Russian firm plans hotel in space

A hotel in orbit, lunar sightseeing flights and luxury rides into the cosmos all are part of Russia s vision to ensure it is not left behind in the growing space tourism industry.

Russian firms unveiled their plans at the country s premiere air show this week at Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, saying the race was on to build a new craft to take people into space following the retirement of NASA s space shuttle in April.

RKK Energia unveiled plans for a replacement shuttle and Orbital Technologies said it hoped to build an orbiting hotel with room for seven guests by 2016. Other plans include flying tourists to the dark side of the moon and, by 2030, to Mars.

Although Russia currently holds a monopoly on rides to space aboard its Soviet-designed Soyuz, it starts at a disadvantage.

Foreign experts say they doubt Russian firms can achieve their ambitious goals because they lack funding and even Russian officials said it would be hard to rival US private sector firms now competing for contracts with NASA.

Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor to star opposite Aamir in Reema Kagti’s film

Ever since it was announced, Excel Entertainment and Aamir Khan Productions’ film starring Aamir Khan and directed by Reema Kagti has been in the news. There were speculations all the while as to who the lucky two heroines would be who would be paired opposite Aamir in this suspense flick. Now the suspense (pun intended) is over and it’s none other than Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor who have been signed on for this ambitious project.

This is the first time that Aamir, Rani and Kareena will be starring in the same film and it’s indeed a casting coup for sure. It may be recalled that Rani starred opposite Aamir early in her career in the smash-hit Ghulam and was even part of the historical Mangal Pandey -The Rising. Bebo meanwhile was Aamir’s co-star in last year’s blockbuster 3 Idiots.

Now with the trio coming together for this project, things are only going to get hotter in the days to come.

Guangzhou security tightens ahead of opening ceremony

GUANGZHOU: Guangzhou residents living near the site for Friday’s Asian Games opening ceremony could be watching the visual spectacular with a policeman in their living room as security measures tighten around the venue.

In a departure from the usual march of delegations into a packed stadium, athletes will be ferried in boats along the southern Chinese city’s Pearl River before being dropped off at an island for their official welcome.

Authorities’ efforts to safeguard the ambitious ceremony have seen residential districts on both banks of the river sealed off to traffic and pedestrians, leaving some residents grumbling behind high fences.

“It’s a shame of course,” said an elderly lady surnamed Chen near a 2.5 metre-high electrified fence. “We can’t get closer to the river to enjoy the ceremony tonight.”

Residents with views of the river have already

Emraan returns as Australian City Council denies permission for Crook shoot

It’s turning out to be more bad than good for Emraan Hashmi starrer Crook: It’s Good To Be Bad. On Wednesday, the cast and crew of the film were forced to return from Australia to India two days before end of schedule. Reason? Australian City Council denied the film any further permission to shoot and despite repeated requests, didn’t budge from their stand. While this definitely meant loss of productive days for the team of Crook, it also left a bad taste in the mouth for everyone involved.

Says a senior unit member who accompanied Emraan, Mohit (Suri) and others on their way back home, “It was very disheartening for all of us to come back without completing the shoot of Crook. The idea was to wrap it up all and then come back to India mainly for post production and other patch work, if required. However, we were stopped from shooting which threw a spanner in our plans.”

While the reason behind the denial of permission is not yet known, the fact remains that Crook is seeing its fair share of trouble and controversies right through its making.

Since it is a known fact that the film touches upon the topical issue of racial discrimination against India in Australia, one can expect some heated debates around the time when Crook would be ready for release. Also, even as the crew members were aspiring to complete the shoot in record time, an unfortunate accident on the sets a few days back resulted in broken camera equipment and a close shave for Emraan.

When contacted, Emraan Hashmi too sounded disappointed with the turn of events. “Yes, I am back in town. We were thrilled about finishing the shoot of Crook in Australia itself but it is so unfortunate that we couldn’t do that”, he says.

Adds the unit member, “Well, our worry now is around completing the pending portions of the film now. It has been a straight loss of two days of shooting. Though procuring dates from all involved may not be that tough, we may have to change certain sequences in the film. Reason being that there is no intention of going back to Australia which means that the scenes, which were originally written for that part of the world, may have to go through some changes. Now we would have to hunt for some indoor locations within Mumbai to finish the shoot.”

