Kingfisher Airlines gets Govt nod to fly abroad

New Delhi, Aug 19: Kingfisher Airlines, promoted by flamboyant businessman Vijay Mallya, has secured permission to fly abroad starting with flights to London. The Civil Aviation Ministry granted the traffic rights to Deccan Aviation, in which Kingfisher Airlines merged in 2007, to operate services to London and other global destinations. The airline, which has already firmed up plans to launch its Bangalore-London (Heathrow) flight from the first week of September, would be starting its international services on the rights granted to Deccan Aviation on the India-UK sector. The Ministry yesterday conveyed its approval to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for granting traffic rights to Deccan Aviation, an official spokesperson said here today. Traffic rights of seven services per week have been granted with effect from August 26 between Bangalore and London and the airline permitted to utilise a large aircraft, Airbus A-330 for the long-haul operation. The Ministry has also advised DGCA to grant operating clearance to Deccan Aviation after due diligence of the airline's ability to operate on the long-haul sector, the spokespersons said. This would make Deccan Aviation the second major private Indian airline after Naresh Goyal's Jet Airways to launch international operations.

25 dead in blast at Pakistani hospital

Peshawar: An explosion took place in a District Headquarters hospital of Tank on Tuesday, killing at least 25 people while injuring several others. Some policemen are also reported to have been died in the blast.NWFP IG said that seven persons were killed in the blast and termed it as a suicide attack.Head and legs of suicide bomber have been identified, according to sources.The blast happened when a number of people had gathered inside the hospital’s emergency compound. Eyewitness said that several people were killed and injured due the heavy blast.

Musharraf`s fate hangs in balance as Pak coalition meets

Islamabad, Aug 19: After quitting as the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf now faces an uncertain future. The former Army Chief announced his exit in a televised address on Monday to avoid the threat of impeachment charges by the ruling PPP-PML(N) coalition government, nine years after he grabbed power in a bloodless military coup. Speculation swirled that Musharraf's decision came after a deal brokered by Pakistan's powerful military and the United States to avoid criminal charges, but it remained unclear where he would spend his retirement. Musharraf is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia with his family to perform a pilgrimage to Mecca in the near future, following which he will decide whether to live outside Pakistan. Top leaders of the coalition, including Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, held discussions for over four hours after Musharraf announced his decision to step down but were unable to reach any conclusions, sources said. PPP officials had earlier said Zardari and Sharif would address a joint news conference but this did not materialise. Sharif left Zardari's residence, the venue of the meeting, without talking to the media. Leaders of both parties were tight-lipped about what transpired at the meeting. However, sources said the leaders of the two main parties in the alliance had differences over the modalities for the reinstatement of judges who were deposed by Musharraf during last year's emergency. When the PPP and PML-N announced their plans to impeach Musharraf on August seven, they had said that the deposed judges would be restored immediately after the President's removal. The sources said Sharif in particular had pressed for the restoration of the deposed judges without any delay. A brief statement issued by the PPP tonight said the leaders of the coalition would "meet again tomorrow to discuss the post-resignation issues and strengthen democracy". The coalition's leaders, including Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, welcomed the resignation of Musharraf.

Anil Ambani group launches direct-to-home TV service

MUMBAI: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group launched its direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcasting service here Tuesday under the "Reliance Big TV" banner with a bouquet of 202 channels for customers across India.The service, starting Rs.1,490, which includes a three-month subscription, will be available from some 100,000 outlets in 6,500 towns in the country. The group has also set up a customer service cell that can handle over 50,000 calls a day. "With the launch of Big TV DTH, we aim to accelerate the growth momentum and enhance the value of many million shareholders of Reliance Communications," chairman Anil Ambani said."The huge potential of a quality and value-offering in the home entertainment service market offers us a unique opportunity to tap the strengths and synergies of telecom and entertainment sectors embedded within Reliance ADA Group."Some of its competitors include Dish TV, TataSky and Sun Direct TV.

