Yahoo! News India

REUTERS - AS Roma and Inter Milan have been fined 50,000 euros after fans chanted racist abuse on the final day of Serie A on Sunday, hours before Fiorentina supporters heckled AC Milan's black striker Mario Balotelli. The three racism incidents have underlined Italy's serious problem with discrimination in soccer, which shows no sign of being eradicated despite renewed efforts from the authorities. Serie A said in a statement on Monday that Roma would also have to close the Curva Sud section of their stadium for one game at the start of next term after the abuse during their clash with ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Disney said on Monday it will produce a new "Star Wars" animated series to air on television in the fall 2014, giving fans of the science-fiction franchise fresh stories before the next live-action film hits theaters in 2015. "Star Wars Rebels," based on George Lucas' multibillion dollar film franchise, will be set in the two decades between the events of the third and fourth films, where the Empire becomes a dominant force in the galaxy, Disney said. ...

By Alexei Oreskovic and Jennifer Saba SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc will buy blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion cash, giving the Internet pioneer a much-needed social media platform to reach a younger generation of users and breathe new life into its ailing brand. The deal, announced on Monday, is a bold bet by Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to revitalize the company by co-opting a Web property with strong visitor traffic but little revenue. ...

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A group of ex-Nokia software developers unveiled its first smartphone on Monday, aiming to prove their former employer wrong by making a success of a technology dropped by the Finnish mobile phone maker. Jolla was founded by Nokia's former MeeGo software team that was shut down after the company decided to switch to Microsoft's Windows Phone software in 2011. With just 70 employees and 11 million eurosin venture financing, Jolla joins a handful of boutique operating systems such as Ubuntu which together have less than a one-percent presence in the mobile phone market. ...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's oil terminals at Tobruk and Zueitina re-opened over the weekend after protests forced both ports to shut, Libya's deputy oil minister Omar Shakmak said. However, fresh trouble arose at Libya's gas-exporting Mellitah complex, he added, where guards were again attacked overnight after clashes in March forced a halt in flows. This time operations had not been affected, Shakmak said, in the brief assault in which the attackers seized vehicles and weapons from the guards. ...

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least three people and wounded dozens of others on Monday in Dagestan, a turbulent province in Russia's North Caucasus region where armed groups are waging an Islamist insurgency. Car bombs, suicide bombings and firefights are common in Dagestan, at the centre of an insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet wars against separatist rebels in neighbouring Chechnya. ...

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday it is crucial for Syrian opposition envoys to engage in peace talks without setting preconditions, apparently referring to demands for President Bashar al-Assad's removal. Lavrov also reiterated that Iran must be invited to the conference that Russia and the United States are trying to organise to seek a resolution to the more than two-year-old conflict that has killed at least 80,000 people. Days after U.N. ...

By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada could be deported to Jordan to face trial on terrorism charges within weeks, a British court heard on Monday, and it ruled he should remain in jail in the meantime to prevent him from absconding. Abu Qatada's deportation to Jordan, which the British government has been trying to achieve for eight years, is expected to take place within weeks when Jordan ratifies a new treaty with Britain, according to evidence shown to the court. ...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A gunman shot dead four people execution-style in a bank in Israel on Monday after being refused an overdraft and cash from its automatic teller machine. The assailant, identified by media reports as a former paramilitary border policeman, killed himself after police raided the Bank Hapoalim branch in the southern city of Beersheba to free his hostages. "It appears that we are talking about a lone individual who came to the bank in the morning hours, sought cover for a debt, a loan, and did not get it," Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said on Army Radio. ...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Threatening slogans were daubed on Monday outside the doorway of an Israeli activist in a Jewish women's prayer group seeking equal rights of worship for women at Jerusalem's holy Western Wall. "Your time is up," read one of several slogans spray painted in black in the apartment building where Peggy Cidor, a board member of the Women of Wall movement lives. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it was "the first incident of its type in which one of the Women of the Wall houses are directly targeted". ...

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, will not compete in any events this year, local media reported on Monday. The sprinter's agent had previously said August's world championships in Moscow were "on the radar" after Pistorius' bail conditions were relaxed on March 28 and the 26-year-old was granted permission to travel abroad. But the double amputee, nicknamed 'Blade Runner', will not return to the track in 2013 according to his coach, Ampie Louw. ...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has spoken out in defence of his captain Iker Casillas and confirmed that the Real Madrid goalkeeper will be part of the world and European champions' squad at next month's Confederations Cup in Brazil. Casillas has been warming the bench at Real since returning from a broken hand after he fell out with coach Jose Mourinho but Del Bosque said he had faith in his captain, who turned 32 on Monday, and he would be travelling to the warm-up tournament for next year's World Cup. ...

MADRID (Reuters) - Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has convened a news conference for later on Monday amid speculation the La Liga club are poised to announce the departure of coach Jose Mourinho. Perez will appear at the Bernabeu stadium at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT), Real said on their website (www.realmadrid.com) without giving further details. The world's richest club by income, Real will end this season without major silverware following Friday's defeat by city rivals Atletico Madrid in the King's Cup final. ...

Lucknow, May 20 (IANS) An FIR was Monday registered here against social networking site Facebook on a complaint that claimed a group on the site exhorts people to slaughter cows, police said.

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) A cash van guard suffered a bullet injury in an accidental fire from his single barrel gun here Monday evening, police said.

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) A fast track Delhi court hearing the Dec 16, 2012, gang-rape case Monday dismissed the pleas of two accused seeking permission to undergo lie detector tests and also to subject the victim's male friend to a similar test.

Hyderabad, May 20 (IANS) An all-party meeting here Monday decided that Andhra Pradesh government will seek review/clarification from the Supreme Court on its orders about the Babli project neighbouring Maharashtra is building across the Godavari river.

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) A day before CAG Vinod Rai demits office, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari Monday accused him of "fiction writing" on some figures of alleged corruption, saying that the country's top auditor had done the greatest disservice to the nation by tossing "mystical numbers".

Moscow, May 20 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A retired US diplomat and expert on the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been banned from entering Russia.

Baghdad, May 20 (IANS) A series of car bombings and shootings, mainly targeting Shia Muslim areas across Iraq, Monday killed at least 61 people, including Iranian pilgrims, and wounded around 200 others, officials said.

Islamabad, May 20 (IANS) The Taliban's offer for peace talks should be taken seriously as every issue cannot be solved through use of power and bullet, Pakistan's prime minister-designate Nawaz Sharif said Monday.

Rome, May 20 (IANS/AKI) Police in the central Italian city of Perugia Monday arrested a 22-year-old Congolese migrant on suspicion of sexually assaulting his Italian girlfriend after she refused to have sex with him.

Bangalore, May 20 (IANS) Karnataka's apex industry body Bangalore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCIC) has drawn an action plan to revive the state's sagging economy with a strategy on kick-starting the manufacturing sector.

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) A man accused of rape can be convicted only if he has a malafide intention of not fulfilling a promise of marrying the victim, the Supreme Court Monday said, describing the crime as an assault on the "body and privacy of the victims".

Kolkata, May 20 (IANS) The Congress-led UPA 2, which will complete four years in office Wednesday, would fare badly if general elections were to be held now, with inflation, unbridled corruption and economic decline playing a major role, said a survey.

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) A Delhi court Monday disposed of a plea by cricketer S. Sreesanth, arrested for alleged spot fixing in IPL matches, seeking a copy of the first information report (FIR) registered against him.