Susan Boyle's debut album tops Britain's charts

Susan Boyle's debut record, I Dreamed A Dream, entered the British album chart in the top spot. According to reports, more than 410,000 copies of the album have been sold since its release on Nov 23 making it the fastest selling album so far this year.

In the contest, she finished second. But on the charts, she's number one. Susan Boyle's debut record, I Dreamed A Dream, entered the British album chart in the top spot Sunday. The 48-year-old Scottish songstress famously finished second on "Britain's Got Talent," but the variety show launched a career that has seen her win success on both sides of the Atlantic.According to the Official Charts Company, which tracks music sales in Britain, the more than 410,000 copies of I Dreamed a Dream sold since its release Nov 23 make it the fastest selling album so far this year, and are the largest first-week sales for a debut album in U.K. chart history.Millions of people have seen an online clip of Boyle auditioning for the judges. Wearing a somewhat dowdy frock and with a halo of untidy hair, Boyle told judge and producer Simon Cowell that her dream was to be a professional singer. "I've never been given the chance before, but here's hoping it'll change," she said then.She sang I Dreamed a Dream, from Les Miserables, and her soaring vocals earned a smile and raised eyebrows from Cowell - and a standing ovation from the audience."In Britain's Got Talent she opened her mouth and the world fell in love with her, which is why her album has been the fastest selling of any woman making her debut," Cowell said. "She's amazing."Since the show - in which she eventually finished second to a dynamic dance troupe called Diversity - Boyle has become one of the more recognisable faces of Britishmusic, both at home and abroad.Though she was taken aback at first by her fame, Boyle has since had a glamorous makeover, been photographed by an upscale fashion magazine, and been profiled for "NBC's People of the Year" special in the United States. In Britain, she's appeared as a special guest on a wildly popular talent show, The X Factor."I accept now that my life will never be the same. And I don't want it to end," Boyle told Matt Lauer on the special, according to an NBC transcript.Of her number one album, Boyle said only, "it's fantastic" in a statement released by her record company."Everyone expected this to be a big record, but not as big as this," said Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts Company. Of the more than 410,000 copies - both physical and digital - sold in Britain, he said the majority of buyers purchased the CD. In the United States, Amazon Music it was the largest pre-order in thecompany's history.Boyle's cover of the Rolling Stones classic Wild Horses debuted in the ninth spot on Britain's singles chart.Gennaro Castaldo, spokesman for the HMV music store company, said Boyle's record could challenge for the top spot at Christmas - a highly coveted position in Britain's showbiz world.He said Boyle's frequent appearances in Britain's newspapers likely helped boost her sales, along with her reality television background. Shows like Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor - which produced last week's chart-topper, Leona Lewis - help viewers bond with artists, he said. Fans follow the artist's career from the start, "so when the album comes out, quite a few of them will go out and buy the album, too," Castaldo said.

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Mumbai Police parade for pride on 26/11

The Mumbai Police armed with its new arsenal marched down from the Trident Hotel, one of the sites of the 26/11 attacks, to Girgaum Chowpatty. The newly created elite Force One commandos, raised in the aftermath of 26/11, also joined the police.

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Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

We've evolved over millions of years to sense the world around us. When we encounter something, someone or some place, we use our five natural senses to perceive information about it; that information helps us make decisions and chose the right actions to take. But arguably the most useful information that can help us make the right decision is not naturally perceivable with our five senses, namely the data, information and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about everything and which is increasingly all available online. Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets, keeping us continually connected to the digital world, there is no link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. Information is confined traditionally on paper or digitally on a screen. SixthSense bridges this gap, bringing intangible, digital information out into the tangible world, and allowing us to interact with this information via natural hand gestures. ‘SixthSense’ frees information from its confines by seamlessly integrating
it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer. The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction. The SixthSense prototype implements several applications that demonstrate the usefulness, viability and flexibility of the system. The map application lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similar to gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in, zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements. The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger. SixthSense also recognizes user’s freehand gestures (postures). For example, the SixthSense system implements a gestural camera that takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the ‘framing’ gesture. The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she has taken. SixthSense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail. The SixthSense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch. The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build.

