Mithun Chakraborty: Over the top promotions are not required

Mumbai: Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty, who has spent more than three decades in the film industry, feels that movie promotions should not go over the top. "Promotions are required but over the top promotions are not required. It is necessary to tell people that a film is releasing. In our times we used to say that so-and-so film is coming through posters and today through you all (media), things have become quicker and faster. I feel doing everything over is not done," Mithun said.

The 61-year-old would be seen next in Sajid Khan's multi-starrer comedy film, 'Housefull 2' alongside Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Boman Irani, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Riteish Deshmukh, Shreyas Talpade, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zarine Khan, Shazahn Padamsee.

For this film, he has teamed up with both the younger and older lot of actors and he says, "I feel younger generation is energetic, I am in the middle, Rishi, Randhir ji came first, then I came in. But whatever it be we all enjoyed a lot while filming the movie. It is a fun film."

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The film is up for release on April 5.

The senior actor has worked across all genres be it drama or action or comedy all through his career span of 36 years, and has planned nothing fresh.

"I haven't thought of what I would do next. You are an actor and you have to do everything, as an actor you should not think about genre. Whatever I do, I give more than 100 percent," he said.

"I finished one Bengali film. Then this year I have this film ('Housefull 2') coming up and I am hearing some scripts... but nothing finalised yet," he added.

Mithun Da, as he is fondly called, made his acting debut with art house drama 'Mrigayaa' in 1976, for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor. Then he went on to deliver many hit films including 'Do Anjaane', 'Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan', 'Hamara Sansar', 'Amar Deep', and 'Surakshaa'.

Lately, he has been part of films like 'Guru', 'Heroes', 'Veer', 'Golmaal 3' and many others.

 

China thanks India for curbing Tibetan protests

New Delhi: China on Thursday blamed the Dalai Lama for stoking extremist views and thanked India for taking "effective and concrete" steps to curb protests by Tibetans during President Hu Jintao's visit.

Luo Zhaohui, Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs, regretted the loss of innocent lives in and around Tibet but said Beijing opposed "pro-independence Tibetan activists".

Answering a query about the death of a young Tibetan protester in New Delhi on Wednesday, Luo said loss of innocent lives was always regretful.

"On the other hand, we look to emphasise that Dalai Lama and so-called pro-freedom Tibetan activists pushing extreme radical views by glorifying extreme behaviour is not consistent with Buddhism," Luo said.

Jamphel Yeshi, a 27-year-old Tibetan, died on Wednesday after setting himself ablaze to protest Hu's India visit for the BRICS meeting.

Luo said India recognises Tibet as a part of China.

He said it was "regretful" that Tibetan protestors created trouble for the Indian government.

The "Chinese side appreciates effective and concrete measures taken by government of India", he said.

Authorities clamped prohibitory orders banning the gathering of four or more people in the capital and arrested many Tibetans to prevent possible trouble during Hu's trip.

Answering queries, Luo said ties between India and China had witnessed growth and momentum due to institutional contacts and people-to-people ties.

On the border issue, he said the mechanism of meeting between special representatives of the two sides was making progress.

Luo said the two countries have been able to maintain peace and tranquility on the Line of Actual Control.

Ma Zhaoxu, Assistant Foreign Minister, said the BRICS meeting had been successful and added that India as the host country played a very important role in its positive outcome.

"It is fair to describe the summit as success," he said.

Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao review bilateral ties

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday reviewed bilateral ties including the vexed boundary dispute and decided to continue dialogue to resolve outstanding issues.

At a brief ceremony at the Prime Minister's official residence, Hu and Singh also declared 2012 as the year of India-China friendship.

"The border issue was discussed and the two leaders agreed that Special Representative process should continue to find an amicable solution to the issue," an official said.

In the hour-long meeting, the two leaders expressed satisfaction that the two countries were on course in achieving the USD 100 billion trade target set for 2015.

Hu also assured Singh to facilitate access for Indian goods to Chinese markets, a move that would lead to reduction of the trade imbalances, officials said.

Singh invited Chinese investments in India, particularly in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. The two leaders also decided to expand consultation to include West Asia, Central Asia and Africa, they said.

They unveiled a host of initiatives to bolster cultural and people-to-people contacts, including setting up of a media forum to promote better public perception of their bilateral relationship.

Singh and Hu noted that the goal of the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) was to further strengthen mutual trust and to expand the strategic partnership of cooperation.

