Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is all set to sign for Victoria Bushrangers for the Twenty20 Big Bash and play as local hero at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the same venue where 14 years ago he was labelled a chucker by umpire Darrel Hair.

“Murali has been in touch with the authorities in Cricket Victoria, he is pretty keen to represent Victoria. If it goes through it will be great news. It will be magnificent if that happens - I think it will. It’s just a matter of signing,” Murali’s manager Kushil Gunasekera was quoted …

Amnesty International, the global human rights group, Friday welcomed the Delhi high court ruling decriminalising homosexuality and alleged the Victorian-era law that banned gay sex had been used to stifle HIV/AIDS prevention in India.

“This British colonial legacy has done untold harm to generations of individuals in India and across the Commonwealth,” Amnesty International said.

Thursday’s ruling overturned the 19th century British colonial law, Section 377, which banned engagement in consensual gay sex as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”.

“The law had been used to stifle the work of organisations working on HIV/AIDS prevention in India,” …

The Indian Army will not issue fresh bids to buy the ultra-light howitzer that it badly needs for frontline defence. Instead, it will await the outcome of the probe into corruption charges against the Singapore firm, whose guns it had chosen for field trials. The firm is among seven “blacklisted” on corruption charges.

India has not bought any artillery guns since the controversial Bofors deal in 1986. This year, after 10 months of evaluation, it had selected Singapore Technologies for field trials of the ultra light howitzers. Then the firm was blacklisted by the defence ministry, …

Indian writer Vikram Seth, who is working on a sequel to his blockbuster novel “A Suitable Boy”, has finalised a deal worth around 1.7 million pounds to move his entire back list to Penguin UK, sources close to the deal said.

This will be the biggest such deal struck by an Indian author and places Seth far above the league of Indian writers in commercial terms.

The deal was midwifed by well known agent David Godwin. Godwin and Seth were hoping for a full 2 million pound deal but, after three publishers in the bidding pulled out, …

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited India’s music maestro A.R. Rahman and four other Oscar winners associated with the Academy award sweeper “Slumdog Millionaire” to join its roster of voting members.

Rahman has been invited for his music in “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, while the film’s British Director Danny Boyle is also cited for “Sunshine”.

Besides “Slumdog Millionaire”, producer Christian Colson has been cited for “The Descent”, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle for “The Last King of Scotland” and film editor Chris Dickens chosen for “Shaun of the Dead”.

They are among …

The “dream budget” that people are expecting is unlikely to materialise, says the research arm of global rating agency Moody’s.

In a statement released Thursday, it also said delayed monsoon would further dampen India’s growth this year, and that the government’s divestment policy would not be sustainable.

“Amid a challenging economic environment, the public has high expectations for the fiscal budget proposals to be delivered on Monday,” said Sherman Chan, an economist with Moody’s Economy.com, and said people were expecting a “dream budget” that in all likelihood would not materialise.

“With revenue under pressure and the debt burden …

Four new cases of swine flu were detected Thursday, taking the total number of influenza A(H1N1) virus to 116, health officials said here.

Among those who tested positive for the flu are two children and a 68-year-old woman.

“The four cases were reported from Gurgaon, Bangalore, Pune and Cochin,” a health ministry statement issued here said.

“In all, 793 people have been tested so far of which 116 are positive for Influenza A H1N1,” the statement said.

“Of the 116 positive cases, 80 have been discharged. Rest of them remain admitted to the identified health facility,” it said.

In Gurgaon, …

Backbenches in the Lok Sabha, obscured by pillars in a circular chamber, are no longer the haunt of MPs who want to remain unheard of and even perhaps unseen. They are occupied by gen-next, no less.

Even veteran parliamentarians from the ruling benches stop for a while when they cross the backbenches to go out of the house. And it’s not due to the presence of young or beautiful women MPs. It is all because of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and his team - the gen-next ‘netas’ who love to sit on the backbenches.

-*-

Home matters …

Israeli IT firms will partner with Indian vendors to jointly bid for the ambitious unique identification (ID) card project of the Indian government, a visiting Israeli IT industry official has said.

“Israeli IT firms with domain expertise in e-governance and homeland security will bid for the unique ID card project jointly with Indian vendors, as local participation is key to such projects dealing with critical mass,” Katrin Melamed, business development manager for the Israeli software industry, told IANS here.

Melamed, who is leading an Israeli IT delegation on a …

Michael Jackson’s family might go for a traditional Islamic burial rituals for the late pop legend.

“The family is considering the Muslim burial traditions because they believe Michael would have wanted to be laid to rest in keeping with his new-found religious beliefs,” aceshowbiz.com quoted a source as saying.

“Michael’s brother Jermaine is educating the family as to the special rites because he feels it’s important to bury his brother according to the Muslim way,” added the source.

Despite earlier reports that both public and private memorial services for the late music performer have been set to be …