A twins for 60-year-old widow in Karnal

Having suffered heartburns for being tagged as issueless throughout her youth, Jagdish Kaur, a 60-year-old widow now feels on the top of the world after delivering two healthy babies at a nursing home in Karnal.

Kaur delivered a baby boy weighing 2.70 kg and a daughter weighing 2.50 kg from the sperms of her dead husband which were frozen an year and half ago, through IVF technique.

At her age, when women generally act as guide for the grandchildren, Kaur who hails from a remote village of Kurukshetra is now dreaming about the future prospects of her son and daughter.

It is not just Kaur, but also her gynecologist Prabhjot Kaur who is happy about the arrival of the twins when Kaur already had one unsuccessful pregnancy over the past two years and had complications after repeated miscarriages during her youth.

"It was a peculiar case of zona pellucida and the patient was suffering from hypertension and abnormal liver with a diseased uterus and damaged endmeterium. During her first pregnancy when she was young her baby died in the fourth month. This was followed by four miscarriages,'' Dr Kaur said.

"These births have come as miracles for me as well because she had miscarriage even during the treatment. At the same time she lost her husband. We changed the technique and used her husband's frozen sperms as a last attempt which proved to be successful on 27th April," the doctor added.

Though shy, Kaur could not hide her feelings after mothering the healthy twins. "I wish he was alive to see his next generation," she was heard saying this to the hospital staffs as well as relatives, said sources in the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where she is being admitted with her new borns

Football: Barcelona shocking defeat to Real Sociedad by 2-1

Real Madrid stumbled to a 3-2 defeat against Zaragoza and missed an opportunity to stay in the hunt for the Spanish title after league leader Barcelona slipped up in a 2-1 loss at Real Sociedad on Saturday.

Angel Lafita scored twice and set up a penalty as Zaragoza capitalized on Madrid's low morale following its Champions League loss to Barcelona on Wednesday to leave the Spanish giant's title challenge on the brink of collapse.

But Sociedad rallied to score twice in the final 20 minutes to keep Barcelona from matching the Basque club's own league record of 32 games without defeat from the 1979-80 season.

Barcelona, which hadn't lost a domestic league match since September, still maintained a comfortable eight-point advantage over Madrid with only four rounds to play.

Madrid, coming off a 2-0 first-leg semifinal loss to Barcelona on Wednesday, looked flat from the start as coach Jose Mourinho's team lost for the second time in three league games at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium after the Portuguese coach hadn't endured a home ground defeat for nine years.

"It was a key game for them in terms of staying up. And this is the result of what happens when one team comes into the game in good shape and the other not," Mourinho said. "The blame is mine alone. Today the coach was unable to motivate his players in the first half."

Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas came out of his area to disrupt a Zaragoza long ball in the 41st minute but fanned on the clearance, with the ball eventually coming to Lafita to slot into the open goal.

Gabriel Fernandez made it 2-0 to the visitors with a 54th-minute penalty after Ricardo Carvalho muscled Lafita down inside the area.

After Sergio Ramos cut the lead with a header in the 63rd, Lafita struck against the run of play in the 77th before Karim Benzema scored Madrid's last with five minutes to go.

Madrid lost Carvalho to a second yellow card soon after that and Zaragoza 'keeper Toni Doblas saved Kaka's point-blank header in the third-minute of injury-time to seal an important victory that moved Zaragoza four points clear of the drop zone.

While Kaka had a good penalty shout waived away right after Ramos' opener, the weight of Wednesday's defeat showed as Madrid lacked concentration even with most of the regulars on the bench. Mourinho left forward Cristiano Ronaldo out of the squad following the Portugal forward's criticism of Madrid's playing style in its loss to Barcelona, which it faces in the second leg on Tuesday.

"Leaving him out of the team was my decision. I had (Gonzalo) Higuain and Benzema available and they seemed very motivated," Mourinho said.

While Ronaldo watched from the stands alongside model girlfriend Irina Shayk, Lionel Messi started for Barcelona at the Anoeta despite worries over a leg muscle injury. He didn't add to his season tally of 52 goals but assisted on Thiago Alcantara's opener in the 29th minute.

The Argentina forward slowed Xavi Hernandez's threaded pass onto the path of Thiago and the midfielder lobbed over goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to make the most of a rare start.

Like Madrid, Barcelona rested several regulars for Tuesday's match but was forced to send on Daniel Alves after 14 minutes for Martin Montoya after the defender broke his left shoulder. Defender Gabriel Milito exited with a leg injury soon after Diego Ifran equalized with a poacher's goal in the 71st.