The SED was held last year when Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia met Zhang Ping, the Director of China's National Development and Reform Commission in Beijing.

World Bank chief should be selected on merit: BRICS

New Delhi: The five-nation BRICS group of emerging economies, representing almost 43 per cent of the world's population, on Thursday welcomed the candidatures of developing countries for the World Bank presidency, demanding that the selection should be through an "open and merit-based process".

"We welcome the candidatures from developing world for the position of the president of the World Bank. We reiterate that the heads of IMF and World Bank be selected through an open and merit-based process," leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said in a joint statement after their one-day summit in New Delhi.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian finance minister and a former managing director of the World Bank, has gained the support of African leaders. Brazil has nominated former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo, now a professor at Columbia University in New York.

Their candidatures are in direct opposition to Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American health expert whose name was put forward by President Barack Obama last week.

The World Bank board would meet in April to select the new president to replace Robert Zoellick, who has been holding the post since July 2007.

The World Bank and its sister Bretton Woods institution, the International Monetary Fund, have been headed by an American and an European respectively as part of a so-called "gentleman's agreement" between the US and Europe since their founding after World War Two.

Leaders of the emerging countries empahasised that the selection of the World Bank chief should be on the basis on merit and not the nationality.

"The new World Bank leadership must commit to transform the Bank into a multilateral institution that truly reflects the vision of all its members, including the governance structure that reflects current economic and political reality," the BRICS leaders said in a joint statement called "Delhi Declaration."

The developing countries also called for ending the "outdated donor-recipient dichotomy" saying the multilateral institutions should work on the philosophy of equal partnership.

Air India employees call off strike

New Delhi: The strike threat by a major chunk of Air India's over 28,000 employees from Monday was called off on Friday with the ailing national carrier promising to clear all their salary and other dues by June. "We received their (strike) notice today. We have given them a payment schedule under which we will clear all the overdues by June. The strike has been called off," Air India CMD Rohit Nandan told reporters after a meeting with union representatives.

The notice for 'no pay, no work' agitation had been given by eight major unions of the airline, representing pilots, engineers and cabin crew among others, to protest the delay in payment of their salaries, productivity-linked incentive (PLI) and other allowances by over three months.

The union leaders and the management had held a marathon day-long meeting yesterday which had failed to yield any result. Both sides had decided to meet again on Friday. The unions had earlier sought the Prime Minister's intervention to resolve the crisis, failing which they had threatened to go on agitation from April two.

Earlier too, the management had promised a staggered payment schedule to clear the dues in the next two months, expecting that by then Air India would get funds through the equity infusion of Rs 4,000 crore announced in this budget.

The unions, however, had remained unsatisfied and had decided to go ahead with their protest action, saying they had not received any "firm" assurance on their dues.

Air India faces a whopping Rs 67,000 crore debt and has reported a loss of close to Rs 6,900 crore this fiscal. The airline was also facing an average operational loss of about Rs 10 crore daily.

IPL 5: Can Delhi shed the underachievers' tag?

Terming Delhi Daredevils as 'underachievers' will not be an overstatement, considering their performance in the last four years. They have always promised a lot, starting every season as one of the tournament's favourites, only to disappoint themselves as well as their innumerable faithful fans at the end. After reaching the semi-finals in the first two editions, Delhi let the contests slip through their fingers when they could have done much better. And their performance has gone downhill ever since. Finishing last among 10 teams in 2011 could be the worst result the franchise would have imagined. As season five is set to get underway, they are once again billed as one of the top contenders for the title. But will they deliver even this around? Only time will tell.

Name: Delhi Daredevils

Captain: Virender Sehwag

Coach: Eric Simons

Owner: GMR Group

Cost of the team: $84 million

Key players: Delhi's captain Virender Sehwag is undoubtedly their biggest trump card. Even if half-fit, Sehwag is still capable of demolishing the best attacks in the league. His opening partnership with the dynamic David Warner will set the tone for the side. And although they have quite a big pool of foreign players in their squad, selecting four from as many as 14 players will be a task in itself. Since Sri Lanka are playing England at home, both Mahela Jayawardene and Kevin Pietersen are set to miss the first two matches of the tournament. And the chances of Ross Taylor, the injured New Zealand skipper, to get fit anytime during the competition are also very slim. In that case, Sehwag may find himself alone if things don't go in his favour in the first few games. There is little to choose between Aaron Finch (Australia) and Gulam Bodi (South Africa). Both are equally exciting batsmen and can take the game away from the opposition in no time.

