Watson, Zaheer star in opening day action (Reuters)

MOHALI (Reuters) â€" Australian opener Shane Watson hit an unbeaten century but Indian pacer Zaheer Khan struck in the final session to halt the visitors' progress on a see-saw opening day of the first test on Friday.

Watson thrived on the sloppy Indian fielders' largesse to remain unbeaten on 101, having starred in a 141-run second wicket stand with skipper Ricky Ponting (71) -- the cornerstone of Australia's opening day score of 224 for five.

Zaheer, who drew first blood in the morning, trapping Simon Katich (6), returned in the post-tea session to remove Mike Hussey (17) and Marcus North (0) in successive overs, reversing some of Australia's dominance earlier in the day.

Tim Paine (1) was with Watson at stumps.

"I knew the first few hours would be crucial," Watson said after the match.

"For me, it was easier to score off the new ball than the reverse-swinging or the turning one. Hopefully I can continue ... tomorrow."

"The Indian bowlers bowled beautifully with the softer ball and the spinners did not give much to hit."

On a placid track at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium offering no real bounce, Watson and Ponting compiled a big second-wicket partnership to dominate the morning session.

Both scored freely even after lunch until Suresh Raina ran out Ponting with a direct throw from mid-wicket.

The dismissal was followed by an apparent verbal clash between Zaheer and the departing Ponting who turned back to exchange words before heading to the pavilion.

The Australian captain, who hit 10 boundaries in his fluent innings, was soon joined in the pavilion by Michael Clarke, who was caught by Rahul Dravid for 14 off the bowling of spinner Harbhajan Singh shortly before tea.

Watson, however, reached his second test century courtesy of some solid hitting and India's poor fielding.

Virender Sehwag dropped a scoreless Watson in the first over off Zaheer and the aggressive opener got another reprieve on 37 when he edged a Pragyan Ojha delivery that popped out of Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's gloves behind the stumps.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Barry Moody)

To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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August consumer spending and incomes both rise (AP)

WASHINGTON â€" Consumer spending rose by a moderate amount in August while incomes increased by the largest amount in eight months, a gain that was propelled by the resumption of extended unemployment benefits.

The Commerce Department says that spending increased 0.4 percent in August, matching the July increase. The two increases followed June's flat reading on spending.

Incomes were up 0.5 percent, better than a 0.2 percent rise in July and a flat reading in June.

More spending and increased income is helping to sustain the economy, which is growing at subpar levels.

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Court splits Ayodhya site between Hindus and Muslims (Reuters)

LUCKNOW (Reuters) â€" A court ruled on Thursday that the site of a demolished mosque in Ayodhya would be split between Hindus and Muslims, dousing immediate fears of a violent backlash in one of the country's most religiously divisive cases.

The Uttar Pradesh court also ruled Hindus will be allowed to keep a makeshift temple that was built over the demolished central mosque dome, sparking celebrations by priests who dipped in a nearby river chanting "The temple is now ours".

The 1992 demolition of the 16th century mosque by Hindu mobs triggered some of India's worst riots that killed about 2,000 people. More than 200,000 police fanned out in India on Thursday to guard against any communal violence.

(For slideshow, click http://in.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=INRTXSJZO)

If the ruling soothes tensions, it would be a boost for the ruling Congress party, a left-of-centre group with secular roots, that does not want to upset either voter bloc. Major political parties had called for calm.

The verdict came only days before Sunday's opening of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, with the government wanting to project an image of stability and modernity to the world.

"Nobody has won. Nobody has lost," Yashwant Sinha, a leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatya Janata Party, told local television. "Let's not look at this as a victory for anyone."

Muslims did appear the biggest losers. But Muslim organisations were measured in their response, careful not to inflame public tensions in a country where they account for only 13 percent of the 1.2 billion plus population.

There were no immediate reports of violence after the ruling.

"It was a very sensible judgment and the court has tried to balance the parties," said Anil Verma, a political analyst. "Apportioning one-third to the Muslims means they have not completely lost."

Commentators said the verdict was unlikely to spark widespread riots that hit the financial capital Mumbai and other cities in 1992. There is little electoral headway to be made in egging on religious riots in post-economic reform India.

The 2-1 majority verdict gave two-thirds of the key parts of the disputed land to Hindus -- one third each to two different Hindu groups -- and one third to Muslims.

