Sports Minister Ajay Maken has promised government help to cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who is undergoing chemotherapy in the United States to recover from lung cancer.

“Wish Yuvraj a speedy recovery! Asking officials to find the quantum and nature of help required. Government should & will help him,” Maken tweeted.

Yuvraj, who played a stellar role in India’s world cup triumph last year, has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy at the Cancer Research Institute in Boston.

The 30-year-old left-hander has been in the US since last month being treated for what was earlier claimed to be a tumour in the lungs by his family.

His physiotherapist Dr Jatin Chaudhary has, however, assured that the ailment is curable and the batsman would be fit to resume cricket in May.

“It is a rare tumour and is cancerous but it has been detected in stage one itself. Doctors had to decide whether to continue medication or go for chemotherapy but since parts of the tumour are just above the artery of his heart, there was a danger that while running it could burst. But it is 100 per cent curable,” Chaudhary said.

“The doctors decided that he would have to undergo chemotherapy and he travelled to the US on January 26. End of March, he would undergo a CT scan and should recover by then.

After that it is just some rehabilitation in April before he is fit to be back on the field in May,” Chaudhary said.

“Thankfully no surgery is required, he is already a lot better than what he was and can’t wait to be back on the cricket field.”

Yuvraj, who was Player of the Tournament in the world cup last year with 362 runs, 15 wickets and four Man-of-the-Match awards, has also been taking ayurvedic medicines to battle the disease.

Yuvraj has played 37 Tests, scoring 1775 runs at an average of 34.80.

He has 8051 runs at an average of 37.62 from his 274-match ODI career. In 23 Twenty20s, Yuvraj has scored 567 runs at 31.50.

“Once he is done with chemo in March, his rehabilitation would be complete by April end and he would be perfectly fit to play in May,” Chaudhary said.

England are in pursuit of an unlikely 324 to win the final Test against Pakistan and avoid a humiliating 3-0 whitewash in Dubai.

Day One Recap:

Azhar’s painstaking career-best 157 spanned six sessions and almost nine hours, before the number three was ninth out in Pakistan’s 365 all out on the third evening at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

England were therefore left with more than six-and-a-half sessions to make 324, on a wearing pitch which had already helped spinners Monty Panesar (five for 124) and Graeme Swann share eight wickets.

They made a decent start to their mission improbable, with openers Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss reprising the roles played by their great antecedents Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe, the last and only other time England made so many to win – against Australia in Melbourne in 1929.

Cook and Strauss achieved a notable first for this series at least, when they surpassed their previous highest opening partnership of 27 on this disappointing tour — reaching 36 for none at the close.

They had a scrape each before stumps, Cook dropped by Taufeeq Umar off Umar Gul at third slip on four and Strauss rightly given not out on 14 — even after DRS — when he got his pad outside the line on impact against Mohammad Hafeez’s off-spin.

Azhar’s 442-ball vigil had been a triumph of unstinting concentration, shot selection and restraint — taking in a stand of 216 with Younus Khan (127), and containing just 10 fours and one six.

But Pakistan’s last seven wickets then fell for only 34 runs in 21 overs, to give world number ones England a glimmer of hope that their batsmen might yet redeem themselves here.

Younus predicted on Saturday that the tourists could still have a chance in this match, if their luck held. Equally, having watched Azhar’s unflustered tour de force, it seemed they might collectively do worse than take their cue from him.

Azhar was in absolutely no hurry on the way to his second Test hundred and beyond, having previously reached exactly three figures on this same ground against Sri Lanka last year.

He eventually reached the milestone from the 319th ball he faced, with one of the most memorable shots of his long innings – a cut off Panesar for his fifth four.

He might have gone before his third-wicket partner Younus, for 84, but survived when Swann was just unable to hang on to a tough chance at second slip, very low to his left off the bowling of James Anderson.

Instead England’s only breakthrough this morning came when Stuart Broad had Younus lbw on the front foot — DRS indicated the ball would have clipped the very top of middle-stump — after a five-hour stay which had helped to shut England out for 82 overs.

