Kolaveri Didi: Mamata walks off TV show, calls students ‘Maoists’

It was to have been a milestone moment to mark Paschim Banga Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee‘s completion of a year in office after her historic victory in last year’s election, throwing out the Left Front that had been in power for over three decades.

But in the end, an interactive TV show in Kolkata on Friday, hosted by CNN-IBN, between Mamata-di and students from the State showed up the Chief Minister at her cantankerous worst.

Banerjee called the students “Maoists” for asking tough questions of her – and then walked out of the show in a show of extreme petulance.

IPL player Luke Pomersbach arrested for molestation

Indian Premier League (IPL) player Luke Pomersbach was arrested Friday for allegedly molesting an American woman.

The Australian player from the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team is alleged to have molested the woman at the ITC Maurya hotel here. Her fiance was beaten up by the player when he tried to stop him, police said.

—IANS

27/30: Bihar’s Super 30 shines again in IIT-JEE results

In another big score, 27 of the 30 students from Bihar’s Super 30, a free coaching centre for underprivileged students, have cracked the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) this year, its director said Friday.

“It is again good news that this year, 27 out of the 30 students made it to the IIT-JEE… it has underlined how with proper opportunity, students from poor families can also reach the prestigious IIT,” Super 30’s founder-director Anand Kumar told IANS.

TRS slams BJP over Telangana issue

Telangana Rashtra Samithi Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao on Thursday condemned Bharatiya Janata Party president G Kishan Reddy’s criticism on the party on the Telangana issue.

Talking to media persons, Harish Rao sought an explanation from the BJP State president as to why he has not submitted his resignation from elected post when the statehood agitation was going-on at its peak. Stating that NIzamabad MLA E Laxminarayana submitted his resignation from the elected post expressing solidarity to statehood agitation, he asked as to why Kishan Reddy went abroad during the agitation period.

Chiru predicts Jagan’s arrest

Rajya Sabha member K Chiranjeevi on Thursday predicted that YSR Congress president and Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy would be arrested soon.

Addressing an election rally at Kavali in Nellore district, Chiranjeevi said that the CBI would arrest Jagan for looting the State indiscriminately and resorting to illegal methods to accumulate properties. He said that those having links with criminals and misusing public funds have no moral right to seek votes of the people in the ensuing by-elections.

Why you went abroad when T- stir was at Zenith

TRS senior leader and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao has questioned why State BJP president G Kishan Reddy, who was stating that the BJP would alone carve out Telangana State, did not respond when Telangana movement was at peak stage.

49 Selected for posts of Assistant Public Prosecutors

Forty-nine candidates have been provisionally selected to the posts of Assistant Public Prosecutors in Andhra Pradesh State Prosecution Service. The same is uploaded in www.apstatepolice.org. In recruitment folder.

State Level Police Recruitment Board chairman has stated that the list of not qualified in the written examination, qualified in the written examination, merit lists and final lists and cut-off marks to the post of Assistant Public Prosecutors in Andhra Pradesh State Prosecution Service are also uploaded in www.apstatepolice.org. in the same folder (NSS)

Hot spell to continue for two more days

With the day temperature shooting up enormously, the people in various parts of the State were groaning under hot spell and keeping themselves confined in their houses. The Met. Officials on Thursday stated that the oppressive heat wave conditions will continue to prevail for another two days.

Kiran cautions Muslims against Jagan & Naidu

Lashing out at YSRCP Chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has asked the Muslim minorities whether they would give guarantee that Jagan Mohan Reddy would not join hands with the BJP in future.

Armed cops to keep watch in Hyderabad’s Old City

Viquar Ahmed may be behind bars but the terror he created among police personnel is clearly visible in the bandobust for the fifth Mecca Masjid blast anniversary. Police have decided to drastically reduce static pickets, which were repeatedly targeted by Viquar, and instead go mobile with armed personnel.

Strong quake hits Chile

A 6.2-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Chile Thursday night, US authorities said.

The epicentre of the tremor was located 675 km southwest of the port city of Puerto Montt at a depth of 10 km, Xinhua quoted the US Geological Survey (USGS) as saying.

EC hold all-party meet with parties

The Election Commission held a meeting with all the recognised National and state political parties in connection with the by-elections to 18 Assembly constituencies and one Parliamentary constituency in 12 districts to be held on June 12.

Addressing the press here last evening, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Bhanwarlal said representatives from
Congress, TDP, TRS, CPI (M) and BJP had attended the meeting.

Mr Bhanwarlal said he has briefed about the various provisions of Model Code of Conduct and brought to the

‘Rajat Gupta cannot take a Mother Teresa defence’

Rajat Gupta has been forewarned that he cannot beat insider trading charges by trumpeting his philanthropy history any more than Mother Teresa could use her missionary work to fend off bank robbery charges.

“If Mother Teresa were charged with bank robbery, the jury would still have to determine whether or not she committed a bank robbery,” US District Judge Jed Rakoff told the lawyers of former Goldman Sachs’ Indian American director ahead of his May 21 trial.