Hindu inhabitants of Ayodhya town -- under a security lockdown for a week -- lit candles and lamps outside their homes.

MUSLIM DISAPPOINTMENT

Many Muslim organisations expressed some disappointment but called for reconciliation, resting hopes in an appeal by Muslim lawyers to the Supreme Court in New Delhi.

"The judgment can begin a process of reconciliation," Kamal Farooqi, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said.

From the capital New Delhi to Mumbai and towns of the northern Hindu "cow belt" along the holy Ganges river, many Indians waited with apprehension on the verdict, some staying at home and stocking up with food.

"Everybody is very happy with the verdict. People were scared but now everything seems to be normal. People are now opening their shops," said Ghulam Mohammad Sheik, social worker in Mumbai.

The verdict's outcome will be a barometer of whether a rapidly globalising India with a growing middle class and an interest in investor stability has shed some of the religious extremism that often marred its post-independence years.

"I just think there is a moment in which we have to agree with ourselves as modern people to live in the modern world," British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie told NDTV broadcaster before the verdict was announced.

(Added reporting by Henry Foy, Krittivas Mukherjee and C.J. Kuncheria in New Delhi; Ketan Bondre and Surojit Gupta in Mumbai; Alka Pande in Lucknow; Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Paul de Bendern and Alex Richardson)

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Instant View: Jobless claims fall to 453K (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) â€" New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits plunged by 16,000 last week to 453,000, a sign that labor markets may be strengthening modestly.

GDP:

U.S. economic growth was a touch higher in the second quarter than previously estimated due to upward revisions to consumer spending and business inventories, but a surge in imports kept the recovery on a weak path, a government report showed on Thursday.

NEW YORK PMI:

Business activity in New York City rose in September for the first time in four months, suggesting the economy is improving, according to an industry report released on Wednesday.

KEY POINTS: * Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast that claims would come in at 460,000. The government revised the prior week's figure up to 469,000 claims. * The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of underlying labor market trends, fell 6,250 to 458,000, its lowest level since July 24. * Gross domestic product growth -- which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders -- was revised up to an annualized rate of 1.7 percent from 1.6 percent, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate.

COMMENTS:

OMER ESINER, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST, COMMONWEALTH FOREIGN

EXCHANGE INC, WASHINGTON:

"Overall, the data looks a little better than expected, but still not really enough to dismiss talk of additional Fed policy easing in November. It's encouraging to see that jobless claims are trending lower now. And also it looks like the U.S. economy entered the third quarter with a little bit more momentum than previously expected. It's particularly encouraging to see consumer spending come in a little bit higher than expected.

"The trend of dollar weakness is likely to continue, unless we see some major upside surprises to U.S. data that will begin to reduce expectations of policy easing from the Fed."

JIM BARRETT, SENIOR MARKET STRATEGIST, LIND-WALDOCK, CHICAGO

"It points a little better for the economy. If stock futures hold, it could embolden the bulls to take the market higher. For bonds, this will take a little less urgency to lock in these yields."

OLIVER PURSCHE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, GARY GOLDBERG

FINANCIAL SERVICES, SUFFERN, NEW YORK

"We have been in the camp of a square root-shaped recovery, where we'll gradually continue to improve. Certainly the jobless claims, its still poor, but gradually improving. GDP is in the neighborhood of the 1.5 percent that we were expecting, so that's not a big deviation.

"What that means for investors is that the more and more of this type of data, the more evident it will become that the risk of a double-dip recession is almost nonexistent, even when you account for some of the euro-debt fears and other forces that are negative that are out there. They are at least balanced out by the positive news that's coming out in terms of our economy and other parts of the world that are growing at a much faster rate. It absolutely proves that we're in at least a slow-growth environment, which is better than no growth."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stock index futures turned positive BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices pared gains DOLLAR: U.S. dollar cut losses

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Pirates grab ship with Indian crew in Tanzania waters (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) â€" Somali pirates seized a Panamanian-flagged ship inside Tanzanian territorial waters on Wednesday, the third incident in four days off the east African nation's coast, a maritime official and advocacy group said.

Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said the bitumen carrier MT Asphalt Venture was heading for Durban empty after unloading its bitumen cargo in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

"The vessel had 15 crew, all Indians. It is now heading northward to Somalia," Mwangura told Reuters.

