Must win encounter for RCB

Bengaluru
Oct. 11: Royal Challengers Bangalore find themselves in a familiar situation yet again. For much of IPL-2, Anil Kumble’s side were left with must-win position, but braved the odds to reach the final, before going down fighting to the Deccan Chargers.
On Monday, RCB will be up against the Otago Volts, and a loss here will put the home team out of the Champions League T20 even before the premier tournament gets down to serious business with both teams facing elimination with a loss.
The third team in Group C, Cape Cobras, have no such worries as the South African champs have already made it to the next round with two wins. Against the Cobras, RCB went into the match as favourites and performed as such until J.P. Duminy scripted a dramatic turnaround.
It reminded one of Brendon McCullum’s innings in the 2008 IPL opener that knocked the stuffing out of the local side. It should be interesting to see how they cope with McCullum once again being the key player, this time for Otago.
Source::DC

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Anil calls for Ambani truce

Mumbai
Oct. 11: The Mukesh Ambani camp, while welcoming Mr Anil Ambani’s peace offer on Sunday, said they hoped “it is a positive change in the negative, calumnious and malafide campaign” launched by (Anil Ambani’s) R-ADAG group against the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd.

In a late-night official statement, RIL said: “Sadly, the conduct of the ADAG group so far makes it difficult for RIL to believe that Mr Anil Ambani has had a change of heart.” It said that for the past many years he had indulged in a “malicious campaign against RIL and its chairman. The campaign reached its nadir in recent months through a vicious series of ads, unprecedented in India’s corporate history.”

RIL said problems could be resolved satisfactorily through mutual dialogue “provided the proposal for reconciliation is anchored in good and honest intentions.” RIL reiterated its stand that the dispute was not a family dispute “as Mr Anil Ambani once again tries to make out.” It said “vital national interests in terms of securing the government’s revenue from natural gas, the government’s own policy on gas for promoting India’s energy security are at stake ... as also the interests of RIL shareholders.”
Source::DC

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No terror export: PM

Mumbai
Oct. 11: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, speaking here on the final day of campaigning in Maharashtra for Tuesday’s Assembly election, categorically declared as “false” Pakistan’s accusations against India for allegedly fomenting terrorism in Balochistan, and said emphatically that this country was not in the business of “spreading” terror.

When asked at a press conference about Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik’s allegations that India had a role in increasing terror activity in Balochistan, an angry Dr Singh shot back: “India is not in the business of exporting terrorism to Pakistan or any other country, and the people and government of Pakistan jolly well know this is a false accusation.”

Referring to the situation in India’s neighbourhood, in response to last week’s attack outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, the Prime Minister said: “We have to make adequate preparations to deal with the consequences of this overflow of terrorism from the neighbourhood to our country. We are taking all necessary steps in that direction, but it is still my belief that particularly Pakistan and (its) people and government should realise the great harm (their) patronisation of terror groups has done to South Asia.”

The Prime Minister also spoke at length on the “scourge of Naxalism”, reiterating his earlier stand that it was “the biggest internal threat that India faces right now”. He refused to bracket Naxals or Maoists with terrorists, ruled out use of the armed forces against them.
Source::DC

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Must win encounter for RCB

Bengaluru
Oct. 11: Royal Challengers Bangalore find themselves in a familiar situation yet again. For much of IPL-2, Anil Kumble’s side were left with must-win position, but braved the odds to reach the final, before going down fighting to the Deccan Chargers.
On Monday, RCB will be up against the Otago Volts, and a loss here will put the home team out of the Champions League T20 even before the premier tournament gets down to serious business with both teams facing elimination with a loss.
The third team in Group C, Cape Cobras, have no such worries as the South African champs have already made it to the next round with two wins. Against the Cobras, RCB went into the match as favourites and performed as such until J.P. Duminy scripted a dramatic turnaround.
It reminded one of Brendon McCullum’s innings in the 2008 IPL opener that knocked the stuffing out of the local side. It should be interesting to see how they cope with McCullum once again being the key player, this time for Otago.
Source::DC

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T&T test awaits Somerset

Bengaluru
Oct. 11: With Saturday night’s stunning win over the current Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Deccan Chargers still fresh in their minds, Somerset will look to seal their berth into the next round when they take on Trinidad and Tobago in a Group A match here in the Champions League T20.
Somerset were least expected to win against the strong Chargers but they upset the applecart, with Alfonso Thomas sealing a famous win for Justin Langer captained side. And they will be hoping for an encore against Darren Ganga-led Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) to prevent them from sweating over the result of the group’s final league game. It is the first match of the tournament for T&T, who have a better idea of conditions here, having spent the last five days playing practice games.
Having said that, T&T also have some quality players in their ranks, with West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo leading the pack. Also in the side are internationals Denesh Ramdin, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo and Ravi Rampaul.
Somerset will hope their experienced opening pair of Langer and Marcus Trescothick fire for them, and on match eve, while Ganga gave credit to Somerset for their win, he also claimed his side were the better of the two.

