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New York, Aug 30 - It took 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova nearly three hours to reach the third round Thursday as she beat Peng Shuai from China 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Peng was in trouble at the beginning of the first set, finding herself 0-5 down before claiming her first game. The 27th seeded Russian held serve in the seventh game to knock down the first set 6-1, reports Xinhua.

Mumbai, Aug 30 : Megastar Amitabh Bachchan hopes to establish an institute dedicated to the work of his late father Harivansh Rai Bachchan, who was a poet.

The father penned several poems and even today remembered for his works like Madhushala, Madhukalash, and Madhubala.

Amitabh Bachchan admitted that reading all his father's poems over and over again was not possible. But he wished to open an institute for his father.

Agra, Aug 30 : All the way from Las Vegas, Rick Harrison and his son Corey - members of the celebrated cast of US reality series "Pawn Stars" were here Thursday for their debut Asia tour. They called the Taj Mahal "priceless".

The show, aired on History TV18, chronicles the daily activities of the Pawn Stars - patriarch Richard "Old Man", his son Rick, grandson Corey "Big Hoss" and also, Corey's childhood friend, Austin "Chumlee" Russell.

Bangalore, Aug 29 : India's first dedicated satellite for defence applications is ready for launch Friday from the European space consortium, Arianespace, from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. The satellite is designed to meet the Indian Navy's telecommunication needs.

Developed by Indian Space Research Organisation, the state-of-the-art satellite would provide the country with UHF, S-band, C-band and Ku-band relay capacity over the Indian land mass.

Washington, Aug 29 : US real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the second quarter this year, the US commerce department announced Thursday.

This is a welcome acceleration from an initial estimate of 1.7 percent released last month and better than market expectations, Xinhua reported. In the first quarter, US real GDP gained 1.1 percent.

New Delhi, Aug 29 : The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has removed India from a list of countries with serious safety concerns (SSCs), a government official said Thursday.

The clean chit came after a three-member team of the global aviation regulator conducted a five-day audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) from August 19-23.

The audit team also validated the corrective action plan (CAP) prepared by the DGCA to adress the two specific SSCs raised by ICAO, including issues over DGCA's air operators certification process and absence of certifying modifications made to Indian aircraft abroad.