Milito's exit pushed Javier Mascherano from midfield into a center back role and the Argentine was guilty of tripping Antoine Griezmann to set up Xabi Prieto's 81st-minute winner from the spot.

Backup Jose Manuel Pinto filled in for Victor Valdes since the regular 'keeper was suspended for the Madrid match, and got a hand to Prieto's penalty but couldn't keep the low shot out.

"It would have been nicer to get to the semifinal on the back of a victory," said Guardiola, whose team will next play classic rival Madrid for the fourth time in 18 days.

Real's second win in eight games moved it six points above Osasuna, which was in the last relegation spot.

Also, Sergio Aguero led Atletico Madrid past 10-man Deportivo La Coruna 1-0.

Deportivo — only three points above the drop — was reduced to 10 just before the hour mark when Alberto Lopo checked Aguero to be shown a second yellow card. Aguero's 17th league goal pushed Atletico into fifth place, one point above Athletic Bilbao.

In other 34th-round games, it's: Almeria vs. Sevilla; Levante vs. Sporting Gijon; Malaga vs. Hercules; Racing Santander vs. Mallorca; Villarreal vs. Getafe; Osasuna vs. Valencia; and Espanyol vs. Athletic.

Nasa delays space shuttle Endeavour by 72 hours

The final mission of Nasa's Endeavour shuttle has been delayed by at least 72 hours because of a technical problem.

The orbiter is being held on the ground while engineers investigate a failure in a unit that powers the vehicle's hydraulics.

America's youngest reusable spaceplane is set to deliver a $2bn (£1.2bn) particle physics experiment to the International Space Station (ISS).

US President Barack Obama had planned to attend the lift-off in Florida. He took a tour of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with his family instead.

Also present at the spaceport to see the ascent was Endeavour Commander Mark Kelly's wife, Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman shot in the head by a gunman in January. She had a 10-minute private meeting with the president.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether she would stay to see her husband's next attempt to get into space or return to Houston, Texas, where she has been undergoing rehabilitation.

SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR

Endeavour was the last orbiter to be built and flew its maiden voyage on 7 May, 1992
It is named after the ship commanded by the British explorer James Cook from 1769 to 1771
Total space time to date: 280 days; Total Earth orbits: 4,429; Individual crew members: 133
Made the first American ISS construction flight, delivering the Unity Module
Carried out the mission to correct the Hubble Space Telescope's flawed vision
Its radar map of the planet is one of the most used Earth-observation data-sets ever acquired

Atlas complication
The lift-off had been targeted for 1547 local time (1947 GMT; 2047 BST), but was postponed just after midday.

Kelly and his crew had already suited up and were making their way to the shuttle. By tradition, their "Astrovan" would normally stop briefly outside Kennedy's launch control centre before moving on down to the pad, but on this occasion the vehicle pulled in front of the building and parked. The "scrub" was called moments later.

"A disappointing day for Team Endeavour and the astronauts but as we always say in this business, 'we will not fly this machine until it's ready' and today it was not ready," explained shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach.

Managers and engineers are now trying to establish how long a turn-around is needed to deal with the problem in one of the three auxiliary power units in Endeavour.

A heater that prevents freezing in a hydrazine fuel line leading to the unit stopped working. Another heater was also displaying unusual behaviour.

Nasa managers say it could be a simple thermostat failure but may indicate a more deep-seated issue in an electrical switchbox. If the former, Endeavour could make another launch attempt on Monday; if the latter, Endeavour is looking at a much longer delay.

Complicating matters is the launch of an Atlas rocket on the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station scheduled for 6 May. A lengthy repair job in Endeavour could see the shuttle mission slip to perhaps 9 or even 10 May.

"We're set up to try for Monday. We can try all the way through Wednesday and then we have to stand down for the Atlas," said Mr Leinbach. "If we have to change out that box - the load control assembly - then that's a significant deal, and the re-test on that box is quite extensive. A full two days."

Local police were expecting up to 750,000 people to gather near the Kennedy spaceport to watch Endeavour's ascent. The impeding retirement of the shuttle programme has drawn huge interest in the final flights of the orbiters.

Atlantis underbelly
The Discovery ship was the first to bow out with a mission in February/March. It is now being dismantled and made safe for museum display.

Endeavour is next. After its 14-day trip to the space station, it will be prepared for exhibition at a science centre in California.

