Press Trust of India Double Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman says he was not confident about working in “Kochadaiiyaan”, said to be the country’s first performance capture photo-realistic technology 3D animated film.
Directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth Ashwin, “Kochadaiiyaan” features superstar Rajinikanth and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles.
Twelve Syrian nuns kidnapped by Syrian rebels late last year have been released, media reported Sunday.
The released nuns will be hosted in the Mariamieh Church in capital Damascus, where a religious mass is expected to be held to celebrate their release, Xinhua reported citing the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV.
Earlier in the day, the al-Mayadeen TV said it had “information about a deal for today’s release of the kidnapped nuns of Maloula amid preparations for official reception of them in Damascus”.
A 15-year-old girl was raped by her neighbour, a tailor by profession, police said Sunday. The accused has been arrested.
Suresh, 42, raped the girl when she was alone at her home in west Delhi’s Naraina area Saturday evening, police said.
The girl was taken to a hospital when she complained of uneasiness at night. She told her parents about the assault after which they informed police.
The accused was arrested from his house Sunday morning.
(IANS)
The Ghaziabad police Sunday claimed to have solved the kidnapping of a factory employee’s child following recovery of the body and arrest of the kidnappers.
Circle Officer (Sadar) Rajesh Pandey said Rudhransh, the four-year-old son of Devendra Sharma, was kidnapped last Friday while he was playing outside his house in Kanauja locality of Ghaziabad.
Kidnappers Leelu and Shahzad demanded Rs.15 lakh for his release but they killed the child Saturday after the deal failed to materialise.
East China police confirmed Sunday that a Chinese national from east China’s Fujian Province, whose passport number G25****18 is on the boarding list offered by Malaysia Airlines whose airliner went missing early Saturday after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, did not board the airline’s missing plane.
However, police said the passport owner’s name does not match the name provided by Malaysia Airlines. The owner of the passport is still in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian and has no departure records, Xinhua reported citing police.
A local leader of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and his bodyguard were gunned down in Pakistan’s Balochistan province Sunday.
Police said Attaullah Muhammadzai was killed after unidentified assailants opened fire indiscriminately at the car he was travelling in with his guard on Chakar Khan road in Khuzdar town, Dawn online reported.
The attackers managed to escape from the scene. Both victims succumbed to their injuries on way to hospital.
(IANS)
A former elementary school teacher has been sentenced to 30 years in jail in the US for sexually exploiting children in China.
The US District Court for the District of Columbia Thursday sentenced US citizen Hector Orjuela, 47, to 30 years in prison for child molestation and producing child pornography, The South China Morning Post reported Sunday.
The California native spent years teaching at several international schools in Shanghai before his arrest.
A software engineer was Sunday found dead under mysterious circumstances in his Indirapuram flat in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad.
The police said C.H. Dayakar, 35, a software engineer working with an IT company in Noida was found dead in his D4/9 Rail Vihar flat.
His wife Vaishali had March 7 gone to her parental house in Hyderabad with daughter Laxmi, 8. Upon her return Sunday, she found her husband lying dead on the bed.
A Delhi Metro employee was arrested for stealing over Rs.3 lakh in cash from the locker of the control room of Rohini (West) Metro station, police said Sunday.
Satish, 20, a house-keeping employee, was arrested after a CCTV camera caught him cutting the feeder to two other cameras placed opposite the station control room to escape getting captured while committing the crime.
“Satish was aware of the timings and the place where the cash is kept in the station control room,” said a police officer.
Following his arrest, Rs.3.73 lakh in cash and a knife cutter were recovered.
(IANS)
Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit will take over as the governor of Kerala Tuesday, a close aide said Sunday.
Dikshit, who is scheduled to leave for Thiruvananthapuram Monday, will be accompanied by her family members and a number of former ministerial colleagues like Raj Kumar Chauhan, Ramakant Goswami and others, said the aide who did not want to be identified.
She will replace Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police chief, who has held the post since March 2013.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony will not contest the Lok Sabha polls from Kerala, a senior Congress leader said Sunday.
Addressing reporters here, Congress’ Kerala unit president V.M. Sudheeran said Antony, a Rajya Sabha member, had called him up after media reports about his likely candidature from Kerala and asked him to issue a denial.
“He has asked me to inform the media that he is not going to contest the polls,” said Sudheeran after a meeting of the party’s election committee which sat for the first time to prepare the list of candidates.
The Congress-led UPA must be defeated in the Lok Sabha election if Tamil Nadu is to become the “numero uno” state in India, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said Sunday.
Campaigning for AIADMK candidate D. John Thangam in Kanyakumari, around 700 km from Chennai, Jayalalithaa said: “If Tamil Nadu has to be numero uno in the country and if it has to secure its needs, there should be a government change at the centre.”
The coming elections will determine the country’s fate and prosperity, she said. “If India’s future has to be bright, there should be a change of government (in New Delhi).”
Delhi will vote in the Lok Sabha elections exactly a month from now but the two big parties, the BJP and the Congress, are yet to name their candidates for the seven constituencies from the city while the two-year-old Aam Aadmi Party has already named five of its seven candidates.
