Month: February 2013

Mumbai’s senior opening batsman Wasim Jaffer today lost his father who passed away at the Lilavati Hospital in suburban Bandra following a brief illness.

Abdul Kader Jaffer, a former bus driver with the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) undertaking, was 78, according to sources.

Former Test opener, Jaffer was recently declared the Man of the Match for scoring a century in the Ranji Trophy final against Saurashtra, which Mumbai won for the 40th time by an innings inside three days.

Weeks before hostilities erupted between Indian and Pakistani troops in the Kargil sector in 1999, Gen Pervez Musharraf crossed the Line of Control in a helicopter and spent a night at a location 11 km inside Indian territory, a former aide to the military ruler has said.

Col (retired) Ashfaq Hussain, who was a senior officer in the Pakistan Army’s media arm, said Musharraf flew across the LoC on March 28, 1999 and travelled 11 km into the Indian side.

Amid a raging controversy over Kamal Haasan’s “Vishwaroopam”, Tamil Nadu Government today said filmmakers should show “due respect” for sensitivities of people while making films like “Dam 999” and warned it will “not spare anybody who tries to whip-up communal passions.”

In his address to the Tamil Nadu Assembly in its first session for the year, Governor K Rosaiah said timely interventions by the government to ban release of sensitive films like “DAM 999” had avoided law and order problems.

A Palghar court has closed the case against the two girls – Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan – who were arrested for posting a comment on Facebook on the bandh after the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on November 17, 2012.
The Palghar sessions court on January 31 accepted the police closure report seeking dropping of charges against the two girls. The Boisar police had filed a ‘C’ summary report in December to close the criminal case on the grounds that it was ‘neither true nor false’.

Diesel prices will be hiked by 40-50 paise per litre every month till losses on the nation’s most used fuel are completely wiped out, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Friday.

“Until further orders, oil marketing companies can increase it (diesel price) by 40-50 paise (per litre) every month,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

The government had on January 17 decided to move towards deregulating or freeing diesel prices from state control and gave powers to state-owned oil firms to raise prices in small measures every month till all of their losses are wiped out.

Delhi woke up to a thick blanket of fog Friday with low visibility hampering air, rail and road traffic. More than 80 flights were delayed, several trains cancelled and road traffic was forced to slow to a crawl.

Minimum temperature settled a notch above average at 7.6 degrees Celsius. At 8.30 a.m., visibility was reduced to 100 metres.

Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan is Friday likely to meet leaders of the 24 Muslim organisations who opposed the release of his mega-budget multilingual “Vishwaroopam” to work out a solution and decide on the fate of the film.

Kamal Haasan and Muslim leaders will meet to decide what cuts should be made to the film so that theatres could screen it in Tamil Nadu, said Chandra Haasan, the actor-filmmaker’s brother and partner in Raj Kamal Films International, which produced “Vishwaroopam”.

Former Andhra Pradesh minister and ruling Congress legislator Shankar Rao was admitted to hospital here after he was detained by police for questioning in a land grabbing case.

Rao was picked up by police from his residence Thursday evening amid high drama. He was shifted to the government-run Gandhi Hospital after he complained of chest pain at Neredmet police station in Secunderabad.

Filmmaker Kamal Haasan’s brother Chandra Haasan met Tamil Nadu Home Secretary R. Rajagopal Friday along with leaders of 24 Muslim groups in a bid to end the ban on the film “Vishwaroopam”.

“There are seven to eight minutes of the film that need to edited,” said Mohammed Hanifa on behalf of the Muslim organisations, which complained that certain scenes were derogatory to their community.

Both sides are likely to come an amicable agreement.

Muslim leaders met Tamil filmmaker Ameer Sultan and Chandra Haasan’s production company Raj Kamal Films International Thursday.

Actor Arshad Warsi, who produced a movie titled “Hum Tum Aur Ghost” in 2010, says he is a “bad producer” and admits it turned out to be a “terrible” film. But he is ready to produce more films in future.

“I am a bad producer. I am an idiot, stupid producer I wasted so much money, lost so much of money, my crew was having a blast and we ended up making a terrible film. I will produce sooner or later but I will,” Arshad told IANS.

The actor also says he will don the director’s hat also someday.

Mining and other industrial activities are turning freshwater rivers into saline systems not only in Australia but also in other parts of the world, threatening species such as the mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, says a study.

“Our study shows that the increasing salt levels in freshwater river systems are causing severe bio-diversity losses and may make it easier for alien and exotic species to get a foothold in these ecosystems,” says Ben Kefford, study co-author from the University of Technology’s Sydney Centre for Environmental Sustainability.

The Pakistan government has failed to act against abuses by security and intelligence agencies, which allowed extremists to attack religious minorities, Human Rights Watch said Friday.

In its 665-page World Report 2013, it also criticized the authorities for doing little to address attacks against journalists and human rights defenders, and for serious abuses in counter-terrorism operations.

“Pakistan’s human rights crisis worsened markedly in 2012 with religious minorities bearing the brunt of killings and repression,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch.

Booker prize winning author Salman Rushdie on Friday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of blocking his visit to the eastern metropolis to promote a new film based on his novel Midnight’s Children.