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Devils wallop Wayamba

New Delhi
Oct. 11: There’s no rust on this baby. Pushing 40, Glenn Mcgrath hadn’t played a single game for close to one-and-a-half years, and not trained for more than five months before Sunday. Yet with the way he sent down ball after ball in the same spot not giving the batsmen any width to work him, one could have confused him with the McGrath of yore.
He castled two in his four overs, giving away just 20 runs as an under-pressure Delhi Daredevils hit back to rack up an 50-run win over Wayamba Elevens in their must-win Champions League Group D match at the Kotla here.
The Daredevils’ batting led by fierce fifties from Virender Sehwag (66) and Dinesh Karthik (61) had set up a huge 171-run target for Wayamba to chase, and McGrath along with Nannes (4/24) made it a no contest, restricting the Sri Lankan side to 120/8.
Only Mahela Jayawardene shone with a fine 53; the rest couldn’t galvanise themselves in the face of a challenging total and some very tight bowling.
Pitched just outside off, McGrath’s first ball off his second over and the team’s seventh, moved back in to knock the top of skipper Jehan Mubarak’s (0) off stump. His final ball off the same over darted back in even more sharply, crashing into Kaushal Lokuarachchi’s (4) leg stump. Ironically, the retired Aussie great, wasn’t even part of the original Daredevils squad for the Champions League and was drafted in as last-minute replacement was the injured Kiwi spinner Daniel Vettori.
He was also ignored in the Daredevils’ Indian Premier League semifinal run in South Africa, with the team management voicing concern over his fitness. This despite McGrath saying he had to wrestle with the idea of leaving his two kids behind with their grandparents to keep up his IPL commitment following the loss of his wife Jane to cancer. Had Pradeep Sangwan not underwhelmed in the Daredevils’ loss to Victoria Bushrangers on Friday, he, in all probability, would have gone back home without a game under his belt.
Earlier, the Daredevils took a cue from the New South Wales’ batting earlier in the day and took time charging up. A maiden at the start was followed up with two quiet overs, with the Wayamba left-armer Chanaka Welegedara varying his pace to good effect.
The decision to promote Tillakaratne Dilshan (10), to opening slot at the expense of Gautam Gambhir (3) didn’t work with both falling cheaply. At the other end, however, Sehwag had already begun his onslaught and was joined by a Karthik in menacing mood.
Farveez Mahroof came under heavy fire from both — Sehwag flicking him twice to the mid-wicket fence and Karthik responding with two cheeky fours behind the wicket. At the the 11th-over mark, Delhi were cruising along at 78/2, a score of 140, predicted as competitive by Gambhir, easily within reach. The pitch offered some help to the spinners, but Sehwag never let them settle down, slogging Kaushal Lokuarachchi’s first ball over deep midwicket en route to his fifty that took just 32 balls .
He was run out attempting a non-existent single with fours overs left to go, but ironically that pushed the run rate even further. Karthik whipped Ajanatha Mendis for three consecutive sixes in the penultimate over, before Owais Shah launched into a big one over extra cover in the final one to set up a stiff target for the Lankan side.
Brief Scores
Delhi Daredevils 170 for 5 (Virender Sehwag 66, Dinesh Karthik 61) bt Wayamba Eleven 120 for 7 (Mahela Jayawardene 53; Dirk Nannes 4/24, Glenn McGrath 2/20).
Source::DC

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Triple attacks kill 19 in Iraq

RAMADI (Iraq)

Oct. 11: Twin car bombs near a government office and an apparently coordinated suicide attack at a hospital killed 19 people in western Iraq on Sunday, in an explosion of violence blamed on the police collusion.
Officials said more than 80 people were injured in the blasts, which shattered a relative lull in Iraqi violence. The two car bombs exploded in quick succession in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, near the offices of the provincial governor while a meeting was in progress, a police official said.
“The attacks killed 19 people, including nine police,” an interior ministry official told AFP. An AFP journalist in the building said the first bomb went off at around 12.30 pm (0930 GMT) about 20 metres (yards) from the building in a civilian parking lot, speeding the arrival of firemen and the police. A second car bomb then exploded, the journalist said, leading the police to seal off the area.
Source::DC