Younus was replaced by captain Misbah-ul-Haq, another batsman content to make the most of the ample time available in this well-progressed match.

He and Azhar duly added another 87, until Misbah fell lbw pushing forward to Panesar in late afternoon to kickstart the rush of wickets.

There was no DRS left for Asad Shafiq, sweeping at Panesar to become the 40th lbw victim of this head-scratching series, and Adnan Akmal was soon bowled for a duck by one that turned to beat his defence and hit off-stump.

Swann then scored his first successes, after 32 overs in vain.

Abdur Rehman and Saeed Ajmal were both caught at slip shortly before tea – and then Azhar fell bat-pad to the off-spinner, and Panesar completed the innings with yet another lbw to account for Gul.

Meanwhile, Tim Bresnan arrived in Dubai this afternoon in time to watch the final session here, having undergone fitness tests in Yorkshire on the elbow injury which ruled him out of the Test series.

England hope the seamer will be available for four one-day internationals and three Twenty20s against Pakistan, starting on February 13.

The rupee moved up by 9 paise to trade at 48.60 against the dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market in early trade today on increased foreign fund inflows.

Dealers said increased foreign funds inflows and euro’s gains against the US currency in the overseas market supported the rupee.

The rupee had closed 46 paise higher at over three-month high of 48.69/70 against the US currency on Friday on continued dollar selling by exporters. Meanwhile, the 30-share BSE Sensex shot up by 218.01 points, or 1.24 per cent, to 17,822.97 in early trade today.

Western and Arab states voiced outrage on Sunday after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up power, and Washington vowed harsher sanctions against Damascus.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the veto a “travesty”. It came a day after activists say Syrian forces bombarded a district of Homs, killing more than 200 people in the worst night of bloodshed of the 11-month uprising.

Russia said the resolution was biased and would have meant taking sides in a civil war. Syria is Moscow’s only big ally in the Middle East, home to a Russian naval base and customer for its arms. China’s veto appeared to follow Russia’s lead.

Washington’s U.N. ambassador Susan Rice said she was “disgusted” by Russia and China’s vetoes on Saturday, and “any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands”.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Moscow and Beijing had turned their backs on the Arab world. France’s Alain Juppe said they “carried a terrible responsibility in the eyes of the world and Syrian people”.

Clinton said the United States would work with other nations to try to tighten “regional and national” sanctions against Assad’s government “to dry up the sources of funding and the arms shipments that are keeping the regime’s war machine going.”

“We will work to expose those who are still funding the regime and sending it weapons that are used against defenseless Syrians, including women and children,” she said. “We will work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition’s peaceful political plans for change.”

Clinton did not give further details which nations might band together or precisely what they might do. But it appeared that the United States might seek to help organise a “Friends of Syria” group – proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy after the veto – to advance the Arab League initiative given the inability to make headway at the U.N. due to Russia and China.

All 13 other members of the Security Council voted to back the resolution, which would have “fully supported” the Arab League plan for Assad to cede powers to a deputy, a withdrawal of troops from towns and a start to a transition to democracy.

The Western criticism was echoed in the Middle East, where Arab powers like Saudi Arabia and non-Arab Turkey have turned decisively against Assad in recent months.

“Unfortunately, yesterday in the U.N., the Cold War logic continues,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. “Russia and China did not vote based on the existing realities but more a reflexive attitude against the West.”

Arab League head Nabil Elaraby said the body still intends to build support for its plan. The veto “does not negate that there is clear international support for the resolutions of the Arab League,” he said in a statement seen by Reuters.

The Security Council’s sole Arab member, Morocco, voiced “great regret and disappointment” at the veto. Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki and said the Arabs had no intention of abandoning their plan.

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition umbrella Syrian National Council, called Moscow and Beijing’s veto “a new license to kill from these two capitals for Bashar al-Assad and his criminal regime, which just yesterday killed 300 people”.

