Mumbai, August 25: Actress Priyanka Chopra is hardly a friendly host in Rio de Janeiro where the stunts for Colors’ adventure reality show ‘Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi’ are being shot.
According to news filtering out of the beaches of Copacabana where the first batch of stunts were shot with 13 contestats, hostess Priyanka was not kidding when she said she would make the contestants hate her with her instructions.
Raipur, August 25: Pradeep Gandhi, one of the 11 MPs expelled from the Parliament after being found guilty in the cash-for-query scam, has been reinducted in the BJP, party sources said today. Gandhi, a former MP from Rajnandgaon constituency in Chhattisgarh, has been brought back into the party fold as a special invitee in the state working committee, they said.
New Delhi, August 25: Jammu and Kashmir PWD Minister G M Saroori was today asked to tender his resignation to chief minister Omar Abdullah in the wake of the controversy over alleged impersonation of his daughter during an entrance exam. “The party minister has been asked to resign”, Congress general secretary Prithviraj Chavan told PTI tonight.
Mumbai, August 25: Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif, who had always refrained from speaking about her relationship with actor Salman Khan, has finally confirmed that she was single.
‘I am single. But beyond that I don’t think I need to give too much of details,’ Katrina told reporters Tuesday at the Trident hotel, where she was named as the international brand ambassador of Etihad Airways.
Etihad Airways is the national airlines of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
London, August 25: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are reportedly planning to move into a new home together in Los Angeles in a bid to save their relationship.
The couple, believed to have been dating since meeting on the sets of ‘Twilight’ in 2008, are reportedly renting a $14,000-a-month five-bedroom house in a bid to strengthen their relationship, reports contactmusic.com.
The pair are hoping the move can cement their love for one another after their relationship became strained due to working commitments that kept them apart.
——-IANS
New Delhi, August 25: Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal, who termed his co-star Kareena Kapoor as ‘Bollywood’s Sachin Tendulkar’, Tuesday clarified he meant that she was in ‘great form’ as the cricketer.
‘I said Kareena is in great form like Sachin Tendulkar. Kareena is strong enough to have an identity of her own and I would never compare her like that,’ Arjun told reporters here at a press conference of her film ‘We Are Family’.
‘What I said and what has been quoted is very different. I meant she is in great form but the story has been churned very differently,’ he added.
Kolkata, August 25: Five months after the devastating fire at Stephen Court that claimed 43 lives, the owner of the building Sanjay Bagadia was arrested from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday evening. “We had information that he was hiding in Saharanpur.
A team of the Detective Department was waiting there for several days to confirm that,” Kolkata Police Commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti said.
He will be interrogated on how he let violations of fire safety norms and the illegal construction to take place.
——Agencies
Beijing, August 25: More than 40 people were killed in the crash landing of a Chinese passenger plane in north-eastern China late on Tuesday, state media reported.
The bodies of 43 people had been recovered from the wreckage, Xinhua news agency reported early Wednesday citing local officials.
Another 53 people were hospitalized with injuries following the crash.
The Henan Airlines plane, a Brazilian-built Embraer E190, overshot the runway at Yichun City in Heilongjiang Province on a flight from Harbin and burst into flames.
Washington, August 25: The US treasury department has frozen the assets of the finance chief of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law.
The department Tuesday froze all assets Muhammad Abdallah Hasan Abu-al-Khayr has under US jurisdiction and prohibited US nationals from engaging in any transactions with him, Xinhua reported citing an official statement.
Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey called al-Khayr a “key leader of the terrorist organisation’s finance section”.
Chennai, August 24: MDMK leader Vaiko today dismissed as an “unadulterated lie” the claim of a leader of the banned LTTE, now in detention in Sri Lanka, that he had prevented India’s attempt to bring about a ceasefire between the militant outfit and the Lankan army.
“It is an unadulterated lie. I would have been the most relieved person if the war had stopped,” Vaiko, known for his pro-LTTE stand, said in a statement here.
New Delhi, August 24: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a senior officer of the commerce and industry ministry and recovered incriminating documents and Rs.7.25 lakh acquired through alleged illegal means, an official said Tuesday.
The officer, according to the probe agency, was seeking undue favours from private companies who were flouting anti-dumping rules.
Director (Anti-Dumping) R.K. Jain was arrested Monday and has been sent to CBI custody till Friday.
Washington, August 24:The job approval rating of US President Barack Obama, who is currently on a 10-day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, has dropped to 43 per cent.
The new low also marks the first weekly average in which 50 per cent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s job performance, Gallup Poll has said.
“The erosion reflects particularly low ratings at the beginning of last week, including 41 per cent for August 15-17 and August 16-18, the lowest three-day averages of his administration,” it said, adding that by the end of the week, however,
New Delhi, August 24: In a big blow to Vedanta Resources, Government on Tuesday rejected environment clearance to its USD 1.7 billion bauxite mining project in Orissa after accepting recommendations of its key panel clearing such ventures.
