Mumbai, October 05: Aftab Shivdasani has come a long way now. After his roller-coaster acting career, the MAST-boy is all set to try his luck as a producer. And now he would be seen after a long time on silver screen, in Sanjay Gupta’s ACID FACTORY. ”Well the credit goes to Sanjay…he is the one who trusted me with such a complex character in ACID FACTORY,” Aftab says.
Mumbai, October 05: Everyone who’s seen Katrina in the promo of BLUE has been pleasantly surprised by her ‘biker chic’ look.
The pretty actress who always been portrayed as a girl next door, is for the first time sporting a gothic grunge look with a stud pierced below her lip, dreadlocks and tattoos all over her arms.
Kat’s look has been designed to complement Zayed’s character in the film – that of a daredevil biker.
Makkah, October 05: The 31st round of King Abdul Aziz Qur’an Memorization competition will start here Monday with the participation of several Arab and Muslim countries.
One hundred seventy four contestants, representing 96 countries and 71 Islamic centers and societies from around the world will take part in the five-day competition at Grand Coral Hotel here.
The competition is being held under the patronage of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.
Mumbai, October 05: Director Anthony D’Souza along with A.R. Rahman have set camp in Los Angeles to get the mixing in place for their mega film BLUE. The makers of the film, which is less than a fortnight away from its release, are leaving no stones unturned to lend an international feel to the product which is touted to be the costliest ever to come out of Indian shores.
Why the short length of BLUE works in its favour!
Riyadh, October 05: The first Saudi woman petition writer has stormed into a profession that has been monopolized by men for decades due to the social and religious structure of Saudi society and she is successfully competing with men at the gates of courts, Civil Affairs, Passports and other administrations.
Hissah Al-Za’aqi, who is well-known as Umm Rashed, is a primary school certificate holder and uses a small area just outside the western gate of the Civil Affairs building in Riyadh as an office.
New Delhi, October 05: Six students were on Monday injured when a fire broke out in an MCD school in south-west Delhi, an incident which brought to the fore the need to improve safety measures in government and civic-body run educational institutions.
The blaze was reported from the MCD primary school in Bapraula village in Najafgarh at around 11:15 am, fire brigade officials said.
The fire broke out in an electric meter due to a suspected short circuit and six students standing near the meter suffered “minor” injuries, the officials said.
Raipur, October 05: The Chhattisgarh government Monday suspended a senior labour official after an under-construction chimney collapsed at a Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (Balco) power plant Sep 23, and left 45 workers killed under its debris.
Satyaprakash Verma, assistant labour commissioner, was suspended on chages of dereliction duty for remaining absent in the aftermath of the tragedy from Korba town without informing his senior, a state government statement said.
Sources say that suspension order was issued based on a report by Korba District Collector Ashok Agrawal.
Lucknow, October 05:A man, along with his daughter, opened fire at five people in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnore district Monday killing two on the spot and critically injuring the rest, police said.
The incident was reported in the Kambhour village of Bijnore district early Monday.
The accused, Akhtar and Fatima, are absconding after the incident. The injured were sent to Meerut for treatment.
New Delhi, October 05:Bahrain has endorsed India’s bid for a UN Security Council seat in 2011-12, Minister of State for External
Affairs Shashi Tharoor said in a tweet posted on the social networking site from the Gulf country Monday.
Tharoor, who narrowly lost his bid for the top UN job over two years ago, is India’s chief pointsperson to push New Delhi’s case for a Security Council seat as a non-permanent member. Tharoor managed to get Liberia’s support for India’s UN candidature during his visit to the African country last month.
New Delhi, October 05:Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Monday said a bill to streamline the functioning of Wakf boards across the country is in its final stage and will be introduced in the winter session of parliament.
“The ministry of law has given its final shape to it (the draft bill for amending the Wakf Act, 1999). We will introduce it in the next session of parliament,” Khurshid told reporters after a meeting of the Central Wakf Council where many issues related to welfare of minorities were discussed.
Shimla, October 05:Three more people in Himachal Pradesh have tested positive for Influenza A (H1N1) virus, officials said Monday. Now the total number of swine flu cases in the state has reached seven.
“Two students and a teacher of Alpine Residential School at Pinjore have tested positive,” the state’s nodal officer for swine flu Vinod Mehta told IANS.
Pinjore is located in Haryana on the border of Himachal Pradesh.
Mehta said the patients belonged to the hill state.
Bangalore, October 05:External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Monday he would prevail upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi to grant more relief to flood-hit Karnataka from the National Calamity Contingency Fund.
“I will meet the prime minister in New Delhi Wednesday and apprise him of the colossal damage caused by heavy rains and flash floods in north Karnataka for speedy release of funds from NCCF to the state,” Krishna, a former chief minister of the state, told reporters here.
New Delhi, October 05:The Election Commission Monday announced that bye-elections to Firozabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh and 31 assembly seats in seven states will be held Nov 7.
