Ali Khan Washington, June 17: Following last week’s assertion from the Air Force that the Iranian military might have the capability to hit US territory with missiles within six years, the Pentagon told the Senate today that North Korean missiles could hit the western coast of the US within as little as three years.
Mumbai, June 17: Amrita Rao shocks – Short Kut is an `A` filmThe most anticipated comedy of the summer, Shortkut, has been in the news for some time thanks to leading lady Amrita Rao’s sexy makeover. The demure bride-to-be in Vivaah dons an ultra-glam avtaar in Anil Kapoor’s next production after Gandhi – My Father.
Amrita shocked us when she revealed that Shortkut was an “A” film. Shortkut? An adults’ film?
Washington, June 17: After declaring that the United States “cannot afford” the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq “financially or spiritually,” Ohio’s Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a staunch anti-war crusader, took aim at Congress for not taking a more active role in any of the war on terror fronts.
Kucinich: ‘Another $106 billion and all we get is a lousy war’
Kuwait City, June 17: “Kuwaiti citizen announces the sale of his kidney” read the hand-written sign posted on a busy thoroughfare in the capital, which also noted the sellers blood type – O – and phone number.
In an unprecedented attempt to make money to pay back debts, Abu Mohamed placed a hand-written advertisement on the main road between the districts of Rakei and Ardiya., the Kuwaiti newspapers Assiyasah and al-Qabas reported Monday.
His reasons were purely financial, Mohamed told Al Arabiya, adding that he prefered to avoid the media limelight.
Macau, June 16: Confirms the actor, “It was a surprise birthday party. It was an impromptu get together, more than a party. Some of our closest friends were present which include David (Dhawan), Zayed (Khan), Farah and DJ Aqueel Ali Khan and Riteish (Deshmukh). Our children Yashvardhan and Narmada were also with us.”
Govinda with wife Sunita, son Yash and daughter Narmada
It is learnt that as Vashu Bhagnani, Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta had left on an earlier flight, Govinda couldn’t invite them.
Wonderful woman
Gaza Strip, June 16: Former US president Jimmy Carter was visiting the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Tuesday, after urging Israel to lift a blockade on the Palestinian enclave and stop treating its residents like “savages.”
Carter was due to meet officials from the Islamist Hamas movement that runs the territory and which is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and the West.
He is expected to pass on a letter from the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier that Gaza militants, including Hamas, seized in a cross-border raid almost three years ago, and who remains in captivity.
Mumbai, June 16: Pooja Bedi’s beau Aditya Panscholi ‘raped’ her maid (in the ’80s), and she dumped him
Shiney Ahuja’s wife Anu says that she trusts her husband and that he is being framed. But over two decades ago, Pooja Bedi had dumped her boyfriend Aditya Pancholi when her 15-year old maid accused him of raping her.
Logical decision
Mumbai, June 16: Ashutosh Gowariker went on stage and questioned why Priyanka won the Best Actress award and not Aishwarya. Ashutosh Gowariker didn’t just fight with the hosts at the award ceremony in Macau, he also managed to upset the coolest heroine in B-Town Priyanka Chopra.
The actress who is also the leading lady of his next film What’s Your Rashee was so upset with the director that she stayed away from the after-party at AbhiAsh’s suite. The seething actress was overheard saying, “I don’t want to go there and see his face.”
Public platform
Dubai, June 16: Outraged Palestinians have called for legal action against a prominent Israeli comedian after a guest on his talk show launched a scathing tirade against Muslims and compared them to cockroaches.
In an attempt at humor, a guest on Israel’s “Tonight with Lior Shlein” mocked the way Muslims pray and to the audience’s delight likened the way they looked when in prostration to a penis.
The guest continued his jibe to cheers and applause and went on to compare Muslims to cockroaches.
Mumbai, June 16: Doctors warn swine flu cases may escalate when the mercury dips during monsoon..
The rains may not bring good news this year. Doctors warn of a spurt in the number of cases of swine flu during monsoon.
As the number of swine flu patients in the country climbed to more than 20 over the weekend, the Union health ministry warned of a sudden escalation in the disease in the next couple of months.
Doctors from across the country say the menace of the H1N1 virus is less in the scorching summer, as it cannot survive in temperatures above 40-45 degrees.
Washington, June 16: Last month’s successful nuclear weapons test by North Korea has raised serious concerns for South Korea, which has repeatedly sought a formal US promise to extend the nuclear umbrella over the nation. The US has done so privately, several times, but the nation would really like something in writing at this point.
Detective agencies say national parties hired their services as recently as the LS polls.
Things just got murkier in the already murky world of politics. National parties have been hiring detective agencies to snoop on their rivals, and sometimes even on notorious members of their own party.
New York, June 16: A man who says he’s afraid to fly is spending the month of June living on a plane.
Mark Malkoff, 33, a comedian and filmmaker, boarded his first flight June 1 from LaGuardia in New York, where he lives, heading to Atlanta. He plans to stay on AirTran flights until June 30. The airline offers wireless Internet service, so Malkoff is posting updates about his trip on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and on his blog, http://www.MarkOnAirTran.com.
