Mumbai, August 06: Debutant director Siddharth Malhotra feels his cousin Kareena Kapoor has surpassed Julia Roberts in “Stepmom” in his remake “We Are Family”.
“According to me Kareena has surpassed Julia Roberts from the original,” gushes Siddharth.
He also confesses that getting Kareena to work in the film was not easy though they are cousins.
London, August 06: A council in Britain has triggered a backlash among parents and animal welfare groups after introducing halal-only menus at state schools, a media report said Friday.
Only meat from animals killed in line with Islamic teaching will be offered at 52 primary schools in Harrow, following a switch by 10 secondaries to halal menus, Daily Mail reported on its website.
But parents have voiced concern over the methods used to slaughter animals in this way and say they haven’t been properly consulted over the changes.
New Delhi, August 06: Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee who was last seen hitting boundary shots in “Dil Bole Haddipa” says cricket is not a man’s game. This is just an illusion under which people live.
“Since childhood, girls are always discouraged to play sports and are given certain guidelines as cricket is a man’s game, which is just an illusion under which people live,” Rani told reporters here Thursday at the launch of a docu-drama “Poor Cousins of Million Dollar Babies”.
New Delhi, August 06: Further raising susicions on the possible Jwala-Azharuddin link up, the badminton star has filed for divorce just weeks after the cricketer decided to end his marriage with model wife, Sangeeta Bijlani.
“Yes, I am filing for divorce,” Jawala Gutta is quoted as confirming in a newspaper report.
New Delhi, August 06: India on Thursday agreed to let officers investigating the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks depose before a Pakistani court through video conferencing.
Pakistan’s anti terror court had requested for statements from Indian investigating officers of 26/11 case who had recorded Mumbai attacker Ajmal Amir Kasab’s statement. The Union Law Ministry gave the permission for Indian officials to depose before the Pakistani court on Thursday, a day before Pakistan had asked for a response by India.
Bhalui, August 06: As many as 13 people, including a GRP jawan, were injured when armed robbers opened fire and beat the passengers of an express train with rifle butts near Bhalui halt here early today.
The robbers also looted cash and other valuables, worth Rs 2 lakh, from the passengers travelling on the Sealdah-New Delhi Lal Quila Express, Railway officials said.
The condition of the jawan, who received a bullet injury, is said to be critical.
Passengers were hurt when they tried to resist the looters who opened fire and beat them up with rifle butts.
Bangalore, August 06: Syed Mazhar, the Indian pilot who was taken hostage by rebels in the Congo July 24 and freed Tuesday, flew in here late Thursday saying he wanted to forget the ordeal.
“I had given up all hopes of being safely released,” the 25-year-old Bangalorean told reporters on his arrival.
He was, however, reluctant to give details about his time in captivity.
Mazhar, a co-pilot with Congolese airline Goma Express, was taken captive by the rebels who attacked his aircraft on a remote airstrip in the Congo’s tin-mining zone in North Kivu province.
Algiers, August 06: Algeria’s importing of more than 4,000 tons of Indian stirred controversy as a fatwa was issued prohibiting its consumption on the grounds that comes from “pagans.”
Sheikh Shamseddin Bouroubi, known for his controversial views, published Wednesday a fatwa warning Algerians that eating Indian meat is strictly forbidden since the animals were most likely not slaughtered in accordance with Islamic teachings.
” We have previously imported meat from non-Muslim countries and no problems happened “
Hyderabad, August 05: Stepping up attack on the Congress leadership in Andhra Pradesh, a close confidante of Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy today alleged that there is an attempt to send the young MP out of the party.
“There is an attempt to test the patience of Jagan Mohan Reddy and to send him out of the party. This is not correct. This is going to hurt the Congress very badly,” Ambati Rambabu, state Congress general secretary who has been suspended from the party, told reporters.
Ahmedabad, August 05: The CBI today challenged in the Gujarat High Court the order of a lower court rejecting its plea for remand of former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
CBI’s plea demanding 10-day custody of Shah was rejected yesterday by the court, saying the probe agency does not have substantial grounds to seek his remand.
Lucknow, August 05: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Thursday ordered tough steps against food and drug adulterators and also against her officials displaying laxity in bringing the culprits to book.
“District Magistrates (DM) will be directly held responsible wherever adulteration of food and drugs is detected”, said a circular issued by the chief minister Thursday.
London, August 05: Breast cancer screening may not be as useful as thought because in some cases, where the disease does not need treatment as it can heal itself or is very slow growing, unnecessary treatment is given.
Mammograms just manage to save one out of 258 women screened in Britain, concludes Kim McPherson, Oxford University epidemiologist and professor, reports the Daily Mail.
