Month: June 2010

No go-ahead to Jagan’s yatra: Moily

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New Delhi, June 01: Contradicting Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s statement that he had got clearance for his controversial yatra in the Telangana region from Veerappa Moily, the latter denied denied giving any such permission to the Andhra Pradesh leader.

Reddy, MP from Kadapa and son of late Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhara Reddy, claimed that he had got the clearance for his tour when he met Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, who is AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, here this morning.

Indian investigators in US to interrogate Headley

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Chicago, June 01: A four-member team from India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrived here to interrogate Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Headley, who has confessed to his role in plotting the Mumbai terror attack.

This will be for the first time that Pakistani-American Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 to hide his Muslim and Pakistani origin as he scouted targets in Mumbai, will be facing direct questions from Indian investigators since his arrest in October last year.

Andhra ministers back Rosaiah after Jagan’s attack

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Hyderabad, June 01: A day after Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy blamed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah for last week’s violence in Warangal district, state ministers Tuesday came together to defend the chief minister.

The ministers said they were with the chief minister and condemned the allegations made against the government.

“We are with the chief minister, the Congress high command and party president Sonia Gandhi,” Information and Public Relations Minister J. Geeta Reddy told reporters in the presence of almost all the ministers.

Rajnath blames UP govt for backwardness of Ghaziabad

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Ghaziabad, June 01: Facing complaints of failing to deliver on his poll-promises, former BJP president and MP from Ghaziabad Rajnath Singh has put the blame on the Uttar Pradesh government saying it did not act on various letters written to it about developmental works. “I have written several letters to chief minister Mayawati and other concerned ministers regarding development works in Ghaziabad but the letters did not evoke any response from them,” he told reporter here last night.

Cong to present Mayawati list of “tainted” BSP leaders

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Allahabad, June 01: Blaming Mayawati for failing to act against “tainted” leaders of her party, the Congress today said it will approach the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in 15 days with a list of ruling BSP leaders having “dubious” past and press for their removal.

“Not long ago, the BSP had announced its so-called clean-up drive to rid the party of tainted leaders. We knew it was an eye-wash,” UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi told reporters.

Rupee crashes 80 paise Vs dlr on bearish equities

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Mumbai, June 01: The rupee today crashed by 80 paise, the biggest single-day fall in fifteen months, against the US currency on a sudden bearish turn in equities amid stronger dollar overseas.

Dollar buying by banks, to meet their clients demand, and corporates on expectations of further rise in dollar abroad due to current global crisis, also weighed on the rupee, dealers said.

In fairly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, the domestic unit closed at 47.16/17, a steep fall of 1.73 per cent. Earlier, the rupee had ended lower by 81 paise on March 2, 2009.

Give up ‘hypocrisy’ of love for Dalits, BJP tells Rahul

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New Delhi, June 01: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to stop his “hypocrisy of love for Dalits” and instead ensure rehabilitation of the 150 families of the community forced out of their homes by upper castes in Haryana.

The party also slammed the state Congress government for its failure.

“Busy” Mamata skips Cabinet meeting despite being in Delhi

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New Delhi, June 01: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday skipped a meeting of the cabinet committee on political affairs that decided on imposing President’s rule in Jharkhand, but denied any friction in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

“There are no differences between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress. We are absolutely comfortable,” the Trinamool Congress chief told reporters here, downplaying her absence from the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Lahore attack: Injured terrorist shifted to jail

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Lahore, June 01: The terrorist injured in the twin mosque attack, who was sought to be rescued from hospital or killed by armed gunmen in this Pakistan city, was on Tuesday shifted to Kot Lakhpat jail under tight security.

He would be treated in by the medical staff of the Jinnah Hospital, Online news agency reported.

Buddhadeb, Chidambaram have agreed on no CBI probe: Yechury

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New Delhi, June 01: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Home Minister P. Chidambaram have agreed on not involving the CBI in the Gyaneshwari Express train accident as the state police have almost cracked the case, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said Tuesday.

Yechury told reporters here that Bhattarcharjee had conveyed to Chidambaram that there was no need for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) till the police investigation is over and report filed.

Taslima in Delhi, wants extension of her Indian visa

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New Delhi, June 01: Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin is now in the Capital to get her Indian visa extended since the validity of the travel document expires in August.

Taslima, who has been in and out of the country after she was dramatically bundled out of West Bengal in November 2007 in the wake of protests by radical Muslim groups, came from London in the wee hours of Sunday and was immediately whisked away to a safe location.

The 47-year-old doctor-turned writer is also trying for a permanent residency in the country. Her visa is valid till August 16.

Rathore’s bail plea hearing deferred till tomorrow

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Chandigarh, June 01: Disgraced former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, sentenced to 18-month prison term by a court here in Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, today again failed to get any relief as the Punjab and Haryana High Court deferred the hearing in his bail petition till tomorrow.

The High Court’s single vacation bench of Justice Ajay Tewari posted the matter for tomorrow after it was told to him that advocate of Ruchika’s family Pankaj Bhardwaj was indisposed.

The same judge had yesterday deferred the hearing on Rathore’s revision petition seeking bail till today.