The SNC said it held Moscow and Beijing “responsible for the escalating acts of killing and genocide”.

Protesters stormed the Russian embassy in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Sunday, climbing on the roof and tearing down the flag. Men held up a banner saying: “Libyan revolutionaries are ready to fight with their brothers in Syria.”

MOSCOW SAYS RESOLUTION BIASED

Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, accused the resolution’s backers of “calling for regime change, pushing the opposition towards power and not stopping their provocations and feeding armed struggle”.

“Some influential members of the international community, unfortunately including those sitting around this table, from the very beginning of the Syrian process have been undermining the opportunity for a political settlement,” he said. Moscow is sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Damascus on Tuesday.

Clinton had met Lavrov before Saturday’s vote for what U.S. officials called “vigorous” talks.

“What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty,” she said on Sunday. “Those countries that refused to support the Arab League plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal machine in Damascus.”

She added: “Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future.”

Syria says it is being targeted by the West and by hostile neighbours providing diplomatic cover for an armed insurgency steered from abroad.

Syrian U.N. envoy Bashar Ja’afari condemned the resolution and its sponsors, which included Saudi Arabia and seven other Arab states, saying nations “that prevent women from attending a soccer match” had no right to preach democracy to Syria.

He also denied that Syrian forces killed hundreds of civilians in Homs, saying “no sensible person” would launch such an attack the night before the Security Council was set to discuss his country.

State television showed live footage of Assad on Sunday praying with Muslim clerics and listening to Koranic verses in a Damascus mosque to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad.

Residents of Homs’s battered Baba Amro district, speaking by telephone, denounced the Russian-Chinese veto, some chanting, “Death, rather than disgrace”.

One resident who identified himself as Sufyan said: “Now we will show Assad. We’re coming, Damascus. Starting today we will show Assad what an armed gang is.” Assad has called his opponents “armed gangs” and “terrorists” steered from abroad.

BOMBARDMENT

If activists’ accounts are accurate, the bombardment of Homs on Friday night was one of the bloodiest episodes of the Arab Spring uprisings sweeping the region and the deadliest incident in the Syrian conflict.

Syrian activist groups gave varying tolls above 200 killed, saying tanks and artillery blasted the Khalidiya neighbourhood of Homs, a restive city that has become a heartland of resistance to Assad’s rule.

Rami Abdullrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as of Sunday he had a list of 159 names of people confirmed killed in that incident, lower than the figure cited by the main political opposition. He said his list was not yet complete.

Damascus denies firing on houses and says images of dead bodies on the Internet were staged. Western governments say they believe the activists’ account.

“Yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help,” U.S. President Barack Obama said before the U.N. vote.

“Any government that brutalises and massacres its people does not deserve to govern,” Obama said in a statement.

There were reports of more violence on Sunday. Activist Omar Shakir, in the Baba Amro district of Homs, said there was new shelling on Sunday afternoon and three people had been killed.

Abdulrahman’s group said a total of 19 people had been killed by security forces across the country, and that a total of 21 government troops had died fighting with defectors.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported the funerals of three security personnel, adding to its announced toll of some 2,000 government forces killed during the uprising.

Syria restricts access to the country for journalists, and there was no independent verification of any of the reported death tolls in Syria on Sunday.

President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed that US drone aircraft have struck Taliban and al-Qaida targets within Pakistan — operations that until now had not been officially acknowledged.

When asked about the use of drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, Obama said “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA” — Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

“For the most part, they’ve been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaida and their affiliates, and we’re very careful in terms of how it’s been applied,” Obama said.

“This is a targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases, and so on.”

Explaining that many strikes were carried out “on al-Qaida operatives in places where the capacities of that military in that country may not be able to get them,” Obama confirmed that Pakistan’s lawless tribal zone was a target.

“So, obviously, a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA, and going after al-Qaida suspects who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.

“For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the ones we’re already engaging in.”