New Delhi, August 05: From falling into a ditch to getting hit by an auto –Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone faced it all while shooting for her upcoming movie “Lafangey Parindey” and she feels that it has been the most challenging film of her life.
“This has physically been the most challenging film for me. I had to learn how to skate, then I had to act blind, I had to hold a pigeon, run behind a chicken, get bitten by a dead fish – don’t ask me how,” Deepika said.
Hyderabad, August 05: Congress tonight suspended a senior leader of its Andhra Pradesh unit, who is a close aide of party MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, on the charge of indulging in anti-party activities.
A statement from AICC in charge of Andhra Pradesh M Veerappa Moily said Ambati Ramababu, PCC General Secretary, has been suspended with “immediate effect for his anti-party activities and making anti-party statements”.
Ramababu was recently summoned before the party’s disciplinary committee to explain his outburst against Chief Minister K Rosaiah.
Hyderabad, August 05: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday announced that his party members will take up a padayatra in the adjoining areas of the Sri Ramsagar Project to create awareness about the illegal constructions across the river Godavari as part of the Babli Irrigation Project by the Maharashtra government.
Hyderabad, August 05: As a sequel to the warning of the Kadapa MP, Mr Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, that his patience was wearing out, his staunch follower and former MLA, Mr Ambati Rambabu, told the party leadership that it was violating the party constitution in suspending Jagan’s followers and warned that if they go on suspending people, there would be no one left.
Hyderabad, August 05: BJP Andhra Pradesh unit is evolving various programmes to further strengthen party base in the state, said its president G Kishan Reddy here on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, he said the party is gearing up to take up long-term agitations on people’s problem including training programmes to its workers in coming months.
A decision has been taken in the meeting of state office- bearers and party’s district presidents held here yesterday in which former party president Rajnath Singh attended as chief guest, Reddy said.
Hyderabad, August 05: Defending the sharp criticism of the Chief Minister by him and Ms Surekha, Mr Rambabu has questioned why he should not be criticized.
He said that no action was taken against him when he criticized the then chief ministers Dr Marri Chenna Reddy and Mr Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy, when he was an MLA. He said that criticism should be taken in the right spirit as it was meant only for strengthening the party and the government.
New Delhi, August 05: Severe punishment awaits those involved in honour killings as the government intends to bring a law on the matter in the current Parliament session itself, Home Minister P Chidambaram said in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Maintaining that such cases were bringing “dishonour to the families, the community and the country”, he said the proposed law would identify the crimes and award punishment with “more severity”.
Dubai, August 05: A British holidaymaker in Dubai, who walked through the world’s largest shopping centre in a bikini after being objected for her low-cut top, has now been charged for indecency.
The woman was buying clothes and gifts in the Dubai Mall, fully dressed but in a low-cut top, when she was accosted by an Arabic woman and criticised for wearing ‘revealing clothing’.
The pair then became embroiled in a heated row in front of hundreds of bemused shoppers.
New Delhi, August 05: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani, along with a delegation of Members of Legislative Assembly from Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the prevailing situation in the valley and demanded that the Centre should intervene to restore normalcy in the state.
The delegation expressed its opposition to the proposed political package for the state which was discussed between the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
New Delhi, August 05: A teenaged college student was abducted and raped in a car in West Delhi allegedly by a businessman who has been arrested, the police said on Thursday.
Mukesh Singhal, who runs a paper producing factory, allegedly raped the 17-year-old first year student of a Delhi University college on Wednesday evening, a senior police official said.
Singhal stopped his car and asked her for an address. When she responded, he allegedly pulled her inside the car and took her to an isolated place where he raped her, the official said.
Hyderabad, August.0 : The Minister for Forests, Mr. P. Ramachandra Reddy, has said that the government has decided to build up the required 33 percent of forest area according to the norms.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Thursday, Mr Reddy said that at present there was only 22 percent of forest area as social forestry could not be taken up as planned, because of budget constraints. He also said that the budget allotted to the department was just sufficient for salaries and other routine expenses, he added.
New Delhi, August 05: The labelling of the coffin of a Hindu killed in last week’s plane crash in Islamabad as ‘kafir’ (non-believer) by the authorities raised a storm in Pakistan over the treatment meted out to minorities in the country.
Premchand, a social worker from Sanghar in Sindh, was one of the six members of the Youth Parliament, who died in the plane crash.
Abuja, August 05: Nigeria is unique because it has the largest concentration of Muslims and Christians living together in the world and it is also the most populous country in Africa.
Islam found its way to Nigeria about two centuries ago, starting from the north of the country, and was brought by Arab and Muslim merchants who came not only for business purposes, but also for spreading the word of Allah.