The allrounders Andre Russell (West Indies) and Roelof van der Merwe (South Africa), along with Irfan Pathan, will provide a balance to the side. Keep in mind, the ball is destined to go a long way if any one of them start flogging, especially in the late overs. The experience and guile of Ajit Agarkar combined with the speed of Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron will give a variety to Delhi's pace attack. Morne Morkel (South Africa) and Doug Bracewell (New Zealand) will slog it out for another seamer's spot, if needed by the team.

There will also be a two-way race for the wicketkeeper's slot. Both Naman Ojha and Puneet Bisht are quite good behind the stumps and are also very capable batsmen. But it's Ojha's six-hitting skill that may give him the nod ahead of Bisht.

Strengths: A big pool of foreign players and a good bunch of home-grown talent are the big plus for DD. They have plenty to choose from if things don't go right for them. The availability of players for specific roles makes them one of the favourites for this year's IPL. But their biggest strength is their skipper Sehwag who will once again be the key for them.

Weaknesses: Losing big contests, as they did in the first two seasons, has always been their problem. It will also be interesting to see what recipe will Eric Simons, who has recently been promoted to the head coach's job from the bowling coach, come up with as the South African ended his term with the Indian side on a disappointing note.

2011 performance: The last season was nothing short of a nightmare for the Delhi side as they were the wooden spooners. The team could only win four of their 14 matches. They flopped big time as a unit. The dreadful result also brought the much-needed changes to the overall set up of the team.

2012 prospects: As mentioned, the team management has ticked all the boxes correctly, with changing the core of the side, bringing more and better foreign players and also appointing a new coach. The only thing needed now is players should go out in the park and showcase their best skills. And if the positive intent of the team's think tank combines with the players' performance, then positive results are bound to come.

Friday Release: Fight for faith in ' Wrath of the Titans'

New Delhi: 'Wrath of the Titans' is the 3-D sequel to the 2010 film 'Clash of the Titans'. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, the film stars Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Danny Huston, Edgar Ramirez, Bill Nighy, Toby Kebbell and Rosamund Pike.

Produced under the banner of Warner Brothers, 'Wrath of the Titans' is written by Dan Mazeau and David Leslie Johnson.

The film starts ten years after the 'Clash of the Titans' where Perseus (Sam Worthington) is living a quiet life with his ten year old son Helius. He does fishing to support his life without knowing that a war for supremacy between the gods and the titans has started.

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The war is making gods weaker due to the humanity's lack of faith on them. This will lead to losing control on Titans led by Kronos: father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus (Liam Neeson), Hades (Ralph Fiennes), and Poseidon (Danny Huston).

The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful master by now, leaving him helpless in the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep within the cavernous underworld.

Now, it's up to Perseus to defeat the Titans and save the human race.

The previous instalment of the 'Titans' had grossed USD 163 million domestically and a whopping USD 330 million overseas despite facing criticism for bad 3D conversion.

This time the makers have focussed more on 3 D and the promos demonstrate it. The success of the earlier version will fetch initial audiences but the story will need coherence to excel in the longer run.

Poll	Are you looking forward to 'Wrath of the Titans'? Yes no

Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh knew about Tatra deal: Karnataka leader

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Defence Minister AK Antony were aware of the Tatra-Bharat Earth Movers Limited deal in which kickbacks were taken, claims a Karnataka leader. D Hanumanthappa, president of the Karnataka wing of All India Federation of SC/ST/Backward Class and Minority Employees Welfare Association, said that he had written a letter in 2009 to the Prime Minister and the President about the deal, which is currently under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Hanumanthappa claimed that he had sent copies of his letter to Sonia and Antony as well with the Congress President asking senior Congress leader and Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to forward the letter to concerned department.

Claiming that he wants to save democracy and make the country's defence forces stronger, Hanumanthappa said that he wrote about the Tatra-BEML deal in detail.

A press release by the Defence Ministry on Friday said that after receiving a letter from Azad in October 2009, forwarding the complaints of Hanumanthappa, Antony had asked the Secretary (Defence Production) to look into the various issues raised in the complaint.

"A day after receiving a letter from Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, on 05 Oct 2009, forwarding the complaints of Dr. D Hanumanthappa, addressed to Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi on BEML, the Defence Minister Shri AK Antony had asked the Secretary (Defence Production) to look into the various issues raised in the complaint. Records show that the vigilance wings of MoD and BEML are examining the matter and there are also correspondence between the CBI and Chief Vigilance Officer of BEML on these allegations. Meanwhile, the Defence Minister has accorded his sanction for a CBI investigation on 21 Feb 2012 in another case relating to BEML, much before a newspaper report was published on 26 Mar 2012," the statement released by Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said.

