Month: September 2014

Southern actor-producer Dhanush’s Tamil drama “Kaaka Muttai”, which recently had its first world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, will next be screened at the Rome Film Festival starting Oct 16.

M. Manikandan-directed “Kaaka Muttai”, about two brothers living in a slum, will be screened in Alice Nella Citt – a parallel and independent section of the festival.

The film, which is co-produced by filmmaker Vetrimaaran, will also compete for the Taodue Camera D’ORO Prize for the best debut film.

Vikas Gowda won India’s ninth medal from athletics at the 17th Asian Games claiming the silver in men’s discus throw final at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium here Tuesday.

Gowda, who won the Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold, achieved a best throw of 62.58 metres in his second attempt, out of six, which was enough to secure the second spot.

However, the attempt was below his bronze-medal winning mark of 63.13m at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.

His debut Bollywood film “Khubsoorat” features quite a few fudged kissing scenes and Fawad Khan, the Hindi film industry’s new entrant from across the border, says he refuses to do intimate scenes as he doesn’t want to hurt the sentiments of his core audience.

He is seen as one of the most romantic hero in Pakistan, and interestingly has earned the reputation without getting intimate in front of the camera.

In “Khoobsurat” he is seen romancing Bollywood style icon Sonam Kapoor.

The Punjab government will soon release grants for aided private colleges in the state, a minister said Tuesday.

Higher Education Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra directed senior officers of the education department to release all pending grants of aided private colleges in the state.

Hundreds of teachers in private aided colleges in Punjab held a protest on Teachers’ Day Sep 5 – against the failure of the state government to release grants to these colleges.

Drawing similarities between himself and his onscreen flirtatious character Zaki, actor Sehban Azim admits that he is a playboy, but with a heart of gold.

In TV serial “Humsafars”, Zaki is a flirt and knows his way around women.

“In many ways Zaki is like how I am in real life. I am a little shy but Zaki is this flamboyant, extrovert who has his way with women. He enjoys undivided attention of women and is completely at ease in their company,” Sehban said in a statement.

Having already grilled several officials of the East Bengal Football club in connection with the multi-crore-rupee Saradha scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now sealed the accounts of the club’s holding company.

Confirming the news, club’s general secretary Kalyan Majumdar said the ED will be requested to defreeze the accounts so that it can make payments to the players and the club is able to function properly.

Actress Anjali, who is currently shooting for a yet-untitled Tamil film with Jayam Ravi, has quashed marriage rumours and said that she still has a lot to achieve in her career before she can think of tying the knot.

“I’m not planning to get married to a businessman as it’s being rumoured. I’m extremely busy with my career. I still have so much to achieve and hence, I’m not thinking about marriage for now,” Anjali told IANS.

The 28-year-old also feels “she’s too young” to get married.

On the work front, she’s currently busy shooting for Kannada film “Dheera Rana Vikrama”.

–IANS

The Indian pair of Varsha Gautham and Aishwarya Nedunchezhiyan finished second in the 12th and the final race to claim the bronze medal in the 29er – women’s two person dinghy – at the 17th Asian Games at the Wangsan Sailing Marina here Tuesday.

Skipper Varsha and crew Aishwarya finished the race, one minute and 41 seconds behind the Thai skipper-crew pair of Noppakao Poonpat and Nichapa Waiwai in the 12th race. The Thai duo went on to win the gold medal with a net 19 points.

Saudi Arabia has barred 98,000 people from entering Makkah because they did not have Haj permits, media reported Tuesday.

The authorities also did not allow 25,216 vehicles to enter into the holy site because they were not licensed to carry pilgrims, Arab News reported.

Police seized 85 vehicles for violating other Haj-related regulations.

Makkah Governor Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah inspected checkpoints and checked the operations at other major entry points to the city.

Last year, 4,000 people who tried to enter Makkah without Haj permits were denied entry.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is closely monitoring the evolution of a mysterious feature in a large hydrocarbon sea on Saturn’s moon Titan.

The enigmatic feature, which appears bright in radar images against the dark background of the liquid sea, was first spotted during Cassini’s July 2013 Titan flyby.

The feature covers an area of about 260 square km in Ligeia Mare – one of the largest seas on Titan.

The appearance of this feature could be related to changing seasons on Titan, as summer draws near in the moon’s northern hemisphere.

Eminent Shia cleric and MLA of opposition PDP in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari died today following prolonged illness. A four-time MLA from Pattan in North Kashmir, Ansari, 74, died in the wee hours today after battling a liver ailment for more than a year, his family said.

He is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter. Starting his career as a Congress leader in early 1960’s, Ansari was made Member of state’s Legislative Council on a Congress ticket in 1973. However, he switched over to Janata Party in 1977.

An Indian man Tuesday was awarded 18 weeks’ jail term for his involvement in the Dec 8, 2013, riots in the city.

Ravi Arun Vengatesh, 25, a quality control supervisor, became the 19th Indian to be convicted for the riots, the Straits Times reported.

Vengatesh was convicted of obstructing a police officer who was trying to control last year’s Little India riot.