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Mukesh Ambani, Abhishek, Ash in Obama's State Dinner top 10 wish list

At a time when there is a virtual scramble for first State Dinner of US President Barack Obama on November 24 in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a US news outlet has come out with its own top 10 wish list of the invitees.
Topping the list released by Politico – known for coverage of the Capitol Hill and the White House – is top industrialist Mukesh Ambani, who met the President early this year. He is followed by writer-turn activist Arundhati Roy.
"As India has assumed a larger role on the global stage, Roy has spoken out against globalisation, Indian poverty and the country's nuclear weapons programme — though she has often stirred up controversy," Politico said and put Thomas Friedman, author of 'The World is Flat' next on the list, followed by Bollywood stars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
"Rai and Bachchan (or Ash and Abhi, as they are known to their fans) are the biggest stars of Bollywood. They have billions — not millions — of fans; Bachchan has starred in more than 40 movies, and Rai can earn up to USD 15 million per film. If Obama needed to boost his popularity around the world, here is his ticket to the heart of India," it said.
West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi too makes it to the wish list on the basis of him being the grandsons of Mahatma Gandhi; given the personal admiration of the Father of the Nation by Obama.
"But politics and admiration for Mohandas aren't the only things that Gopalkrishna and Obama have in common — both have written books, and both have two daughters," it said.
Bobby Jindal, the first Indian-American to be elected as Governor of a US State, Raj Goyle – the fast emerging young Democratic leaders are the two Indian American politicians in the wish list; which also includes Raghubir Goyal, White House Correspondent, India Globe.
Politico's wish list also includes Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric.
"As CEO of General Electric, Immelt knows a thing or two about India. His company is one of the biggest US investors in India. And since GE owns NBC Universal, Immelt knows a thing or two about celebrity and the news business. With NBC and GE stock both struggling, an invite for Immelt might be a much-needed vote of confidence," it said.

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Jayawardene duo makes India sweat

The partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene has increased the pressure on the Indians on Day 3 of the first Test in Ahmedabad.

Australia punishes men who attacked Indian doctor

MELBOURNE: Terming the street crime against Indians as "cowardly" and "despicable", a Victorian court on Wednesday handed out long imprisonment
Twitter Facebook ShareEmail Print Save Commentsentences to attackers of an Indian-origin doctor.
Haikerwal State County Court Judge Joe Gullaci today jailed 20-year old Alfer Azzopardi who bashed Mukesh Hairkerwal with serious blows with a baseball bat, for 18-and-a-half years with a minimum of 13-and-a-half years, media reports said today.
Former chief of Australian Medical Association Haikerwal was walking through a park in the bayside suburb of Williamstown on September 27 last year when he was set upon and bashed by the men.
Another co-accused Michael Baltatzis, 20, of Glenroy, who together with Azzopardi took part in 23 armed robberies over a two-month period, was jailed for 16-and-a-half years and must serve 10-and-a-half years before being eligible for parole.
A third man, Sean Gabriel, 20, of Hoppers Crossing, was jailed for nine years and nine months with a minimum of six years, report said.
Announcing the sentences, Judge Gullaci dubbed the attacks as cowardly and despicable.
"Each of the victims was selected at random, but each had a common feature, that is they were vulnerable and alone and in parks or (other) public places," he was quoted by an AAP report.
Haikerwal was not in court for the sentences. The court was told Haikerwal's skull was heard to crack after Azzopardi took a swing like he was "hitting a six at cricket", causing a severe head injury to the doctor.
Azzopardi laughed as he fled the scene, before minutes later joining in on an attack on another man.
Haikerwal required emergency surgery and was placed in an induced coma for 24 hours.
He remained in hospital for many weeks. The attack came towards the end of a two-month armed robbery spree by Azzopardi and the group that involved more than 30 victims.
One of their victims was told: "If you scream or cry, I will kill you".
Many of the targets were of Indian or Asian origin. Welcoming the judgement, Sydney based cardiologist Yadu Singh said "It is a very good move and will send a strong message to such criminals that were attacking people for no reason.
"Singh said such criminals needed to be kept away for a long time from society," Singh said.

Pregnancy makes women pilots cost-inefficient: Air Force

One of the country's senior most military officers, Air Staff Air Marshal PK Barbora has said it's not worth it to train women to fly, as the training process costs the Air Force several lakhs and then lady officers take off for upto 10 months at a time on maternity leave.