Elections in the national capital will be held April 10. Of the total 543 parliamentary constituencies in the country, Delhi has seven, of which one is reserved for the Scheduled Castes.
The NDMC is offering a variety of vocational and other courses to women, some for free, in a bid to empower them, its chairman Jalaj Shrivastava said Sunday.
He said training was available for sewing, embroidery, needle work, stenography in English and Hindi, dress designing, textile designing and hair dressing at the Women Technical Institute run at Netaji Nagar here.
The NDMC-run institute also ran courses for computer operators and programme assistants, cookery as well as catering and home management, he said in a statement.
A Supreme Court ruling overturning a Delhi High Court order decriminalising gay sex may have aggrieved members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, but the rainbow youth brigade looks forward to the April-May general elections, hoping young guns at the centre will bring about a positive change in law.
BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi Sunday said the decision on the party candidate from Varanasi constituency, which he currently holds, will be taken by the parliamentary board amid speculation that Narendra Modi could contest from the Uttar Pradesh city.
Asked if he would contest again from Varanasi, Joshi said: “This will be decided by the parliamentary board of the party. The meeting will take place on March 13 and Modi-ji will also be present.”
A 22-year-old woman committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan. She left a note blaming her husband and her younger sister for her death, police said Sunday.
The body of Kiran was found by a relative at her home in east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area Saturday night.
A suicide note was written on the wall of the room that said her husband and her younger sister were responsible for her death.
Police said her husband Jitu, who works in a factory, and her sister were absconding.
Kiran and Jitu got married four years ago. They have a two-year-old daughter.
(IANS)
Bangladesh’s border guards have promised firm action against insurgents from India’s northeastern states taking shelter in that country, an Indian official said Sunday.
“We have handed over a list of 66 Indian insurgent camps to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). They have assured us of taking firm action against the Indian insurgents operating from Bangladesh,” Inspector General of Border Security Force Sudhir Kumar Srivastava, in-charge Guwahati Frontier, told media.
Asserting that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will field eight to 10 candidates from West Bengal for the Lok Sabha polls, party leader Pankaj Gupta Sunday expressed regret over social activist Anna Hazare endorsing Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress.
“It is sad to see Anna Hazare endorsing Mamata Banerjee and campaigning for Trinamool, when it is the AAP which is carrying forward the fight against corruption. However, all the AAP leaders including Arvind Kejriwal have a deep respect for Anna,” he said here.
India’s Virat Kohli has reclaimed the No.1 position in the latest ICC rankings for One-Day International (ODI) batsmen released Sunday at the conclusion of the Asia Cup which was won by Sri Lanka.
Kohli had entered the Asia Cup, trailing No.1 ranked AB de Villiers by two points. Kohli’s tournament aggregate of 189 runs in three innings, with 136 against Bangladesh as his series best, earned him 12 points which has put him ahead of South Africa ODI captain by nine points.
Chennai’s Vishnu Prasad, who enjoyed a profitable season in 2013 with the JK Tyre Rotax Max National Karting (seniors) and JK Racing India series titles, was adjudged the “Most Promising Motorsport Man of the Year” at the annual awards gala of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India here Saturday.
The FMSCI also presented the lifetime award to K. Krishnamurthy, one of country’s top technical experts in motorsports for his meritorious service as the Scrutineer since 1968.
Security has been tightened around major Tibetan refugee settlements in Nepal ahead of Monday’s Tibetan Uprising Day anniversary, officials said Sunday.
This would be the 55th anniversary of the uprising.
Police said hundreds of security personnel in uniform and plain clothes have been deployed in Kathmandu’s Boudha, Swoyambhunath and Jawlakhel areas where Tibetans have been living in camps since their exile.
Security has been tightened in and around the Chinese embassy and its consular office, and also in Pokhara city outside the capital, where a small refugee camp is located.
Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian’s curves drew people’s attention at the Rick Ross’ concert at Revolt Live in Hollywood.
The 29-year-old sported her fit body in tiny ripped jean shorts, which she paired with thigh-high black leather stiletto boots, reports eonline.com.
She teamed the dominatrix-esque ensemble with a formfitting black top, a black jacket, aviator shades, a gold cross pendant and a beige colour Chanel bag.
She wore her wavy honey long locks down and finished the look with peach glossy lips.
(IANS)
Congress’ high-profile candidate Nandan Nilekani, contesting from the prestigious Bangalore South parliamentary constituency, Sunday said it was time for his rival – BJP’s Ananth Kumar – to go.
“There are times in business or politics when one has to go. I think time has come for him to go,” Nilekani told reporters without taking Ananth Kumar’s name in response to queries about what he thought of his prospects over his rival who had been representing the seat since 1996, winning it five consecutive times.
India have been guaranteed they would retain their No.2 position in the ICC ODI team rankings at the April 1 cut-off date.
India finished with 113 points, just one ahead of third-ranked Sri Lanka, to walk away with a prize of $75,000. There was no other change in the table with all sides retaining their positions.
Australia were assured of the No.1 ranking in January after India lost their ODI series against New Zealand 0-4. They will receive the ODI shield as well as a cheque of $175,000.
The Asia Cup was the last ODI series before the deadline.