Raucous campaign in Tamil Nadu comes to an end

CHENNAI - Electioneering by Lok Sabha aspirants for the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry came to an end Monday evening, giving citizens some respite from the cacophony that went on for over a month.

Hired husband theme of ‘Mithrudu’ fails to impress

Film: ‘Mithrudu’; Direction: Mahadev; Cast: Bala Krishna, Priya Mani, Deepak; Music Director: Mani Sharma; Cinematographer: Bala Murugan; Rating: *

Election Commission orders repoll on six booths in West Bengal

KOLKATA - The Election Commission on Saturday ordered repolling on six booths– two each in Jhargram, Bishnupur and Darjeeling Lok Sabha seats on Sunday.

I’m an adult, says boy caught for child labour

BANGALORE - Mohammad Mani alias Jabbar, from distant Malda in West Bengal, would not have thought when he arrived here a month ago in search of work that he would land in trouble over his age if he starts working.

Warne lauds young Indian players in IPL

JOHANNESBURG - Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne has lauded the young Indian players in the side as the ones who would ensure triumph for India in the World Cup Twenty20 in future.

Prakash Raj to play LTTE chief Prabhakaran in new film

BANGALORE - Multilingual actor Prakash Raj says he has been offered the role of LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran in a Tamil film and that he will be doing it.

Bollywood remembers Feroz Khan as ‘real royal’ of Hindi cinema

NEW DELHI - Friend, mentor, excellent human being and real royal of Hindi cinema - that is how Bollywood remembers Feroz Khan, the filmmaker-actor who died after a year-long battle with cancer.

Feroz Khan - Bollywood’s all time style icon (Obituary)

BANGALORE - Known for his flamboyant persona, Feroz Khan was an actor, director and producer who had a long innings in the Hindi film industry. The actor known for his stylish films ‘Dharmatma’ and ‘Qurbani’ continued to charm audiences with his inimitable style till as late as 2007.

Asin Thottumkal no more daddy’s girl

MUMBAI - Actress Asin Thottumkal has to manage her life and career on her own for the first time as her father prepares to go in for surgery. But she says she is determined to prove herself.

Congress, RJD try to sew tear in UPA (Political Roundup)

NEW DELHI - Was it settling down to the business of electioneering a day before round two of Election 2009? On Wednesday, that seemed to be so as quietude returned to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ironing out their differences and the political discourse shorn of major acrimony.

Pranab blames his ‘broken Hindi’ for spat with Lalu

KOLKATA - A day after his spat with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, Congress leader and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday sought to end the controversy by blaming his ‘broken Hindi’ for the ‘confusion’.

Katrina Kaif: ‘Becoming a film star in India has been a dream come true’

LONDON - Born in Britain, speaks Hindi with an accent-Katrina Kaif is no close to the typical Bollywood actress but still she has made a mark in Indians’ hearts.

We’ll not bow down before terrorism: Sonia

BHUBANESWAR - Congress president Sonia Gandhi Saturday asserted that her party ‘will never bow down before terrorism’ and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was making terror a poll issue because it had nothing else to talk about.

Anushka Sharma loses out ‘Arundhati’ remake

MUMBAI - Telugu hit ‘Arundhati’ is all set to be remade into Hindi and the makers wanted to cast Anushka Sharma in the title role. But the ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ heroine couldn’t be finalised for it because of some misconceptions.

CPI-M will not support Congress under any circumstances: Karat

LONDON - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat has ruled out supporting any Congress-led alliance after the elections - ‘whatever the circumstances’.

Either Advani not telling truth or he wasn’t trusted: Rahul

TALWANDI SABO - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday renewed his attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani on the Kandahar hijack episode, saying either he was not telling the truth or the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not trust him.

Boot criminals out to avoid shoe attack: former chief justice

NEW DELHI - Former chief justice of India J.S. Verma has urged all political parties to boot criminals out of politics and not wait for ‘people to resort to radical and extra-legal measures’ like lobbing shoes at them. He has now started a civil society campaign for crime-free politics.

Acclaimed stunt master Shyam Sundar is dead

BANGALORE - South Indian film industry’s well known stunt master Shyam Sundar Shetty died in a private nursing home here, family sources said Saturday. He was 96.

Big B’s persona overshadows a character: Rakeysh Mehra

Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra says Amitabh Bachchan’s larger-than-life screen presence sometimes outshines his characters in films.

I will miss Shaktida so much:Sharmila Tagore

MUMBAI - The image of the coy beauty seated primly in a makeshift kotha singing ‘Raina beeti jaye’ in Lata Mangeshkar’s soulful voice pervades our senses as now. The gorgeous Sharmila Tagore, who played the prostitute in Shakti Samanta’s ‘Amar Prem’, is deeply grieved by the death of the maker of some of the most sensitive romantic cinema of the 1970s.

Don’t politicise my shoe attack, pleads Jarnail Singh

NEW DELHI - Journalist Jarnail Singh Wednesday denounced politicians for ‘trying to take advantage’ of his dramatic shoe attack on Home Minister P. Chidambaram and asked political parties to come out with a law against communal violence.

Maoists threaten to chop hands of voters in Bihar

PATNA - Maoist guerrillas have put up handwritten posters in Bihar’s Gaya district threatening villagers that their hands would be chopped if they vote in the general election.

Perfecting the science of shoe-throwing: New course for media schools? (Comment)

Throwing shoes during news conferences is an extreme form of editorialising which professional reporters must refrain from, especially those who are a poor shot.

I am here for a long innings, Azhar tells Moradabad voters

MORADABAD - Former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin Tuesday started a new innings, as the Congress candidate for the Lok Sabha constituency of Moradabad, as he promised people he was here for a ‘long innings’.

Lok Sabha ticket, job offer for shoe throwing scribe

CHANDIGARH - Iraqi journalist Montadher al-Zaidi, who is biding time in a prison after his shoe-throwing action on then US President George W. Bush last year, is not going to like it.

Songs made nowadays are mere shouting: Kumar Sanu

NEW DELHI - Music buffs still remember Kumar Sanu for his soulful renditions in hit film ‘Aashiqui’, but the singer says he now stays away from the Bollywood music scene because songs today are nothing but ’shouting’.

Burleigh assumes charge as new U.S. Charge d’ Affaires in India

NEW DELHI - Ambassador A. Peter Burleigh today assumed duties as the Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. Mission in India.

BJP: A journey of 29 years (Comment)

NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can look back with some pride as it starts the 30th year of its eventful history Monday.

Movie mogul Nagi Reddy’s memoirs coming soon

HYDERABAD - The memoirs of the celebrated late doyen of south Indian film industry and Dadasaheb Phalke award-winner B. Nagi Reddy will be released soon in Telugu.

Mulayam, Lalu may come together, says Amar Singh

NEW DELHI - Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh today said that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad may join hands, and added that the SP also wants Ram Vila Paswan to come on board.