Month: June 2015

Terming the recently delivered order of the Madras High Court that directed the rapist to mediate with the victim as “illegal” and “unwarranted”, legal eagles pitched for delivering justice instead of referring it for “settlement”.

Expressing that such verdict will increase rape cases in the country, legal experts said the high court had no power to overwrite expressed provisions of law and “rape survivors needs justice instead of sympathy”.

Critically acclaimed Tamil musical gangster film “Jigarthanda” is being remade in Kannada featuring actors Rahul and Ravi Shankar in the lead roles. The yet-untitled remake is being helmed by actor-filmmaker Sudeep.

“Rahul will be reprising the role of Siddharth, while I’ll play Bobby Simha’s part in the remake. We’ve already started shooting,” Ravi Shankar, who plays the main antagonist, told IANS.

The remake also features Samyukta Hornad in the role originally played by Lakshmi Menon.

Do you want to be seen as a more loving parent and a better cook too? Serve vegetables to your kids at dinner time.

If families want to eat more vegetables, dinner is the place to start.

“If you serve vegetables at dinner, not only will your family think you are a better cook, they will also think you are a more loving parent,” said lead author Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at the Cornell University.

“Even if kids may not like the food, simply having a vegetable on the plate can make the whole meal be perceived as tastier,” Wansink noted.

Country’s financial capital Mumbai has been ranked as the fifth most budget-friendly city among 40 key tourists countries of the world, according to a survey.

Mumbai comes after Hanoi (Vietnam), Warsaw (Poland), Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) and Bangkok (Thailand), 2015 TripIndex Cities, annual TripAdvisor cost comparison study showed.

The most expensive destination in the world is Cancun, Mexico, Zurich in Switzerland was ranked at the second spot, followed by New York City (USA), London (UK) and Punta Cana (Caribbean).

Expressing shock over reports of two undertrials lodged in Tihar Jail escaping through a tunnel they had dug under the perimeter wall, Congress leader Tom Vadakkan on Monday said the Delhi Government and the Centre must initiate action on this matter.

“It is shocking that prisoners dig a tunnel in the high security Tihar Jail in Delhi. The state government and the Centre must take action,” he said.

Two prisoners scaled one wall and dug a tunnel under another in the dead of night to escape from Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Thousands cheered on as the Dalai Lama received a cake on main stage at Glastonbury Festival to mark his 80th birthday.

It was Tibetan Buddhism’s head monk’s first appearance at the iconic music event, where he was addressing the massive audience in the Worthy Farm fields, but was surprised when suddenly the crowd burst into a rendition of “Happy Birthday” after punk rock singer Patti Smith initiation.

His birthday is due next week.

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence continued her new trend of joking around with photographers during an outing at the Waverly Inn in New York City.

The 24-year-old star emerged from her car looking every inch the glamorous movie star except for the silly unibrow and goatee that was drawn on her face with a marker, reported People magazine.

Lawrence turned heads outside Nobu in NYC on Wednesday when she stuck a pair of chopsticks in her mouth while making her way down the sidewalk.

Singer Arpita Chakraborty, who has sung songs like “Lori of death” and “Raske bhare tore naina”, is happy with the response to her latest title track for forthcoming romantic film “Bezubaan Ishq”.

The film stars Mugdha Godse, Sneha Ullal and Nishant Malkani.

The romantic track, sung by Arpita and Javed Ali, has received a positive response from the audience.

“Music is a universal language of mankind. This song ‘Bezubaan Ishq’ is really close to my heart as it speaks the language of love with the help of feelings and passes on a lovely message,” Arpita said in a statement.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met her Thai counterpart General Tanasak Patimapragorn here on Monday.

Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Vikas Swarup took to twitter to share the information.

“Strengthening India-Thailand cooperation. EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets Gen Tanasak Patimapragorn, DPM & Foreign Minister,” he posted.

Swaraj is currently on a three-day official visit of Thailand. (ANI)

Actress Kaley Cuoco is reportedly “secretly worried” about her marriage to tennis player Ryan Sweeting.

“The Big Bang Theory” star has been denying rumours that her relationship with Sweeting is on the rocks, but it is reported that she has her own doubts, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“Kaley is really paranoid…she doesn’t let him out of her sight. She always asks Ryan who he’s with and never knows what he’s doing. She’d flip if he didn’t answer his phone. And it drives him crazy,” US’ OK! magazine quoted a source as saying.

Fans of Wimbledon 2015 have set a new opening day queuing record by camping for almost 54 hours to buy tickets for the games.

All the tennis fans camped outside the Centre Court Wimbledon tickets, including a group of 60-year-old women who were there from around 7:30 in the morning on rainy day of June 27, whereas the sale had to start from 1 pm in the afternoon, the Mirror reported.

Management later forced almost 50 fans and the group of old women outside the Wimbledon Park and banned early queuing as it would have affected people’s health and safety.