Army Chief General VK Singh fires another salvo, AK Antony hits back

New Delhi: Army Chief General VK Singh is set to retire with all guns blazing and leaving behind a trail of controversies. General Singh, who fought a bitter war with the Central Government over his real date of birth and even moved the Supreme Court on the issue and then alleged that he was offered bribe by a former Army officer to clear the purchase of sub-standard Tatra trucks for the forces, has dropped another bombshell with a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he has mentioned that the Army is ill-quipped to fight a war and defeat the enemy.

While the revelations by the Army Chief in the letter dated March 12, 2012 are explosive, the General has also come under fire. Many in the Congress and Opposition are asking for the Army Chief's sacking for what is being seen as a breach of protocol and the leak of the "secret letter". The leak led to uproar in both Houses of Parliament with the Opposition parties demanding an investigation into the matter.

"As the Army Chief he should have kept it limited to the Defence Minister. There was no need to drag it to the PMO. This can be seen as breach of protocol," sources said.

Defence Minister AK Antony hit out at the Army Chief and told Parliament on Wednesday that the leak of the General's letter was worrying, but insisted that neither the national security nor the modernisation of the defence forces would be compromised.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted the government to clarify, the Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal United (U) went to the extent of demanding that the Army Chief should be removed. Indian Overseas Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi even called General Singh a frustrated man.

"He did not get an extension even from the court so it may be a frustrated mind's utterance," said Ravi while referring to the age row case in the Supreme Court where the General was forced to accept his date of birth as May 10, 1950 in the official records instead of May 10, 1951 as he had been claiming.

Raising questions on the Army Chief's conduct, JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari said, "It's a matter of concern. The fact that he has written to the PM shows he is trying to clarify his position. The Army Chief's conduct is now doubtful. It seems that he is lying. Now that he has got involved in the controversy he is trying to pass the buck."

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad even alleged that General Singh was preparing for a political role after retiring from the Army. "The Army Chief is frustrated. He wants to contest elections," said Lalu.

General Singh's letter had raised the sorry state of infrastructure in the armed forces in the country with the Army Chief pointing out the tank regiments lack ammunition to defeat the enemy, the air defence is almost obsolete and the infantry is falling short of critical weapons.

He underlined that the country's security might be at stake due to the critical shortage of ammunition. The letter, sent to the Prime Minister's Office, had asked Manmohan Singh to 'pass suitable directions to enhance the preparedness of the Army'. The explosive letter comes amidst claims made by the Army Chief that he was offered bribe to clear a deal for sub-standard vehicles in the Army.

General Singh wrote that the Army's entire tank fleet was devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks. He also added that the air defence was '97 per cent obsolete and it doesn't give the deemed confidence to protect from the air', the infantry had 'deficiencies of crew served weapon' and lacks 'night fighting' capabilities and that the Elite Special Forces were 'woefully short of essential weapons'.

General Singh also pointed out that the 'hollowness' in the system is a manifestation of the procedures and processing time for procurements as well as legal impediments by vendors.

General Singh also mentioned that the work quality was poor and there was a 'lack of urgency at all levels' on matters of national security.

This is a worry for General Singh as he was entrusted with preparing a comprehensive transformation study to modernise the Army some years ago. As the GOC-in-C (Eastern Command), Singh, then a Lieutenant General, had prepared a detailed report on modernising the force.

General Singh feels such shortcomings erode the Army's preparedness considering two "inimical neighbours" and the "reality of large land borders".

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun its investigations into the bribery allegations levelled by General Singh against a former Army officer. The agency is expected to meet General Singh when he returns from an official tour in Srinagar on Friday. A tape of the alleged incident whose veracity is to be determined is currently with the agency.

General Singh has alleged that a former Army officer offered Rs 14 crore to him to clear the purchase of sub-standard Tatra trucks for the forces. The CBI as part of its probe is also expected to look into all aspects of the Tatra Vectra deal as part of the investigation including its complex shareholding pattern.

Amazon founder Bezos finds Apollo 11 engines on sea floor

Cape Canaveral: Space enthusiast and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has found the rocket motors used to send the Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon and plans to mount a recovery expedition soon, the Amazon.com CEO and founder reported on a blog post.

