Piaa Bajpai Back To Mollywood With A Bang!

Piaa Bajpai rose to fame with her Tamil movie Goa. Later on, offers started pouring for her from all the languages. She was also seen in the movie Ko, along with Jeeva and Karthika Nair. Piaa made her Mollywood debt with the movie Masters along with Prithviraj and Sasikmuar. Now, the actress is back with a bang into the industry once again. Piaa will be seen in the movie Kelvi. The movie is touted to be a thriller flick as Masters. Pia is said to play a college student in Kelvi. She plays a charming, bubbly girl in the film. "Though a bubbly character, it will be an intense role. I can't reveal much about her role now as that is the surprise element in the movie", says Hashim Marikkar, the director of the film. He is also the script writer of Kelvi. Kelvi, the thriller, revolves around the lives of a scriptwriter, a film director and a yesteryear actress, and certain events that happen in their lives. Manoj K Jayan and Swetha Menon play the lead roles in the film. Mumtaz, Aju Varghese, praveen Prem and many others are seen in supporting roles in the film. Kelvi is a bilingual movie, which is also taken in Tamil. Parthipen will play the lead in the Tamil version. The rest of the acst will remain the same. The title for the Tamil version is yet to be finalised.

Read more at: http://entertainment.oneindia.in/malayalam/news/2014/piaa-bajpai-back-to-mollywood-with-a-bang-130861.html

Twin toilets photo at Sochi Olympics goes viral

Twin toilets photo at Sochi Olympics goes viral

Sochi, Russia: At least one Olympic bathroom seems to be flush with toilets.

When BBC reporter Steve Rosenberg went to use the bathroom at the cross-country skiing and biathlon center for next month's Winter Olympics in Sochi, he found two toilets but only one stall.

His tweeted picture instantly became a national joke.

Although toilets like that are not common in Russia, social media users posted photos of other side-by-side toilets, including ones in a courthouse and a cafe.

The editor of the state R-Sport news agency said such communal toilets are standard at Russian soccer stadiums.

'Why are the BBC folks scaring us?' Vasily Konov wrote in this personal Twitter account. 'This is what the gents look like at football stadiums in Russia.'

He posted a photo showing two urinals and three toilets in a large room.

Russians jested that the toilets in Sochi were designed for a 'tandem,' the name used to describe the duo of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. One popular blogger altered Rosenberg's photo to put in a framed portrait of the two leaders above the toilets.

In a nod to the tight security measures imposed in Sochi for the Winter Olympics, another joke has it that the second toilet was for a Russian security officer.

The Sochi organizing committee refused to comment on the picture. The games run from Feb. 7-23. AP

Kamal Haasan, Vidya Balan, J.S. Verma, Yuvraj among 127 Padma awardees

Noted scientist R.A. Mashelkar, yoga expert B.K.S. Iyenger, actors Kamal Haasan and Vidya Balan, tennis player Leander Paes, cricketer Yuvraj Singh, and former chief justice of India, the late J.S.Verma were Saturday conferred the Padma awards on the eve of the 65th Republic Day.

While Mashelkar and Iyengar were the two named for Padma Vibhushan, 24 eminent people including Verma, Justice Dalveer Bhandari, Haasan, writers Anita Desai and Ruskin Bond, badminton player P.Gopichand and Paes got the Padma Bhushan.

The 101 conferred the Padma Shri include Vidya Balan and Paresh Rawal, cricketers Yuvraj and Anjum Chopra, Odisha sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, and fashion designer Wendell Rodricks.

Padma Awards - the country's highest civilian awards, are conferred to eminent people for their contribution in the field of social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service.

The awards will be presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan around March/April.

Of the total 127 Padma Awardees, 27 are women and ten are foreigners, NRIs and PIOs.

Verma, who headed a government committee set up in the wake of the Dec 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape to frame a tough law for crime against women, has been awarded Padma Bhushan posthumously in the public affairs category. Bhandari is a former apex court judge who now represents India in the International Court of Justice.

Others who have been conferred Padma Bhushan include artist Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, classical singer Begum Parveen Sultana and ghatam performer T.H. Vinayakram.

Padmanabham Balram, Madappa Mahadevappa, Thirumalachari Ramasami, Vinod Prakash Sharma, Radhakrishnan Koppillil, and (late) Anumolu Ramakrishna have been conferred Padma Bhushan for science and engineering.

