Month: February 2015

I feel sad for Patrick Dempsey: Katherine Heigl

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Actress Katherine Heigl says she was sad to learn about Grey’s Anantomy co-star Patrick Dempsey’s recent split from wife Jillian.

Dempsey announced last week that his wife Jillian Flink and he were getting divorced after 15 years of marriage, reported People magazine.

“I think it’s always hard to have to go through something like that so publicly,” she said.

Heigl, who costarred with Dempsey for five years on Grey’s Anatomy, called the couple “both really great people”.

Jordan vows to ‘do all’ to free pilot after IS beheads Japanese hostage

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After a video showing the beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto appeared on the internet, Jordan has pledged to do everything it can to free a Jordanian pilot captured by the Islamic State (IS).

Jordan strongly backed Japan ‘s condemnation of Goto’s killing, reported the BBC.

The pilot, Lt Moaz al-Kasasbeh, was taken hostage by the IS after his plane came down in December on a mission to support the U.S.-led military coalition.

Jordan said that it is willing to free an Iraqi prisoner for his safe return.

(ANI)

Retired employees can now avail benefits of missed promotions

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Retired government employees who missed out on their promotions due to late meetings of the committees deciding on such departmental elevations will now be able to avail its post-retirement benefits.

“Instructions have been issued to all ministries and departments to give benefit of promotion to those employees who missed it due to late meeting of departmental promotion committee (DPC),” an official in the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said.

‘Peter Pan’ may be the reason I became an actor: Banderas

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Actor Antonio Banderas says he inspired to become an actor after watching ‘Peter Pan’ as a youngster.

The ‘Puss in Boots’ actor said as a kid when he watched the 1953 Disney film he was amazed by it, reported People magazine.

“The first time I saw the Disney version, I was, I don’t know, 6 years old. I remember it produced an incredible impression in me. I dreamt about that character. I remember getting in bed and seeing myself flying over London,” he said.

Justin Bieber quits drink and drugs?

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Pop sensation Justin Bieber has reportedly said no to drink and drugs.

The 20-year-old ‘Baby’ hitmaker has been criticised for a number of controversial moments in the past, reported Daily Mirror.

“There’s no one just looks up to more than Carl. He’s had a huge influence on him. They spoke at length about how he can get his life and career back on track and both agreed that getting rid of alcohol and drugs was the natural first step.

One rank-one pension scheme to be rolled out soon, Manohar Parrikar says

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Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday assured the ex-servicemen of early implementation of the one rank-one pension scheme, saying his ministry has fast-tracked the work on it.

The assurance came when a 27-member delegation of the ex-servicemen called on Parrikar at Kota House here, his residence for the time-being.

A rally was also held here by the ex-servicemen, seeking early implementation of the scheme.

Defence sources said Parrikar assured the ex-servicemen of rolling it out at the earliest.

1857 mutiny records not in condition to be copied: NAI

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Records related to the 1857 mutiny are in Urdu and not in a condition to be copied, according to National Archives of India (NAI), which expressed its inability to provide an RTI applicant with the information.

Right to Information (RTI) activist Salim Beg, who filed the query, also wanted to know details about the freedom fighters up to the end of the British rule.

India’s values make us closer; shouldn’t threaten China: Obama

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President Barack Obama has said that there are undoubtedly “aspects of India” that make US closer to India but China doesn’t need to be “threatened” because Washington has good relations with New Delhi.

“There’s no doubt that there are aspects of India that make us closer to India,” he had told noted Indian-American journalist Fareed Zakaria in an interview in New Delhi at the conclusion of his three-day historic visit.

Senior PDP leader takes up Pakistan refugee issue

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In an overnight communication, senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig ruffled many feathers within the party over the issue of granting permanent residentship rights to Pakistan refugees in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a five-page letter released to the media, Baig said the settlement of Pakistan refugees is a humanitarian issue and not a political issue as it is being made out to be.

Sensex down 126 points; banking stocks plunge

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A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Monday was trading 126.21 points or 0.43 percent down as banking stocks plunged.

Good buying was observed in health care and consumer durables sectors and selling pressure was seen in the banking and metal sectors.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,143.63 points, was trading at 29,056.74 points (at 09.27 a.m.) in the early session, down 126.21 points or 0.43 percent from the previous day’s close at 29,182.95 points.

Light rain likely in Delhi

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It will be a cloudy Monday here with spells of very light rain likely in some areas, the Met Office said.

“There was shallow fog in the morning. The day ahead will be partly cloudy and one or two spells of very light rain or thundershowers could occur in some areas,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department.

The visibility, which was 800 metres in the morning, affected the arrival of 20 trains to the city and forced the rescheduling of one, Northern railway said.

Royal sex scandal: Sex tapes could expose Prince Andrew

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Prince Andrew has been reportedly secretly filmed with Virginia Roberts in some sex tapes, which may link him to the underage sex slave.

The FBI agents have seized four gaudy recordings with four hours of footage each captured by the hidden cameras at Florida, where Andrew’s former friend Jeffrey Epstein has his guest house, the Daily Star reported.

PM Narendra Modi is master communicator at work: Shashi Tharoor

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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who only recently earned the party’s wrath for praising Narendra Modi, says in the Prime Minister “we are all seeing a master communicator at work” but hit out at BJP for “promoting a nakedly bigoted Hindutva agenda”.

Noting that communication has been a major strength of the NDA government, particularly Modi, he said, “The Prime Minister is very effective in speech-making, comes up with slogans, sound bites, photo ops in quite an unparalleled way.