India to take up with Pak issue of ‘persecution’ of Hindus

India will take up with Pakistan the issue of “persecution” of Hindu minorities and desecration of their religious places in that country and ask Islamabad to ensure that constitutional rights of the minorities are protected.
The issue will be taken up with Pakistan during External Affairs Minister S M Krishna’s proposed visit to Islamabad
in July-August and subsequent discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar.

Announcing this in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, the External Affairs Minister said it was a “very sensitive and very

“Why should somebody decide what we can watch and what we can’t?”

Actress Aditi Rao Hydari, is one bold actress, Bollywood has found. Yeh Saali Zindagi saw her doing a bold scene and also string of kissing scenes. However, the actress says, doing bold scenes is not a big deal, but will be on her own terms.

“I’ll think carefully before doing a bold scene. I wouldn’t do it just like that, it depends on the script, the director,” the 33-year-old said.

According to Aditi, one shouldn’t worry about the cencor board but the audiences.

Aishwarya Rai’s shocking weight gain issue hit on net

She is a former Miss World, a successful Bollywood star and married to the son of one of India’s best-loved stars. She found international fame in the Hollywood film Bride and Prejudice, and Julia Roberts billed her as the world’s most beautiful woman.

Thanks to the notoriety such fame and fortune has brought her, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has become one of the most admired and revered women in India, and indeed the world. But such fame has come at a cost for the 38-year-old star, the Daily Mail reported.

Iran hangs assassin of nuclear physicist

Iran Tuesday hanged a man convicted of assassinating an Iranian nuclear physicist, a media report said.

Majid Jamali Fashi, who was also accused of being an agent of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, was hanged in Tehran Tuesday morning, reported Xinhua citing IRIB TV.

Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a professor of Tehran University, was killed by a remote controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle near his home in northern Tehran in January 2010.

From jail to political wilderness, what next for Raja?

Now that the former telecom minister A Raja is out on bail in the 2G case, the most eagerly awaited question in Tamil Nadu is about his political future and his access to the Karunanidhi household.

Will he get a grand reception from the DMK cadres similar to what Kanimozhi got on her release? Will he immediately get to meet Karunanidhi?

How will the new de-facto command-and-control under Stalin handle him? Will Raja have any party-role at all?

And if one goes by Subramaniam Swamy’s warning, will he be safe outside jail?

‘Paa’ child actor Taruni Sachdev among Nepal crash victims

Mumbai: She began acting at the age of six and went on to co-star with Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Paa’ in 2009. Taruni Sachdev, who became a popular child artiste with over 50 commercials to her credit, is most remembered as the Rasna girl with Karisma Kapoor.

She also acted in a couple of Malayalam films and was reportedly the highest paid child actor down south.
14-year-old Taruni and her mother Geetha Sachdev were on their way to the Muktinath temple in Nepal, when their plane crashed on Monday.

Malika Sherawat’s revealing clothes distract auto driver

Mallika Sherawat and Vivek Oberoi were shooting for a song in Mumbai which required them to travel in an auto rickshaw. But the sequence led to an unpleasant situation when Mallika’s revealing outfit and hourglass figure got a little too much for the auto driver to handle.

The poor chap turned out to be a huge fan of hers and seemed totally overwhelmed by her presence in the back seat. And this resulted in him hardly being able to steer the three-wheeler as per the need of the scene.

Mayawati’s Jumbo statues may be a 40,000 crore scam, says Akhilesh Yadav

The larger-than-life statues commissioned by Mayawati for memorials dedicated to her mentor and herself may have been built upon outsized corruption. Akhilesh Yadav, who has replaced Mayawati as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, says the statues may encircle a 40,000 crore scam.

The economic offences wing of the state’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will attempt to figure out who benefited from the alleged swindle.

130 statues of huge elephants, were placed in parks in Noida and Lucknow during Mayawati’s tenure. Her party’s symbol is the elephant.

When Benazir enjoyed ‘Pakeezah’ in Shimla

When her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto discussed peace with Indira Gandhi in Shimla, his daughter Benazir was busy viewing the Meena Kumari-starrer ‘Pakeezah’.

So says M.K. Kaw, a highly respected Indian bureaucrat who was then posted in the Himachal Pradesh capital and who had been assigned to look after the young Benazir Bhutto.

Assisting him was Veena Datta, lady officer of the Indian Foreign Service. “She helped me keep Benazir in a good mood,” Kaw says in his just released book “An Outsider Everywhere” (Konark Publishers).

Nupur Talwar writing book on Aarushi’s death

Nupur Talwar, accused in the 2008 twin murder of her teenaged daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, is writing a book on the mystery behind her daughter’s death in Dasna jail where she is lodged, prison officials said.

She has even come up with a title for her book ‘Mystery behind Aarushi’s death: Story of an unfortunate mother’ and has already completed writing 17 pages, they said.

Babri demolition was the end act, who led the build-up?

The demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992 was not an isolated event. It was the culmination of a long build-up process. BJP leader LK Advani’s rath yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh between 25 September and 30 October 1990 had left many parts of the country communally polarised. Given the intense heat generated by the Hindutva outfits across the country over the Rama Janmabhoomi issue subsequently, an explosion of emotions was expected.