Padma Bhushan for literature and education has been conferred on Mrityunjay Athreya, Anita Desai, Dhirubhai Thakar, Vairamuthu Ramasamy Thevar and Ruskin Bond, Anisuzzaman (Bangladesh), Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph (both US) jointly.

While Neelam Kler got Padma Bhushan for medicine, Vijayendra Nath Kaul got the award in the civil service category.

Kler is a senior consultant in the neonatology department in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, as well as president of the National Neonatology Forum.

The Padma Shri awardees also include Paresh Rawal, cricketers Anjum Chopra and Yuvraj Singh, kabaddi player Sunil Dabas for Kabbadi, squash player Dipika Rebecca Pallikal, H. Boniface Prabhu (wheelchair tennis), mountaineers Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu and Mamta Sodha and former bureaucrat Praveen Talha.

SRK discharged, back to work

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who was taken to a city hospital following a minor injury that he suffered while shooting a film here Thursday, has now been discharged. He is going back to work, said his spokesperson.

'Shah Rukh got a slight cut on his forehead and he was taken to the hospital as a precaution to make sure there was no serious injury. He is going back to work now,' the actor-producer's spokesperson told IANS.

Shah Rukh left the Dr. Balabhai Nanavati Hospital here Thursday afternoon after he sought medical aid for the injury that he is said to have suffered during the shoot for Farah Khan's 'Happy New Year'.

His wife Gauri Khan was by his side. However, she left the hospital premises a few minutes before SRK. There was tight security outside the hospital.

A source had confirmed to IANS that SRK was in the physiotherapy department of the hospital.

Midnight raid

One of the African women assaulted in a midnight raid in south Delhi has accused Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti of having led the group that barged into her house and assaulted them.

The Ugandan national had recorded her statement before a magistrate yesterday, saying that she would be able to
identify the persons who had barged into her house on the intervening night of January 15-16.

The woman recorded her statement in camera under Sec 164 CrPC which is admissible in court. The statement has been now
given to police in a sealed cover and will be opened only during the trial.

'We were attacked on Wednesday night by Indians who were led by Somnath Bharti...We were harassed, we were beaten, they were having long sticks. They said we should leave their country or else they would kill us one by one,' she said.

The woman said she identified Bharti because 'he came in the night and the next day I saw him on television. The Delhi
Police came in time and saved us from the mob.'

Police has listed the Ugandan national as a prosecution witness in the case. She will again testify in court during
the trial over the alleged incident.

The court had ordered registration of an FIR upon a petition filed by the woman in question seeking a criminal
case against the alleged offenders.

A city court had ordered registration of an FIR against unknown persons in connection with the midnight raid against
African women at Khirki Extension here.

Bharti had accused the foreign nationals of being involved in a drug and prostitution racket.

Meanwhile, Air Deccan founder and AAP member Capt G R Gopinath has reportedly said that while AAP demanded action
against police officers pending an inquiry on ground that they may interfere in the probe, the same yardstick should apply to
Bharti.

He had also said that Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet should govern from their offices and only his party workers
must protest.

Gopinath said Kejriwal sitting on dharna demanding action against four junior police personnel is, according to many
opinion leaders, the last straw that may break the camel's back when it comes to AAP mis-steps.PTI

Diet drinks not a guarantee to lose weight

If you thought gulping down diet coke would help you lose weight, think again.

Researchers found that overweight and obese adults who drink diet beverages actually consume more calories from food than obese or overweight adults who drink regular soda or other sugary beverages.

'Although obese adults who drink diet soda eat a comparable amount of total calories as heavier adults who drink sugary beverages, they consume significantly more calories from solid food at both meals and snacks,' said Sara Bleich, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

To reach this conclusion, researchers looked at national patterns in adult diet beverage consumption and caloric intake by body-weight status, said the study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Individuals who drink diet soda typically have a higher BMI (Body Mass Index) and consume more snack food than those who drink sugary beverages.

Artificial sweeteners present in high doses in diet soda disrupts appetite control and the brain's sweet sensors may no longer provide a reliable gauge of energy consumption, it added.

As a result, consumption of diet drinks may result in increased food intake overall.

'Overweight and obese adults may need to look carefully at other components of their solid-food diet, particularly sweet snacks, to potentially identify areas for modification,' said Bleich.

