Up against the number one side in ODIs, South African coach Russell Domingo today said that facing India in the three-match one-day series starting here tomorrow will be a "tough assignment" for the Proteas.

"It's a big gauge for us. Look, we've won five of our last eight one-dayers, so we're heading in right direction, there is no doubt about it. But we know that India are going to be a tough assignment for us," Domingo said.

"They are coming off outstanding performances, albeit in India and under Indian conditions, but we are really looking forward to it. We need to see where we are going," the coach was quoted as saying in the South African media.

India are on a high having beaten Australia and the West Indies in their last two ODI series.

"India are a quality side and a big attraction, and we would have liked to test ourselves against them, but that's the way it is and there's nothing we can do about it," he said.

The South Africans' weakness against spin was exposed by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal in their last ODI series against Pakistan but Domingo thought otherwise.

"I don't think it's spin bowlers, I think it's one or two spin bowlers. Saeed Ajmal is the number-one ranked (ODI) bowler right now. He's a world-class spinner, he has been for a period of time, and particularly when you play him under conditions like we had in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth as well. He's always going to be tough.

"A lot of batters have struggled against him and a lot will still struggle against him. I don't think we've got a weakness against spin bowling, just that Saeed Ajmal is a world-class bowler and I'm glad he's back in Pakistan.

The Indian rupee recovered from early losses and gained 31 paise to close at a one-month high of 62.05 against the US dollar today on fresh selling by exporters and banks, amid foreign capital inflows into local stocks.

The Indian rupee opened lower at 62.40 per Us dollar against the previous close of 62.36 at the interbank foreign exchange market and dropped further to 62.55 on US dollar demand from banks and importers.

It recovered to 62.04 per dollar before ending at 62.05, a gain of 31 paise or 0.50 per cent. The Indian rupee is at the highest level since it ended at 61.62 on November 5.

The Indian rupee traded strong against the US dollar due to inflows from foreign banks, which may be partially tied to Power Grid share sale inflows, said Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO of Alpari Financial Services (India).

The follow-on-public offer of Power Grid Corporation was fully subscribed on the second day today. The issue is open till tomorrow for institutional buyers and it will close a day later for retail investors.

The Indian rupee gained even as the US dollar rose against major currencies today on expectations that key economic data from the US this week could increase pressure on the Federal Reserve to taper its bond-buying programme.

The November labour report from the US, due on Friday, is a key indicator to gauge the recovery in the US economy. A stronger economy may lead to the Federal Reserve tapering its USD 85 billion a month economic stimulus.

The benchmark 30-share Sensex tumbled 146.21 points or 0.7 per cent to 20,708.71. Overseas investors bought a net Rs 516.59 crore of shares yesterday, according to provisional figures from the stock exchanges.

Forward dollar premiums recovered on fresh payments from banks and corporates.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in May edged up to 246-1/2 to 248-1/2 paise from 246 to 248 paise previously and far-forward contracts maturing in November moved up to 480-1/2 to 482-1/2 paise from 478-1/2 to 480-1/2 paise.

Being Bollywood's 'Mr Perfectionist' comes with its own problems, as superstar Aamir Khan feels guilty for not being able to spend enough time with his family.

The meticulous star, who prepares extensively before taking up any project and thus ends up doing only one film a year, says he found it difficult to juggle shooting for Dhoom 3, Peekay, and doing research for his TV show Satyamev Jayate 2.

Aamir's son, Azad, turned a year-old recently. The actor said he would take his son along for shootings so that he could spend more time with him.

"I have always felt that I am not spending enough time with my children and family. I spent 25 years with this guilt.

The problem is that I get so lost in my work that I don't realise it. I feel guilty that I am so self-centred. But, I think I am a good father and a good husband," Aamir said.

The father-of-three said his youngest, Azad, born through surrogacy, has started going to play school now.

"We feel blessed to have Azad in our lives. His face lights up our life. Now he has started going to play school but earlier he would not let me leave for work and I would end up taking him on my shoots," he added.

Aamir, who is now gearing up for the release of Dhoom 3, said producer Aditya Chopra had to delay the film for a year as he wanted to prepare extensively.

"The physical training was really difficult. I had to have a lean but flexible body for my character of gymnast. I had only nine per cent of body fat while doing the film but got relaxed after I finished shooting.

 A Delhi court Wednesday granted Gujarat Police a one-day transit remand of spiritual guru Asaram Bapu's son Narayan Sai, accused in a rape case in Surat.

