Sydney - Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong ended more than three years of retirement Sunday in a 51-kilometre race around the streets of the Australian south-coast city of Adelaide.

More than 100,000 spectators lined the barriers for the twilight 30-lap stand-alone criterion that serves as a curtain raiser for the start Tuesday of the six-day Tour Down Under.

The criterion will reacquaint Armstrong with the demands of staying upright in a bunch of 133 riders going helter-skelter round narrow streets.

"It wouldn't be my first choice," the 37-year-old Texan said of the mad-dash criterion. "The main thing is to stay out of trouble, stay up front and avoid the drama."

Tehran  - Tehran on Sunday said that the unilateral ceasefire announced by Israel reflected the failure of the Israeli operations in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the reason for the unilateral ceasefire by the Israeli military leaders reflected their failure in achieving their goals from the
22-day military operation in Gaza.

In a statement by the foreign ministry, Mottaki added that the ceasefire also reflected the victory of the heroic people of Gaza and the resistance groups against the fully armed Israeli army.

The foreign minister however noted that the stop of air, sea and land attacks were not enough but the Israeli troops should withdraw from Gaza for ending tensions and guaranteeing real ceasefire.

BSNL landline phone service would offer a rent rebate to Pune customers whose phones had been dead or faulty for 15 days at a stretch during April 2007 to July 2008.

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has issued an interim circular to give a “rent rebate” to 22,700 customers whose telephones had gone dead for three or more days in a row. The telephones went dead due to technical faults, and occurred intermittently over a 14-month period.

Virgin Mobile topped user satisfaction in the year 2008. Out of 11 telecom operators only 5 could meet 90% quality benchmark set by TRAI.

Airtel which is considered to be the largest private operator in the sector failed to qualify for the TRAI benchmark. The other telecom operators that failed were BPL, Idea, MTNL and Spice. Vodafone and BSNL vied for the second spot with Vodafone making it to the spot by just 0.01%.

London, Jan 18 : Katy Perry has been wrongly handed the trophy for best international song at the NRJ Awards in Cannes.

Lucknow, Jan. 18: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who wants to contest upcoming Indian parliament elections from Lucknow, said on Saturday that he would not fight against former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Vajpayee, who is a lawmaker from Lucknow, is not expected to contest owing to deteriorating health.

Dutt, who was convicted in connection with India''s worst -ever Mumbai serial blasts case in 1993 would be a candidate of regional Samajwadi Party, a key ally of the ruling Congress party.