Press Trust of India The Election Commission is likely to appoint Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and cricketer Virat Kohli as “national icons” who would encourage more and more people to vote in the general elections.
Aamir and Kohli are expected to join the league of four other “national icons” – cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, boxer M.C. Mary Kom, badminton ace Saina Nehwal and former president A.P.J Abdul Kalam.
Gangpur-Odisha registered an 8-1 win over Assam to book their semi-final berth in the Hockey India Junior Women’s National Championship (Division B) at the Chamundi Vihar Hockey Ground here Monday.
Gangpur opened their account in the 18th minute when captain Rinki Kujur made no mistake in converting a penalty corner. Within three minutes, Gangpur increased the lead via Janhabi Pradhan who converted another penalty corner. Just before halftime Janhabi took her side to 3-0 through a field goal.
DMK president M. Karunanidhi’s eldest son M.K. Alagiri Monday said he would decide on floating a new party in two months’ time.
Speaking to reporters here, Alagiri said he would discuss with his supporters and take a decision.
Jan 24, the DMK temporarily suspended Alagiri for creating confusion in the party ranks and criticising the disciplinary action taken against some colleagues for “anti-party activities”.
Alagiri, 63, son of Karunanidhi, 89, is opposed to his brother M.K. Stalin, 61, being elected to the party’s top post.
Namdhari XI continued their winning spell by defeating Rajasthan 3-1 in their last Pool A match to book a semi-final berth in the National Hockey Championship (Division B) at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium here Monday.
With their fourth consecutive win, Namdhari XI stayed on top of the points table in Pool A.
The second phase — Division A — of the National Hockey Championship will begin at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium here from Tuesday and will go on till March 23.
The 20 teams in the division will be divided into four pools with five teams each. The inaugural match will be played between Jharkhand and Bhopal with the final scheduled for March 23.
In the previous edition, Air India defeated Punjab 6-2 to lift the trophy.
Picturesque resort Manali and the tourist resorts of Kufri and Narkanda Monday near Shimla experienced more snow, triggering a rush of tourists there.
The state capital received mild spells of rain.
Shimla recorded the minimum temperature at 6 degree Celsius, while the maximum stayed at 13.7 degrees, an official of the Met department told IANS.
Nearby tourist spots like Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda experienced more spells of snowfall.
Indian companies can play a key role in the Republic of Congo’s march towards becoming an emerging economy by year 2025, a senior minister of the central African country said here Monday.
“Indian companies could partner the Republic of Congo government in converting the country’s comparative advantage in different sectors into competitive strengths,” Industry Minister Isidore Mvouba of the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo Brazzaville, said addressing delegates at the 10th CII-EXIM Bank conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership.
Pia Benegal, who has designed costumes for “Samvidhaan”, a 10-part TV series directed by her father Shyam Benegal, says creating “period specific” costumes for it has been a painstaking process.
The TV series talks about the making of the Constitution of India.
Pia designed and created authentic costumes ranging from dhotis, kurtas, waistcoats, sherwanis, double breasted suits, long coats, saris and a variety of headgear for the show.
She says her brief was to design the costumes that were specific to the period when the Constitution was created.
With 1.2 million voters spread over 15 assembly constituencies, the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency is the most prestigious among the six parliamentary constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. In the words of incumbent MP Farooq Abdullah, Srinagar is the jugular vein of his party and family and was “non-negotiable”.
After its successful showing at a Brussels art museum, “The Body in Indian Art”, an exhibition that brings together 220 artworks with the aim to explore complex understandings of the human body, will open here March 14.
Curated by Naman P. Ahuja, the exhibition will be mounted at the National Museum from March 14 to June 7 that has artworks from 36 museums, archaeological institutes and private collectors. Some of the artworks will be displayed for the first time.
Actor-producer Atul Agnihotri, who has roped in his star brother-in-law Salman Khan for a cameo in his film “O Teri”, says the actor is “adding a lot” to the film.
“‘O Teri’ is being well-pushed by Salman Khan. He is adding a lot to the film and his song, which he shot recently for the film, will be out in the next two days,” Agnihotri said here.
“The song has turned out really well… it is fabulous. I am thankful to Salman Khan,” he added.
Agnihotri is married to Salman’s sister Alvira.
Now, turn your smart phone photos into the beautiful work of arts with this iPhone app.
Developed by the Brooklyn-based firm Tinybop, the app named Waterlogue simulates the actual painting process.
With Waterlogue, the developers tried to write algorithms that approached images as a human would.
How does it work?
Waterlogue starts by distilling pictures into lines.
It then boils those down to the ones that a person might actually draw – simplifying the image from a thousand tiny lines.
It creates each painting layer by layer, as a real artist would.