US officials say Pakistan’s tribal belt provides sanctuary to Taliban fighting for 10 years in Afghanistan, al-Qaida groups plotting attacks on the West, Pakistani Taliban who routinely bomb Pakistan and other foreign fighters.

Sixty-four US missile strikes were reported in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt last year, down from 101 reported in 2010, according to AFP tallies.

According to the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, drone strikes in Pakistan over the past eight years have killed at least 1,715 people, and as many as 2,680 people.

The United States had until now refused to discuss the strikes publicly, but the program has dramatically increased as the Obama administration looks to withdraw all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

In October, US defense secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged the CIA’s drone program, but did not specifically indicate they were used in Pakistan.

When asked by AFP if Obama’s remarks signaled a change in US policy about the drone program, a White House spokesman refused to comment.

The Pakistani government is understood to agree to the program despite popular opposition at home. Drones have reportedly killed dozens of al-Qaida and Taliban operatives and hundreds of low-ranking fighters since 2004.

But the missile strikes fuel widespread anti-American resentment, which is running especially high in Pakistan since US air strikes inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

A US-NATO investigation blamed the deaths on a litany of errors and botched communications on both sides. But Pakistan rejected the findings, insisting the strikes had been deliberate.

Obama said drones had “not caused a huge number of civilian casualties” and that it was “important for everybody to understand that this thing is kept on a very tight leash.”

Islamabad is now reviewing its entire alliance with the United States and has kept its Afghan border closed to NATO supply convoys for two months.

It ordered US personnel to leave Shamsi air base in western Pakistan, widely believed to have been a hub for the CIA drone program, and is thought likely to only reopen the Afghan border by exacting taxes on convoys.

The state department said Monday it had used small, unarmed surveillance drones to protect US diplomats in so-called “critical threat environments” overseas.

The news emerged after The New York Times reported that Iraqi officials have expressed outrage at US use of a small fleet of drones to help protect the embassy, consulates and American personnel in Iraq.

“The state department has always used a wide variety of security tools and techniques and procedures to ensure the safety of our personnel and our facilities,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“We do have an unmanned aerial vehicle ( UAV) program used by the state department,” she said, adding the UAVs are “tiny” and “not capable of being armed” but designed to provide pictures of US government facilities.

Pakistan’s former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani today left for the US after the Supreme Court eased travel restrictions that were imposed on him after he was implicated in the memo scandal.

Haqqani travelled from the Prime Minister’s House, where he was living for the past few weeks, to the international airport in Rawalpindi along with a large security detail early this morning.

He did not talk to media waiting at the airport. The former envoy took a flight to the United Arab Emirates, from where he will fly to the US to meet his wife and children, media reports said.

Haqqani’s wife, parliamentarian Farahnaz Ispahani, has been in the US for the past fortnight or so.

Haqqani’s lawyer Asma Jahangir yesterday filed an application in the Supreme Court which asked that the bar on him leaving the country should be withdrawn as he had fully cooperated with the judicial commission investigating the alleged memo which had sought US help to stave off a possible military takeover in May last year.

In its order, the apex court said Haqqani would be allowed to travel out of Pakistan on the condition that he provides details of his visit to the registrar of the court and that he would be bound to return on four days’ notice if his attendance is required by the judicial commission or the court.

After the apex court’s decision, Haqqani held a meeting with the deputy chief of the US mission in Islamabad, Jonathan Pratt, at the Prime Minister’s House.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday further eased tension in the country’s worst crisis in civilian-military ties since a 1999 coup by lifting a travel ban on a former envoy to Washington, who angered the generals after the emergence of a murky memo.

Husain Haqqani was barred from leaving the country in December by the Supreme Court, which is investigating the memo that sought U.S. help in reining in Pakistan’s generals after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May last year.

On Monday, a panel of nine justices said that Haqqani was free to travel outside Pakistan, but must inform the Supreme Court, which has formed a commission to investigate the memo, of his plans in advance.

“I am glad that the Supreme Court has restored my right to travel, which had been rescinded without any charges being filed against me,” Haqqani told Reuters after the decision.

