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When almost every contestant on Bigg Boss season 3 confessed on stage that Amitabh Bachchan — the host and pop philosopher on the show—was their chief reason to participate, we didn’t doubt it one bit because it’s precisely our reason to watch the show as well. After the second season’s tedious routine of watching Shilpa Shetty’s manicured hands flick her blown-dry hair back every two scenes, to have Big B replace the self-appointed diva sounds like the best strategy Colors could have adopted to bring back eyeballs to the show that was beginning to lose them. Expectedly, Bachchan saved the day. His magic was unleashed on viewers as well as tongue-tied participants. He speaks chaste Hindi, quotes from his father’s verse, recounts anecdotes from interactions he has had with the participants if any, and chats convivially with their families. Bachchan is no pop philosopher. He is the guardian angel.

WASHINGTON: US and Indian troops will this month stage their biggest joint manoeuvres, including live fire exercises, as the two nuclear powers build up military ties, a senior US officer said on Tuesday.Lieutenant General Benjamin Mixon, commander of US Army forces in the Pacific, said 200 US soldiers and 17 Stryker infantry combat vehicles were taking part in the Yudh Abhyas exercises at Babina, south of New Delhi, from Oct. 12 to 29.It is the largest contingent sent by the United States to the annual joint exercises since they began in 2004.India had a close military relationship with Moscow until the collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s but is now deepening ties with Washington, which is also trying to balance long-standing ties with neighboring Pakistan."As we look at the Pacific in this century, the important players that we are going to see ... are certainly India, Indonesia and China," Mixon said.The exercise will integrate elements of the two a...

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 WASHINGTON: US special envoy George Mitchell was due to leave Washington later Tuesday for the Middle East for further talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials, a US State Department official said."He's leaving tonight and he plans to have talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials today," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.Mitchell held separate talks here last week with both Israeli and Palestinian envoys as part of efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.The meetings followed up on the September 22 summit US President Barack Obama had in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.Obama's administration has been struggling to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree to relaunch their peace talks which were suspended in late December during the Gaza war, with the thorny issue of Jewish settlements t...

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 WASHINGTON: US claimed that most of the terrorists who planned 9/11 attacks have entered into Pakistan. US Department of State spokesperson claimed most of the terrorists responsible for 9/11 attacks have entered into Pakistan from Afghanistan. In a routine briefing to newsmen, the spokesperson said Al-Qaeda network proved fatal for the world.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 STOCKHOLM: Three US based scientists have won the 2009 Nobel Prize for medicine for their discovery into how chromosomes are copied and protected. The work casts important light on cancer and the aging process. Elizabeth Blackburn from the University of California, San Francisco, Jack Szostak from Harvard Medical School and Carol Greider from Johns Hopkins University all share this year's Nobel prize for medicine.Nobel Committee member Rune Toftgard from Sweden's Karolinska Institute says the three took the top honour for their work in the 1980s that revealed how chromosomes, the rod-like structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.Their research has shed new light on disease mechanisms and has spawned the development of potential new therapies.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama Tuesday promised to target Al-Qaeda wherever it takes root and to wipe out safe havens where Osama bin Laden's network can plan attacks on the United States.Obama told intelligence analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center in suburban Virginia that he could not rule out a future attack on US soil, but would do everything in his power to thwart one."We know that Al-Qaeda and its extremist allies threaten us from different corners of the globe, from Pakistan, but also from East Africa, Southeast Asia, from Europe and the Gulf," Obama said."That is why we are applying focus and relentless pressure on Al-Qaeda," Obama said, without specifically mentioning Afghanistan, the focus of an exhaustive administration review of US war and counter-terrorism policy."We will target Al-Qaeda wherever they take root, we will not yield in our pursuit," Obama said.The president said Al-Qaeda was the ...

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 ISTANBUL: Turkish police used water cannons, tear gas and pepper spray on Tuesday to disperse hundreds of demonstrators, protesting against the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) held in Istanbul.Some masked protesters shattered the windows of a McDonald's restaurant and banks and damaged vehicles as they ran into the streets behind Istanbul's Taksim Square, which is less than a kilometer (half a mile) from the venue of the IMF and World Bank meeting.Thousands of police wearing gas masks and protective gear erected barriers around the venue and detained dozens of protesters — mostly members of small leftist parties or labor unions. Media said some foreign protesters were also involved. Police helicopters hovered above the crowds.Clouds of tear gas filled the air above Taksim Square while firefighters battled a blaze apparently set by protesters. Passers-by and reporters were also affected by the tear gas.Severa...

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 NEW DEHLI: Heavy rains and floods over the past week have wreaked havoc in Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and claimed over 230 lives and displaced over a million people.The death toll in Karnataka alone has crossed 180. Over 3,00,000 people have been displaced in the 14 districts of the state.In Andhra Pradesh, though the flood situation is improving in Kurnool and Mahaboobnagar districts, but hundreds of villages in Krishna, Guntur and Nalgonda are still inundated. Heavy rains have also lashed the districts in Konkan and southern Maharashtra.In Goa, large parts of the state are lashed with heavy rains for the third day with people remaining indoors. According to sources over 250 houses have collapsed in the state in last one week.In Kerala, flash flood has affected normal life at 6 places in Kozhikode district. Landslides were also reported at many places in the district. In Orissa, floodwater is receding fast in Balasore and Bhadrak...

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 BEIJING: Top seed Dinara Safina imploded at the China Open, losing to an unheralded Chinese player and opening the door for Serena Williams to reclaim the world number one ranking. Third seed Venus Williams also crashed out of the tournament, losing for the second week in a row to talented Russian teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.On the men's side, Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the number two seed, dropped his serve once early against Romania's Victor Hanescu but worked out his jitters to take the match in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5. China's Zhang Shuai, 20 years old and ranked 226th in the world, thrilled the partisan crowd on centre court at the Olympic tennis venue by pulling off the second-round win over Safina, 7-5, 7-6 (7/5). Venus was looking to avenge her loss to Pavlyuchenkova at last week's Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, but she never found her rhythm against the 18-year-old Russian, who won 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. In other first-round ATP action, eight...