Amitabh Bachchan to join Keith Vaz in diabetes appeal

London, Aug 19 (IANS) Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan is to join Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz this week to open the new premises of a diabetes charity in Leicester. The new building of the Silver Star Appeal will help support the work of the Leicester-based charity which aims to raise awareness about diabetes and provide free blood sugar tests through mobile assessment units. Hundreds of fans are expected to turn out to see the legendary actor in Leicester, a city that has been dubbed Little India for its large Indian-origin population. Bachchan is in Britain as part of his global Unforgettable tour. 'It is a great honour to welcome a star of the calibre of Amitabh Bachchan to Leicester to contribute to this important cause, and one which I know will delight all local people,' said Vaz who launched the charity after discovering he was diabetic. There are over 2.2 million people in Britain diagnosed with diabetes but another 750,000 who would have Type 2 diabetes don't yet know it because they have not been tested, experts say.

Jade Goody has cancer; leaves Bigg Boss

London, Aug 19: Reality TV star Jade Goody has been diagnosed with cancer and has withdrawn from the this seasons ‘Bigg Boss’, the Indian version of the famed reality show ‘Big Brother’. The infamous housemate will now be flying back home for treatment. According to Goody’s spokesman, the news was broken to the 27-year-old, mother of two while she was appearing in the show. “She went for tests and results have come back and she has cancer of the womb”. A UK based daily that broke the news reported that Goody was called into the Diary Room, where she was made to speak with her consultant in the UK by telephone and soon after getting the news she burst into tears and ran into the house in hysterics, telling housemates: “I have cancer”. “She was phoned up and informed. This is a massive blow for her”, said the spokesman. The newspaper reports claim that Goody had undergone hospital tests earlier this month after her third cancer scare. It followed four mystery collapses. She had apparently agreed to participate in ‘Bigg Boss’ as she wanted to make amends for being accused of being a racist during last year's UK edition of Celebrity Big Brother, where Goody had referred to Shilpa Shetty as “Shilpa Poppadom” and thereafter the makers of the reality show had received more than 50,000 complaints about Goody, Danielle Lloyd and former S Club singer Jo O'Meara's alleging racist bullying. Goody was later evicted through an audience vote from ‘Big Brother’, which Shetty had ultimately won. ‘Bigg Boss’, the desi version was featuring 14 Indian celebrities and was hosted by actress Shilpa Shetty, Goody had allegedly got £100,000 for her appearance on the show. Endemol, the production house hasn’t commented on the same as yet but is expected to replace Goody with a new contestant as the series has just begun.

Ahmedabad tense after more communal skirmishes

Ahmedabad, IANS: Tension continued in parts of Ahmedabad on Tuesday morning after clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups went on till late the previous night and police had to lob teargas shells to disperse mobs, officials said. Police were forced to fire over 100 tear gas shells in the lanes and by-lanes of the city's Shahpur area late Monday night to bring the situation under control, an official said. At least 30 people, including five policemen, have been injured in rioting in Shahpur since Sunday night. According to the police, more than 25 people from different parts of east Ahmedabad have been detained for rioting. The violence began late Sunday night, when Hindu and Muslim groups clashed over a minor road accident in Delhi Darwaza area and police had to lob 72 teargas shells and fire one round in the air to disperse the mobs. Four people were injured in the skirmish. The warring groups threw stones at each other for more than an hour Monday morning in Dariapur, Shahpur and Delhi Darwaza areas. There was panic in the neighbourhood and shops quickly downed shutters as people ran helter-skelter.

