I wasn’t fast enough for cricket, says fastest man

Growing up in rural Trelawny in Jamaica, he had only one dream — to be a pace bowler and make a name in cricket. But then he ran into Pablo McNeil, a local sports teacher, who led him to the tracks. Usain Bolt never looked back and in Beijing last month, the fastest man on earth was hailed as the most exciting track-and-field star the world has seen in more than a decade.

“I played cricket till the junior level. I was around 12-13 when I left the game,” said Bolt during a chat on the sidelines of the Athletisim a Super Grand Prix in Lausanne. Asked why he left cricket, he said: “I was not fast enough. But I was good at running. Some of my friends used to make fun that my run-up to the crease was faster than my deliveries.”

Teacher McNeil was dead right when he told him that the track was his natural home. At age 15, Bolt set a junior world record for 200m with 20.61 seconds. Two years later, he became the first junior sprinter to break 20 seconds for 200m. And in Beijing, he showed why he is the best.

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Beijing calls NSA over Tibet, says he has promised not to allow anti-China activity

Keen to ensure that the violence in Tibet did not cause a strain on its bilateral ties with New Delhi, China today reached out to India to apprise it of the situation in Lhasa and seek continuing support from India on the issue.

Chinese State Councillor Dan Bingguo spoke to National Security Advisor M K Narayanan over phone today and explained Beijing's stand on the situation in Tibet, China's state news agency Xinhua reported. It said Bingguo expressed the hope that India would "continue to show understanding and support" to the Chinese position.

On his part, Narayanan is said to have reaffirmed India's position that Tibet is part of Chinese territory and New Delhi would not allow Tibetans to carry out anti China political activities from Indian soil.

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Chinese comrades invite Rahul to mark 20th year of his father's visit

Beijing may have summoned the Indian Ambassador at 2 am to protest against the Tibetans trying to scale their Embassy wall in New Delhi but all this was off the record today as a high-level delegation of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) came knocking on the Congress doors with a red carpet.

Signaling a readiness to look beyond its ideological brethren among the Left, the CPC came to the Congress with a proposal to hold a conference in Beijing to mark the 20th anniversary of the late Rajiv Gandhi's path-breaking visit to China in December 1988. The CPC also invited Rahul Gandhi to inaugurate the conference likely to be held towards the year-end.

The CPC proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Congress Party to form an "institutional mechanism of collaboration" between the two. The Chinese delegation, led by Li Jinjun, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, proposed that Rahul should come to China to inaugurate the conference. These proposals were accepted by the Congress delegation led by senior party leader Devendra Dwivedi.

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Beijing declares ‘people's war', troops pour into Lhasa

Chinese security forces poured into Lhasa even as the local government today launched a "people's war" to crush the massive pro-independence protests, ahead of the deadline to agitating Tibetans to surrender.

No fresh bloodletting was reported in Lhasa where 10 people were killed and 12 security personnel injured after the protests, launched as part of the stir to mark the 49th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising against the 57-year Chinese rule, turned violent.

But rights groups claimed that seven people were killed today after the violent protests spilled to nearby provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu with significant Tibetan population.

A day after setting a Monday deadline for rioters to surrender or face punishment, Tibetan political and security chiefs declared a "people's war" against the protesters and vowed to "expose" the Dalai Lama group.
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