Month: September 2009

Obama Urges World to Back Pakistan

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New York, September 26: US President Barack Obama urged “sustained and expanded” support for Pakistan at an international summit on Thursday aimed at helping Washington’s nuclear-armed ally defeat extremism.

Obama, seated next to President Asif Ali Zardari, told the meeting of the 26-member Friends of Democratic Pakistan that a US Senate vote for billions of dollars in aid for Islamabad was proof of US support.

All member nations, he said, shared an interest in the South Asian country’s future.

US Missile Strike Kills 12 Afghans in Tribal Areas

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Miranshah, September 26: A US drone aircraft killed 12 Afghan militants in a missile strike in Pakistan near the house of an Afghan Taleban commander allied to Al Qaeda, intelligence officials and residents said on Friday.

Four missiles hit a house shortly before midnight on Thursday in a North Waziristan, about 15km from the Afghan border.

Pakistani security officials initially said three people had been killed but an intelligence agency official said on Friday 12 Afghan militants were killed.

Musharraf Calls Nawaz Sharif a ‘Closet Taleban’

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Islamabad, September 26: In a frontal attack on his inveterate foe, Nawaz Sharfi, ex-military leader Gen. Parvez Musharraf has labelled the former premier as a ‘closet Taleban’.

In an interview with the ABC News, Musharraf recalled Sharif’s alleged meetings with Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and described him as “abrasive and confrontational”.

“He has never been on good terms with any president of Pakistan, so I don’t know what kind of mental make-up he has. But the man is abrasive against the other power brokers of Pakistan,” he said.

Obama, Brown meet at G20, after reports of snub

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Pittsburgh, September 26: US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown met on the sidelines of Friday’s Group of 20 summit, both sides said, scotching talk of a snub for the British leader.

British newspapers reported this week that Downing Street requests for bilateral talks between the two men at the United Nations and the G20 summit of developed and developing nations in Pittsburgh had been rebuffed.

Threats, Bin Laden tape put Germany on guard

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Berlin, September 26: Osama bin Laden cast his shadow over Germany’s election campaign on Friday with a message apparently timed to spook the authorities, already on their guard after a series of threatening al Qaeda videos.

In an audio tape released with both English and German subtitles, the al Qaeda leader urged Europeans to end their alliance with the United States and pull their troops out of Afghanistan.

He did not threaten new attacks or name Germany, although he appeared to refer to it with a comment about economic troubles in “the heart of Europe”.

Gadhafi says he met families of Lockerbie victims

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New York, September 26: Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi told CNN Friday he had met with some of the families of those who died in the 1988 bombing of a US jet over Lockerbie to offer his condolences.

“Yes, I met some of them yesterday. It was a friendly meeting,” the Libyan leader told CNN in excerpts of the interview released Friday. Kadhafi is making his first visit to the United Nations in New York.

Cold Vibes: Is Salman-Katrina affair finally over?

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Mumbai, September 26: Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif have shocked people with their coldness towards each other at Percept Picture Company’s party recently. The party, which was thrown to celebrate Kanchivaram’s National Award, win on Tuesday night was attended by both Salman and Katrina.

But they came in separately, spent time with different groups of people. Even though they came face-to-face, they didn’t interact with each other. They were at the party for around an hour and left alone.

People who saw them at the party are now thinking if the two are even together anymore.

Anil Kapoor won’t like reading this news!!!

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Mumbai, September 26: Anil Kapoor won’t like this. But Shefali Shah feels she deserved, and got, the National award for her performance in Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear rather than the Anil Kapoor-produced Gandhi My Father. She was nominated for both the performances.

Many felt she should have won it for Feroz Khan’s Gandhi My Father. Shefali disagrees. “It was such an honour to be nominated for two performances. But Last Lear was much more difficult.

I’m being offered sub-standard songs

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Mumbai, September 26: One of Bollywood’s most talented playback singers Sonu Niigaam is hardly heard these days. He says that he has cut down his work because he doesn’t want to sing sub-standard songs.

“There are two-three reasons because of which I decided to cut down on my projects. First was that not many songs offered to me today appeal to me. This is because composers have started singing themselves,” Sonu told in an interview.

Daddy Pankaj finally agrees to work with Shahid

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Mumbai, September 26: Pankaj Kapur has finally agreed to direct his first ever film, Mausam, starring son Shahid. Produced by Religare Vistaar Entertainment, the film promises to be a romantic entertainer, which will be shot in UK, Italy, India, Spain and Austria.

Shahid will start shooting for it in the last week of January 2010. Shahid has been asking his father to direct the film for ages and would have liked it to be his launch vehicle, but Pankaj likes working at his own speed.

The film’s screenplay has been written by Pankaj Kapur himself and it spreads out over 10 years.

Big B can put all of us from new generation to shame

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Mumbai, September 26: Perhaps it takes two to tango when it comes to Amitabh Bachchan. For a key song and dance sequence in Sujoy Ghosh directed ‘Aladin’, there is not one, but a pair of Riteish Deshmukh that is being seen.

No, Riteish doesn’t have a double role in the film, but this fun song is set in such a way that ‘Aladin’, played by Riteish, sits and watches the proceedings passively while his alter ego, a much active and vibrant Riteish, grabs the opportunity and matches steps with ‘Genius- The Genie’ Amitabh Bachchan. The song in question? ‘Make A Wish’.

Big Clash Averted: Teen Patti won’t release with Paa

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Mumbai, September 26: Balki just left to shoot the last bit of Paa in Lucknow.