The five F-1 engines were fired up on July 16, 1969, sending the massive Saturn 5 rocket on its way to the moon. The motors burned out a few minutes after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Centre and tumbled into the Atlantic Ocean.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins flew on into the history books, becoming the first humans to reach the moon.

"I was 5 years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration," Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and the Blue Origin rocket company, wrote in his blog on Wednesday.

"A year or so ago, I started to wonder, with the right team of undersea pros, could we find and potentially recover the F-1 engines that started mankind's mission to the moon?" he wrote.

Using a deep-sea sonar scanner, Bezos' team found the engines on the sea floor, some 14,000 feet (4,247 metres) below the surface.

"We're making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them," Bezos said.

"We don't know yet what condition these engines might be in. They hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years. On the other hand, they're made of tough stuff, so we'll see," he said.

NASA, which retains ownership of its space artifacts, said it was reviewing a recovery proposal it received from Bezos on Thursday.

"We'll be working with his expedition, not necessarily out there physically, but with his team on ownership issues and what he'd like to do with them," NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs told Reuters.

"We'll be interested to see what condition the engines were in, how they survived the high impact on the water and after so much time sitting in the ocean," he said.

If the salvage operation is successful, the Saturn 5 engines would be the second major piece of space history to be recovered from the sea floor.

In 1999, Discovery Channel staged an expedition to find and recover the Liberty Bell 7 capsule that was used by Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom on the second US human space flight.

The capsule's door blew off early and Grissom nearly drowned after his 15-minute suborbital ride. It sat on the ocean floor for 38 years until it was found and recovered by a team led by Oceaneering for a television documentary.

The capsule was refurbished by the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Centre, a Smithsonian-affiliated museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, and is now the centerpiece of a exhibit.

A spokeswoman for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, the repository for NASA artifacts, said it was way too early to know whether the Apollo 11 rocket motors might someday be part of the national collection.

Six Filipino boys in trouble over Facebook kiss photos

Manila: A Philippine Catholic school is witholding the diplomas of six high school boys who uploaded Facebook photos that appear to show them kissing each other, an education official said Friday.

A day earlier, a Philippine court rejected another Catholic school's decision to bar five girls from graduation ceremonies because they had posed in bikinis for photos posted on Facebook. The cases test the limits of privacy in a conservative Catholic nation that is also among the world's most prolific users of social networking sites.

Department of Education officer Samuel Mergenio said in a interview that the six boys told him they had taken prank photos to make it appear that their lips touched. One of the boys uploaded the pictures on Facebook and mistakenly made them available to others, Mergenio said.

The pictures were not taken at the boys' school, Infant Jesus Academy in the Manila suburb of Marikina, but the students were wearing school uniforms, he said.

Mergenio said the school's chancellor informed the department late Thursday that the boys will be allowed to participate in the graduation ceremonies but "the release of their diplomas will be delayed." He said the school did not say when the diplomas will be handed over and that he was awaiting a formal written report from the school.

The school chancellor was not immediately available for comment Friday.

On Thursday, a judge in central Cebu city issued a restraining order against St. Theresa's College High School, ordering it to allow the five students who appeared in the bikini photos to take part in Friday afternoon's graduation ceremonies.

The school, which declined to comment to The Associated Press, asked the court to reconsider. The girls' lawyer, Cornelio Mercado, said Friday that the school was still insisting on banning the students while its motion for reconsideration is pending.

Mercado said one Facebook photo at issue showed a girl holding a cigarette and a liquor bottle, while others showed all five girls wearing bikinis at a beach party early this year.

School officials took action against the girls for what they called "engaging in immoral, indecent, obscene or lewd acts," according to court records. They said the students would graduate but could not participate in activities or ceremonies.

Earlier this month, the five girls were summoned by the principal and other school officials, "dressed down" and called "sluts" for their Facebook pictures, Mercado said.

The judge, Wilfredo Navarro of the Regional Trial Court, castigated school officials for calling the girls "inappropriate names" and said the students had gone through "a psychologically and emotionally devastating experience." He said not allowing them to participate in graduation activities "would indeed be most un-Christian if not entirely inhuman."

The mother of one girl had petitioned the court on behalf of her daughter. Mercado said the ruling applied to all five.

He said the families on Friday filed charges of "grave oral defamation" and illegal use of photos showing minors against the school and school officials. He alleged that the school officials had illegally obtained the pictures because they were not Facebook "friends" of the girls and were not allowed access.