Calmer sea conditions have resulted in a surge in raids on the high-seas in the last few weeks, Mwangura said.

Maritime advocacy group Ecoterra International said in a statement the MT Asphalt Venture was managed by Mumbai-based Omci Ship Management Pvt and owned by Bitumen Invest AS of United Arab Emirates.

It confirmed the 15-strong crew were Indian and said the 3,884 deadweight tonne vessel was heading to Harardhere, a pirate base on the coast of central Somalia.

Hijackings off the lawless Horn of Africa nation have earned Somali pirates tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, raised shipping insurance premiums and forced ships to sail longer, costlier routes to evade pirates.

The pirates operate despite an international flotilla of warships patrolling in the Gulf of Aden and further out into the Indian Ocean.

The hijack is the latest attack off Tanzania in recent days, with one occurring just 45 miles off its commercial capital of Dar es Salaam.

On Wednesday, the European Union's anti-piracy taskforce said the Italian naval ship ITS Libeccio had freed a hijacked Iranian-flagged dhow.

The dhow was first spotted towing two pirate skiffs, a tell-tale sign of a hijacked vessel, by a French patrol helicopter.

"Warning shots were fired from the helicopter in an attempt to stop the dhow. The dhow initially refused to stop and was shadowed overnight," EU Navfor said in a statement. The pirates surrendered early on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear what action had been taken against them.

On Sunday, Tanzania's navy captured a suspected Somali pirate after a gun battle off Tanzania's southern Mtwara coast in an area where the London-based oil and gas firm Ophir Energy has an exploration vessel.

Two days later, the Malta-flagged chemical product tanker MV Mississippi Star with 18 crew also evaded a pirate raid off Tanzania.

(Additional reporting by George Obulutsa in Nairobi Writing by Wangui Kanina; Editing by David Stamp)

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Reuters Summit - World Bank may invest in $11bln India fund (Reuters)

(For other news from the Reuters India Infrastructure Summit, click http://www.reuters.com/summit/IndiaInvestment10)

By Matthias Williams

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The World Bank is exploring whether to invest in an $11 billion debt fund the Indian government will roll out by next year as part of a massive push to its infrastructure sector, the bank's India head said.

Roberto Zagha said India was making progress in tackling procedural hassles that have held back faster infrastructure growth but a major roadblock to more private investment was a shortage of bankable projects.

The World Bank was likely to lend around $15 billion to $20 billion to India's infrastructure sector in the next five years. Typically the bank's lending to the sector ranges between 40-60 percent of the total annual lending.

The government has announced the $11 billion debt fund as a part of a series of recent measures to overhaul India's creaking infrastructure, which has long been seen as hobbling faster growth in Asia's third-largest economy. A similar fund is also under consideration for the power sector.

"It is being explored," Zagha said in an interview as part of the Reuters India Investment Summit, when asked whether the World Bank would contribute to the fund.

"Our role is not entirely clear, whether there is a need for finance from the bank, or whether there is a need for expertise from the bank," he added.

Pending legislation to give farmers a better deal in land acquisition would be a big step towards balancing development with social justice and help ease the implementation of infrastructure projects, he said.

The Indian government plans to double spending on infrastructure to $1 trillion in its next five-year plan, which runs from 2012-17.

"That's a statement of intent," said Zagha, referring to the spending target. "There's a sense of urgency in the government which I didn't see before. That's very encouraging."

There was at least $50 billion to $60 billion untapped investor potential in water and sewage treatment projects alone, he said.

"I don't think financing is an issue." he said. "The greatest challenge is bankable projects. Investors will come, financing will be found if you find ways of making projects which are commercially attractive and bankable."

The fiasco of New Delhi's preparations to host the Commonwealth Games has proved an embarrassment to the government and raised worries in some quarters, including the rating agency Moody's Analytics, that it could deter foreign investment.

"I don't think it matters," Zagha said, when asked whether the Games could hit investor sentiment. "But it does show the organisational issues that India has to deal with."

(Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

(For more news, visit Reuters India)

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Economy improving despite setbacks: Summers (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) â€" The U.S. economy is "moving upwards" despite setbacks, including the European crisis that slowed global growth and a buildup of inventories at home, White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Tuesday.

Summers, speaking at a conference on the U.S. workforce, said the economy was "not fulfilling the promise" that it had shown in the spring because of the headwinds.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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