India got place in the Olympic medal tally after Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra won a Gold medal in 10m Air Rifle event held in Beijing Olympics. It is a first ever individual gold medal in the kitty of India. The country has won a gold medal in the Olympic Games after a long gap of 28 years.

President Pratibha Patil, PM Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Deputy Speaker K. Rehman Khan, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, BJP leaders S.S. Ahluwalia, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and many others congratulate Abhinav Bindra on his success.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has announced the names of the 15 players for Australia tour later this month. The board made three changes to the squad that took part in the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

The names of three new players are All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, wicket keeper Dhiman Ghosh and pacer Nazmul Hossain. These have replaced Musharraf Hossain Rubel, Mushfiqur Rahim and Nazimuddin.

The team will be led by Mohammad Ashraful, while Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has been selected as the vice-captain.

Nazimuddin and Musharraf Hossain Rubel have been dropped because of their poor form in the Pakistan tour.

Melbourne, Aug 11 : The ongoing Olympic Games will see a large number of veiled female athletes from various Muslim nations competing for events like sprinting, rowing, taekwondo and archery.

Most of these athletes have got themselves specially tailored aerodynamic veils, which expose only their face and hands.

All these veiled athletes are determined to avoid offending devout Muslims back home, as well as showing skimpily dressed rivals there is nothing constricting about wearing "hijab".

Beijing - More than 300,000 Chinese couples registered marriages Friday as the opening of the Olympics added to the auspicious triple eight in the 8.8.2008 date, state media said on Saturday.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs recorded 314,224 marriages nationwide, the highest number since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Olympic host city Beijing recorded 15,646 marriages on Friday, 23 times the daily average, the agency said.

Kolkata, Aug. 9 : A Chinese artist in Kolkata has brought alive the spirit of the Olympics here through paintings made by his palms and fingers.

Fifty-six-year-old Guan Yaojiu paints mountains using his palms and finger instead of paint brushes.

He has dedicated this palm art piece to the ongoing Olympic Games in Beijing.

Yaojiu also makes dragons, which are revered by the Chinese, with the help of fine Chinese brushes.

Yaojiu uses his palm swiftly to bring about clarity on the canvas.

For his mountain paintings Yaojiu usually uses black, but adds shades of brown and green to some of his works.

New Delhi, August 9 : Huang Qijun, the 45-year-old maker of the Xiangyun (lucky clouds) torch, actually heaved a sigh of relief when it lit the Olympic cauldron on Friday night.

He was the one who produced the safety lantern and community cauldrons used in every relay, and accompanied the torch from Greece to Beijing.

"I instantly felt relaxed. I was exhausted, but also excited. My job is done," the China Daily quoted him as saying during an interview, after the cauldron was ignited.

Throughout the torch’s journey from Greece to Beijing, Huang kept the lowest profile.