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Obama promises to end ban on gays in military

Washington, Oct. 11: President Barack Obama has pledged to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, but acknowledged to a cheering crowd that the policy changes he promised on the campaign trail are not coming as quickly as they expected.
“I will end ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’,” Mr Obama said on Saturday at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights advocacy group. Mr Obama reaffirmed his commitment to end the ban, but did not give a timetable or the specifics that some activists have called for.
The law was passed by Congress in 1993 and signed by former US President Bill Clinton, who also promised to repeal the ban on homosexuals in the military but was blunted by opposition in the military and Congress.
“We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve the country,” Mr Obama said. “We should be celebrating their willingness to step forward and show such courage ... Especially when we are fighting two wars. I appreciate that many of you don’t believe progress has come fast enough,” Mr Obama said. “Do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach.”
Mr Obama also called on Congress to repeal the Defence of Marriage Act, which limits how state, local and federal bodies can recognise partnerships and determine benefits.

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Hillary: Pak nukes safe

London
Oct. 11: The United States is confident about Pakistan’s control over its nuclear arsenal, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said in a joint press conference with her British counterpart David Miliband in London on Sunday.
“We have confidence in the Pakistani government and military’s control over its nuclear weapons,” Ms Clinton said.
The recent attack at Rawalpindi at the Army headquarters was an example of threat to the authority of the Pakistani state, Ms Clinton said.
Although the “extremists are threatening the authority of the state,” Ms Clinton said that “we see no evidence they are going to take over the state. They will cause a great deal of harm to the people of Pakistan which is why the Pakistani government and the military is going after them so aggressively.”
Mr Miliband, who held wide-ranging talks with Ms Clinton on issues like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern Ireland and Iran, also supported her contention. There was no threat of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons being seized by terrorists, he said.
“There’s no evidence that’s been shown publicly or privately of any threat to the Pakistani nuclear facilities. I think it’s very important that alarmist talk is not allowed to gather pace,” Mr Miliband added.
Ms Clinton also held talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown later on Sunday. They met at Chequers, the Premier’s country retreat outside London.
The United States secretary of state also made it clear that it had a strong “special relationship” with Britain. “I have a special personal relationship with the Prime Minister and of course I think it can’t be said often enough, we have a special relationship between our countries.”
Ms Clinton, who was due to visit Ireland after her short London visit on Sunday, said that militants behind a resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland “are out of step and out of time.”
“To me terrorism is terrorism. Those who would try to disrupt the peace of people going about their daily lives are out of step and out of time,” she said.
Source::DC

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Campaign ends, voting tomorrow

NEW DELHI
Oct. 11: The hustle and the bustle of electioneering in three poll-bound states — Haryana, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh — drew to a close on Sunday. Voting for Assembly seats in all three states is scheduled for Tuesday.
The polls are significant for the leading political parties in the fray as they are being held just some months after the Lok Sabha elections. So all will wait with bated breath once the results start trickling in after counting is held on October 22.
With campaigning coming to an end, the Election Commission directed that political workers who are not residents of a constituency should leave the area.
It said: “Presence of political functionaries, party workers, procession functionaries and campaign functionaries who have been brought from outside the constituency and who are not voters of the constituency, should not continue to remain present in the constituency after campaign ends.”
Moreover, the Election Commission directed the district to ensure that party functionaries should be asked to leave a constituency a immediately with electioneering ending.
In Haryana, the Congress will be hoping to return to power in the 90-member Assembly.
The Haryana government is presently led by the Congress. For the BJP, the going might be a bit tough as it is not contesting the election with one-time ally, the O.P. Chautala-led INLD.
In Maharashtra, where 288 Assembly seats will witness polling, the campaigning was largely peaceful.
The state, however, witnessed a Naxalite attack in Gadchiroli on Friday when a police party was ambushed, killing 17 of them.
The outcome of results in the Amravati Assembly seat will be eagerly awaited as president Pratibha Patil’s son, Mr Rajendra Shekhawat, is contesting from here as a Congress candidate against rebel party candidate Sunil Deshmukh. The latter is the sitting MLA from this seat and is said to have the suport of Congress workers too. Among the leading campaigners for the Congress in the poll-bound states were party president Sonia Gandhi, Mr Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The BJP had Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Rajnath Singh, Ms Sushma Sward and Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu.
Source::DC

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Dinakaran elevation to SC stuck

