Players say they will play in CWG, Davis Cup

NEW DELHI: Ending the stalemate over a payment dispute, India's revolting tennis players on Saturday said they will represent the country in the upcoming Davis Cup tie and Commonwealth Games after being given an assurance by the Sports Ministry.

The star quartet of Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna had written a joint letter to AITA threatening to pull out of Games if their dues for the CWG preparations will not be paid.

The four players issued a joint statement, confirming their participation but also hit out at All India Tennis Association for leaking their 'private' mail and not submitting bills to the government for clearance in time.

They asserted that they have submitted all their bills to AITA and the onus is now on the national Federation to get expedite the reimbursement process.

"It is true that we wrote a letter to the AITA to voice some concerns we had about expenses that we were promised over the last year and a half.

"We have all submitted bills to various people at the AITA over this period and now that the AITA has nominated us to represent India we requested them to make sure that the promises made are kept.

"We would like to put all speculation to rest and confirm we will be present in full strength to represent India against Brazil in Chennai in September," the players said in the statement.

The players said they have been assured by the Sports Ministry Joint Secretary (International sports division) that all the dues will be settled soon.

"As for the CWG, Mr. Rahul Bhatnagar has confirmed to us personally there will be no issues on payments once the AITA releases all the bills we have submitted over time and more.

"The issue was meant to be a private matter between the players and the Federation and it deeply disturbs us that all our communication to the AITA was sent out to the media from the AITA office.

"We had no intention to create a media frenzy, just wanted to make sure we get what is due to us. We are hopeful that our genuine concerns will be addressed by our federation transparently without any delay.

Afghan woman, 2 children killed in Taliban facilitator pursuit

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan and coalition forces accidentally killed a woman and two children during a pursuit of a Taliban facilitator, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Saturday.

The forces were tracking a Taliban facilitator in Farah province Friday, according to the ISAF.

The facilitator is known to traffic foreign fighters and weapons from Iran, and associate with senior Taliban and al Qaeda leadership, the ISAF said.

The security force followed a vehicle carrying several armed insurgents to a compound in Farah, the ISAF said. After determining "hostile intent" from the group, the security force killed six men.

An air weapons team also struck the targeted vehicle, which exploded. The vehicle may have been full of homemade explosives, the ISAF said. A woman and two children were found dead at the scene.

"We deeply regret what occurred on [Friday's] operation," said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command. "We are taking a step-by-step approach in investigating what went wrong and are always working to reduce civilian casualties. Our condolences go out to the family of these civilians."

In addition to the insurgent and civilian deaths, several suspected insurgents were detained, the ISAF said.

"We know the measure by which our mission will be judged is protecting the population from harm by either side. We must continue our emphasis on reducing the loss of innocent civilian life to an absolute minimum," Torres said.

India sees solution on BlackBerry emails next week: source

Research In Motion (RIM) faces an August 31 deadline to give Indian authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise email and its separate BlackBerry Messenger service.

The government, concerned about the potential for militants to use the secure BlackBerry network to carry out attacks, has vowed to shut the services if RIM fails to comply, cutting it out of one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms market.

An RIM technical team in New Delhi has been working with the department of telecoms and security agencies to find a way out.

"We are expecting they will come up with some solution for Enterprise mail next week," the source said. He did not want to be named as RIM's discussions with the government are not public.

India said this week that it would allow the messenger service to continue beyond the deadline as it had been assured access to the services, but could shut down the secure email service if access is not given by then.

India is one of a number of countries putting pressure on RIM, which has built the reputation of the BlackBerry, popular with business professionals and politicians, around confidentiality.

Government officials have said RIM has assured manual access to BlackBerry instant messenger by September 1, and automated access by year-end.