The Atlantis orbiter will end the shuttle programme with a mission in June or July.

Nasa hopes by the middle of the decade to be buying crew transportation services from a range of commercial providers.

President Obama was making his way to Florida from a tour of the tornado-ravaged State of Alabama when Endeavour's lift-off was called off.

But he decided to continue on to Kennedy anyway, taking time to talk with staff and look around the facilities. Mr Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Sasha and Malia were shown the Atlantis shuttle in the building where it is being processed for flight.

They also met US Navy Captain Kelly and his crew, who by then had changed out of the orange escape suits worn during a shuttle launch.

"They were just talking about the mission and what they were going to do," Bob Cabana, the director of KSC, told reporters.

"The girls asked some great questions when they were touring Atlantis of [astronaut] Janet Kavandi. They were really enthused, as were the president and the first lady."

A thief hanged in public in Iran

Iran has publicly hanged a man convicted of repeated armed robbery and fighting police in a village in the central province of Markazi, the hardline Kayhan newspaper reported today.

Provincial judiciary chief Hekmat Ali Mozaffari said the man, whose name was not given, was executed yesterday in Mousa Abad village where he had operated an armed gang, the paper reported.

The man was also found guilty of "Moharebe" (waging war against God) through armed resistance to the security forces, Mozaffari said. The offence is punishable by death under Iran's penal code.

The website of Markazi's judiciary department meanwhile also reported the hangings of two men found guilty of drug trafficking in the province. They were executed in prison in the city of Arak in April, it said.

Possession of more than 30 grams of narcotics is punishable by death in Iran, as are murder, rape, armed robbery and adultery.

In late April, the judiciary website of Fars province reported hangings of four people in two separate executions, one of whom was found guilty of committing eight murders.

The other three were hanged in the southern city of Shiraz after being convicted for "armed robbery and kidnapping" as well as killing two policemen.

The latest hangings bring to 108 the number of executions reported in Iran so far in 2011, according to an AFP count based on media reports. Iranian media reported 179 hangings last year.

In 2009, the Islamic republic executed 388 people, according to international human rights groups, making it second only to China in the number of people it put to death.

Iran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order, and that it is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

Tennis: Sharapova advances to next round in ATP-WTA Madrid Masters

Francesca Schiavone won her first clay court match of the season here Sunday, the French Open holder defeating China's Peng Shuai 7-5, 7-6 (7/2) to reach the second round of the ATP-WTA Madrid Masters.

The Italian third seed was beaten in her clay start this month in Stuttgart by Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska. But with her Roland Garros title defence starting in three weeks, Schiavone thankfully got her game back in track in straight sets in Spain.

Schiavone spent two hours on court at the Caja Magica complex, facing only two break points from her 30th-ranked Chinese opponent who lost a semi-final on green clay in Charleston early in April.

Eighth seed Maria Sharapova got off to a struggling start in her first clay contest of the season, with the three-time grand slam champion coming through for a defeat of Alexandra Rus of the Netherlands 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The challenger saved a match point on her own serve before the Russian seed moved ahead into the second round on her second winning opportunity.

Sharapova finished with a disappointing 37 unforced errors and just 14 winners on the high-altitude clay of the capital. The eighth seed converted on seven of 14 break points against a teenaged opponent ranked 99th who lost in first round this month at Marbella and Fez, Morocco.

Slovak Daniela Hantuchova advanced over Japan's 40-year-old wonder Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 6-3 while Spain's Arantxa Parra Santonja beat slumping Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 7-5.

Men were beginning their concurrent event, with Spanish tenth seed Nicolas Almagro facing Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Swiss number 14 Stanislas Wawrinka playing Spanish opposition in the form of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez

Bad weather affects Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu chopper search

A helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four other people, which went missing on Saturday morning, has still not been found.

Massive search operations are on to locate the missing Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter that had taken off from Tawang at 9.50 am on Saturday. It lost communication with the ground after it flew past the Sela Pass area about 20 to 25 minutes later.

A two-member high-level Central team, including Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) V Narayanswamy and Union Minister Mukul Wasnik are in Itanagar to take stock of the situation and oversee the search operations.

Defence sources have told that 30 columns of the Indian Army comprising 2,400 personnel have been sent to different locations along the Indo-Bhutan border as part of ground search operation. Six ITBP teams with 25 personnel are also helping in the search. Inclement weather is however, affecting the aerial searches.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also been roped in to help in locating the whereabouts of the missing helicopter.

A crisis management group has already been formed in Arunachal Pradesh to decide about steps to be taken.

