HAMILTON: For a bowler with two quality Test centuries, and a safe pair of hands as a 'slipper', Ravichandran Ashwin must often have wondered: why am I not in the league of all-rounders?

GENEVA: The Syrian government said women and children could leave the besieged rebel city of Homs on Sunday as negotiators from the warring sides discussed humanitarian gestures on a second day of face-to-face talks in Geneva.

KIEV: Thousands of Ukrainians chanted "Hero!" and sang the national anthem on Sunday, as a coffin carrying a protester who was killed in last week's clashes with police was carried through the streets of the capital, underscoring the rising tensions in the country's two-month political crisis.

TRIPOLI: Libyan and Egyptian officials say some of the six Egyptian diplomats and embassy staff members kidnapped in the capital Tripoli have been released and the rest are to follow soon.

NEW DELHI: BJP patriarch LK Advani on Sunday put the lid on speculation that he might be moved to the Rajya Sabha, making it clear that he will contest the coming Lok Sabha polls. The delay in announcement of BJP's list of Rajya Sabha candidates had sparked a buzz in party circles that the RSS was keen to push some of the veterans to the Upper House.

DEHRADUN: Alleged bureaucratic delays, held-up environmental clearances and antiquated construction equipment have left the India-China Border Roads Project in Uttarakhand in the doldrums. Till now, according to sources, only one stretch of the prioritized border road project has entered the second phase of construction.

HYDERABAD: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Sunday pledged his support to BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and said he would conduct Yoga Mahotsava across the country on March 23 in a bid to mobilize votes for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

WELLINGTON: India are confident they can win their two remaining one-day internationals in New Zealand to salvage a draw from a series they were expected to dominate.

MELBOURNE: Stanislas Wawrinka insisted he is a deserving winner of the Australian Open after upsetting injury-hit world number one Rafael Nadal to gatecrash the established order of men's tennis.

WASHINGTON: Not a word was said about the toxic, month-long spat that seemed to poison the much-vaunted strategic relationship between the two sides. Instead, there was gloss and platitude aimed ostensibly at healing the lacerations caused by the so-called Khobragade episode, which both sides are trying to consign to the back-burner.