Metropolitan Magistrate Dheeraj Mor granted the transit remand for Narayan Sai and two other accused, Kaushal Thakur alias Hanuman and driver Ramesh Malhotra.

Gujarat Police sought the transit remand, saying that Narayan Sai was required to be presented before a local court, which has issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

Narayan Sai was on run after a complaint was filed by a 30-year-old woman that he raped her between 2001 and 2005. He was arrested along with four accomplices from Pipli village near Kurukshetra in Haryana Tuesday night.

Gujarat Police told the court that Sai was trying to escape from the law.

"There is a specific allegation against Sai in the case. A warrant has been issued against him by a Surat court," a police officer said.

Police said Sai and Hanuman were already mentioned in the complaint while during investigation it was revealed that Malhotra was sending girls to Sai.

Police alleged that the three were equal participants in the criminal misconduct.

Sai's counsel Pradeep Rana told the court that Sai was going to surrender before a court in Gujarat but police arrested him on a tip-off.

He opposed the police's plea and said Sai will cooperate in the investigation.

Rana said Sai was innocent in the case.

On being asked by the court as to why Sai was not responding to the court's summons, counsel said Sai was apprehensive that the court will not grant him bail or any relief due to hype created by the media in the case.

He said Sai and Asaram have both been accused in rape cases.

Another defence counsel, A.P. Singh said the case was politically motivated and was registered in a bid to malign the image of Hindu seers.

One of the worst kept secrets in recent Hollywood memory was that Benedict Cumberbatch had been cast as Khan in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek Into Darkness." Not only was Cumberbatch listed as Khan on the film's IMDb page before "Star Trek Into Darkness" was even released, but the notion that Khan was the "Star Trek" villain pre-dated the actor's involvement: Both Vulture and Latino Review reported that the famed "Star Trek" baddie was the sequel's antagonist back in December of 2011, a full 17 months before "Star Trek Into Darkness" opened in theaters.

Despite all of that existing information, Abrams and Paramount, the studio behind the film's release, hid Cumberbatch's identity. Speaking to MTV's Josh Horowitz in a recent interview, Abrams admitted that may have been an error.

"The truth is I think it probably would have been smarter just to say upfront 'This is who it is.' It was only trying to preserve the fun of it, and it might have given more time to acclimate and accept that’s what the thing was," Abrams said. "The truth is because it was so important to the studio that we not angle this thing for existing fans. If we said it was Khan, it would feel like you’ve really got to know what ‘Star Trek’ is about to see this movie. That would have been limiting. I can understand their argument to try to keep that quiet, but I do wonder if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it."

Abrams admission contradicts at least one report about the "Star Trek Into Darkness" marketing campaign. Back in May, before the "Into Darkness" release, Badass Digest's Devin Faraci wrote that "there was a move to reveal [Khan] during March Madness, but that never happened." How close that was to being a reality, however, is unclear: Faraci made no mention of the scrapped Khan campaign in writing about Abrams' recent comments to MTV.

Combining two of the Internet's favorite things -- NBC's upcoming live remake of "The Sound of Music" and the holiday season -- Mary J. Blige released her own version of "My Favorite Things," the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic about silver white winters that melt into spring. The track comes from Blige's newest holiday album, "A Mary Christmas" (yes), which also features holiday staples such as "Little Drummer Boy" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Catch Blige's "Favorite Things" below and pick up her "Mary Christmas" in stores now.

 Congress MP Nitesh Rane has been arrested for smashing a Goa transport department-operated border toll booth near here, police said on Tuesday.

An official said that Rane, Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra's Sindhudurg constituency which borders the state, was on his way to Goa when his entourage was stopped at a toll booth in Dhargal, 30 km from here, for payment as a part of a new entry system put in place by the state for vehicles registered outside Goa.

The enraged Rane along with his supporters tried to assault the occupants of the booth and smash the boom barrier and the toll operator cabin as well.

He was later picked up by police from a hotel in Calangute which is operated by a company owned by the Rane family.

A senior police official confirmed Rane's arrest.

"A first information report has been registered at the Pernem police station," the official said.

I have a couple of girl friends whom I really envy. They know exactly what they want — or rather, what they don’t want.  They don’t want to have children.  Two of my girl friends are childless by choice, which means that while they enjoy being involved in the lives other people’s children, they have no interest at all in becoming parents of their own. There isn’t a doubt in either of their minds that kids are not a possibility.