As far as politically incorrect remarks go, this one's more or less guaranteed a place on most Top Ten Lists. The Vice Chief of the Air Staff has said it's not worth it to train women to fly. Explaining that it costs about 11 crores to train a pilot, he said, "Nature's way of life is that you get married, bring up a family. Now the latest position on ladies flying is that if a a lady goes into family way, she is off-duty for 10 out of 12 months. Now while we can always utilise a lady in some other job, but in the pure profession in which we have invested so much ....if the poor lady herself who has contributed so much ...if we cannot utilise... then it is not fruitful for either party. But we are looking at it and in a few more years we can see a change coming with certain preconditions ."
Air Marshal PK Barbora is expected to confront a deluge of angry reactions from eomen activists, and from women in the Armed Forces, who point out that their careers entail daily battles against sexism.

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Dravid, Dhoni help India recover from dire straits

Rahul Dravid and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni cracked sparkling centuries as India staged a remarkable recovery after a dramatic top-order collapse on the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka here on Monday.
Dravid produced a gritty unbeaten 177 and found an able ally in captain Dhoni (110) as the duo pulled the team out of the pits and steered India to a commanding 385 for six at close on an eventful opening day.
Tottering at 32 for four in the eighth over following a triple strike by rookie left arm pacer Chanaka Welegedara, India were hoisted up by Dravid's 27th ton and his three figure partnerships with Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni, for the fifth and sixth wickets.
Dravid completes 11,000 Test runsForum:

The Indians, despite the early jolts, scored at a brisk pace right through the day but fell just one run short of the record first day total made by India, 386 against South Africa at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai in 2007-08.
The hallmark of Dravid's innings, his second hundred against the visitors, was his shot selection and the ability to stay put when the Lankans were on top in the morning. He slowly and surely upped the tempo before playing splendid drives, flicks, square cuts and pull shots.
After being rocked by the cheap dismissals of openers Gautam Gambhir (1), Virender Sehwag (16), Sachin Tendulkar (4), entering his 21st year in international cricket, and V V S Laxman (0), it needed a determined and ever-so-steady Dravid to stem the rot and he did it with aplomb.
The fifth wicket stand between Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, that spanned either side of the luncheon interval and was worth 125 runs in 129 balls, put the shaky innings on an even keel after India had opted to bat first on winning the toss.
After the departure of Yuvraj (68), who played a typically aggressive knock with 13 fours, Dravid forged forces with Dhoni to first consolidate the innings further and then take it to a higher plane with a 224-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
Dravid, in scoring his second hundred at this venue, also moved past former Australia skipper Steve Waugh to stand fifth in the all-time list of run-getters in Test cricket. The Indian middle-order mainstay stood fifth in the queue at the end of the day after passing the 11,000-run mark just before stumps when on 177.
The day began in disastrous fashion for India, barring the winning of the toss by Dhoni, as they were done in by some good swing bowling chiefly by Welegedara, playing in only his second Test, and careless batting.
Welegedara led the Lanka assault on the much-vaunted India batting line-up and dismissed the top three batsmen in a fiery opening spell to leave the hosts struggling at 31 for three.
Swinging the ball in late, the 28-year-old Lankan struck three big blows, including two in four balls, to bring down the home team on its knees and raise visions of a repeat of the last Test here when India were bowled out by South Africa for 76 in 20 overs in the opening session in April, 2008.
Welegedera's first spell read a splendid 7-2-28-3 and his victims were openers Gambhir, Sehwag (16) and champion batsman Tendulkar, whose celebrations as he stepped into his 21st year in the international game were rudely halted by the superb bowling.
Right arm pacer Dhammika Prasad, playing in only his fourth Test, struck another blow from the other end to send back Laxman for a duck that left India punch-drunk at 32 for four before Dravid and Yuvraj stemmed the rot.
Dravid, playing each ball on merit and uncorking splendid clips off toes and drives to covers and to the on-side, and a belligerent-looking Yuvraj, carried on from the lunch-time score of 105 for four when the second session of play began.
The Bangalore stalwart played second fiddle as his partner Yuvraj went on the offensive after the duo raised their century partnership in quick time (109 minutes) and off 146 balls.
While the rest of the batsmen, including Yuvraj, seemed to be in the one-day mode with the amount of limited-over cricket under their belt, Dravid alone played the ideal game for the lengthy version of the game, coming into the match with three half tons in four Ranji Trophy innings for Karnataka.
Yuvraj, who was hit on the shoulder by a short ball from Dhammika Prasad who replaced Mathews, responded with a four off the inside edge and then fell in the next over of Muralitharan.
He stepped out of the crease to the wily off spinner and, finding himself in no man's land, chose to defend only for the ball to pop up high to give a dolly catch to Tilekaratne Dilshan at short covers.
Yuvraj departed after raising a crucial 125-run partnership for the fifth wicket off 129 balls with Dravid, outscoring his senior partner at the end.
Dravid and Dhoni, who joined the when the score read 157 for five, were unstoppable on a wicket that eased out from the morning freshness and simply tore into the hapless Lanka bowling.
Dhoni left at the fag end of the day, edging a wide ball from Prasad behind the stumps, before Dravid and Harbhajan Singh saw through to the end without being separated.

