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China blogger 'sorry' for Federer threat

Shanghai: A blogger in China who made a death threat against Roger Federer said he had apologised but remained at large after vowing to "assassinate" the world number one, according to an Internet posting.

An Internet user under the name "Blue Cat Polytheistic Religion Founder 07" threatened the tennis player before he arrived to play, prompting organisers to step up security for the Shanghai Masters, which started on Sunday.

"I have not been arrested," said a posting on China's popular baidu.com site, where the original threat also appeared.

"I took the initiative to contact the relevant people to apologise," said the message, which was posted around midday on Tuesday.

The original threat read: "On October 6, I plan to assassinate Federer for the purpose of tennis extermination." The user also posted a doctored image showing a decapitated Federer on his knees on a tennis court, with an axe-wielding executioner standing next to him.

Shanghai Masters organisers said last week ahead of the competition that they were taking the bizarre threat "seriously" while Federer himself labelled it a "distraction" after arriving in the Chinese commercial hub.

"Obviously maybe it's a little bit of a distraction, there's no doubt about it," Federer said Sunday.

"It was something just very small on a website, nothing clear and concrete, people just debating." Federer's wife and twin daughters have not travelled to China but he said that decision had nothing to do with the threats.

Federer has been surrounded by a dozen security guards in dark suits who also stayed on the sidelines around the court when he practised on Tuesday. His first match is on Wednesday.

India and Pakistan again spar over Kashmir at UN

United Nations: For the second day in a row, India and Pakistan sparred over Kashmir at the United Nations after Islamabad made "gratuitous references" to it at the world body.

During the plenary meeting of the General Assembly on 'Report of the work of the Organisation', Pakistan's Deputy Permanent Representative Raza Bashir Tarar said his country appreciates the United Nations' "continued involvement and oversight in Jammu and Kashmir" through its peacekeeping mission UNMOGIP (United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan).

"We believe that peaceful settlement of long standing disputes like Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir will help promote international peace and stability and enhance the prestige and sanctity of the UN," Tarar said here yesterday.

India immediately exercised its Right of Reply, retorting to Pakistan's reference to Kashmir.

First Secretary at the Indian mission Namgya Khampa said Pakistan has "regrettably made a gratuitous reference, totally out of context, to the state of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of India. Such remarks deserve to be rejected in their entirety." This prompted Tarar to exercise his Right of Reply in which he remarked that "gratuitous" seems to be a "favoured word" with the Indian delegation, which uses the word "every time Kashmir is mentioned." "Suffice it to say that vocabulary cannot be a substitute for truth. If that were the case Noah Webster would be a prophet. I would just confine myself to giving an advice that we should not tackle important long standing festering issues like Kashmir by just trying to cast them aside through such casual remarks," he said.

Top industrialist abducted in Meerut

Meerut: The Director of popular cricket bat manufacturing firm BDM, Sudhir Mahajan, has been abducted from Meerut. Mahajan was targetted by unknown assailants while he was returning home from work late on Tuesday night. The incident took place at around 1 am.

His abductors demanded Rs 2 crore as ransom through SMSes and phone calls. The Meerut Police has set up Special Operation Group teams to rescue Mahajan. More details in the case are awaited.