India Inc. Monday said it can help build infrastructure and expand growth in Africa by using cheap funds from third countries like Japan and Singapore.
“Patient capital funds from Japan can be ustilised in Africa. Singapore can be another place from where funds can be accessed,” said Noel Tata, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Africa Committee and managing director, Tata International.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama discussed the situation in Ukraine among other issues during the course of a telephone conversation Monday.
Stressing China’s objective and fair stance on Ukraine, Xi said, given the complexity of the Ukrainian situation, it was very important for all parties concerned to remain calm and exercise restraint in order to avoid escalation of the crisis, Xinhua reported.
Veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar finds it a “shame” that certain people have abused actor-filmmaker and “Satyamev Jayate 2” host Aamir Khan and doubted his intentions of amassing donations via the social issue-based TV show.
“Shame! Instead of appreciating Aamir, the great grandson (great grand nephew) of Maulana Azad for highlighting the real issues, some sick people are abusing him,” Akhtar posted on his Twitter page Monday.
President Pranab Mukherjee will Tuesday present the Presidents’ Standard to 112 Helicopter Unit (HU) and Presidents’ Colours to 4 Base Repair Depot (BRD) of the Indian Air Force in Kanpur, a statement said.
“The president will visit Uttar Pradesh where he will present the Standard to 112 HU and Colours to No.4 BRD of Indian Air Force,” said an official statement of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Meghalaya will consult the central government to initiate peace talks with the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) rebel outfit, state Home Minister Roshan Warjri said Monday.
“Since the GNLA was declared a terrorist organisation by the central government under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, it would be necessary for the state to consult the centre in the matter,” Warjri told the state assembly.
All petrol pumps in Lucknow closed down Monday following the murder of a petrol pump owner.
M.V. Trivedi, 64, who owned a petrol pump at Kursi road here was shot dead Monday morning when he was going to a bank from his River Bank colony residence, officials said.
Trivedi, who also ran a diagnostic centre in the state capital had called in an ambulance from the centre to reach the bank.
The moment he came out from his house with a bag full of cash, he was intercepted by three bike borne assailants and shot in the chest.
Actor Ali Fazal will sizzle on the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) ramp as a showstopper for designer Digvijay Singh at the forthcoming summer-resort 2014 edition of the fashion gala.
The event begins here Wednesday.
Singh feels Ali is the right fit for being the showstopper as the collection is playful and vibrant. He believes he will pull it off with his charisma and style, said a statement.
The collection will pay an ode to classic games like Snakes and Ladders and Ludo, which now seem lost in the deluge of digitalization.
One of the two suspects, who boarded the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight on stolen passports, was identified Monday.
The man was identified using CCTV footage provided by the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), the Malaysian Star reported citing Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.
“I can confirm that he is not a Malaysian but cannot divulge which country he is from yet,” Abu Bakar said at the Kajang police headquarters Sunday.
Is your kid suffering from asthma and wheezing disorders? The reason may be the child’s premature birth, research showed.
The risk of developing these conditions increases as the degree of prematurity increases, the study showed.
The findings are based on a systematic review of 30 studies that investigated the association between pre-term birth and asthma/wheezing disorders among 1.5 million children.
Worldwide, more than 11 percent of babies are born premature.
Musician Bruce Springsteen will reunite with documentary director Thom Zimny for the making of a new film on his most recent record, “High Hopes”.
Earlier this year, the music icon proved that he hasn’t lost his star power when his 18th studio album was introduced at number one in 20 countries, reports contactmusic.com
Prior to the album’s release, Springsteen teamed up with his old friend Zimny for the fourth time, allowing cameras to follow the singer during his studio sessions and rehearsals.
(IANS)
A court case against German football club Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness began here Monday.
Hoeness has to answer personally in front of the court from Monday to Thursday as he faces accusations of having evaded taxes to the tune of 3.5 million euros, reports Xinhua.
The four-day process will focus on one central theme: Did Hoeness alert the tax office in time so that he may avoid a penalty?
Fifty-seven people have been arrested so far for election rules violations in Sri Lanka’s provincial polls scheduled later this month, an official said here Monday.
The Western and Southern Provincial Councils elections will be held March 29, in which 3,794 candidates are vying to fill 159 positions in the two provincial council bodies.
Election monitors have already warned the battle will be chaotic and possibly violent with many candidates of the ruling party, the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and main Opposition United National Party (UNP) fighting it out for votes.
A simple blood test has the potential to predict whether a healthy person would develop symptoms of dementia within two or three years, a promising research shows.
The test could fill a major gap in strategies to combat brain degeneration which is thought to show symptoms only at a stage when it too late to treat effectively.
“These findings are potentially very exciting,” said Simon Lovestone, a neuroscientist at University of Oxford.