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Andhra Pradesh: Blast in a house in Guntur

Eight people are feared dead in a blast in Narayanapuram in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.The blast took place in the house of a person who had stored gelatin sticks at hishome. He reportedly had a licence for this. At least three houses have collapsed in the blast. Details are awaited.

Shiv Sena to Sachin : Play cricket, not politics

Sachin Tendulkar is going strong after two decades on the cricket pitch, but he has just been given "run-out" on the "Marathi pitch". The master blaster, who had said at a recent Press conference that he was a "proud Maharashtrian", but an Indian first, has come in for flak from the Shiv Sena. Advising Sachin to stay away from politics, Sena supremo Bal Saheb Thackeray said in an open letter on the front page of his organisation's newspaper, Saamna : "You have played like a king and become a multi-millionaire, no one has issues with that. But at a press conference, you said you are proud of being Marathi but you are an Indian first. This has hurt Marathi people." Thackeray recalled that Sachin said all Indians had an equal right on Mumbai and said: "What was the need for this? You have been 'run-out' on the Marathi pitch. When the Marathi people wrested Mumbai, you weren't even born."Meanwhile, the BCCI has come out strongly in defence of the batting maestro.

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NASA ready for Atlantis launch

All systems are go for the launch of US space shuttle Atlantis, for a construction and delivery mission to the International Space Station. The blast off is scheduled for 1 am (IST) on Tuesday; NASA's countdown is going smoothly and even the weather is looking exceptionally good for the launch. Forecasters put the odds of acceptable weather at 90 percent.NASA test director Steve Payne said Sunday morning that even though everything seems to be lining up perfectly, he and his team are "always waiting for the shoe to drop" and always vigilant.Atlantis will carry tons of spare parts for the International Space Station. The crew of six will return to Earth with a seventh astronaut, Nicole Stott, who's been living at the space station for nearly three months.The launch will also see Kennedy Space Center's first 'tweetup' - about 100 space fans who have gathered to report the event on Twitter.

A new warning by Raj Thackeray's men

Is Maharashtra Raj Thackeray's party has warned the State Bank of India not to recruit any "outsiders." On Sunday, the bank will conduct exams to recruit new employees. In Maharashtra, the bank has 1100 vacancies. Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has demanded that only Maharashtrians or those living in the state be allowed to take the exam for the Maharashtra openings. The MNS has officially warned the bank about this in a letter written by party leader, Bala Nandgangkar.Himanshu Roy, a Joint Commissioner of the Mumbai Police, tells NDTV that the State Bank of India has not alerted the police to the MNS threat. He says the police will discuss the issue with the bank to ensure that Sunday's exams "are conducted smoothly."Speaking to NDTV, a representative of the bank explained that it supports regional representation, and while anybody can apply for a vacancy, preference is given to people fluent in the local language. The official added that the recruitment exam is always conducted with police security.Thackeray's men have been flexing their muscle with renewed vigour since the MNS won 13 Assembly seats in the recent Maharashtra elections. Earlier this week, as the new Assembly was being sworn in, MNS MLAs slapped and pushed Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi for taking his oath in Hindi instead of Marathi. As a result, four of Thackeray's MLAs were suspended for four years. The MNS said it was willing to apologize to the House, but not to Azmi. Before the Assembly was sworn in, Thackeray had issued a statement asking all members to take the oath in Marathi instead of Hindi. Azmi pointed out that he doesn't speak Marathi fluently, and that Hindi is the national language. The MNS was widely attacked for the incident. In what many see as a snub to Raj Thackeray, on Friday, Sachin Tendulkar publicly declared, "Mumbai belongs to India. I am Maharashtrian, but I am an Indian first."Last month, film director Karan Johar was forced to apologise for his movie Wake Up Sid, which refers to Mumbai as 'Bombay'. MNS workers forced a few Mumbai theatres to stop screening the film till Johar met Thackeray and issued a formal apology. Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had said that Johar should have asked the government for help, instead of arriving at a private compromise with Thackeray.
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Dark chapter' of match-fixing should remain closed: Sachin

