Master-blaster batsman Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar said that the senior players in the Indian team must be respected for the "major contributions" they have made over the years.

Lashing out at the critics, Tendulkar said that it was up to the seniors to decide the time and place of their retirement.

Milan - A fan of Juventus was in intensive care in a Bologna hospital Thursday with a skull trauma suffered in a clash with hooligans.

Olga Kurylenko, who has already created waves worldwide with her upcoming Bond flick ‘The Quantum of Solace’, has claimed that ‘she doesn’t need a man’.

The New Bond girl, who is 28 year old and divorced twice, doesn’t take breaking up as a failure. The actress admitted that as every story has a beginning and an end, so is the marriage which was a story that ended for her twice.

Olga, who became a model, was 16 when she fled to Paris to make it big. She hates to be possessed.

Vienna - As the first large Austrian bank to apply for government aid, Erste Group Bank AG said Thursday it will receive 2.7 billion euros (3.5 billion dollars) of public funds to strengthen its capital base.

The percentage of the bank's debts covered by equity through the cash injection will rise to 10 per cent by the end of the year, compared with the previous estimate of 7.5 per cent.

In return for the government help, Erste agreed to provide credit worth 6 billion euros to commercial and retail customers over the next three years.

Tokyo - Markets across the Asia-Pacific on Thursday saw the roller-coaster ride they have been taking in recent weeks make an upward surge with key markets jumping more than 10 per cent on news of an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average ended trading up nearly 10 per cent after the US central bank's rate cut as well as boosted profit prospects for Japan's exporters as the yen weakened against the dollar.

Washington, October 30 : Investigating the effect of newspaper endorsements for presidential candidates, two Brown University economists have come to the conclusion that they can actually influence voting decision.

Brian Knight and graduate student Chun Fang Chiang say that voters are more likely to support the recommended candidate following the publication of an endorsement, but any degree of influence depends on the credibility of the paper’s pick.

The researchers have observed that newspapers are potentially biased in favour of one of the candidates, and that voters rationally account for the credibility of any endorsement.