Kohli becomes second Indian to score 500 in a Test series in Australia

Virat Kohli on Thursday became the second Indian batsman to score 500 runs in a Test series in Australia during the fourth and final match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Kohli, who came into the match with 499 runs from the three earlier matches of the series, reached the landmark by hitting a four of the bowling of off-spinner Nathan Lyon during the morning session in the 44th over of India’s first innings.

The 26-year-old Kohli, who was playing in his 33rd Test and seventh innings in this series, followed in the footsteps of batting legend Rahul Dravid who accumulated 619 runs from eight innings in the 2003-04 Australia tour.

Kohli has already hit three centuries in the series.

Quikr launches instant messaging for users

In a move to enable seamless transactions between its users, online classifieds company Quikr has launched a new product, Quikr Nxt. The new product, the company claims, is the world’s first instant messenger by a classifieds company, and allows users to chat using the website or mobile app. The messenger has been integrated into Quikr’s mobile app, mobile site and website.

While launching the product on Wednesday, Quikr CEO and founder Pranay Chulet said Quikr Nxt could revolutionise the domestic digital classifieds industry.

It allows buyers and sellers to immediately get in touch through chat, using Quikr’s mobile app, mobile site and even its desktop site. “The benefits of Quikr Nxt are that buyers/sellers do not need to share their contact number or e-mail address and the only point of reference is the Quikr ID. This prevents bombarding by multiple e-mails and phone calls and safeguards the user’s privacy,” Mr. Chulet said. “E-mails are not real-time and phone calls are invasive while chats are most convenient.”

The new feature has been undergoing trials in the last few months, and was being tested in about a dozen cities. Quikr has more than 30 million active users, and Nxt is the latest in a line of product innovations by Quikr, including Maximum Selling Price (MSP), the Missed Call service and the like.

Quikr operates in over 13 categories and 170 sub-categories including mobile phones, household goods, cars, real estate, jobs, services and education. Mr. Chulet said real estate was the largest category given the size of transactions.

Close to 80 per cent of traffic was from mobile phone users, and this could go to 90-95 per cent in a year, he said. “Quikr is a mass market platform, and we are five times the size we were a year ago. We are fully funded for now and do not require additional funds,”

Quikr raised over Rs.900 crore in 2014 from investors, including Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Matrix Partners, eBay Inc, Warburg Pincus among others.

New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 193 runs to win Test series 2-0

New Zealand completed a fine comeback to beat Sri Lanka by 193 runs and win the two-Test series 2-0.

Kane Williamson and BJ Watling's Test record sixth-wicket partnership on day four hauled the Kiwis back into the match, having trailed by 135 on first innings in Wellington.
Mark Craig took 4-53 as the hosts bowled out Sri Lanka for 196.
"The last little while we've played some outstanding cricket," said New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum.
New Zealand have not lost a Test series since being beaten in England in May 2013.
Since then, the Black Caps have beaten West Indies home and away, overcome India and Sri Lanka at home, and drawn away series with Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Resuming on 45-1 in pursuit of an improbable 390 for victory, Sri Lanka slipped to 110-5 by lunch, and New Zealand wrapped up victory with a session to spare.
McCullum added: "To be able to fight our way out of an incredibly precarious position and not just save the Test, but to go on and win it in the manner that we did is testament to the work these guys do off the field."
The sides start a seven-match one-day series on 11 January in Christchurch.

India to host 2015 World Bridge Championship

Chennai: The biggest event of card games comes to India as the country will host the next World Bridge Championship for Bermuda Bowl (men) and Venice Cup (women) in October 2015.
Bridge Federation of India (BFI) President N R Kirubakara Moorthy on Sunday informed that the World Bridge Federation (WBF) has alloted the 2015 World Championship to India and "BFI are now in the process of finalising the event".
Moorthy said that WBF President Gianrrigo Rona of Italy along with technical committee members and other WBF officials would be arriving in Chennai tonight to finalise the venue.
He said that two cities, Chennai and Panaji in Goa, have been shortlisted to host the world meet.
Rona and other officials, during their four-day stay in the country, will inspect here the various facilities including hotel accommodation and convention centres to hold the tournament then go to Goa before finalising the city to host the big event.
This would be the first time that India would be hosting the biggest event of the card games.
The WBF conducts the World Bridge Team Championships every two years.
This is the premier tournament in international bridge and sees the top teams from each geographic region competing against one another for the Bermuda Bowl trophy.
Additionally, there are separate trophies for the top women`s team as well as the top senior team (D`Orsi Trophy) globally.
About 550 players from 66 countries are expected to be seen in action in this world meet.
Moorthy, who has been working hard to bring these Championships to India said, "Two locations have been shortlisted - Chennai and Goa. Both of these have large convention spaces capable of hosting the tournament and a number of top hotels which can accommodate the over-thousand participants who will attend the tournament over a two-week period. This is the first time the tournament is being held in India and we want to put up a good show."
Hosting a tournament of this scale is expected to provide a big boost to the popularity of the game in India, and aid the BFI in its efforts to attract newer players, Moorthy said.

Charlie Hebdo: Gun attack on French magazine kills 12

Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.
A major police operation is under way to find three gunmen who fled by car.
President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity".
It is believed to be the deadliest attack in France since 1961, when right-wingers who wanted to keep Algeria French bombed a train, killing 28 people.
The masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car. They later abandoned the car in Rue de Meaux, northern Paris, where they hijacked a second car.
Witnesses said they heard the gunmen shouting "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" in Arabic ("Allahu Akbar").
The number of attackers was initially reported to be two, but French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve later said security services were hunting three "criminals". He said that Paris had been placed on the highest alert.

Whole plant therapy may help beat malaria

Washington: A new study has revealed that whole plant therapy shows promise to beat malaria parasites' drug resistance.
University of Massachusetts Amherst microbiologist Stephen Rich and his research team said that the new treatment is based on a use of the whole plant (WP) Artemesia annua, from which the current pharmaceutical drug artemisinin (AN) is extracted.
The researchers found that the whole plant treatment withstands the evolution of resistance and remains effective for up to three times longer than the pure drug and also found the whole plant therapy effective in killing rodent parasites that have previously evolved resistance to pure AN.
Rich said that this is especially important given the recent reports of resistance to artemisinin in malaria -endemic regions of the world and drug longevity is crucial since new drugs are costly to develop, not only in dollars but in the cost of lives lost.
The authors point out that consuming the whole plant may be more effective than the single purified drug because the whole plant "may constitute a naturally occurring combination therapy that augments artemisinin delivery and synergizes the drug's activity."
The study was published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope finds 1,000th alien planet

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered its 1,000th alien planet, further cementing the prolific exoplanet-hunting mission's status as a space-science legend.
Kepler reached the milestone today (Jan. 6) with the announcement of eight newly confirmed exoplanets, bringing the mission's current alien world tally to 1,004. Kepler has found more than half of all known exoplanets to date, and the numbers will keep rolling in: The telescope has also spotted 3,200 additional planet candidates, and about 90 percent of them should end up being confirmed, mission scientists say.
Furthermore, a number of these future finds are likely to be small, rocky worlds with temperate, relatively hospitable surface conditions — in other worlds, planets a lot like Earth. (In fact, at least two of the newly confirmed eight Kepler planets — which were announced in Seattle today during the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society — appear to meet that description, mission team members said.)

Recommended:

"Kepler was designed to find these Earth analogues, and we always knew that the most interesting results would come at the end," Kepler mission scientist Natalie Batalha, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, told Space.com last month.

"So we're just kind of ramping up toward those most interesting results," she added. "There's still a lot of good science to come out of Kepler."