He has spoken at length about each and every important aspect of his 20-year glorious career but the match-fixing saga that rocked cricket world in 1999 is one episode Sachin Tendulkar prefers not to talk about.
As Tendulkar completes his 20 years in the game on Saturday, the Indian batting maestro wants to cherish sweet victories and says that 'dark chapters' should remain closed.
"That's a dark chapter and I don't want to reiterate on that on this occasion," he told a packed media meet.
"I (would) thought something which was fascinating. The series that we played against Australia (2000-01 which India won 2-1 coming from behind) immediately after that. It was a three-Test series and five ODIs. The Test series got over in the final half an hour (in Chennai which India won to clinch the rubber). Also the one-day series was decided literally in the last 30 or 35 minutes.”

All these were instrumental in bringing back the crowds to the stadiums and we as a team performed really well in that series and we sort of started a new chapter, something that I was looking forward to. The closed chapter, better to keep it closed," he said.
The match-fix saga had an impact on Indian cricket also as life bans were imposed Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma by the Cricket Board in the wake of the CBI report on the scandal. Five-year bans were handed to Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar as well.
Fondly remembering his on-field battle against Australian spin-legend Shane Warne, Tendulkar revealed how he prepared himself for the intriguing contest.
"In my previous nine years in international cricket I had never faced a leg spinner bowling from round the wicket and in 1998 I prepared myself by asking my Mumbai Ranji Trophy colleagues to bowl round the wicket into the rough. In Chennai I asked Siva (Laxman Sivaramakrishnan) to do the same. All these things helped in me getting used to these angles," he said.
Tendulkar was so dominant while batting against Warne that the Australian later wrote that he was having nightmares of the Indian batting great hitting him all around the park.
Tendulkar also remembered how a stiff neck suffered by opener Navjot Singh Sidhu on the tour of New Zealand in 1994 was instrumental in him becoming an opener in the ODI format.
"I was vice captain of the team and I asked Azhar (the captain) and (cricket manager) Ajit Wadekar to give me one chance to open and then I would not ask them again if I failed," he recalled.

Tendulkar hit a quick-fire 82 while opening with Ajay Jadeja. "It helped me grow as a cricketer, to go out and face the new ball," he added.

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4 years after the havoc Deshmukh gives us 'Tum Mile'

July 26, 2005, rang an ominous bell for most Mumbaikars with a cloudburst and high tide wreaking havoc in the city. Four years later, filmmaker Kunal Deshmukh has set this as a background of his next venture. “Recreating the floods that happened four years ago was the biggest challenge because there would obviously be comparisons drawn to what happened in 2005 and people would snap back if portrayed wrongly.” While the love story between Soha Ali Khan and Emraan Hashmi is a fictitious one, Deshmukh did speak to people from around Mumbai who were caught in this ghastly incident. “With the media showing footage of the floods quite regularly, it was easier for me recreate the scenario and also relate to the people, although a long time has passed after the floods.”
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Bombers hit ISI building in Peshawar, 10 dead

At least ten people have been killed and over 30 injured in a blast in Pakistan's Peshawar on Friday. A powerful bomb targeted the office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency near army stadium on Khyber Road, tearing down much of the building and causing several casualties. Khyber road has been closed for traffic. Bomb disposal squad has arrived at the site of blast. Emergency has been declared in all hospitals in the city.The blast struck at the heart of the agency overseeing much of the anti-terror campaign in the border regions with Afghanistan, where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding out.It was the latest in a string of attacks on security forces, civilian and Western targets since the government launched an offensive in mid-October against the Taliban's main stronghold in the border region of South Waziristan. Peshawar has seen at least four major attacks in the last month.The blast destroyed much of the three-story building belonging to the Inter-Services Intelligence agency and many cars on the street outside.The government has said the militant attacks will not dent the country's resolve to pursue the offensive in South Waziristan, where officials say the most deadly insurgent network in Pakistan is based.

