Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan feels that he has had not one but several mentors who’ve inspired him over the years.
“Even though I consider K. Balachander as my first mentor, but over the years I’ve had so many mentors such as Balu Mahendra, P. Bharathiraja, Ramesh Sippy and Dasari Narayana Rao, who have always inspired me with their work,” he told reporters at the audio launch of Telugu version of “Vishwaroopam” here Sunday.
The Swiss authorities have frozen $300 million in Credit Suisse accounts in Geneva held by the sons of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Swiss media reported Sunday.
The funds are in accounts that belong to Alaa and Gamal Mubarak. Both sons of the deposed president are currently in an Egyptian jail awaiting trial on charges of massive corruption.
Swiss media said the funds were transferred to Credit Suisse in 2005.
A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment.
China’s largest natural gas supplier has pledged to boost its output to help people meet their fuel needs this winter.
The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has asked its major oil and gas fields to operate at full capacity. It also plans to boost gas import to address the shortage.
The demand for natural gas has increased substantively this winter, driven by the continuous rain and snow that lashed China, Xinhua reported Sunday.
Major gas producers have been urged to provide uninterrupted supplies to residential areas, public facilities and transportation.
–IANS–
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak Sunday survived an attempt on his life, Xinhua reported.
Al-Mutlak was participating in a protest in Anbar province, about 100 km from Baghdad, when the attack took place. Several of his bodyguards were wounded.
Protests against Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki have intensified since the arrests of bodyguards of Sunni Finance Minister Rafie al-Issawi last week.
Maliki’s opponents accuse him of seeking to marginalize Sunni leaders.
Top leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Sunday watched the Peking Opera at a gala here to celebrate the New Year.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of CPC central committee, and Vice Premier Li Keqiang were among 1,000 people who attended the event at the National Center for Performing Arts.
The programmes included excerpts from classical Peking Opera “The fourth son visits his mother” and a series of other traditional works, Xinhua reported.
Close on the heels of the Delhi gang-rape, a 42-year-old woman was murdered Saturday after being allegedly raped in West Bengal, police said Sunday. Her husband too was assaulted and is critical after the rapists forced him to drink acid.
Police said one of the attackers has been arrested for murder and probe is on to determine if the woman was raped before being killed.
The incident happened Saturday when the couple, working at a brick kiln in Barasat in North 24-Parganas district, was returning home.
After making her debut in Bollywood this year, adult film star-turned-actress Sunny Leone wants to be taken seriously in the industry.The 31-year-old star of Pooja Bhatt’s erotic thriller Jism 2 said she is ready to learn and work hard as long as she gets the right kind of roles.
“I am not a veteran actress. I am just one film old. But I am ready to learn, I am a good learner. I want people to take me seriously.
Three people, including a couple, were trampled to death by wild elephants in separate incidents in Odisha’s Sundargarh district, official sources said here today. A couple, identified as William and Phulmani Ekka, was killed by a rogue elephant in Jharmunda village under Ujjwalpur forest range last night, they said. The male elephant which killed the two had also crushed to death another person of the same village on December 25. After getting separated from a herd of about 15 jumbos, the elephant was roaming the area causing damage to life and property in the vicinity, they said.
Pakistan might have notched up a comfortable six-wicket win over India in the first one-dayer but skipper Misbah-ul-Haq said his team was “lucky” today and they need to “work harder and improve a fair bit” to tame the hosts in the second match on Thursday. “Today we were lucky, India gave us a tough time in this situation. They lost five wickets early but still went on to make 227 and we couldn’t chase it down easily. So I think we have to improve a lot of things. To win the next match, we will have to work hard and improve a fair bit,” Misbah said in the post-match press conference.
Director General of Police (DGP) Prakash Mishra today dismissed rumours that any top Maoist leader was still present in Odisha and claimed that naxal problem in the state would be under control in next two years. “All the Maoist leaders are from outside Odisha. Sabyasachi Panda not a big leader as such. His position in the Maoist set up is known to all”, Mishra said during a visit to the steel city here. Ousted from outlawed CPI (Maoist), a marginalised Panda has formed his new outfit Odisha Maobadi Party.
A mentally challenged woman was allegedly raped by an employee of the Sadar hospital here in Bihar’s East Champaran district, police said today. Acting on the complaint of locals, District Civil Surgeon Saroj Singh lodged an FIR against Ram Sakal Ram in the town police station, Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar said. The employee has been accused of raping the woman in the hospital after bringing her in the town last night, the SP said. The accused is absconding and search is on to nab him, the SP added. Ram has been placed under suspension by hospital authorities. PTI
Two women and a child were charred and four other labourers seriously injured when a consignment of fire-crackers to be used in New Year celebrations exploded at a manufacturing unit in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh today. The condition of one of the injured women is critical as she has received 90 percent burns in the mishap that occurred at Sri Bhavani fire-cracker manufacturing unit in Kommarapalem village between 2-3 PM, they said.