"There is no confirmation or news about the helicopter. There has been no direct contact with any of the five people on board and we really don't know any details as of now," Arunachal MP Takam Sanjay said. "The fact of the matter is we don't know yet where the helicopter is," he added.

The helicopter was scheduled to land in Itanagar at 11.30 am on Saturday. Several media reports on Saturday afternoon quoted Arunachal Pradesh Governor Gen (retd) JJ Singh and the state Chief Secretary and said that the helicopter had landed safely somewhere in eastern Bhutan adjoining Tawang district and that the same helicopter was flying back to Guwahati with the Chief Minister on board.

Bhutan, however, later denied that any Indian helicopter had landed in its territory, but said a search operation was launched following request from New Delhi.

"We have also heard through the media about the helicopter landing in Bhutan, but we don't have any reports of an Indian helicopter landing in our territory. But we have deployed troops and local villagers to see if any helicopter had landed here," S Duba, Deputy Commissioner of Trashiyangtse district in Bhutan, had said on Saturday evening.

Apart from Khandu, the people on board include crew members Captain JS Babbar and Captain KS Malick, Khandu's security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup.

The Indian government is in constant touch with Bhutan to find out about the missing chopper.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to the Arunachal Pradesh Governor on Saturday and enquired about the incident. He was briefed by National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon about the search operations being carried out.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi also spoke to Dorjee's wife and son, party spokesman Tom Vadakkan said.

The missing helicopter, AS350 B-3, is a single-engine chopper. In case of an engine failure, there are very slim chances of the helicopter making a safe landing.

Pawan Hans has denied allegations that it was operating a fleet of old choppers in the region, and said the helicopter that carried Dorjee was only four months old and was on the VIP service.

The incident came just days after another Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in Tawang, killing 17 people and injuring six others

Libya crisis: NATO attack kills Gaddafi's son, Gaddafi survives

Tripoli - Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, 29, the youngest son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, was killed Saturday in a NATO airstrike on the capital Tripoli, a spokesman for the government said on state television.

Leader Gaddafi and his wife survived the attack, though they were in the same house, the spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters after they were led on a tour of the bombing site, CNN reported.
Ibrahim said three grandchildren of Gaddafi were also killed in the attack on Saif al-Arab
Gaddafi's house, which was struck by at least three missiles.

State television showed pictures of a destroyed house and, later, night-time scenes of angry pro-government protesters in Tripoli outraged over the killings.

'The house of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi was attacked tonight with full power. The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and family members,' government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters.

Ibrahim said the attacks led to Saif al-Arab's 'martyrdom.' 'This was a direct attempt to assassinate the leader of the country,' added Ibrahim. NATO has denied similar accusations by the Libyan government before, and has said their operations only aim at ending violence against civilians.

Opposition fighters were celebrating the news of the death in the eastern city of Benghazi, firing gunshots in the air. Broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that some of the rebels celebrating said they felt the news indicated that Gaddafi was weaker than before.

But opposition representatives in and outside the country expressed their doubt regarding the incident, arguing that Gaddafi might be seeking to gain sympathy after his call for ceasefire was rejected.

Gaddafi said he was willing to negotiate with NATO to bring an end to alliance airstrikes against his country. The Benghazi-based rebels seeking his ouster from the country rejected the call saying 'the time for compromise has passed.'

NATO has been in command of the international military operation in Libya for just under five weeks, including airstrikes that are being used as part of the UN-authorised no-fly zone.
Conflict between Gaddafi and the rebels began in February after a bloody government crackdown on
anti-government protesters.

Saif al-Arab is the least publicly known of Colonel Gaddafi's children. Gaddafi has a second son named Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, an architect, who has had a high profile role as chair of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF).

According to a 2009 cable leaked by Wikileaks, the dead son has lived in Munich, where he 'pursues ill-defined business interests and spends much time partying.'
Other reports say he was well known to Munich police for, among other things, driving a very loud
Ferrari and getting involved in fisticuffs at celebrity clubs.

There had been reports that a second son of Moamer Gaddafi, Chamies al-Gadaffi, was killed shortly after the rebellion began in Libya. Rebels reported that a pilot of the Libyan air force had intentionally crashed his plane over Bab al-Azizia, the government compound in Tripoli where Chamies was staying.

The report has been dismissed by the government. In February, the UN slapped a travel ban and an asset freeze on Saif al-Arab, among the rest of Gaddafi's family and senior aides, after the conflict began.