Month: August 2010

Sangakkara replaced Sehwag

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Mumbai, August 01L Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara replaced Virender Sehwag at the top of International Cricket Council (ICC) batting Test rankings here on Sunday.

Sangakkara, who scored 219 and 42 not out against India in the second Test at Colombo, reclaimed the top spot after 2009. Sehwag made 99 runs in the first innings and did not bat in the second after the match ended a draw in Colombo on Friday.

Sachin Tendulkar also climbed two places to take fourth position in the Reliance Mobile ICC players rankings after his impressive double century in Colombo.

E Rajender elected TRS leader in AP Assembly

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Hyderabad, August 01: TRS MLAs today elected Huzurabad MLA E Rajender as their leader in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

Siddipet MLA and TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s nephew T Harish Rao has been elected deputy leader at a meeting of the 11 MLAs held here.

K Eswar and E Ravinder Reddy would be the secretary and whip of TRS Legislature Party respectively.

The TRS MLAs are likely to take oath tomorrow.

TRS has retained all the Assembly seats held by it in the recently held by-elections.

Tharoor, Sunanda offer prayers

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New Delhi, August 01: Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor and his friend Sunanda Pushkar today offered prayers at the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.

Tharoor and Pushkar arrived at the temple in the afternoon and performed ‘abhishek’ (offering).

Asked about the visit, Tharoor told mediapersons he had performed the ritual for “family peace”.

Pushkar was seated to the right of Tharoor while performing the pooja.

–Agencies

Rahul-Dimpy in public domain

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Mumbai, August 01: Rahul Mahajan and Dimpy Ganguly come together in front of public after visiting the famous Sidhhivinayak to temple. It was first time when both put up a show of togetherness in public for the first time on Sunday after a quarrel on Friday when kolkata based model walked out to return the same day following an apparent patch up.

Rosaiah holds all-party meet on Babhli issue

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Hyderabad, August 01: Ahead of the meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh between Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra on the contentious Babhli issue, Chief Minister K Rosaiah held an all-party meeting here today.

Telugu Desam and other opposition parties asked the state government to be tough on the issue and put forward the state’s case effectively at the tommorow’s meeting to protect people’s interests.

Five students feared drowned in Visakhapatnam

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Hyderabad, August 01: Five students who went for a swim at the famous Rushikonda beach in Visakhapatnam city this evening were feared drowned, police said.

The students, all boys (in the age-group of 16-18) who were studying in inter-second year in a local college in Visakhapatnam city, went for a bath at the beach on the occasion of ‘Friendship Day’, they said.

Two children drown in gurdwara pond

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Amritsar, August 01: Two children drowned while taking a holy dip in the pond of a gurdwara here today.

Eleven-year-old Sanju and Sonu, 10, who drowned, were part of a group of children which visited gurdwara Kolsar, police said.

The shrine is being managed by the SGPC.

–Agencies

Mithun to dance once again in new-age flick

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Mumbai, August 01: Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty will put on his dancing shoes once again after his 1982 smash hit ‘Disco Dancer’ in upcoming crossover movie ‘Spaghetti 24X7’.

This time, however, the actor, who strides the arthouse and commercial movies with equal elan, will get his son Mimoh for company in the film which will see the father-son duo appear for the first time on big screen.

Mithun had shown his dancing prowess in another Hindi film ‘Dance Dance’, but it was not so successful as ‘Disco Dancer’ which established him firmly in the world of commercial Hindi cinema.

CBI plea to shift Sohrabuddin case from Gujarat contempt of Supreme Court: BJP

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New Delhi, August 01: The BJP today accused the Congress of being obsessed with the protection of the human rights of “terrorists” and said that the CBI’s plea before the Supreme Court to shift the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case outside Gujarat amounts to contempt of the apex court.

Charging the Congress with misusing the CBI in the Sohrabuddin case, the party said that there are about 170 cases of fake encounters pending with the National Human Rights Commission and hoped that the apex court will take cognisance of these cases too and order a CBI probe into them.

Chopra ropes in Oscar winner producer for ‘Broken Horses’

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Mumbai, August 01: Vidhu Vinod Chopra is leaving no stone unturned for his ambitious Hollywood project ‘Broken Horses’.The filmmaker is all set to go on floors with the movie and has roped in Academy Award winner Barrie Osborne as the executive producer.

Osborne has worked on Hollywood blockbusters like ‘The Matrix’, ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘Face/Off’, and won the Best Picture Academy Award for ‘The Lord of the Rings The Return Of The King’.

The 66-year-old executive producer had been living in New Zealand for the last 10 years through the duration of ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy.

‘Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ tops weekend box office

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London, August 01: Vampires and the werewolves are ruling at the box office.’Eclipse’, the third installment in the superhit ‘Twilight’ saga has made it to the top at the box office by taking in about USD 68.5 million this weekend.

Summit Entertainment’s book adaptation also broke a record for the widest release in film history by getting 4,416 screens thus breaking ‘Iron Man 2’s record of 4,380 runs, Variety reported.

Two rare songs of Rafi released

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New Delhi, August 01: Two unheard and unreleased songs sung by Mohammad Rafi and composed by Madan Mohan have been released to mark the death anniversaries of the legendary musical duo who collaborated on some of the greatest hits in Bollywood.

Rafi’s 30th death anniversary falls on Saturday while 14th July marked Madan Mohan’s 35th death anniversary.

The two songs were recorded in their lifetime, but remained unreleased as the respective films were shelved.

Karuna praises Tamil cinema industry

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Chennai, August 01: Known for his proximity with Tamil cinema industry, DMK president and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has described the industry and its members as a ‘balm’ for his gruelling political routines.

