Los Angeles - "The Big Ticket" had a big hand as the Boston Celtics turned Sweet 16.

Kevin Garnett scored 10 of his 18 points in the final quarter, and the white-hot Celtics clipped the pesky Atlanta Hawks 88-85 on Wednesday night, extending their winning streak to 16 games.

"We just hung in there, and KG had a tremendous effort down the stretch for us," said Celtics Paul Pierce, who also finished with 18 points. "We were tested and won on the road against a quality team."

Haridwar, Dec 18 : Mauritian President Anerood Jugnauth, who is currently on a visit to India, has condemned terrorism and terror activities terming it as a barbaric act, which should be fought.

Speaking to mediapersons on Wednesday at Haridwar where he had gone to offer prayers, Jugnauth said that terrorism is a barbaric act which indiscriminately kills the innocents.

"Who will like terrorism, nobody except the terrorists? We condemn it, it is barbarous, it is horrible, taking away lives of innocent people. I think the world should unite to fight this heinous crime and get rid of terrorism once for all," he added.

Accompanied by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Jugnauth also met yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

Srinagar, Dec 18 : After the successful conduct of sixth phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir, the focus has now been shifted to final phase of polls, which is scheduled to be held on December 24.

In the last phase, polling will be held in 11 assembly segments of Jammu District, two assembly constituencies of Samba district and eight constituencies of Srinagar district.

Over 63 per cent polling was recorded yesterday in the sixth phase, which spread in the districts of Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar in Jammu Division and Anantnag and Kulgam districts in Kashmir.

The heavy turnout of voters in the sixth phase has once again proved that people of the Kashmir Valley don''t believe in the politics of separatism.

New Delhi - India's inflation rate fell sharply 6.84 per cent for the week ending December 6, down from 8 per cent the week before, government data showed Thursday.

The inflation rate, linked to India's wholesale price index, was at its lowest in nine months primarily because of cuts in petrol and diesel prices announced by the government recently.

Inflation in India has been on the decline since it hit its peak of 12.91 per cent in the week what ended August 2. The rate during the same period last year was 3.84 per cent.

London, Dec 18 : The London School of Economics has become the UK's top-ranked higher education research institution after beating Oxford and Cambridge.

This is the first time LSE has won the top league position in a table devised exclusively for The Independent by the leading research organisation Research Fortnight from official government statistics.

The rankings will determine how the lion''s share of 1.5billion worth of government funding for university research will be distributed from next year, reports the Independent.

Baghdad, Dec 18 : Thirty five Iraqi officials including four Iraqi generals have been arrested over the past three days, with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

The arrests, confirmed by officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security as well as the Prime Minister's office, included four generals, one of whom, General Ahmed Abu Raqeef, is the ministry's director of internal affairs.

The officials also said that the arrests had come at the hand of an elite counter-terrorism force that reports directly to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, The New York Times reported.