When Sachin Tendulkar played the role of a fan

In these days of intense frenzy about Sachin Tendulkar, Thursday was an unusual outing for the man who is two days away from completing 20 years in international cricket. While the entire nation has been undertaking a collective trip down memory lane, recalling the tales of the boy wonder who travelled to Pakistan for his first international tour in the late 80s, Tendulkar got a chance to play a starry-eyed fan to three 70s stars he has grown up idolising.
It was a delayed 60th birthday party for cricketing legends Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, and the silver screen’s towering personality Amitabh Bachchan dropped in to honour them. With such a starcast on stage, Tendulkar’s status as chief guest for the function didn’t guarantee him all the attention. The occasion was a refreshing change for the 36-year-old, who has rarely been away from the media glare since adolescence.

All through the evening, it was an out-and-out Sunny and Vishy show. As footage of their schools, old tales by family members, loving recollections of friends, images of a clean-shaven batsman playing breathtaking straight drives and the one with a stubble essaying delicious late cuts played on the screen, Tendulkar and Bachchan joined those in the audience to smile and shake their heads in awe.
Compelling aura
But so compelling was the aura of the Fab Four that each of them seemed unwilling to play the star and was overwhelmed on encountering the hearty appreciation of the other. After the tributes were over and the four walked on stage, there was a reluctance to take the spotlight. Vishy wanted Bachchan to take the central seat while Sunny seemed to be moving to the side chair. The order was soon restored as the birthday boys were made to sit in the middle flanked by the special guests.

The presence of such strong personalities on the dais meant they all had been used to dealing with the pressure of public expectations, and there ensued a discussion on the frequent appearance of ‘butterflies in the stomach’ before a big game or when facing the camera. Bachchan acknowledged that the cricketing greats next to him were making him struggle for the right lines and Tendulkar too talked about pre-match anxiety. “When you are nervous, that means you care about what you are doing. And I care about cricket,” he said.
The mutual admiration on stage continued for a while as each spoke about the other’s greatness. If Tendulkar wanted to know about Bachchan’s preparation for his award-winning role in the movie Black, Viswanath spoke about how Sunny’s power of concentration and his ability to judge the length of a ball was unparalleled.
Tendulkar relived the moment when he got a special phone call from Gavaskar after getting his 34th Test century and described it as one of the most memorable moments of his life. The boyish grin on his face and the halting shy tone brought back memories of the days when the Indians stumbled upon a 16-year-old batting phenomenon in 1989.

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Australia pledges $70 mn for research projects in India

Australia on Thursday decided to scale up its collaboration with India in science and research by pledging over $70 million in areas straddling energy, agriculture and environment.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that his government would invest $50 million for the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund; $1 million for an innovative joint solar cooling research project; and $20 million for research into dryland farming in India.
Rudd arrived in India on a two-day visit Wednesday, his first since becoming the prime minister two years ago, amid the shadow of repeated attacks on Indian students in his country.
He announced more funds for joint research projects, a crucial element of the bilateral relationship, after talks with R.K. Pachauri, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a premier research body in India.
The additional $50 million for the research fund will begin from the financial year 2009-10 and be over the five years. It will complement $20 million that the Australian government has invested since 2006 to enable Australian scientists to engage in cutting-edge collaborative research with Indian scientists.
The Indian government reciprocated by agreeing to match Australia's increased investment in bilateral research projects.
The fund is already supporting 50 projects cutting across scientific disciplines, including astronomy, climate change and evolution, malaria vaccines, the impact of global warming on agriculture, water management, computing and biotechnology.
Energy cooperation has become an important area of cooperation between the two countries. The solar cooling research project, a joint project between Australian agency Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and TERI, aims to develop a zero emission solar cooling system for use in remote rural communities in un-electrified areas.
The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research will be supporting research into dryland farming in India with $20 million over five years.

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Honour for Anil Kapoor & Irrfan Khan

Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan will be honoured at the ongoing 33rd Cairo International Film Festival 2009.

The duo will be honoured along with model-turned-actor Arfie Lamba, among the stars of the multiple Oscar-award winning movieSlumdog Millionaire at the fest that commenced on Tuesday, according to the official website of the film festival.
With India being the special guest of honour at the gala, around 25 Indian movies will be screened during the festival that opened with Yash Raj Films' New York.
The film, which was screened on Tuesday, is also competing in the 'In Competition' section of the festival that closes on November 20.

Directed by Kabir Khan, the film stars John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh in the lead apart from Irrfan Khan in an important role.

Recently screened at the Pusan International Film Festival, New York released in over 900 screens worldwide on June 26. It is a contemporary story of three young friends whose lives are turned upside down by post-9/11 prejudices.

