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Olympic champion Valeriy Borchin of Russia won the first gold of the world championships in the men’s 20km walk while Kenya’s Linet Masai broke Enthiopia’s 10-year dominance in the women’s 10,000 meters with a thrilling win here on Saturday.

Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay both cruised into the semifinals of the 100 meters, setting up the prospect of a showdown in Sunday’s final.

Bolt, the three-time Olympic champion from Jamaica, and Gay, the three-time world champion from the United States, proved they are in form for the most anticipated race of the year.

Gay won his quarterfinal in 9.98 seconds, and Bolt advanced in at 10.03, finishing second in his heat.

“I was happy, I didn’t need to do any more work,” Bolt said after his qualification.

Borchin, 23, who won his first major title in Beijing in commanding fashion, lived up to expectations by taking control after 15 kilometers. China’s Wang Hao, who missed a medal in the Beijing Olympic by just five seconds, took the silver and Mexico’s Eder Sanchez finished third.

njured Kevin Pietersen has been named Friday in England’s 30-man preliminary squad for the Champions Trophy to be held in South Africa in September.
The 29-year-old underwent a surgery on his achilles tendon a few days ago and cannot be rushed, but England selectors hoped that the former England captain will be able to compete in the tournament.

The squad will be pruned to 15 by Aug 23, and that will give Pietersen a little more than four weeks’ time to prove his fitness.

The announcement follows concerns expressed by the head of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, Sean Morris, that players will increasingly be forced to pick and choose their international commitments.

Pietersen has already been ruled out of the Ashes – with the final Test due to begin Aug 20 – and he is considered doubtful for the subsequent one-day series.

Even if England are confident enough in Pietersen’s recovery to include him in their final 15, Pietersen will have little opportunity to regain form ahead of England’s opening Champions Trophy fixture against Sri Lanka September.

Three wicketkeepers Matt Prior, James Foster and Steve Davies are included, while Steve Harmison, who came out of one-day international retirement last summer, is also among prelims.

South African-raised Jonathan Trott has been handed a chance to claim a spot in England’s feeble middle order for the Ashes decider at The Oval if he puts in a telling performance against Australia this weekend.

The 28-year-old Warwickshire batsman will play for the England Lions in the two-day match at Canterbury and can make a case to replace the likes of Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell next week at The Oval.

The aggressive right-hander is clearly at the forefront of the English selectors’ minds, having been named as part of England’s 14-man squad for the last Test at Headingley before being omitted from the final eleven.

The former member of the South African U/19 side has scored 910 runs at 82.72 in 12 first class matches this summer.

“The Lions provided strong opposition for Australia in the tour match earlier this summer and this fixture will provide selectors with an opportunity to look at a number of established players who have impressed in county cricket this year,” said national selector Geoff Miller.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that white men receive significantly more tips about job opportunities than women and racial minorities, especially among people in upper management positions.

They say that their findings highlight racial and gender inequality in the labour market.

“Our research shows that 95 times out of 100, white men receive more job leads than white women or Hispanic men or women,” says Dr. Steve McDonald, an assistant professor of sociology at NC State, the lead author of the study.

On average, according to the researchers, there is no difference in the number of job leads received by white men compared to black men and women.

“However, white males receive more job leads when they are high-level supervisors, while black men and women receive more job leads when they are in non-management positions that supervise no one,” McDonald says.

The research team’s findings suggest that the disparity between white men, minorities and women is greatest among workers in high-level management.

McDonald says: “These gender and race differences in access to job opportunities help to explain why white men continue to fill a disproportionately large number of jobs in upper management.”

The study examined data from a nationally representative survey of 3,000 people, and looked at the amount of information people received about job opportunities through routine conversations without asking for it.

Polak and I had often very heated discussions about the desirability of giving the children an English education. It has always been my conviction that Indian parents who train their children to think and talk in English from their infancy betray their children and their county. They deprive them of the spiritual and social heritage of the nation, and render them to that extent unfit for the service of the country.
Having these convictions, I made a point of always talking to my children in Gujarat. Polak never liked this. He thought I was spoiling their future. He contended that, if children were to learn a universal language like English from their infancy, they would easily gain considerable advantage over others in the race of life.
He failed to convince me. I do not now remember whether I convinced him of the correctness of my attitude, or whether he gave me up as too obstinate. This happened about twenty years ago, and my convictions have only deepened with experience.
Though my sons have suffered for want of full literary education, the knowledge of the mother tongue that they naturally acquired has been all to their and the country’s good, inasmuch as they do not appear like the foreigners they would otherwise have appeared. They naturally became bilingual, speaking and writing English with fair ease, because of daily contact with a large circle of English friends, and because of their stay in a country where English was the chief language spoken.