Samad Mumbai, June 17: For Saif Ali Khan getting conversant with the holy Quran to play the jehadi in Rensil D’Silva’s Kurbaan was relatively easier.
But John Abraham belonging to an entirely different religion and culture, learning the tenets of the Quran from the scratch to play the NRI Muslim in Kabir Khan’s New York.
Not knowing a syllable of the Quran John had to study the holy book in translation.
New Delhi, June 17: Money, power and even sex are corrupting the church and anybody who dares speak up is gagged, says a Kerala nun who left her congregation last year amid much controversy and whose autobiography has just been published in English.
“The rot in the church has set in because of affluence and power. The spirit of Jesus is depreciating. The greed for money and power is allowing all sorts of evil to creep in,” said Sister Jesme, 52, who had left the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel in Kerala On Aug 31, 2008.
Mumbai, June 17: When the makers of 7 Days in Paris signed the current Bollywood sweetie Katrina Kaif opposite the Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na hottie Imran Khan,they definitely thought they had managed a coup.
Katrina and Imran, two good-looking people, were the perfect match for a love story to be shot in the romantic capital of the world and their combination made good business sense. But, tut, tut, there seems to be some trouble in paradise.
Mumbai, June 17: Controversies and compliments are an integral part of actress Neetu Chandra’s life. While the lady’s charm has earned her compliments, her courage has often landed her in controversies.
But needless to say, the actress is unfazed by both and takes them in her stride and maybe, that’s what is working in her favour. How else will one be able to justify the several projects that she has in her kitty?
The actress, who will now be doing two more films in Tamil, has six films waiting to be released in Hindi. What’s more, talks are on for three more Tamil projects!
Mumbai, June 17: She tried her utmost not to let the smiling facade or ‘I am the diva’ demeanour slip.
But in a span of about five minutes, which was all the time she allowed for questions in a press conference in Delhi, Kareena admitted to having a footwear fetish, averred “Main script aur mere character ke liye kuch bhi karoongi”, and refused to answer a question about whether she deliberately styled her look in the upcoming movie after Barbie.
She also lost it when someone asked her whether ‘kuch bhi karoongi’ means a yes to a nude scene, and walked off in a huff.
Panaji, June 17: In a scene that could have been scripted for a Bollywood movie, Goa Police on Tuesday chased and arrested four persons and
detained another, for armed daylight robbery at a flat in Santa Cruz.
Two were nabbed while running on the railway tracks at Margao railway station in a bid to escape the cops. Another was on the phone and the fourth attempted to flee on seeing his accomplices in trouble. The cash and jewellery they had stolen, amounting to Rs 12 lakh, was recovered from them.
Pune, June 17: The Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) has revamped the middle school (std IV) and high school (std VII) scholarship
examination pattern. While this is the first time that changes have been made in the high school exam pattern since 1954, the middle school exam pattern has been revamped after a gap of six years.
Pune, June 17: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths on Tuesday arrested former additional commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Ashok
Vishwanath Deshpande of Baner road for his alleged involvement in illegally sanctioning excess transfer of development rights (TDR) of land acquired by the civic body.
Deshpande will be produced in the ACB court on Wednesday.
Hyderabad, June 17: Hyderabad collector Navin Mittal on Tuesday ordered occupants of Badeshahi Ashoorkhana to vacate within 48 hours or else face
action.
On Tuesday, the collector along with a team of officers inspected the protected area. He gave the occupants 48 hours to remove all temporary sheds and articles from the premises of the heritage structure.
Bahadurpura tehsildar Nazir Ahmad Khan and S M Subhani, advocate commissioner appointed by the high court, were also present during the inspection.
Hyderabad, June 17: Con women threw a mysterious chemical on a housewife and took away Rs 1.26 lakhs cash from her in Jubilee Hills on Tuesday.
The incident happened at Nava Nirmana Nagar in Jubilee Hills. At about 9 am, two women entered the house of Tulasi asking for money to organise Durga Puja.
Hyderabad, June 17: An SBI employee suffered a bout of fits while swimming and drowned in GHMC swimming pool in Ameerpet on Tuesday. He was declared
brought dead at a nearby hospital.
The victim, Y Solomon, 28, of Yellareddyguda was as a clerk at SBI’s Ameerpet branch.
On Tuesday morning, Solomon went for swimming at GHMC’s pool next to Gurudwara in Ameerpet.
“While swimming, Solomon had an epileptic seizure. One of his friends noticed him struggling in the water and raised an alarm. Pool staff immediately brought him out,” S R Nagar inspector D Pratap said.
Hyderabad, June 17: Three farmers were electrocuted when they accidentally came in contact with a high-tension line at Keesara in the early hours of
Tuesday.
Lakshman, 35, his brother Mallesh, 38, and their mother, Mallamma, 55, of Keesara died on the spot.Around 2.35 am on Tuesday, a high tension wire next to Lakshman’s house snapped and fell on their two tractors parked in front of their house.