The incredibly gifted director’s eagerly awaited project Paa has been postponed by a month. However the imminent clash with the other Bachchan starrer Teen Patti has been averted, thanks to the actor’s timely intervention.

Apparently, Mr. Bachchan personally requested the producers of Teen Patti to not allow it to clash with Paa.

So it’s Paa, solo on December 4.

1.25 mn capsules of new swine flu drug enter Indian market

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New Delhi, September 26: As swine flu cases continue to surge in the country, a pharma company Friday announced that it has pushed 1.25 million capsules of the drug to chemists across the country to combat the virus and it would be ready with 10 million such drugs by mid-October.

“We have launched Natflu capsules (generic version of Tamiflu – Oseltamivir), the first cure for swine flu to be available against medical prescription at designated chemists across India,” said V.C. Nannapaneni, chairman of Natco, a Hyderabad-based pharma company.

Open source software: An all-star lineup – Feature

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Washington, September 26: Want a PC full of free software? To get it, you don’t need to adopt Ubuntu or any of the other Unix-based operating systems. Nor do you have to rely on the sometimes risky freeware you find scattered around the Internet.

Bangkok airport to get special police force

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Bangkok, September 26: Thai authorities have agreed to set up a special police force at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport to crack down on baggage theft and a variety of scams adversely affecting the country’s tourism, a news report said Saturday.

The 280-man airport police force will be under the Tourism Police Division and will receive special funding form the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) – the state tourism promotion agency, the Bangkok Post reported.

Four killed in suicide attack in Pakistan

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Islamabad, September 26: At least four people were killed in a suicide attack on a police station in restive north-west Pakistan, television station GEO TV reported Saturday.

The attackers used a pickup truck to carry out the attack in Bannu in North-West Frontier Province. The area near the border with Afghanistan is a stronghold of the radical Islamist Taliban.

The report added that at least 20 other people were injured in the incident and many of them were in a critical condition.
–Agencies

Lady Sovereign fined for unladylike behaviour

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Sydney, September 26: British hip-hop artist Lady Sovereign spat in the face of a nightclub bouncer just hours after arriving in Australia for a concert tour, a Brisbane court was told Saturday.

The 23-year-old singer, whose real name is Louise Harman, pleaded guilty to assault and disorderly conduct over the Friday night incident at Brisbane’s The Beat nightclub.

She was fined and ordered to pay compensation to the bouncer, who had ordered her to leave the nightclub because she was drunk and disorderly.

She was taken into custody and spent the night at a police station.

Fake Indian currency detected in Delhi bank

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New Delhi, September 25: Fake Indian currency nominally worth Rs.700,000 was detected at a Citi Bank branch in the national capital, police said Friday.

Citi Bank’s Connaught Place branch manager G.S. Sawhney informed police after his staff detected the counterfeit notes a few days ago. Police registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to police, the fake currency notes were deposited in the bank during the first five months of the year through cash deposit boxes in ATMs.

Seasonal flu vaccine no protection against H1N1

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Abu Dhabi, September 26: The Ministry of Health on Friday warned heads of medical zones and all private medical institutions against dispensing seasonal flu vaccine by claiming that it gives immunity against the swine flu (H1N1) virus.

Oudin, Isner to lead fresh-faced US team at Hopman Cup

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Perth, September 26: The US will field a fresh generation of talent at January’s Hopman Cup as breakthrough newcomers Melanie Oudin and John Isner represent the five-time champions. The US will bid to add to that leading total at the international teams event in Western Australia from January 2.

Number 43 teenager Oudin became the story of the US Open after beating Russian seeds Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva before losing the quarter-finals to eventual finalist Caroline Wozniacki.

U.S. commander submits request for more troops in Afghan

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Washington, September 26: Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, hand-delivered his request for as many as 45,000 more troops to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Germany Friday and made his case for why he needs more forces to fight an increasingly unpopular war.

Pakistan should stop terror as state policy: PM

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Pittsburgh, September 26: Ahead of the meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister and Pakistan Foreign Minister in New York, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said India seeks to normalise relationship with Pakistan but it should shed its mindset of using terror as an instrument of state policy against New Delhi and take action against those involved in the Mumbai terror attacks.

He made it clear that there was no change in India’s stand on Pakistan since the Sharm-el-Sheikh talks with his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, a position he has made clear in Parliament.

Osama warns Germany over war in Afghanistan

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Kabul, September 26: Casting his shadow over the upcoming general elections in Germany, Osama Bin Laden warns officials in Berlin to stop supporting US forces in Afghanistan.

The latest audio message by the al-Qaeda chief posted on a website demanded European countries to end their alliance with the “gang of criminals in Washington” who have no regard for human life and intentionally bomb Afghan villagers from the air, the IntelCenter US monitoring group said on Friday.

Skulls found on Mafia ship laden with toxic waste

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Rome, September 26: Pressure is growing on the Italian government to act over revelations that 30 or more ships with radioactive cargoes, deliberately sunk by the Mafia, may be polluting the Mediterranean.

The Calabrian region in the south of the country last night threatened to bypass Rome and petition the European Commission directly for help in dealing with the potential environmental disaster, while in another development investigators said that human remains may have been found on one ship – raising the possibility of a murder inquiry.

I am innocent of any crime, says Olmert

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Jerusalem, September 26: Ehud Olmert became the first present or former Israeli prime minister ever to go on trial, insisting in a Jerusalem courtroom yesterday that he is innocent of corruption allegations that drove him from office.