Rushdie`s visit to Kolkata was part of a publicity tour for the Deepa Mehta directed film which hit theaters in India today.

Five people were killed and eight injured when a bridge partially collapsed after an explosion on a truck Friday morning in China’s Henan Province, authorities said.

The explosion occurred at 8.52 a.m., causing several vehicles to tumble down from the 30-meter-high bridge in Mianchi county, an official told Xinhua.

An 80-meter-long section of the bridge collapsed. The exploded truck was loaded with fireworks, according to an initial investigation.

Six vehicles have been retrieved.

Singer turned actress Asha Bhosle`s debut film ‘Mai’ had a star studded premiere at the Cinemax, Versova Thursday night with several Bollywood celebrities at hand.

Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Kajol, Sonam Kapoor, Sridevi, Shatrugan Sinha, Shraddha Kapoor, Ritesh Deshmukh, Tanvi Azmi, Poonam Dhillon, Sukhwinder Singh and others were among those present.

“I am here to give her good wishes for the film. I have not seen the film as yet,” Amitabhtold reporters.

Anil Kapoor said: “I am here to cheer Padmini (Kolhapuri) and Asha Bhosle and I would like to work with them in future.”

The second season of TV show ‘Yeh Hai Meri Kahani’, where Bollywood celebrities talks about their journey, is set to go on air Feb 17. It will witness inspirational tales of perseverance and success of Bollywood icons like megastar Amitabh Bachchan and actress Rani Mukerji.

To be hosted by Manish Dubey, the show is aired on UTV Stars.

Viewers will get to know of inspirational tales surrounding the actors, and know about their real life lessons.

Music composer and singer Aadesh Shrivastava recently launched his latest album ‘Global Sounds of Peace’ in a live concert in Mumbai.

The launch of the album, which features artists like Akon and Super star Amitabh Bachchan, saw performances by some of the well-known names in the music industry such as Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Kailash Kher and many more.

Speaking at the occasion, Big B enlightened the importance of music in today’s world and claimed that music is good for all of us as it connects us to the almighty.

Diesel prices will be hiked by 40-50 paise per litre every month till losses on the nation’s most used fuel are completely wiped out, oil minister M Veerappa Moily said today.

“Until further orders, oil marketing companies can increase it (diesel price) by 40-50 paise (per litre) every month,” he told reporters here.

The government had on January 17 decided to move towards deregulating or freeing diesel prices from state control and gave powers to state-owned oil firms to raise prices in small measures every month till all of their losses are wiped out.

A senior official of a Gurgaon-based telecommunication company was arrested here for harassing a woman on the Delhi-Patna Sampoorna Kranti Express, police said on Friday.

A joint team of the Government Railway Police (GRP) and district police arrested SP Singh Sisodiya, 64, a deputy general manager of a Gurgaon-based telecommunication company from Hotel Maurya here late Thursday night, GRP official Rampukar Singh said.

Singh said that Sisodiya was arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by the victim, who hails from Patna.

Mr. Hassan Noorian Consul General of Islamic Republic of Iran stressed the importance of Muslim unity to combat anti Islam forces and said that only through unit Muslims can fight anti-Islam and anti-Muslim forces. He was addressing a function in connection with jashn-e-Milad-un-Nabi (pbuh) and birthday of Hazrat Imam Jafer Sadeq.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative attended the function as chief guest.

At least four people were killed and eight injured on Friday after an bridge partially collapsed when an explosion took place on a truck in China’s Henan province, authorities said.

The explosion, which occurred at 8.52 am, caused several vehicles to tumble down the bridge in Mianchi county.

An 80-meter-long section of the expressway bridge collapsed, reported Xinhua.

The exploded truck carried fireworks. Six vehicles have been retrieved from the debris.

–IANS

Scientists have discovered certain genes in the star-nosed mole which may hold clues to beating chronic pain in humans suffering from conditions like arthritis.

The star-nosed mole has a bizarre snout fringed by 22 waggling tentacles that are highly sensitive to touch.

The tiny creature, native to North America, lives underground in almost total darkness and so relies on its nose to `see`, the `Daily Mail` reported.

Two accused criminals broke into the Morigaon district Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in central Assam and stole files relating to criminal cases from there last night.

The two broke open the windows of the court building and stole 30 files which they threw away in a nearby drain before fleeing away, police said.

One of the criminals Bimal Hazarika, however, left behind his wallet from where his driving license was found by police this morning.

Police immediately tracked him along with his accomplice Asim Bordoloi and arrested them.

A freak hail storm struck Rangareddy district on Tuesday night blanketing the streets of its three mandals. This was a never before experience for the residents of Chevella, Moinabad and Shankarpally mandals. Hail stones with the size of boulders rained from the sky, destroying crops, damaging houses and killing cattle. Unconfirmed reports say that nine people were killed in the freak weather.

The happier you are in your marriage, the more likely you are to pile on the pounds, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas studied 169 newly married couples over four years. They measured their weight and asked them how satisfied they were in their relationship eight times.

They found that spouses who were happy in their union tended to gain more weight while those who weren`t so satisfied tended to gain less weight.

The findings held even after compensating for factors such as pregnancy, the `Daily Mail` reported.