Hyderabad, June 17: A car driver, Shankar Naik, who married four women in the last eight years, was arrested for bigamy in Kandukur in Greater Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Eight years ago, Shankar Naik alias Chandu, 33, of Kandukur, married one Bujji of Harshagudem. Due to ill health, Bujji died after two years and Shankar married one Devi of Maheswaram. Devi did not stay with Shankar for long. She got separated from him and married another person.
Three years ago, Shankar married one Sharada of Maddur Tanda and the couple have an 18-month-old daughter.
Hyderabad, June 17: Making a mockery of policing, robbers are striking at will in the Cyberabad police limits. They seem to have developed a penchant for committing offence in broad daylight.
The armed robbery at a jewellery shop in Neredmet on Tuesday was the second such incident in the same area, in less than three months.
On May 21, armed robbers shot at and stabbed Subhalakshmi Jewellers owner Mukesh Agarwal and decamped with 20 tolas of gold in A S Rao Nagar.
Hyderabad, June 17: The Ranga Reddy district collector M Dana Kishore has ordered the immediate demolition of all illegal G+2 structures coming up under Bandlaguda, Poppalguda, Manikonda, Bachupally and Peerzadiguda gram panchayat limits.
At a meeting with the gram panchayat secretaries under the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) on Tuesday, the collector said all the buildings that were being constructed despite being given notices should be razed immediately.
Hyderabad, June 17: Two teachers were arrested and produced before a court on Tuesday on the charges of sexually harassing two girl
students of the zilla parishad high school at Veeravasaram village in West Godavari district.
S Ahmed, station house officer of Veeravasaram, said the accused teachers were arrested following a complaint lodged by one of the victim’s father. It is learnt that the court directed the police to initiate the necessary action after a lawyer filed a petition seeking punishment to the teachers for their misconduct.
Hyderabd, June 17: There was high drama at the Secretariat on Tuesday after the three ministers handling education squabbled like schoolboys over who
should have control over the Intermediate portfolio.
In the recent allocation of portfolios, Ahmedullah Syed got primary education; Manikya Varaprasada Rao was given secondary education; and higher education went to D Sreedhar Babu. According to sources, Sreedhar Babu originally held the Intermediate portfolio but chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy re-allotted it to Varaprasada Rao.
New Delhi, June 17: Though no new H1N1 influenza cases have been confirmed in the capital, 14 new suspected cases were reported on Tuesday. The Delhi
government’s health department swung into action soon after it received calls from three students, part of a 20-member contingent that visited Nasa on an educational trip, complaining of flu-like symptoms on Tuesday evening.
Kolkata, June 17: A youngster walked into an all-girls school in central Kolkata unchallenged on Monday morning, stripped naked and made indecent gestures at students in a classroom, and escaped without any of the staff attempting to stop him. Many girls fainted and others are still traumatized.
The authorities did not even bother to lodge a complaint with police. The incident has put the scanner on security in Kolkata’s schools.
Chennai, June 17: Close on the heels of Nigerian authorities unearthing Chinese-made drugs with fake ‘Made in India’ labels, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) here has stumbled upon a racket at Chennai port involving the use of fake labels and invoices to ship spurious Chinese drugs into Indian cities.
The central drug authority has so far traced three consignments of an antibiotic named roxithromycin, a female hormone called progesterone, and anti-ulcer drug cimetidine, which arrived from China in separate batches in the second, third and last week of May.
London, June 17: This is pretty hard to believe, guys: three T20 defeats in a row. If the West Indies fast bowlers proved we cannot play pace, the South Africans showed we cannot handle the turning ball either. So what are we? Just flat pitch bullies?
Though our spinners bowled well in restricting South Africa to 130, I still can’t fathom why we kept Pragyan Ojha out on a spinner-friendly track.
Washington, June 17: The Manmohan Singh government has scuppered a proposed visit to India this week by the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a US Congress-mandated organization that monitors religious rights worldwide and gives independent policy recommendations to the US President and his administration.
A USCIRF team that was to leave for New Dehi on June 12 was not given visas in time, according to an associate at the commission, who said it was done with the obvious intent of blocking the trip. “They knew we
Washington, June 17: Backed by the Obama Administration, the bill, which triples non-military assistance to Pakistan to $1.5 billion per annum for the
next five years, has been passed by a US Senate committee.
Called the ‘Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009’, the bill was passed yesterday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by 16 to zero votes.
It seems to have adopted a much lenient view with regard to accountability, transparency and oversight of the US aid on Pakistan and leaves the Obama Administration to take a final call on all those aspects.
Mumbai,June 16: Although Sanjay Dutt is physically present in Goa, where he is shooting for Ajay Devgan’s home production, All The Best, his heart is with his political mentor Amar Singh, who’s in Singapore for a kidney transplant.
Mumbai, June 16: Yesterday, the Bombay High Court stayed the release of BR Films’ Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai. The film has been embroiled in a legal tussle after 20th Century Fox dragged the producers to court for allegedly remaking their 1992 film, My Cousin Vinny.