A scuffle broke out between the police personnel and AAP leaders here on Monday during the Arvind Kejriwal-led party’s protest march demanding the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Maharashtra Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde.

Carrying banners which read that the four BJP leaders should step down from their respective posts, the protestors raised slogans against the government for not initiating any action against them.

In a daring jailbreak, two undertrials dug a tunnel in the country’s most secure prison, Tihar jail, and managed to escape.

While one of the escaped convict was caught, the other one is still at large, as per news reports.

Housed in Jail no 7, the two convicts reportedly scaled the wall and then dug a tunnel linking to the boundary of the prison complex on Saturday night.

Their absence could be detected only on Sunday night after they failed to respond to their roll call.

An alert was immediately sounded and a search led the jail officials to the tunnel.

The small but influential Indian-American community provides an important bridge between India and the United States, American lawmakers have said.

“We look forward to building the relationship between India and the United States and we thank the community here for the bridge that they help provide so that these two great democracies can work ever closer together for a common goal,” Congressman Ed Royce said.

Ecstatic after winning the Canada Open women’s doubles title with Jwala Gutta, Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa today said consistency has been the key to their success and this victory is a big boost ahead of the prestigious World Championship in August.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist pair of Ashwini and Jwala defeated the top-seeded Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek 21-19 21-16 to clinch the USD 50,000 Canada Open Grand Prix tournament last night.

The small but influential Indian-American community provides an important bridge between India and the United States, American lawmakers have said. “We look forward to building the relationship between India and the United States and we thank the community here for the bridge that they help provide so that these two great democracies can work ever closer together for a common goal,” Congressman Ed Royce said.

The Congress on Monday claimed that the silence of the Bharatiya Janata Party over the issue of former IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s travel documents was ‘deafening’, adding that the people of the country were waiting for the Centre to take action against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

“The ‘Bharatiya Maun Party’ needs to speak. Their silence is deafening. The people in this country are waiting. This ‘besur’ concert must end. The people of India are asking questions,” Congress leader Tom Vadakkan said at a press briefing here.

Extending losses for the fifth consecutive day, the rupee shed 24 paise to trade at 63.88 against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange due to continued demand for the American currency from importers.

Forex dealers said besides sustained demand for the dollar in view of the approaching month-end, weakness in the euro against the American currency overseas amid growing concerns of a Greece debt default and a possible euro zone exit weighed.

Furthermore, a lower opening in domestic equities kept up pressure on the rupee, they said.

The copy of the final chargesheet in the killing of Mahatma Gandhi has gone missing. The revelation was made after an activist from Odisha filed an RTI application in seeking details of the case. The RTI also revealed that the dead body of Mahatma Gandhi was not subjected to a post mortem following his family’s request.

Addressing audience at a book launch in Ahmedabad, BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday said that “Hindu religion has solutions for all problems in the world”.

“I am not saying this because I am born Hindu,” Mr Shah said while unveiling former President A P J Abdul Kalam’s book ‘Transcendence: My Spiritual Experiences with Pramukh Swamiji’ at the Gujarat University convention.

The Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco is reportedly worried about her marriage to Ryan Sweeting.

The 29-year-old actress, who married the Tennis player on December 31, 2013, is “secretly worried” about her relationship, reported OK! Magazine.

“Kaley is really paranoid… she doesn’t let him out of her sight. She always asks Ryan who he’s with and never knows what he’s doing. She’d flip if he didn’t answer his phone. And it drives him crazy,” said a source. “She is secretly worried she doesn’t know him that well.”

Director James Gunn has claimed Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will be more emotional than the first film.

In the sequel to the Marvel hit, the emphasises will be on some of the characters and the film will focus on fatherhood, reported Digital Spy.

“It’s both a bigger movie and a smaller movie because we focus more intensely on some of the characters. We get to learn a lot more about fathers in the second movie, and we focus a lot on that,” he said.

Gunn, 44, completed the first draft of the sequel earlier in June.

The world’s Jewish population has grown to be nearly as large as it was before the Holocaust, an Israeli think tank said in its annual report on Monday.

The Jewish People Policy Institute said there are currently 14.2 million Jews in the world. When factoring in individuals with one Jewish parent and others who identify as partially Jewish, the figure approaches 16.5 million the Jewish population on the eve of World War II. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered about 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are all geared up to stir conversations in southwest London as they will take on their respective challengers in the opening round of Wimbledon, which starts on Monday.

While defending champion Novak Djokovic will face Germany’s Phillip Kohlschreiber on Centre Court, Williams plays Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan on Court One.

Indian-American Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has lashed out at US President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton for their views on same sex marriage, alleging that they evolved their views based on opinion polls.

“Both the President and Hillary evolved their views because of opinion polls. They can read opinion polls just like the Supreme Court,” said Jindal, the 13th Republican aspirant to aim for the White House in 2016 election.