The jury of the fest is being headed by Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Victor Okhai and Nour El Sherif.

Also attending the festival will be Hollywood stars like Samuel L. Jackson, Lucy Liu and Tom Berenger.

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Roger Federer sank to a surprise by Benneteau in Paris

World number one Roger Federer sank to a surprise 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 second-round defeat against unseeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the ATP Paris Masters.
The Swiss ace looked on course for the third round after cruising through the first set on Wednesday but came unstuck in the second as uncharacteristic errors began to creep into his game.
Benneteau, the world number 49, was roared on by his home crowd and secured the result of his life with an ace after bringing up match point by rattling a crosscourt backhand past the 15-time Grand Slam-winner.
"He was very strong at the end," said Federer of his 27-year-old opponent, who has never won an ATP title.
"Even in the second set, I don't think I had a break point. I can definitely play better but I can also play much worse. It wasn't a bad performance. Julien went out and got the victory. I had chances and missed them."

Second seed Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, admitted that he was "very lucky" after edging a titanic struggle with Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-5 in three hours and 14 minutes.
"I played great tennis in only one moment, but in the rest of the match I didn't play well," said Nadal, who saved five match points after falling 5-6 and 0-40 down in the second set. "I am very lucky to be in the (next) round. That's the truth. I played bad but I won, which is the one positive thing," Nadal said.


Nadal will now face another Spaniard in the form of 14th seed Tommy Robredo.
The world's top five players were all in action on Wednesday, with Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Juan Martin Del Petro all joining Nadal in the third round.
British fourth seed Murray saw off America's James Blake 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/4) in a match that finished at 0146 local time to set up a match with Czech 13th seed Radek Stepanek.
Marat Safin's 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 defeat to fifth seed Del Potro heralded the end of the Russian former world number one's career, after he announced earlier in the year that he would retire at the end of the season.
"This day will stand out for a long time, until I pass into a different world," Safin, a three-time winner here, told the crowd at the Bercy arena during a special post-match ceremony.
"This day will be where all the memories of my career will stay, all in one box." Third seed Djokovic, who beat Federer in the Basel final on Sunday, overcame Argentina's Juan Monaco 6-3, 7-5.


"I didn't feel that great on the court," said Djokovic.
"It was probably a long week in Basel that affected that.
But I got a victory and that's what matters most. Generally speaking I've picked up great form in the last two months."
Djokovic will now face French qualifier Arnaud Clement, a 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (10/8) winner over German 16th seed Tommy Haas, with Del Potro to play Chilean 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez.


Swedish ninth seed Robin Soderling kept alive his hopes of snatching a place at the ATP World Tour Finals in London by defeating Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).
Soderling is one place outside the eight qualifying berths for the year-end event but needs to at least reach the final here to stand any chance of securing one of the last two available spots and will meet Russian Nikolay Davydenko, currently seventh in the race to London, in the next round.
Benneteau's next opponent will be countryman Gael Monfils, the 15th seed, who beat David Guez 6-4, 7-5, while Croatian 12th seed Marin Cilic faces Spain's Fernando Verdasco after coming from behind to beat Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2.

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Michael Jackson painting sold for USD 812,000

A portrait of 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson by legendary artist Andy Warhol has sold for USD 812,000 at an auction in Los Angeles.
The pop icon's picture was bought by an anonymous bidder at Christie's auction house on Tuesday for more than the expected price of USD 700,000, Contactmusic reported.
The artwork, which was completed in 1984, was sold by a New York-based collector, who bought it from the Andy Warhol Foundation in the 1990s.
It depicts a smiling Jackson in a jacket with squiggles of red and yellow in his hair

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FBI team to visit India to probe Headley’s links