He admitted obstructing acting inspector Thinagaran S. Krishnasamy near a lane at Chander Road.

The riots erupted after an Indian, Sakthivel Kumaravel, was run over by a bus.

It was only warm water for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who turned out to be the most unusual guest in the history of White House where he was the only one who ate nothing at President Barack Obama’s dinner for him last night.

A plate in front of the Indian leader remained empty as some of the most powerful men and women in the world seated around the table ate compressed avacados, crisped halibut, safron Basmati rice and salmon.

Ghaziabad police arrested three robbers and recovered a licensed pistol, a gold chain, a bracelet and a mobile phone looted from a businessman Sep 24.

Talking to the media, police officer Ran Vijay Singh said on the day of the crime, Bilaal of Nahal village in Ghaziabad district was caught while three of his accomplices managed to escape.

During intensive checking, police Tuesday nabbed the remaining three robbers — Anees, Monees and Shaad Mohammad. The first two are residents of Nahal while the third lives in Masuri town of Ghaziabad district.

The mortal remains of Kavita Karkare, wife of slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare, were today cremated at Worli in south Mumbai, a day after she died at a city hospital following brain haemorrhage.

Kavita (57), whose husband Hemant Karkare was martyred during the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack, had been admitted to the P D Hinduja hospital on Saturday. She had slipped into coma and was on ventilator till yesterday when she was declared dead.

Chronic alcohol abuse can lead to disruptions in the sleep cycle, which can last for months and even years after someone stops drinking, scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have found.

Clinical assessments and research indicate that individuals with alcohol use disorders frequently suffer from severely disrupted sleep.

This can occur when people are actively drinking, when they are going through withdrawal or when they are abstaining.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday visited the flood-affected areas in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

Concluding her two-day visit to flood ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday visited Jammu region.

They interacted with flood-affected families in a relief camp set up inside the Gujjar hostel.

Both of them assured the victims that the party will take up the issue of relief and rehabilitation of affected families with the central government.

They were also scheduled to visit another relief camp in Akhnoor area in Jammu.

President Pranab Mukherjee today expressed the hope that the just-concluded visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India will lead to a “deeper” bilateral engagement as this was in the interest of Asia and the international community.

In a message to Xi on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Mukherjee said during the Chinese president’s visit, both the countries had agreed to establish a closer developmental partnership which will propel bilateral ties.

An Egyptian court Tuesday sentenced 63 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to 15 years in prison on charges of violence during last year’s protests in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The defendants were convicted of committing violent acts, sabotage, attempted murder, damaging public property and possession of weapons, Xinhua reported.

The court also fined them 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,800).

Underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and one other co-accused were today declared as proclaimed offenders by a Delhi court in connection with the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal case.

Additional Sessions Judge Neena Bansal Krishna declared Dawood, Shakeel and Chandigarh-based Sandeep Sharma, who were chargesheeted by the special cell of Delhi police along with suspended cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandela, Ankit Chavan and others in the case, as they are evading arrest in the matter.

Goa will soon have a hi-tech four lane highway with two extra lanes of three metres each for two wheelers exclusively, in a bid to strengthen safety and make the roads environment friendly.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday laid the foundation stone for a four-lane stretch of NH 4A between old Goa and Panaji. The stretch will be numbered ‘Highway 17B’.

The 200-metre-long stretch will also have two special lanes of three metres each only for motor cyclists on either side.

The Indonesia International Motor Show 2014 at Jakarta International Expo featured 36 automotive brands.

The theme this year was ‘Smart and Safe Mobility’ as it exhibited environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient and affordable vehicles.

Nissan Motor Corporation showcased a lineup of new products across all three brands including Infiniti, Nissan, and Datsun, giving Indonesian customers a wider range of choices.

A new study has revealed that despite its apparent stability, the massive ice sheet covering most of Greenland is more sensitive to climate change than earlier estimates have suggested.

The scientists at the University of Cambridge said that this could accelerate the rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities worldwide.

According to human rights activists, Iran has executed a 37-year-old man after he was declared guilty of heresy and insulting Prophet Jonah by a court of law.

Mohsen Amir-Aslani was arrested nine months ago for his activities which the Iranian authorities said were “heretical.” His family however, contended that he was engaged in psychotherapy and conducted sessions in which he read and recited the Qur’an and provided his own interpretations of the holy book, reported The Guardian.

On Monday, Customs sleuths nabbed a smuggler from Kasargod as he was trying to smuggle 2.3

kg gold from Dubai in an Air India flight

Tip-off, the sleuths seized Abdullah Badhruddin from Kasargod in Kerala, who was travelling by

Air India’s (AI 952) from Dubai to Visakhapatnam via Hyderabad.

The sleuths come in the aircraft and seized Abdullah, as the flight stopped in Hyderabad.

Two gold bars and 2.3 kg yellow metal, concealed in two mobile phone covers, as his journey

was to end at Visakhapatnam, an official escorted Abdullah to Visakhapatnam for investigation.