Giving reasons for the denial of clearance, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters that “there has been a very serious violation of Environment Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act and the Forest Rights Act.
New Delhi, August 24: World Chess Champion Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand today termed the controversy over his nationality as disappointing but said he does not want to stretch the issue too far and would prefer to move on.
“When the whole thing came about it was disappointing but I think by now I understand that these are bureaucratic things which happen and you can see the funny side of it. The silver lining is that people now know that I am really an Indian completely,” Anand told TV channels.
Mumbai, August 24: The City Police probing the diamond heist case suspect that the four foreigners, including a woman, held at Dubai airport may have swallowed the packets of stolen precious stones to escape security checks at the Mumbai airport.
“There is a strong possibility that the accused may have swallowed the packets of diamonds. Our preliminary probe suggests that the accused may have adopted this modus operandi to escape security layer at the city airport here,” a senior crime branch official told PTI tonight on the condition of anonymity.
New Delhi, August 24: The NCP will hold its first ever North American convention in New York next weekend, it was announced here today.
NCP’s founder and President Sharad Pawar will address hundreds of delegates at the two-day event to be held at a convention centre in New York’s iconic Times Square.
Besides Pawar, party leaders P A Sangma, Union Ministers Praful Patel and Agatha Sangma, Ministers in the Maharashtra government Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Vijay Gavit, Anil Deshmukh among others will be attending the convention.
New Delhi, August 24: A high-level meeting was today held to take stock of the security measures being put in place for the upcoming Commonwealth Games amidst rising concerns over the delay in construction of Games related venues.
The meeting, chaired by Home Secretary G K Pillai, was attended by representatives of all concerned paramilitary forces and of Central security agencies.
It was held to keep tab on the security arrangements for the sporting extravaganza scheduled between October 3-14 here.
Beijing, August 24: More than 40 people were injured after a plane with 91 people on board overshot the runway while landing at an airport in northeast China late Tuesday, civil aviation authorities said.
The Henan Airlines aircraft crashed in Yichun City of Heilongjiang province at 9:36 p.m. There were 91 passengers, including five children, and five crew members, on board the plane which left the provincial capital Harbin at 8:51 p.m., officials with Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.
New Delhi, August 24: An official of the Railway Minister’s cell (office) appears to have fallen victim to the anger of the Ministry bosses following an RTI revelation that Rs 11 lakh was spent by authorities who went to meet Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal several times.
The official, who is believed to have cleared the file related to the RTI reply, has been asked not to report for duty for the next two days, sources in the Ministry said.
He also faces the threat of being shunted out from the cell.
Kolkata, August 24: In a bid to boost morale of partymen and woo voters ahead of the crucial Assembly polls scheduled next year, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi will visit the state next month.
“The visit of these two high-profile Congress leaders will boost the morale of the Congress rank and file and help the party to gear up for the assembly polls,” WPCC general secretary Debabrata Basu told PTI here today.
New Delhi, August 24: Telugu Desam Party today said it would oppose the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill unless the government reconsiders relevant amendments that were included in the legislation.
Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu said TDP is with Left parties on the issue and it will “fight it out” if the government does not consider making the changes as demanded by the Left.
New Delhi, August 24: Jairam Ramesh, India’s green minister, has found new power in saying no to big industrialists and multi-million dollar projects if he thinks ecological balance is at stake.
Saying no to London-based industrialist Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta group’s bauxite mining project in Orissa is the latest of his headline-hogging decisions that has firmed up his reputation as a no-nonsense minister-cum-crusader.
In barely 14 months as environment minister, the suave 56-year-old technocrat-turned-politician has pitchforked a low-key ministry into front-page headlines.
Toronto, August 24: Bollywood star Suniel Shetty may have no political affiliations, but he is all praise for Gujarat and its leader for making it the fastest growing state in India.
Without naming Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Suniel, who is here shooting for Anees Bazmee’s “Thank You”, showered praises on him during an interaction with media.
New Delhi, August 24: Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Tuesday laughed out reports claiming her filmmaker friend Karan Johar has asked her to shed weight for his movie, saying she is happy with the little that she has gained recently.
“I read the report on the flight today (Tuesday). It is completely false. I am not going to lose any weight. I have gained a little recently and I am very happy with it,” Kareena told reporters here at a press conference of her film “We Are Family”.
Islamabad, August 24: In a rare show of harmony, Muslims recited the Quran while the Hindus gathered for special prayers on the banks of river Indus near Shahdad Kot town of Pakistan’s Sindh province amid the misery of the country’s worst disastrous floods.
While the Muslims recited verses from the Quran, the Hindus chanted hymns from the Geeta so as to stave-off the devastation.
They said the flooding was a result of bad morals prevalent in the society and it was necessary to pray for forgiveness.
The town has been protected by a temporary embankment erected by the locals.