Farrah Abraham returns to ‘Teen Mom’

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Reality TV star Farrah Abraham is returning to season five of show “Teen Mom”.

“There’s going to be lots of excitement from the ‘Teen Mom’ fans and MTV’s fan base as well, so I’m excited to be back!” she said.

“I think they were more or less saying that there was more to my story that they really felt was missing from the ‘Teen Mom’ show, and I totally agree with them. I understand their point of view, and it was a funny situation to be in,” the single mother of one added.

JIFF: Dilip Kumar gets ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’

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Padam Vibhushan and tragedy king of Bollywood Dilip Kumar was Sunday conferred ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his contribution to Indian cinema.

Actor Anumpam Kher received the award carrying a citation, shawl and srifal (coconut) by the Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) organising team, led by its founder chairman Honu Roz, at the inaugural ceremony at Golcha theatre here.

In her video message, wife of Dadasahab Phalke Awardee and actress of yesteryears cinema, Saira Bano said, “Dilip sahib will be very happy and feel to be honoured by with this award.

Programme undertaken to help one lakh kids resume their education: Smriti Irani

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Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday said the Rotary Club of India has partnered with her ministry to help one lakh children, who had stopped going to school due to various reasons, to continue with their education.

“The HRD Ministry will undertake the initiative to ensure that one lakh children, who had to drop out of school for various reasons back, can resume their education,” Irani told reporters.

She also announced that Mansi Mahumkar, a blind mallakhamb player from Maharashtra as the brand ambassador of HRD ministry’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.

Jet fuel price cut by 11.3 percent

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The price of Jet fuel has been cut by 11.3 percent and it will now cost less than diesel.

On the back of fall in international crude oil prices, oil companies announced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, in Delhi was cut by around 5,910 rupees a kilolitre to 46,513 rupees a kilolitre.

The cut is the seventh reduction in jet fuel rates since August 2014. Last month, the rate had gone down below the price at which petrol is sold. And after yesterday’s cut, it costs 46 rupees 51 paise a litre, even cheaper than diesel .

(ANI)

Sushma meets Russian FM Sergey Lavrov

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday met the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov .

Swaraj had also held talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Sunday, on a host of issues, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to China in May this year.

Earlier in September, Chinese President Xi Jinping had visited India and had signed sign several infrastructure related agreements with New Delhi and discussed important regional and international issues during the talks.

He had later invited Prime Minister Modi to visit China.

(ANI)

Obama: NFL should consider officials controlling game balls

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President Barack Obama is weighing into the controversy over deflated footballs and says the National Football League should be considering how officials can control game balls.

Obama says until the New England Patriots used deflated footballs in the AFC championship game, he didn’t realize each team prepares its own footballs and brings them to the game.

He says he’s assuming the league is going to figure out how officials will be in charge of the footballs from start to finish.

Obama made the remarks yesterday in an interview during NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show.

Greek FM asks European support to end debt ‘addiction’

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Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said he wanted to reach a new debt deal with creditors within months to end his country’s loan “addiction”, as he embarked on a European tour to build support for a renegotiation of Greece’s 240 billion-euro bailout.

Kicking off his diplomatic charm offensive in Paris yesterday, Varoufakis also said Greece did not want the next promised loan tranche of 7.2 billion euros (USD 8 billion) in funds from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank (ECB).

New York Giants matriarch Ann Mara dies at 85

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Ann Mara, the matriarch of the NFL’s New York Giants for the past 60 years, has died. She was 85.

Giants co-owner John Mara announced his mother’s death on Super Bowl Sunday. Ann Mara slipped in front of her home in Rye, New York, during an ice storm two weeks ago and was hospitalized with a head injury the following day. While there were initial hopes for recovery, John Mara said, complications developed and she died early yesterday surrounded by her family.

Lesotho PM’s bodyguards shot, bystander killed in crossfire

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Two bodyguards tasked with protecting Lesotho’s Prime Minister Tom Thabane were shot and wounded and a bystander killed in the crossfire, five months after a failed putsch in the tiny African kingdom, one of his senior advisers said.

Both the injured men were soldiers who had tipped off Thabane about the planned August 2014 coup when the military attacked several police installations and the prime minister’s residence, killing one police officer, the adviser said.

BJP Minority Morcha attracts Muslim membership in Bidar

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Bidar district BJP Minority Morcha conducted membership campaign near Usmaania Masjid Main road here today under the leadership of BJP National executive member Rawoof Uddin Kacheri Waale. Speaking to the press persons, he said, “We have made 500 members including 100 women. We have achieved this in half a day using their mobile phones to call on the party toll free number. Most of the new members are Muslims.” Mr. Rawoof added, “Many of the members came to BJP because they are happy on the eight months developmental programmes of the Modi government.”

Karnataka: Opposition set to corner Congress govt in legislature

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Opposition is expected to corner the Congress Government in the state during the legislature session beginning tomorrow on a host of issues, including the Arkavathi Layout land de-notification, on which they have targeted Chief Minister Siddaramaih alleging irregularities.

The session also comes at a time when the Chief Minister himself is facing the heat within his own party with complaints over his style of functioning and a section of legislators up in arms against him on the issue.

Ten students tonsured for allegedly not attending classes

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About ten students of a school with boarding facility here were allegedly tonsured by their caretakers allegedly for not attending classes regularly, police said on Sunday.

“We have received a written complaint that students heads were tonsured forcefully,” DCP Central (Bengaluru) Sandeep Patil told reporters here.

He said the complaint had been received and after taking legal opinion, further action would be taken.