The assembly bypolls will be held for 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 in West Bengal, three seats in Kerala, two each in Rajasthan, Assam, and Himachal Pradesh and one seat in Chhattisgarh.
Counting of votes would be held on Nov 10, the poll panel said.
New Delhi, October 05:The Congress party Monday said that all possible steps are being taken to deal with the flood situation in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
“Every possible effort is being undertaken at the centre and the state level to deal with the flood situation,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singvi told reporters here.
Earlier in the day, Congress president Sonia Gandhi surveyed the flood affected areas and assured all possible help from the central government.
Mumbai, October 05:Living up to its image as the country’s commercial capital, Mumbai and its surrounding will see a whopping 122 crorepati candidates across the political spectrum contesting the forthcoming state assembly elections, a public watchdog revealed here Monday.
The city will also have the largest number of candidates whose educational qualifications are below Class 10 pass, according to a survey by the NGO, Maharashtra Election Watch (MEW).
Shimla, October 05:Bodies of seven Indian Army personnel who were killed in a road accident in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district have been sent to their native places, an official said Monday.
“All the seven bodies of Army personnel were sent to their native places this (Monday) evening after completing legal formalities,” Col Mukesh Bansal, a spokesperson for the Shimla-based Army Training Command (ARTRAC), told IANS.
Earlier, the police said that eight soldiers were killed in the accident near Tattapani, 55 km from here.
Makkah, October 05: The family of Nasser Al-Harithy, the 50-year-old university professor whose body was found on Friday hanging from the ceiling of his office at home in the Alwali district of Makkah, have said that his will contains 16 pages of advice and instructions to his family, including the handing over of certain papers to a specified member of Board of Senior Ulema.
The deceased also purportedly instructed them to care for the grandmother responsible for Al-Harithy’s upbringing following his father’s death while his mother was still pregnant with him.
Riyadh, October 05: The Aal Jabir and Aal Bu Jom’ah tribes of the Qahtan put an end to differences Sunday sparked by a shooting injury to one tribesman for which fellow members demanded half a million riyals and a car in compensation.
The meeting of tribal heads at Al-Hanthariya, between the regions of Bisha and Thathleeth, saw Sheikh Ayed kneel on the ground and call upon his folk – the Aal Jabir – to back down and pardon the incident “for the sake of Allah” and the tribes present.
Ramallah, OCtober 05: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas faced growing outrage at home Sunday over his decision to withdraw support for a UN report that alleged Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in last winter’s Gaza war.
Abbas’ reversal came as a result of intense US pressure, Palestinian officials said. The report by respected justice Richard Goldstone will now lie dormant for at least six months rather than be sent to the UN General Assembly with possible recommendations for action.
Banglore, October 05: Devastating floods that killed more than 230 people in southern India have left close to 1.5 million others homeless, officials said on Monday.
The floods, triggered by days of torrential rain, have inundated swathes of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra states, causing mass evacuations and leaving hundreds of thousands dependent on relief camps.
The death toll on Monday stood at 233, with 170 killed in Karnataka, 37 in Andhra Pradesh and 26 in Maharashtra.
New Delhi, October 05:The Supreme Court Monday moved the Delhi High Court against its ruling that the office of the chief justice of India (CJI) came within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and said that all its judges are declaring their assets before the CJI.
The ruling of the single-judge bench of the high court had also made it mandatory for apex court judges to disclose their assets.
The apex court in its appeal said that the declaration of the assets by the judges is a voluntarily step and is not under the RTI act.
New Delhi, October 05:Undertaking one of the biggest relief and rescue operations in the flood-ravaged states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the armed forces have rescued hundreds of marooned people so far.
“1,336 people have been rescued so far by the armed forces in the flood-ravaged states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The army, air force and the navy are working round-the-clock to rescue the marooned people and provide much needed food in the flood affected areas,” a defence ministry spokesperson said Monday.
Hyderabad, October 05: After devastating Kurnool, the furious Krishna river has hit parts of Vijayawada and several villages in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, rendering thousands homeless. The river, racing towards the Bay of Bengal, also invaded habitations in Guntur and Nalgonda districts.
Though the toll is put at 38 by the government, the number of deaths is likely to be more than 100.
Conakry, October 05: Guinea’s leader on Monday dismissed the French foreign minister’s call for international intervention in the West African country after soldiers there opened fire on demonstrators last week, killing at least 57.
Capt. Moussa “Dadis” Camara, who seized power in a coup nine months ago, called French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s comments an “affront to the dignity” of African people in an interview with France24 radio and television.
Hyderabad, October 05: The State Government feels that there is no threat of unprecedented flood in Vijayawada, other parts of Krishna and Guntur districts.
It is basing this assumption with inflows into the Srisailam Reservoir decreasing.
It, however, does not mean that there is no flood threat at all. Only, it may not be on a collosal scale. Now the task before the irrigation officials is to see that flood flow should not cross 10 lakh cusecs at Prakasam barrage.