New Delhi, Oct. 11: Karnataka high court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran’s appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court has hit a roadblock with a collegium headed by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan understood to have put on hold the decision on his elevation.
The top court collegium, which met here on Saturday, is believed to have sought within a week his response to the allegations that he had amassed land in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district, reliable sources said.
The collegium’s decision came after it considered a report of the district collector of Tiruvallur which is believed to have pointed out that at Kaverirajapuram in Tiruttani taluk alone, the extent of land allegedly possessed by the judge was approximately 500 acres, they said.
The sources said the decision of the collegium will be communicated to the ministry of law, where the file relating to the elevation of Justice Dinakaran along with four high court judges is pending.
After the government receives the communication on the Dinakaran issue from the collegium, they said it could put in abeyance his elevation and proceed with the appointment of other four judges to the Supreme Court whose names have been cleared by the collegium.
Along with that of Justice Dinakaran, the collegium had cleared the names of Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court A.K. Patnaik, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court T.S. Thakur, Chief Justice of the Calcutta high court S.S. Nijjar and Chief Justice of the Gujarat high court K.S. Radhakrishnan for elevation to the top court.
Source::DC

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Buddha attempts to mend Congress ties

NEW DELHI
Oct. 11: Putting the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in the forefront, the CPI(M) is all out trying to mend fences with the Congress.
The fresh efforts by the CPI(M) to break ice with the Congress, after it severed ties with the latter on the nuclear deal issue, is believed to have come on the suggestion of the West Bengal unit of the party keeping in view the Assembly elections in the state in 2010.
The CPI(M)’s arch rival, the Trinamul Congress, now an ally of the Congress, will throw a big challenge to the ruling the Left Front government in the state.
Mr Bhattacharjee, in Delhi to attend the one-day party politburo meet on Sunday, held a breakfast meeting with home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, at the latter’s residence. He also met finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, later in the day.
On Monday, Mr Bhattacharjee will be calling on Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
The CPI(M) has also come out in full support of the Centre’s anti-Naxal strategy. Backing the home minister, who has ruled out any talks with the banned CPI (Maoists) till they lay down arms, Bengal CPI(M) secretary, Mr Biman Bose said, “How will we have dialogue with those who do not believe in democracy and carry arms. If they give up arms, then talks should happen.”
Source::DC

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TD on the mark with flood relief

Hyderabad
Oct. 11: The leader of the Opposition, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has caused the ruling party much embarrassment by being first off the mark to visit the flood affected areas and bring in relief supplies.
The man known for his managerial skills and shrewd politics is demonstrating both in his handling of the crisis.
Mr Naidu toured many districts much before the Chief Minister. He made an aerial survey of the flooded areas and even spoke to the Prime Minister and the Union Agriculture Minister and briefed them about the flood damage in the state.
Mr Naidu was the first to send relief vans sponsored by his partymen to the flood hit Kurnool and Mahbubnagar districts. Every day at least 10 vans of relief material are being flagged off by Mr Naidu from his party headquarters.
Five vans left on Sunday with relief material provided by the former Wakf board chairman, Mr Mohammad Saleem, and another five by the NTR trust. Mr Naidu has set up a 42-member team with senior leaders at his party headquarters to supervise the flood relief activity and collect donations.
“There is no other intention in my tours but to bring the attention of the government to the flood affected areas.
As the Opposition leader, my visit would naturally attract the attention of the official machinery and this will lead to victims receiving better relief,” Mr Naidu said.
Senior Congress leaders say that people are well aware that the TD chief is trying to get political mileage out of the situation.
“He is trying to act as if he is more concerned. But everybody in the state knows his real intentions,” said Mr Ambati Rambabu, a senior Congress leader
Source::DC

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Walking Gandhi to restore books

Hyderabad

Oct. 11: A child education support organisation has decided to take up restoration of spoiled books of students in flood-hit villages of Atmakur mandal in Kurnool district.
The Care Foundation For Children and Ageing an international NGO (CFCA) took an initiative after it was reported in this newspaper that books of lakhs of school students were spoiled in the floods.
The CFCA founder
president, Mr Bob Hentzen, also known as the “Walking Gandhi of South and
Central America” who
participated in a cultural fest here on Sunday, said: “We are sponsoring education of 3.3 lakh students across the world including Africa, Asia and South America. Hyderabad is one of the biggest projects in India. The supporters come from more than 60 countries.”
Mr Hetze, 73, who champions the cause of non-violence, had walked 6,000 km in 1996 from Kansas in the U.S. to Guatemala for nine months. Now, he will start a 14,000 km walk from Guatemala to Chile covering 12 nations from December.
The CFCA Hyderabad project executive director, Mr S. Suresh Reddy, said: “We are going to provide sustained education support. In addition to the education, we are also contributing to build houses for the flood-hit families.”
Source::DC