Three persons were killed on the spot when a two-wheeler which they were riding hit an electric pole in Korangai village of Tallaravu Mandal of East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, today. The victims were returning from Yanam after attending a function. The accident took place at around 7 pm. The deceased, hailing from Jagannadapuram in Kakinada, were identified as P Venkatarama Rao (35), V Hari Kamesh (23) and B Nella Rao (25). Police suspect that they were drunk at the time. PTI
A captain faces a lot criticism when his team goes through a prolonged lean patch but India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni does not mind becoming a “punching bag” if it saves the other players from pressure. India have been going through a bad phase since last year and the effectiveness of Dhoni’s leadership has been questioned quite often in the recent times. However, Dhoni says he is okay with all the criticism, thrown at him in this crisis hour for the side. “I accept whatever comes to me. I feel good that I’m the punching bag because there’s less pressure on the team.
Congress MPs from Telangana region today said they would meet on January 4 to decide future course of action to make the Centre take a favourable decision on the statehood issue. “Since we were let down earlier, we would like to continue to put pressure and see that a road map is announced for formation of Telangana,” Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar told reporters here. The future course of action would be deliberated on January 4, he said.
The condition of a minor girl, who tried to commit suicide following a gang-rape three weeks ago, was now stable, resident medical officer of V S Hospital here said today. “She is stable now. She was on a ventilator yesterday, but now she has been put on stand-by ventilator,” resident medical officer of the hospital told PTI. According to the police, the 14-year-old was kidnapped by two persons who were in a car in Dholka town on December 6, and raped. The accused were identified as Prakash Devipujak and Mohit Devipujak. Her relatives lodged a complaint on December 14.
Opposing the demand for death penalty for rapists, Khaps in Haryana today said no law should be introduced in a hurry which can be misused. Speaking at a village here, Khap leader Sube Singh said that the authorities should not be carried away by emotions in the wake of the public protests over the gangrape issue and demand for death penalty for rapists. “We have seen the anti-dowry Act and the SC/ST Act being misused. Any new law which gives such harsh punishment would also be vulnerable to misuse,” Singh said.
An Indian man hailing from Andhra Pradesh, who runs a super market in the US, was found dead at the store under suspicious circumstances, according to reports reaching here tonight. According to R Shyam Sunder Reddy, an advocate in Karimnagar, his brother-in-law Goli Venkat Reddy (48) runs a super market at Cincinnati in Ohio state after he left here for the US about 12 years ago. The victim is married to Kavitha, a software engineer, and has a son named Praneeth.
Nearly seven years after courting a controversy by praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah, senior BJP leader L K Advani today said it was a prominent Swami of the Ramakrishna Mission, who had drawn his attention to the Pakistan founder’s desire for a secular state. Going down the memory lane, Advani said it was during a meeting in Kolkata that Swami Ranganathananda drew his attention to Jinnah’s speech to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan that its citizens should refrain from religious discriminations.
A young man who saw a Delhi Police constable collapse and later die during the anti-rape protest near India Gate claimed that his phone was being tapped after police questioned him on Thursday. “My phone is being tapped…I don’t know why,” witness Yogendra Tomar said.
Yogendra, 24, a journalism student, was questioned by officers of the crime branch of Delhi Police after he challenged the police version of the constable Subhash Chand Tomar being beaten by protestors.
Delhi Police “forced” the family of the 23-year-old gang-rape victim to cremate her body before sunrise after she was flown here from Singapore early on Sunday, a local BJP leader alleged.
“The family members refused to cremate the body before sunrise. But they where forced by the police to do the cremation. The family where forced to do the last rites before sunrise,” Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party chief Vijender Gupta, who participated in the last rites, said.
Saryug Singh, father of Delhi gangrape accused Akshay Thakur, has locked himself in his house along with his wife while security men deputed outside are saying they can hear frequent wails from inside since the the Delhi braveheart lost her battle for life. Thakur, one of the six accused, was arrested by a joint team of Delhi and Bihar police from his house in Lahankarma.
A Delhi Home Guard, who was found sleeping during his duty on a night bus, was on Sunday dismissed from service, while the driver of the vehicle was placed under suspension.
The Delhi Transport Corporation bus was plying between Kashmere Gate to Najafgarh on route no 72 last night when a woman found the Home Guard on duty was sleeping.
Home Guards were recently deployed in night buses after an outrage over the gang-rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus.
Suspension of flights by crisis-hit Kingfisher Airlines may be a possible reason for soaring airfares, although there is no evidence as yet of any price cartelisation among the carriers, fair trade regulator Competition Commission has said. “If there was indeed a cartel, which is formed to make disproportionately high profits, the airlines would not have been making losses. But, the fact is none of them is making profits, so you cannot have a cartel,” Competition Commission of India (CCI) Chairman Ashok Chawla said in an interview.
Al Qaida’s branch in Yemen has offered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who kills the US ambassador in Sanaa or an American soldier in the country.
An audio produced by the group’s media arm, the al-Malahem Foundation, and posted on militant websites Saturday said it offered three kilograms of gold worth $160,000 for killing the ambassador, Gerald Feierstein.
The group said it will pay 5 million Yemeni riyals ($23,000) to anyone who kills an American soldier inside Yemen.