“I will join my family in the U.S. after discussions with the leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party.”

The scandal, which has come to be known as “Memogate”, highlighted the tense relationship between Pakistan’s civilian governments and the powerful military that has bedevilled the nuclear-armed South Asian country for decades.

The military, which sets foreign and security policies, has ruled Pakistan for over half its 64-year existence through a series of coups.

Haqqani returned to Pakistan in November last year amid the crisis that erupted when businessman Mansoor Ijaz alleged in October that a senior Pakistani diplomat had asked the memo to be delivered to the Pentagon. He resigned as ambassador shortly after arriving back in Pakistan.

Ijaz later identified the diplomat as Haqqani, who denies any links with the memo. No evidence has emerged that the military was plotting a coup and the Pentagon at the time dismissed the memo as not credible.

But in the months that followed, the scandal threatened to turn into a full-blown conflict between the civilian leadership and the military, instability the insurgency-hit U.S. ally cannot afford. Ijaz was scheduled to testify before the commission in January, but he did not come to Pakistan because of security fears, he said.

CREDIBILITY

Ijaz’s refusal to testify in person and demands for high levels of security have also annoyed the court, and diminished his credibility, Salman Akram Raja, a Supreme Court advocate and constitutional expert, said.

“When Mansoor Ijaz did not show up last week, that signalled the de-escalation of the crisis,” echoed security analyst Imtiaz Gul. “The removal of restrictions on Haqqani’s travel was the next logical step in this de-escalatory process.”

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani made conciliatory remarks towards the military in Davos this weekend. Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has also moved to calm the rhetoric, saying he supports democracy and limited the military’s responses to press releases.

“It’s clear the government and the military have arrived at an understanding on this,” Raja said. “This is consistent with the impression of the general de-escalation surrounding the memo matter.”

The Supreme Court on Monday also extended by two months the deadline for its three-member commission to complete the investigation. It was initially given four weeks.

Haqqani will also be required to return to Pakistan on a four-day notice if demand

Bollywood stars Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D’Souza, who made their Bollywood debut together in 2003 romantic flick ‘Tujhe Meri Kasam’, are going to tie the knot on February 3, 2012.

The celebrations will various rituals including sangeet (song and dance ceremony) which is coordinated by filmmaker Karan Johar.

Besides Genelia and Riteish being in full swing of wedding spree, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor are also all set for their big day.

For Genelia and Riteish the celebrations start on Tuesday with a sangeet night at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. For Sangeet night Genelia will wear a Manish Malhotra’s designed dress.

Genelia will also wear a Ritu Kumar’s indigo gold lehenga with velvet top. It has embroidery and zardozi work. It has not been revealed though on what occasion will Genelia put on this dress.

Riteish will be seen in a Troy Costa outfit as reported by Hindustan Times. It is also reported that good friend Karan Johar is taking the task of lining up Ritiesh’s outfit.

Genelia may also wear a traditional Maharashtrian sari for the wedding and for mehendi (Indian ceremony) a black gold suit.

Meanwhile the other couple- Saif and Kareena might be secretive about their wedding plans but there is no escape from the media glares.

Rajkot base Kruti Jewellers are now set to create designer royal dress jewellery set for film artist Kareena.

The 400 gm gold and gem jewellery set is supposed to be a full dress necklace with a length of head to waist.

The necklace will be studded with diamonds and other precious gem stones along with gold for designing and creating the necklace set.

The total cost of the set will be more than Rs 40 lakh (Dh294075) wherein the gold, diamonds and gems stones will be sourced from Mumbai.

Saif Ali Khan has ordered for a big diamond ring from a Bandra based jeweller.

Rumours regarding their marriage are all over the town. Reportedly Ritu Kumar, who is an old acquaintance of Sharmila Tagore, is busy assembling the wedding trousseau for Kareena.

So Saifu didn’t want to fall behind and decided to add that extra bit of dazzle to her D-day. The actor has apparently chosen one from the beautiful 4-5 carat diamond rings for her.