New Delhi: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sleuths would be arriving in India on November 18 to probe Indian links of David Headley - under detention in US for allegedly plotting terror attacks. Headley and his Pakistani co-conspirator Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested for the foiled terror plot to attack India and Denmark. The FBI believes that both were operatives of the banned Pak-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The US sleuths, while in India, would probe Headley’s Indian network and also establish his links with the Le, reports said Thursday. Incidentally, a Chicago court has given 60 days deadline to FBI to complete its investigations in the case and file an indictment. FBI’s India visit comes when Indian govt has issued an advisory suggesting that five Indian cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Agra and Ahmedabad – are on the terror radar just before 26/11 anniversary. Incidentally, these are the very cities which were visited by Headley during his multiple trips to the country.
The US sleuths are also expected to visit all these cities. American investigators are also sure that he made multiple trips to Pakistan, where he spent "substantial time" undergoing training from terror groups. Moreover, the FBI has also already established that he was also conducting recruitment of cadres for Lashkar, to send them to a Gulf country using the services of his immigration business set up in Mumbai. It has sent alarm bells ringing in the Indian establishment as there have been mysterious disappearances of many accused from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad including that of Rahil Sheikh, an alleged mastermind in the 2006 Mumbai serial blasts that left 187 people dead. Indian sleuths snubbed Even as the FBI team gets ready to visit India, New Delhi certainly feels snubbed as its team of intelligence officials had to leave the US disappointed after a week-long stay as they where not allowed could not question David Headley. Sources familiar with the visit of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officials termed "bureaucratic" and "procedural" hurdles as the main reason for them not being successful in interrogation of Headley, who is lodged in a Chicago jail. However, the Indian team is believed to have spent most of their time in Washington and they could not make their planned trip to Chicago – where Headley and his co-conspirator Tahawwur Hussain Rana are lodged in a jail – to interrogate the duo, both Chicago-residents. The team left for India through New York on November 8. In Washington, officials familiar with the investigations told reporters that the Indian officials had a series of meetings with their FBI counterparts during which the American intelligence officials shared their investigation and interrogation details with them.
However, the Indian team wanted to question Headley on different aspects of the terror plot. The officials were disappointed that they were not able to interrogate either of the two arrested, given that this was the prime objective of their trip, the sources said. Post 26/11 there has been close cooperation between the Indian and American intelligence agencies. Another source told reporters that the reluctance on the part of the FBI to let a foreign intelligence agency interrogate one of the terror suspects under its custody was because its own investigation had not been completed. The Indian team is expected to return to the US soon to question Headley, the sources said. Headley was arrested on October 18 along with Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, by FBI at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before boarding a flight to Philadelphia, intending to travel to Pakistan.

Indian Coastal Security gets Strong after the 26/11 Attacks

A year after terrorists entered India from the sea, there are some visible changes in policing. The Coast Guard is setting up commando units to tackle potential attackers and hijackers. Airborne units too will provide back up so that these men aren't entirely at sea.On Wednesday, these Coast Guard commandos enacted a rescue mission on a ship off the Mumbai coast - complete with air support ready to swoop down if necessary. The mission was tracked and monitored by senior officers from a command centre not far off.The operation demonstrated the Coast Guard's post-26/11 preparedness.To monitor the movement of ships, personnel on regular patrolling boats have been trained to deal with intruders. Each Coast Guard vessel now has its own commando team. "Post 26/11, there has been greater coordination with the the Navy. We have set up mechanisms to ensure that whatever resources are available to us and to the Navy, we maximise their usage efficiently," explains Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, Director General of the Indian Coast Guard.A year after the Mumbai attacks, the Coast Guard attempts to show that at least some things have changed along India's vulnerable coast line.

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महाराष्ट्र माझा मी महाराष्ट्राचा मराठी अस्मितेसाठी काहीही करू MNS MLAs manhandle Abu Azmi for taking oath in Hindi

महाराष्ट्र माझा मी महाराष्ट्राचा मराठी अस्मितेसाठी काहीही करू...........

Abu Azmi roughed up in Maharashtra Assembly for taking oath in Hindi

Mon, Nov 9 03:05 PM
Mumbai (Maharashtra), Nov 9 (ANI): There was pandemonium on the first day of the new Maharashtra assembly today when Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) legislators roughed up Samajwadi Party MLA, Abu Azmi for taking oath of office in Hindi.
As Azmi started to take his oath in Hindi, several MNS members swooped on him and pushed him aside. Legislator Ramesh Banjle uprooted the microphone from the podium. s Azmi attempted to save himself, MNS member Ram Kadam slapped him and hit him on the face and chest, shocking the 288-member house that had converged for the oath-taking ceremony.
Earlier, Azmi had expressed his determination to take oath in the national language.zmi's announcement had come after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's warning to the newly elected legislators asking them to take oath only in Marathi.
Raj Thackeray had challenged Azmi threatening to unleash mob violence in the Maharashtra Assembly if anybody took oath in Hindi. He had warned that the MNS legislators would show what they could do in the house.