London, Jan. 18 : Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is thinking of selling the Chelsea football club to Gulf Arabs.

According to The Times, representatives of the oligarch have travelled to Saudi Arabia and Dubai to elicit interest in the club.

At least one of the meetings was with members of the Saudi royal family. There has been no evidence so far of a potential buyer.

The Middle East has become the cash cow for British football teams.

One source said: “Abramovich’s team have been out in the Middle East sounding out what interest there is in buying the club.”

Chelsea, however, insisted last night that Abramovich was still fully committed to the club on which he has lavished hundreds of millions of pounds.

Hyderabad, Jan. 18 : Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K. Rosiah on Sunday said that the Central Government is actively probing the fraud case involving software major Satyam Computer Services.

"The Government of India is actively looking into all these things. Their agencies are more capable of looking into all these aspects. Government of India is alert to the happenings, yesterday Prime Minister himself said that the fall of Satyam company has brought disrepute to this country. So, let the Government of India do its exercise, state government also will have its own method," said Rosaiah.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on the Gaza crisis, called Sunday for an end to weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.

New Delhi, Jan. 18 : Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan has stated that some judges of the Allahabad High Court are proposed to be transferred in connection with the Ghaziabad provident fund scam. But no final decision could be made in the case as yet.

"The CBI has made some preliminary inquiries. So we propose to transfer some judges. But no decision has been taken to transfer them," the Chief Justice Balakrishnan said.

Though the Chief Justice denied suggestions that the cumbersome process of impeachment had deterred judiciary from taking tough action against judges of the higher courts.

Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 18 : A Malay Indian, who started out as a bharat natyam dancer at 11, has won a ticket to Mumbai for winning the Siva Gopal Award here.

Prakash Kandasamy, a father of two, recalls he was also studying tabla under Suresh Ramachandran back in 1989 "because the school needed more male students".

He told the New Strait Times, that his fascination for the arts perked up during a fortnight-long visit to Malaysia by Ustad Usman Khan, the grandson of Ustad Rehmat Khan of Dharwadis, the man credited with turning the three-stringed sitar into the seven-stringed instrument of today.

Beijing, Jan. 18 : Product recalls, rising production costs and the global financial crisis caused almost 1,000 Chinese toy exporters in just one province to shut down last year.