Anju Bobby George fails to qualify for women's long jump event

BEIJING: Anju Bobby George failed to qualify for the finals of women's long jump event at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday. All three attempts by Anju in the qualifying heats were fouls. It was a big disappoint not only for Indian fans but for Anju herself as she failed to put up even single clean jump, squandering all three chances. It required an out of the skin show to make the finals grade as the qualifying mark was as high as 6.75 metres or the 12 best jumps. Anju was not in her best form when she landed in Beijing as the Indian had continuously struggled to cross her best mark of 6.83m, which she achieved in the last Olympics at Athens. Now the Indian medal hopes from the track and field remains on the 4X400 relay team comprising Mandeep Kaur, Chitra Soman, S Geetha, Sini Jose, MR Povamma and K Mridula.

Sharath advances to second round

Beijing: Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal moved to the second round of the men's singles table tennis event at the Beijing Olympics, defeating Spaniard Alfredo Carneros 4-2. Sharath was stretched to the fullest by Carneros with whom the Indian has been playing together at Spain's San Sabastian Club for the last two years. Sharath started his campaign on a shoddy note, losing the opening game, but came back strongly to down the Spaniard 6-11, 12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7 at the Peking University Gymnasium.

Dhoni and his men will have to move mountains to tackle SL

Dambulla (Sri Lanka), August 19: Jolted by the humiliating defeat in the series opener, India may opt to shuffle their struggling batting line-up as they go into the second cricket one-dayer against Sri Lanka in Dambulla on Wednesday hoping to find a way to regain their winning touch. After losing the Test series, the Indians made a poor start to the one-dayers by losing the first game here by eight wickets and it will need a far more inspiring performance by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men to reverse their fortunes. The absence of Virender Sehwag, who has been ruled out of the series because of an injury, has come as a big blow for the Indians who have been forced to have a re-look at the batting order. The Indian think tank is now toying with the idea of shuffling the batting order for the crucial second game of the five-match series. But with an average age of around 24 years, Dhoni and his men will have to move mountains to get a stranglehold of the on-going series and this may force the skipper to move himself and other seniors up the batting order. However, Dhoni will be missing the fire power of his most experienced batsman Sehwag who can really be destructive on his day. In that scenario, vice-captain Yuvraj Singh, who hit an explosive 172 in the lone practice match before the start of the ODI series, opener Gautam Gambhir and Dhoni himself will have to take the responsibilty on their shoulders to guide the relatively junior batsmen of the team. Understandably, dejected with their show in the first ODI, Indian batsmen were seen practicing hard to realise their skipper’s aspiration of putting up a challenging total on the board. Apart from the batting front, the visitors also have some problems in their bowling department. Though the pacers have maintained reasonably good line and length, the spinners, led by Harbhajan Singh, are yet to prove their worth, compared to the deadly Lankan duo of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis. Veteran Muralitharan and mysterious Mendis continue to be the nemesis of Indian batsmen as they duo rattled the visitors innings on Monday, picking up three wickets each. Mendis is turning out to be a threat for Indian batsmen who were once considered as the best players of turners and skipper Dhoni was candid enough to accept that they are facing difficulty in picking up the new spin sensation. Stating that Mendis is more unusual than even Muralitharan, the Indian skipper said the main issue was to get the score ticking in ODIs and it was not enough merely to gauge their kind of bowling. “Even if you pick him, by the time you realise what ball it is, it gets really late to play a big shot. You will see batsmen who can play him, but in ODI cricket it is not only about playing him,” admitted Dhoni.

Priyanka to play twelve characters in Gowariker’s next

Mumbai, Aug 19: Starlet Priyanka Chopra is gearing up to play not one, but twelve characters in Ashutosh Gowariker’s next flick ‘What’s Your Rashee?’. The movie is said be based on astrology and will see Priyanka playing twelve different characters depicting the twelve zodiac signs, implying that each character will have a trait related to a particular zodiac sign.Giving Piggie chops company will be, ex-flame Harman Baweja who is still recovering from the debacle of his launch vehicle ‘Lovestory 2050’. The movie will be a romantic comedy based on a novel ‘Kimball Ravenswood’ written by US based Gujarati writer Madhu Rye. This will be the first time that Gowariker will venture into romantic comedy after making great epics like ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Jodhaa Akbar.