London, June 15: Pakistan beat Ireland by 39 runs at the Oval to increase their chances of reaching the semi-finals.
Ireland’s target of 160 always seemed out-of-reach for the Irish against an ever-improving bowling attack, with Saeed Ajmal (4-19) and Umar Gul (2-19) to the fore on this occasion.
Niall O’Brien (7) top-edged an attempted pull straight back to Mohammad Aamer, who took a steepling catch off his own bowling.
Ireland reached 37-1 at the end of their Powerplay, with just three boundaries, as they struggled to make the most of the period before spin entered the equation.
Washington, June 15: A man serving a 17-year prison sentence for terrorist activities has been given the green light to sue a former US government lawyer who wrote memos that allegedly led to his torture, US media reports said Sunday.
Jose Padilla, a US citizen arrested in 2002 for an alleged “dirty bomb” plot only to have the charges dropped three years later, was jailed in January 2008 for separate charges of providing support to the Al-Qaeda terror network.
Mumbai, June 15: Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab was seen weeping after photographs showing him firing at people at the CST railway station last year were produced before the court today.
As his photographs were taken on record by the court, Kasab was sitting with his head down and sounded low.
In the post-lunch session, when the witness was being cross examined, tears rolled down Kasab’s cheeks.
As judge M L Tahaliyani noticed him weeping, he asked, “Are you crying? What’s the matter?” Kasab stood up but did not say anything.
Patna, June 15: Two of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s close confidantes Shyam Razak and Ram Nihora Yadav, who had quit the party recently, on Monday
joined JD(U), led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Welcoming them into the party fold, Kumar said his party has received a shot in the arm as “committed and efficient politicians like Razak and Yadav have come together to join us”.
London, June 15: A couple were left embarrassed after a talking CCTV camera in a town centre caught them having sex, and ordered to stop.
The pair had been drinking earlier, and when they heard the booming command issued by operators, they immediately stopped and fled from the scene in Northampton.
Northampton Borough Council has talking cameras trained in three town centre streets, which issue warnings about littering, fighting, and street drinking.
While most messages are pre-recorded, there are some specific warnings that are issued by the CCTV operators themselves.
Dick Cheney’s attitude towards the Obama administration’s national security policies suggests the former vice president secretly wishes the US was attacked, says Leon Panetta, the U.S. director of central intelligence.
In an interview published in the latest issue of the New Yorker, the head of the CIA expresses frustration at Cheney’s speech last month, on the same day that President Obama outlined his national security strategy in a separate speech.
“Dangerous politics”
Kabul, June 15: President Hamid Karzai told the incoming commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan on Sunday that the most important part of his new mission was to protect Afghan civilians.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal takes up his command on Monday. The four-star U.S. general, a former special forces commander, is expected to bring a fresh approach to an increasingly violent eight-year war.
President Barack Obama has increased the U.S. focus on Afghanistan this year, ordering 21,000 additional troops to the country as the U.S. military begins to pull out of Iraq.
Washington, June 15: A high-ranking South Carolina Republican activist has issued an apology after comparing First Lady Michelle Obama to a gorilla.
Rusty DePass, a former chairman of the Richland County Republican Party, made the comments in a friend’s Facebook status update line after a gorilla was reported to have escaped from Columbia’s Riverbanks Zoo.
According to FitsNews, the status line read: “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless.”
Pakistan’s foreign minister called for more international aid to combat extremists, saying that the Taliban could otherwise move into neighboring India and as far as the Gulf, as Pakistani forces killed dozens more suspected militants in tribal areas on Monday.
“They (militants) have a global agenda, they have a regional agenda, they are not confined to Pakistan. They could go into the Gulf, they could go into India, they can go anywhere,” Shah Mehmoud Qureshi said in an interview published Monday by the Financial Times.
High food prices have pushed another 105 million people into hunger in the first half of 2009, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday, raising the total number of hungry people to over 1 billion.
Urging rich nations at a meeting of G8 development ministers not to cut back on aid, Josette Sheeran said the world faced a human catastrophe as more people struggle to eat a decent meal.
“This year we are clocking in on average four million new hungry people a week, urgently hungry,” Sheeran told.
Washington, June 13: Three detainees from Guantanamo Bay were transferred to Saudi Arabia “under appropriate security measures,” the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday, in another step toward President Barack Obama’s goal of closing the prison for terrorism suspects.
“All individuals transferred to Saudi Arabia are subject to judicial review in Saudi Arabia before they undergo a rehabilitation program,” the Justice Department said in announcing the transfer of Khalid Saad Mohammed, Abdalaziz Kareem Salim Al Noofayaee and Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair.
All three men are from Saudi Arabia.
Cairo, June 13: A secretary working at a Muslim school in the United Kingdom quit her job following claims that she was really a man cross-dressed as a woman, the Telegraph reported Saturday.
Shifa Patel, 28, who wore traditional Islamic garb-head scarf and full length robe to work, was forced to leave her job as a secretary in the al-Islah Muslim Girls School in Blackburn, Lancashire after photos from social networking site Facebook showing her with short hair and dressed in pants were circulated widely in school as evidence that she was a man dressed as a woman.