Sensex plunges by 373 pts; freak RIL sale flummoxes many

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Mumbai, June 01: The BSE benchmark Sensex plummeted by 373 points on sustained selling today, which was marked by a freak sale of RIL shares at unbelievable discount of around 20 per cent.

Amid distinct weak global cues, the 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened lower and remained under pressure throughout the day before closing sharply lower by 372.60 points, or 2.20 per cent, at 16,572.03.

Samad’s bail plea rejected

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Mumbai, June 01: The bail plea of Abdul Samad, whose arrest in connection with the German bakery blast created a controversy, was rejected by a court and his custody was not sought again by ATS which apparently failed to produce any evidence linking him with the attack.

Rejecting the bail plea, Magistrate M V Morale sent 23-year-old Samad, who was produced before him, to judicial custody till June 14 after he read the remand application of Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS).

PRP to support Congress in RS polls

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Hyderabad, June 01: Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) today said it would support Congress in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in the state.

PRP chief Chiranjeevi would soon convey the decision to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, senior party leader C Ramachandraiah said here today.

The decision was taken at a party meeting here.

Replying to a question, Ramachandraiah said the party took a decision without keeping any motive in mind.

I am single: Katrina Kaif

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Mumbai, June 01: Katrina Kaif, dressed in a short black dress, cuddles up to myriad coloured cushions in her favourite corner in her home. As sunbeams light up her laptop, a script, cough medicine (she has this hacking cough and congestion) she is at her sunny best, smiling often as she gets introspective on love, lovers and relationships

Are you single?

Gold zooms to new record high of Rs 19,050

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New Delhi, June 01: Gold prices zoomed to an all-time high of Rs 19,050 per ten grams in the national capital Tuesday on skyrocketing global rates amid the ongoing marriage season in India.

In international markets, gold prices surged for the seventh straight day as the European debt crisis increased demand for the precious metal as a safe haven.

Bullion in the Asian region gained as much as 0.5 percent to USD 1,222.47 an ounce, its highest level since May 19, as the euro extended its 2.4 per cent decline against the US dollar last week.

Hrithik wears nicotine patches to kick the butt

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Mumbai, June 01: In bid to end smoking habit he picked up during Guzaarish, Roshan Jr will be using nicotine patches

Hrithik Roshan wants to quit smoking. The actor picked up the habit last year, got addicted to nicotine high during the making of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish, as his character in the film smokes.

First time

John beefs up but Bipasha loves his moustache more

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Mumbai, June 01: Playing a cop for the first time in his career in the Hindi remake of Kaakha Kakha John Abraham isn’t taking any chances.

He wants to get the spoken language, body language, personality and tone just right.

For this John has not only been re-structuring his metabolism and changing his food and exercize habits and watching as many cops films from Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry to Om Puri in Ardh Satya to Amitabh Bachchan In Zanjeer repeatedly, he has also been socializing with cops trying to understand how their minds and bodies move.

30-year old hottie Nikhila Trikha is Ranbir’s Mom

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Mumbai, June 01: Ranbir Kapoor is very picky about his screen mothers, and that’s because he has very high standards at home to equal on screen.

Hence he had said some time ago, “My mom was and is a fabulous actress. But the person that I see on screen is not my mother. I see them as two different entities.I can’t see my mom playing my mother.”

At the same time Ranbir is extremely particular about who plays his mom on screen. In Raajneeti the choice was narrowed down even further since Prakash Jha wanted the actress playing Ranbir’s mother to resemble him physically.

Sneak Peak: Priyanka Chopra’s new toy

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Mumbai, June 01: Priyanka Chopra shows off her newest gizmo an iPad. The actress who recently purchased the device has been hooked on to it.

Even while shooting for Saat Khoon Maaf, PC was seen busy downloading new applications and getting a hang of the technology.

Apart from PC, Deepika and Neil Nitin Mukesh were also gifted iPads by their Lafangey Parindey director Pradeep Sarkar.

-Agencies

Some people want to ruin IIFA this year

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Mumbai, June 01: Sri Lanka is in a new era of peace after winning its long fought war against the Tamil Tigers, says actress Jacqueline Fernandez, elated that the IIFA Awards are being held in her home country this year and looking forward to playing the perfect host to her Bollywood colleagues.

“It’s one of the biggest events Sri Lanka has seen to date. I have quite a few roles to play at the IIFA this year, ” Jacqueline told in an interview.

Exclusive First Look: Saif Ali Khan as Agent Vinod

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Mumbai, June 01: Saif Ali Khan’s second production finally goes on floors.

Saif Ali Khan’s production Agent Vinod finally rolls. Late Saturday night, the actor shot for the film at a bungalow in Kandivali. His ladylove Kareena Kapoor co-stars.

Saif has shot at this location for his earlier movies like Omkara and Parineeta besides some ad films. The luck factor? “Not exactly, ” says the actor-turned-producer. “It is because the location went exactly with what we had in mind.”

Action scenes

SRK implements Karan Johar’s inputs in Ra.1

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Mumbai, June 01: Karan Johar may not be associated with Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.1, but the filmmaker believes in lending a helping hand to his buddy’s project.

While visualising SRK in the role of a superhero, KJo provided several inputs that were incorporated in the project. Says an insider, “Shah Rukh gave a draft of the script to Karan for his opinions. He read it thoroughly and suggested changes that were implemented.”

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