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TD MLA in fake ST certificate row

ADILABAD
Oct. 11: It is learnt that the Adilabad collector, Mr Ahmad Nadeem, has cancelled the caste certificate (ST) of Suman Rathod, Telugu Desam (TD) MLA from Khanapur (ST).
It has been alleged that she obtained an ST caste certificate through fraudulent means, though she belongs to the Banjara community which comes under the backward community in Maharashtra.
But orders have not been issued officially so far in this regard.
The collector also refused to comment on the matter.
A committee headed by joint collector, Mr Vijay Kumar, conducted an inquiry into the validity of MLA’s caste certificate and submitted a report to the collector.
Ms Suman Rathod said she had submitted enough proof to the officials concerned to prove that she had been residing in Adilabad before 1977 and had patta lands, but officials did not verify them. She made it clear that she would approach the AP High Court on the cancellation of her ST certificate and said that she had not received any orders so far regarding cancellation.
Her husband Ramesh Rathod, Adilabad MP, said a few political leaders thought the cancellation of an ST certificate of an MLA would necessitate byelections and the ruling party candidate would win in these, or else, the second leading candidate in the 2008 elections would be elected as MLA once Ms Suman Rathod was disqualified. He said that this would not happen.
Meanwhile, sources said that K. Suresh, a former tahasildar of Utnoor, who worked as PA to Mr Ramesh Rathod when he was Khanapur MLA, issued ST certificate without proper verification just on the recommendation of his staff.
Source::DC

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Stench stalks Kurnool residents

Kurnool

Oct. 11: Even though it is been a week since the floods receded, many areas in Kurnool are still under knee-deep slush while sanitation personnel have been unsuccessful in clearing tonnes of garbage scattered on the roads here.
People complain that the foul smell emanating from the garbage is making their heads reel.
Gases spewed by the garbage are causing irritation in the eyes too, they said.
Despite deploying 16 municipal commissioners, 2,000 sanitation staff and machinery from other cities, the Kurnool Municipal Corporation is finding it difficult to clean the garbage that is piling up on the streets everyday.
About 50,000 houses in the old city have been affected by floods.
Flood victims, while cleaning their houses, have dumped not less than two tonnes of waste per household on the roads in the past four days.
To make matters worse, the sanitation staff are dumping garbage in the city outskirts, causing the foul smell to spread to areas in new city.
Though the floods did not cause much trouble in the new city, people here are facing health problems due to the foul smell from the dumped garbage.
“We are clearing 5,000 tonnes of garbage per day,” said Mr Vikas Raj, managing director of the AP State Financial Corporation, who is supervising sanitation activities in the town.
“We have deployed 1,800 sanitation staff and another 1,480 workers are expected to join us in a couple of days. We are trying to bring normalcy in the city within a week. To expedite the work we have deployed 175 tractors, 33 JCBs and 22 dousers,” he said about the sanitation works.
The officials also had a hard time convincing workers to take up cleaning operations as they initially refused to work due to the unbearable stench. “We can’t even stay indoors as the stench from the garbage reaches everywhere. Due to the stench, we could not eat or sleep properly for the last four days,” said Mr S.Shyamsunder, a resident of Devnagar.
Source::DC

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KCR opts for softer line on Telangana

Hyderabad
Oct. 11: The TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekar, who is known for his adamant and ruthless attitude took a ‘U’ turn on Sunday when he condemned the statements of his party leaders against the Supreme Court judgement on making Hyderabad city a free zone.
KCR criticised the TRS legislative party leader, Mr E. Rajender, for making provocative statements on the issue.
Some TRS leaders threatened violence if the government not appeal against the Supreme Court direction.
“Issuing a threat of violence is not good and it has no place in democracy. I condemn such statements. After all the making Hyderabad a free zone for certain posts is small issue when it comes to Telangana state,” said KCR.
For the first time, he announced that he always wished the state should move forward and achieve all-round development. He directed his party to exercise restraint on the sensitive issues.
A few days ago, KCR had announced that he was first a citizen of Andhra Pradesh and then a Telanganite. Sources in the party disclosed that after massive defeat in the elections and observing the support that the late had YSR garnered across the Telangana, KCR had changed his mind.
Two days ago, KCR had made an acerbic comment on the irrigation minister, Mr P. Laxmaiah, regarding the projects under constructions in the Rayalaseema region. This had led to a high-pitched political debate between Congress and TRS leaders.
Source::DC

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