My own feelings on the subject are much more hazy.

In childhood, I assumed I would have lots of children when I grew up, probably because that would have been a continuation of what I already knew. I’m the youngest of five kids and the chaos and coziness seemed like the definition of “family” to me. I also played with baby dolls and was probably socialized, on some level, into believing it was a foregone conclusion that I’d have children.

I felt serious about becoming a mother all the way up and through my first serious adult relationship. I could envision our lives together and fantasized about what our children would look like (cute); we had serious conversations about the sort of career and finance-related decisions we needed to make in order to become parents.

When that relationship ended, the attendant fantasies died with it. At this point something must have switched. Maybe it was that I worried my certitude about having children someday partially scared him away. Maybe it was that I simply recalibrated my own “must have” list for future happiness. But the next serious relationship that I entered was with a man who didn’t want children. He envisioned a life for himself that involved traveling and going out to dinner whenever he wanted and having no responsibility to others, save the ones he already had with his family. He made that lifestyle look really, really appealing (although he, ultimately, was not such an appealing person). For the first time in my life, I seriously considered that I might be happy without children if I had the right partner to spend it with. The next serious relationship — with a divorced guy who had two children from his previous marriage and didn’t want any more kids — only solidified that decision. I could very happily be a stepmom, too.

Now I can see lots of options about parenthood that might appeal to me. Without any sense of certainty anymore about such a big decision, I feel rudderless at age 29. That feels like a perilous age to be adrift on these big subjects like whether I really want to procreate or whether I’ll regret not doing so. My husband seems to feel similarly ambivalent — or perhaps characteristically happy-go-lucky is a better way to put it. When we talk about it, he says “not now but maybe someday” a lot; that’s about the same way I feel, although I’m the one with the ticking biological clock who knows “someday” is realistically some point within the next decade. For now, both of us like being an aunt and uncle to my siblings’ kids and waving hi to cute babies on the street. But we recognize there’s a lot more than that to becoming a parent. Becoming a parent completely changes your life.

It's been a busy year for music, as evidenced by the eclectic tracks that have proven most popular on Spotify. While 2013 saw Miley Cyrus dominate the news cycle and Kanye West stir up more controversy than his soon-to-be wife could even begin to calculate, the 10 most frequently streamed tracks on the online music service include neither artist.

That doesn't mean the Top 10, however, is too obscure. Two of this year's songs of the summer -- Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" -- are slotted among the tracks, right above 17-year-old phenom Lorde's "Royals." Taking the top spots are Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop."

These are the most commonly streamed songs on Spotify in the U.S. The global version features most of the same hits.

Among the most-streamed albums of the year:
1. "Night Visions" – Imagine Dragons
2. "The Heist" – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
3. "The Lumineers" – The Lumineers
4. "Unorthodox Jukebox" – Bruno Mars
5. "Magna Carta…Holy Grail" – Jay Z
6. "Nothing Was The Same" – Drake
7. "Born To Die – The Paradise Edition" – Lana Del Rey
8. "18 Months" – Calvin Harris
9. "Good kid, m.A.A.d city" – Kendrick Lamar
10. "Random Access Memories" – Daft Punk

Former Coronation Street babe Helen Flanagan has returned to the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle one year after she was a contestant.

The buxom blonde went on the ITV2 spin-off show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Now! and was seen stroking a crocodile that lay on Roving Reporter Joe Swash’s chest.

The actress rose to a new level of fame after her stint in the Australian jungle last year, but seemed keen to get back to under the canopy this series to support the current contestants.

With her hair in angelic pigtails, the busty actress showed off her cleavage in a pink and black bikini.

Her red lipstick accentuated her plump lips, but, as ever, the star’s fake tan let down her look.

Although she had streaky hands, the actress did look like she’d picked up a golden glow during her time in Australia.

Standing to one side, waiting for her cue, Helen was spotted filing her nails. 

The actress allegedly said that she would not be interested in dating Joey Essex as he is too 'thick' to be her boyfriend. Although charming Joey has proved to be popular with the ladies, the ex-Coronation Street actress, who is famous for her ditzy remarks, has reportedly said she was prefer a 'smarter man'. According to The Sun, the 23-year-old said the TOWIE star was 'too thick' to be her boyfriend and added: 'Opposites attract so I wouldn't go for Joey.' Helen, who came seventh in the last series and faced a torrent of public abuse after being mocked as the ultimate airhead, has stuck up for beauty queen Amy Willerton after contestants have been critical of her.