‘Many people vent their anger against me by constantly issuing statements criticising me. But I am least bothered about them. For, I consider the film industry and its members as the balm for all the abuse and criticism,’ he said at the music launch of Tamil film,’Kanimozhi’ in Chennai on Thursday.

‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘Baghbaan’ screening in Kazakh film fest

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Mumbai, August 01: A week-long Indian film festival is on in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana where Bollywood hits like “Taare Zameen Par”, “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” and “Baghbaan” are being screened.

The festival was inaugurated at the reputed Kino Park cinema hall in Astana earlier this week by Indian Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar and Chairman of Committee on Culture Iliyas Kozybaev.

Speaking at the inauguration, Sajjanhar referred to the huge popularity of Bollywood films among the Kazakhs.

PM sets up panel to help check mounting T&D losses

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New Delhi, August 01: Concerned over transmission and distribution losses of over Rs 40,000 crore a year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a high level panel headed by the former Comptroller and Auditor General to suggest corrective measures.

The suggestions of the committee, to be headed by former CAG V K Shunglu, will be used as input for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).

As per the terms of reference, the panel will assess the financial position of distribution companies and state electricity boards, and project losses between 2010 and 2017.

Amar vows to continue in politics despite poor health

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Allahabad, August 01: Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh today said he would continue to take part in active politics despite poor health as he wanted to see that those leaders who subjected him to “humiliations” pay for their attitude.

“My health does not permit me to take part in hectic political activity. Still, I have come here to address this rally…,” Singh told a rally organised in the city jointly by his outfit Lok Manch, dalit organisation Indian Justice Party and the Peace Party of India.

Cong leaders of Telangana region to meet Sonia

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Hyderabad, August 01: Congress leaders from Telangana region are planning to meet party president Sonia Gandhi in the next few days after the humiliating defeat in the recent by-elections in Andhra Pradesh.

“All Congress leaders from Telangana are committed to separate state demand. Sonia Gandhiji is presently out of the country. She is in the US. We will meet her either tomorrow or day after tomorrow,” K Keshav Rao, a senior party leader and Rajya Sabha member, told reporters here.

Commercial Courts bill to be tabled in session: Moily

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Mumbai, August 01: The Commercial Division of High Courts Bill, 2009, under which special courts are contemplated for speedy hearing of commercial disputes of Rs five crore and above, would be tabled in the current session of the Parliament, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily said here today.

Moily inaugurated a conference on proposed amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, here.

The Commercial Courts bill proposes that disputes involving subject matter worth Rs 5 crore and above would be decided by special division benches of High Courts within one year.

Eighth suspect arrested in Gyaneshwari train tragedy

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Kolkata, August 01: A pro-Maoist activist has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the May 28 Gyaneshwari Express tragedy in West Bengal that killed 148 people, police said Sunday. A court later sent the suspect, the eighth to be caught in the case, to 10 days Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody.

Congress cannot emerge as main party without Dalits’ support: Chidambaram

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New, Delhi, August 01: Union home minister P Chidambaram today said Congress cannot emerge as a principal party without support of the Dalits in the country and said whenever it was without major Dalit leaders, atrocities against the community had raised its head.

“We all want Congress to become a principal party in India, especially Tamil Nadu. But that cannot be achieved without the support of Dalits,” he said at a function here to mark the joining of expelled BSP leader K Selvam and his supporters in Congress.

PM to release stamp on Muslim League leader

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New Delhi, August 01: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will release a commemorative stamp in honour of late Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) leader Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal here Monday, party president and union Minister of State for Railways E. Ahamed said.

Ahamed told that the commemorative stamp would be released by the prime minister at a function at his residence.

Thangal’s brother and president of the party’s Kerala unit Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal, union ministers, ministers from Kerala, MPs and senior leaders of the party will attend the function, Ahamed said.

Rosaiah confident of good kharif season

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Hyderabad, August 01: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah today expressed confidence that copious rainfall this season would result in a bumper kharif crop.

“We are committed to the welfare of farmers who constitute the backbone of the state’s economy,” a release from the Chief Minister’s office quoted him as saying during an official meeting.

“Encouraged with the favourable monsoon, the state government is now hopeful of bettering the previous record of 204 lakh metric tonnes food grain production in 2008 and reaching 208 lakh metric tonnes this year,” it stated.

BCCI want my lawyers’ recusal from the hearing: Modi

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New Delhi, August 01: Suspended IPL chief Lalit Modi today claimed that the BCCI disciplinary committee, probing his alleged irregularities, has demanded recusal of his lawyers representing him in the case.

Till date it is Modi, who has been demanding recusal of Chirayu Amin and Arun Jaitley from the three-member committee.

Modi, who has not appeared in person before the committee in the three hearings so far, made the claim on his twitter page and said he was shocked by the BCCI demand.

No decision on Keshub Mahindra in a hurry: Khurshid

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Ajmer, August 01: After announcing that the government may not interfere in the re-election of Keshub Mahindra, convicted in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, as Mahindra and Mahindra chief, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Sunday said it was too early to take a decision on this.

“Lets not decide in a hurry,” Khurshid said here on the margins of a function.

Mahindra, who in June was convicted for two years for his negligence in the Bhopal gas leak that killed thousands, was recently re-elected the company chairman by M&M shareholders.

VHP organises rally, demands Afzal’s hanging

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New Delhi, August 01: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) led a rally here Sunday demanding parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging.

“He attacked not our parliament but our conscience and self-respect. He should have been hanged the day he was caught,” said Surendra Jain, VHP’s national spokesperson.

The rally was held in Tilak Nagar area of the capital. Protesters carried placards and banners demanding Afzal Guru’s hanging.