. The difference to the Lumia 1020, for instance, is that the top and bottom edges are rounded rather than flat. Other than that, the rectangular look and beveled sides are unmistakable trait of the Lumia line since its inception.

Familiar Lumia design
Phablets are pushing the limits of what can be considered pocketable and comfortable for one-handed use. That said, the Lumia 1520 is not the biggest - as we said the HTC One Max is a tad taller and heavier, while the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is tangibly bigger.

Size comparison: Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Nokia Lumia 1520, HTC One Max
Those have some software features to help with one-handed use tough, which mostly amount to squishing keyboards (i.e. the on-screen QWERTY and the dialer) in the corner so you can reach buttons with your thumb. Windows Phone lacks such options and the Lumia 1520's large screen will have some people limited to two-thumb typing.

The Lumia 1520 feels big in the hand
The phablet maintains the capacitive Back, Home and Search buttons just like other phablets (One Max, Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Mega 6.3). Above the screen is a 1.2MP/720p front-facing camera along with an array of sensors. The front of the phablet is almost entirely covered with Gorilla Glass 2, which coats the screen, the capacitive keys and front camera.

Capacitive keys below the screen • front-facing camera and sensors above the screen
The basic layout of the other hardware controls is unchanged - all buttons are on the right side, starting with the volume rocker on top, then the power key and finally the two stage shutter key. Those keys have been moved down so they are easy to reach with your thumb (though volume up is a bit of a stretch).

Hardware keys on the right side
The left side of the Lumia 1520 holds the nanoSIM card and the microSD card slots. Those have to be opened with a dedicated tool, which might be a hindrance if you swap memory cards often. Still, we're always glad to see expandable storage, especially on devices with high resolution screens, high megapixels and monster chipsets.

nanoSIM and microSD card slots on the left
The bottom of the phablet features a regular microUSB 2.0 port, while the 3.5mm audio jack is smack in the middle of the top side.

3.5mm audio jack • microUSB 2.0 port
It's the back of the Nokia Lumia 1520 that's quite interesting. The 20MP PureView camera with ZEISS lens and optical image stabilization protrudes slightly from the back, but less so than the Lumia 1020's camera. Keep in mind that the 1520 is 1.7mm thinner than the 1020 too, using a smaller sensor has really helped Nokia keep that unsightly hump in check.

The back of the Nokia Lumia 1520 • PureView camera with ZEISS lens and dual-LED flash
Aside from the sensor size - 1/2.5" vs. 1/1.5" - there has been another concession made, there is no xenon flash but a dual-LED light instead. Still, the sensor is relatively big (around 45% bigger than the common 1/3" sensors), which combined with OIS should still make for some great low-light shots.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 phablet has a whopping four microphones, a pair on the front and another two on the back. On the front, there's one below the screen and one near the earpiece. On the back, there's one above the LED and one inside the loudspeaker grille. The mics in each pair are sufficiently wide apart, so you can expect great stereo sound capture from both the back and the front camera. The mics also include Nokia's proprietary HDR tech and Bass filter option.
The battery in the Lumia 1520 is sealed, but it has the reasonably big capacity of 3,400mAh. The phablet comes with built-in wireless charging, something that was dropped from the 1020. We'll leave the proper battery test for the complete review, but official numbers promise a month of standby, over a full day of calls or just over 5 days of music playback.

Display

The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a 6" IPS LCD screen of 1080p resolution, the pixel density works out to 367ppi. The LCD assembly incorporates Nokia's ClearBlack tech - a set of polarizing filters, which minimize glare. Plus, Gorilla Glass 2 on top for protection.

The 6" IPS LCD on the Lumia 1520
The capacitive touch sensor on the display features the supersensitive touch technology that allows it to detect fingers even through winter gloves.
The 1520 comes with the Lumia Color Profile option in the settings, which gives you two sliders to play with - one for color temperature (which spans the cool, neutral and warm range) and color saturation (natural to vivid).

Lumia Color Profile settings
Nokia Glance screen keeps the clock and notification counters visible even after you lock the screen. This could be set to appear only for a little while after you lock the screen, intermittently on and off and always on. There's a separate always on setting for when the device is charging. A Night mode allows you to pick a different color for the Glance screen info - Red, Green or Blue - if the default White setting is too bright for your sleepy eyes.

Nokia Glance Screen settings
One new option in GDR3 is the screen rotation lock. That's an important feature for a phablet, but unfortunately it's only accessible from the Settings menu, which means you have to leave the app you are in to change it, there are no quickly accessible toggles here (this is a common problem for any settings in Windows Phone).
As we already mentioned, the Lumia 1520 screen is tack sharp. Due to its large diagonal, pixel density drops below 400ppi, but 367ppi is still better than what most people's eyes can resolve, especially when you consider you tend to hold a phablet further away from your eyes than a phone.
The viewing angles are pretty good with only a minor shift in contrast when viewed at an extreme angle. Color rendering is good and, as an added bonus, you can tweak the white balance and saturation to your liking. The one weak spot of the display is the black levels, which are not as great as on AMOLED, but the overall contrast is still pretty great.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
HTC One Max	0.14	224	1591	0.40	629	1572
Samsung Galaxy Note 3	0	149	∞	0	379	∞
Sony Xperia Z1	-	-	-	0.38	580	1513
Nokia Lumia 1520	0.22	263	1174	0.43	522	1207
Nokia Lumia 1020	0	172	∞	0	398	∞
Nokia Lumia 920	-	-	-	0.48	513	1065
Sony Xperia Z Ultra	-	-	-	0.47	467	1001
Sony Xperia Z	-	-	-	0.70	492	705
Huawei Ascend Mate	0.23	222	982	0.67	711	1053
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3	0.12	160	1364	0.32	440	1379
Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4	0	201	∞	0	404	∞
HTC Butterfly S	0.15	165	1117	0.43	451	1044

The ClearBlack tech does help minimize reflectivity. The relatively low brightness however hurt the outdoor performance.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView 4.698
• LG G2 1.976
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray 1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera 1.938
• HTC Butterfly 1.873
• Huawei Ascend P6 1.865
• Nokia Lumia 1520 1.813
• Sony Xperia V 1.792
• Sony Xperia U 1.758
• Meizu MX3 1.754
• LG Optimus 4X HD 1.691
• HTC One V 1.685
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2 1.114

• User interface is mostly the same

  The Nokia Lumia 1520 comes with Windows Phone 8 GDR3 (the Lumia Black edition) out of the box. GDR3 and Black are software updates that add a handful of new features, but most importantly bring support for 1080p screens and the Snapdragon 800 chipset, without which the 1520 would've been impossible.
  That said, the user interface is virtually unchanged on the new Windows Phone version. Yes, you can fit more Live Tiles per row on the homescreen (6 from the smallest ones, up from 4), but that turned out to be a function of the screen size rather than a Lumia Black specific feature. There are a couple of other changes, we'll get to those in a minute.