Fahad Fazil, Nazriya Nazeen to wed in August

Another star wedding to add colour to Malayalam cinema. The marriage of rising star Fahad Fazil and Nazriya Nazeen has been fixed. The marriage will take place in August and was arranged by both their families. Fahad Fazil's father and director Fazil announced the wedding to the media.

Fahad Fazil, who is basking in the success of his last release Oru Indian Pranayakadha, has many movies lined up for the year. His One By Two, God's Own Country, a movie with director Anjali Menon are on roll.

Sunanda Pushkar found dead in hotel

Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a luxury hotel here Friday night, police said.

Police sources told that she was found sprawled on a bed in room 345 at The Leela Palace hotel in south Delhi.

Tharoor, Sunanda deny split after Twitter row

Union Minister Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar have issued a joint statement over the Twitter controversy. The two have in a joint statement in Twitter revealed they are happily married and everythibng is fine from their end. 

'We are distressed by the unseemly controversy that has arisen about some unauthorised tweets from our Twitter accounts. Various distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Sunanda have appeared in the press. It appears that some personal and private comments responding to these unauthorised tweets -- comments that were not intended for publication -- have been misrepresented and led to some erroneous conclusions,' the statement said. 

The Twitter handle of Shashi Tharoor, one of the most popular Indian politicians on the networking site, was hacked and some wacky tweets were sent from it to a Pakistani journalist.

The tweets instantly created a buzz on social media websites.

'Sorry folks, my @Twitter account has been hacked & will be temporarily deactivated. Bear with me while we solve this,'
he told his followers in his page.

Most of the tweets from his hacked account were addressed to Mehr Tarar, who was taken aback by the flurry of messages
from the minister's handle.

'You unfollowed me. You don't RT me and you don't answer me on twitter. I can live with your favourites. I have your
personal validation,' one of the hacked tweets read, which went on to add, 'Have your personal validation of my words, I
don't need any public one. For that I will wait until we are together publically really mehr.'

As the tweets went viral on the social media, Tarar responded, 'Okay. What's going on? Who's tweeting to me? I had
an 'affair' with Shashi Tharoor and he's tweeting to me? How does that work?'

'I know Shashi T& respect him greatly. Hv tweeted/written abt it openly.Feel awful abt wht's being tweeted. Maybe
@TwitterIndia shld check?' she said in another tweet. 

Another of the hacked tweets read, 'Shashi. I'm not crying any more. I'm not falling to pieces. I'm more lucid than ever.
How little I knew you became visible to me.@mehrtarar.'

The messages, with wacky mention of a romantic link between Tarar and Tharoor, were followed by a tweet
purportedly from the minister's wife Sunanda Pushkar's account.

'I am sending @mehrtars bbbm msgs to the works to see what a horrible woman she is and how she iis stalking my husband,'
a tweet said.

Tharoor's twitter page shows that he has 2.02 million followers. PTI

Z security to Arvind Kejriwal

Notwithstanding Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's stand against taking any security cover, Ghaziabad police has decided to provide 'Z' category protection to him from Monday.

As per the security plan outlined by the district police, 30 personnel would be deployed round-the-clock to provide security to Kejriwal.

Kejriwal presently resides with his family in a flat in Girnar Apartments in the Kaushambi area of Ghaziabad. He has earlier turned down the Ghaziabad SSP's offer for security cover.

'Despite the Delhi CM's refusal, we have decided to provide him with 24-hour 'Z' category security.

'Two head constables and eight constables will be deployed outside Kejriwal's house from tomorrow. Besides, two Personal Security Officers will also be posted as part of the Delhi CM's security detail,' SSP Dharmendra Singh told .

He added that Kejriwal will now have two escort vehicles accompanying him when he is on the move in Ghaziabad. These vehicles would be carrying two head constables and six constables armed with sophisticated weapons.

'The two police vehicles will guard the Delhi CM when he is on the move in Ghaziabad,' Singh said.

Upon being reminded that Kejriwal had recently rejected Ghaziabad police's request that he accept security cover and may do so once more, Singh said, 'It doesn't matter if he rejects our request again. After the state government's directive yesterday, we have decided to give Kejriwal security from Monday.'

Uttar Pradesh government had Saturday decided that security was to be provided to Kejriwal regardless of his refusal to accept the same while, prior to that, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said that the Delhi CM was being covered by security personnel without his knowledge.

Activists of a right-wing group had on January 8 attacked and vandalised the Aam Aadmi Party headquarters in Kaushambi to protest against party leader Prashant Bhushan's remarks on Kashmir.

Around 40 activists of Hindu Raksha Dal broke flower pots and tore party posters at the office while some glass doors were also smashed in the attack.

Katy Perry can't cook

Singer Katy Perry says that she is a bad cook and cannot even boil an egg, if required.

The 'Roar' hitmaker also has some other negative habits like getting late for work and finding it tough to say no to sweets, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

'The first thing you should know about me is that I can't even boil an egg,' said Perry.

'Secondly, I'm always late. I can't help it; I get it from my mother. Also I find it hard to turn down sweets if there are some in the studio,' she added.

Meanwhile, Perry has for the first time posed with boyfriend John Mayer for the cover of their duet single 'Who you love'.

Vishwas apologized for Muharram comments

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday tried to put an end to the controversy over Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas's remarks on Muharram, saying he has apologized for it.

'This is an old issue, at one of the poetry conventions, he ( Kumar Vishwas) had said something in a satire...' said Kejriwal.

'Kumar said later it was not his intention to hurt anyone. He also tendered an apology,' he said.

Kejriwal's clarification came after Janata Dal-United legislator Shoaib Iqbal, who supported the AAP in the confidence vote in the Delhi assembly, threatened to withdraw support.

'Whatever he said about Hazrat Imam Hussain is objectionable, I am getting calls from all across the country, people are hurt,' Iqbal said, citing a video where Vishwas has allegedly joked about Muharram during one of his performances.
IANS

Mom delivers twins on New Year: one in 2013, the other in 2014

As partygoers were ringing in the New Year across the Greater Toronto Area, a Mississauga mom was busy giving birth to twin daughters. And though the twins were born eight minutes apart, they'll share different birthdays – and different birth years.

Proud mom Lindsay Salgueiro delivered the last baby of 2013 at Mississauga's Credit Valley Hospital before giving birth to the first baby of 2014.

Baby Gabriela was born shortly before midnight, weighing seven pounds, while her sister Sophia waited until the New Year, arriving 38 seconds after midnight at five pounds and 15 ounces.

'They are getting all the attention,' Salgueiro told CTV News Channel from her hospital bed. 'They were the last baby here in the hospital to be (born) for the year and the first one of the year also.'

The fraternal twins came as a surprise to Salgueiro and her husband as the couple's due date was not expected to arrive until Jan. 19.

Salgueiro, who also has two boys, says the girls are healthy and doing well. The proud new mom said she is excited to get back to normal.

'I'm so relieved that I got my belly out of the way and I'm back to normal now,' she joked.

Despite her speedy delivery, Baby Sophia is not the GTA's first baby of the New Year. That title goes to two other newborns who both entered the world at exactly 12 a.m. – albeit via different mothers.

James John Kennady was delivered right as the clock struck midnight at Rouge Valley Centenary hospital in Scarborough while seven-pound baby girl Jenna arrived at North York General Hospital at the same time.

And St. Michael's first baby of 2014 was delivered two minutes after midnight, while Mount Sinai Hospital delivered a baby boy one hour into the year, at 1:01 a.m.

Keralite harassed over a moustache in UAE

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are investigating a case of a passport control official who allegedly held back an Indian man's passport because he did not like the latter's moustache.

Sujeev Kumar, a software engineer from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, arrived at Sharjah International Airport last Friday.

He said that the passport control officer told him he would return the passport if he shaved off his moustache, the Gulf News reported.

Abdullah Bin Sahoo, director-general of Sharjah Department of Naturalisation and Foreign Affairs, said CCTV images would be studied to check whether the passenger's allegations were correct and action would then be taken.

Kumar claimed that the officer stamped his passport but did not return it.

'After stamping my passport, he kept looking at me and the picture in the passport. He asked me how I keep my moustache brushed and laughed,' Kumar was quoted as saying.

Kumar said he did not understand the comments as the officer, who was an Arab, was speaking in Urdu.

'He finally told me: 'If you agree to shave off your moustache, I will let you go' and kept my passport with him,' said Kumar.

Taking even that as a joke, Kumar again asked for his passport but was surprised when he was ignored.

'I started arguing with him and only after asking to speak to his superior officer he returned my passport and allowed me to proceed,' he said.

IANS