A Bhatt production, Crook marks the debut of Neha Sharma and also stars Arjan Bajwa. With music by Pritam, the film is aiming for a release in September/October timeframe.

Aftab Shivdasani’s injury puts his sports flick on hold

Aftab Shivdasani’s plans to star in a cricket film has been postponed.

It was meant to be a very hush-hush sports film revolving around the game of cricket.Ironically it was a game of cricket that has caused a delay in Aftab’s very secret plans to play cricket for his own film.

Not only is his ambitious sports film delayed, Aftab Shivdasani who left on Thursday morning for the IIFA in Colombo would have to skip the benefit cricket match because of the hand injury he suffered while playing cricket for Salman Khan’s Being Human team in Dubai last week.

Wincing in pain Aftab explains, “Thankfully it isn’t a fracture. Just a small crack in the bone and soft-tissue damage. But that’s painful enough. I’ve to rest my hand for at least ten days. But I’m off to IIFA, though I can’t play the cricket match.”

Replaying the incident leading to the injury, Aftab says, “I was batting in Dubai against Pakistani actors when I got a beamer. I tried to fend it off with my hand. The ball hit the bone on the side of the palm of my right hand.”

The pain was so acute that Aftab had to be rushed to the hospital. “It was painful. I went directly from the stadium to the hospital for an x-ray. There it was discovered I have a small crack in the finger. I’ve to wear a splint for two weeks.”

Afghanistan to offer Taliban leaders exile for peace: report

KABUL: Afghanistan is proposing to offer top Taliban leaders exile if they agree to stop fighting against the government under a peace deal being drawn up, a British newspaper reported Thursday.

The proposal is part of a radical Peace and Reintegration Programme to be presented to tribal leaders at a peace conference or “jirga” of tribal and political leaders from around Afghanistan later this month, a British daily said.

The plan is expected to top the agenda when President Hamid Karzai holds talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington on May 12, a meeting the Afghan leader”s spokesman this week described as as “extremely important.”

Voting underway in UK general election

LONDON: Voting was underway Thursday for the highly anticipated general election in the United Kingdom.

Voters will determine the fate of Gordon Brown”s Labour government, which has been in power for the past 13 years.

The casting of ballots across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland caps a month-long election campaign marked by Britain”s first-ever televised debates among the leaders of the three main parties: Brown, David Cameron of the Conservative Party and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.

After the election there will be 650 seats in the Commons, four more than in the previous Parliament. Voters are only choosing representatives for 649 seats. However, because of the death of a UKIP candidate in the Thirsk and Malton constituency in North Yorkshire, the election there has now been moved to May 27, local officials said.

The candidate who gets the most votes in a constituency wins; it”s not necessary to win an absolute majority of votes in a constituency to win the seat. The leader of the party with the most seats in the Commons traditionally gets the first chance to form a government.

Due to the structure of the British voting system, one party normally wins a majority of seats, even though there are three national parties.

The last time no one party captured more than half of the seats in the Commons was in 1974. That government proved unstable, and voters were back at the polls within months.

Mexico Gulf oil spill: giant containment box towed to site

WASHINGTON: Efforts on to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill centered on a towering metal box the size of a four-story building that engineering teams hope will corral the crude that continues to spout from the seafloor.

If the ambitious plan works, it could capture much of the 200,000 gallons of oil spewing daily from a well blowout and keep it from fattening the slick that threatens a coastline from Louisiana to Florida. The oil would be pumped nearly a mile up to a tanker ship.

Resembling a squat rocket, the large box with a peaked top was carried slowly by barge to the spill site, a 12-hour journey expected to end around midnight Wednesday.

Over the next two days, it will be lowered by cable and maneuvered by robotic submarines that will try to place it atop the end of a fallen pipe on the seafloor at some distance from the well head.

Submarines managed to place a valve overnight Tuesday on one leak in the pipe, sealing it off but not stemming the overall flow of oil.

Meanwhile, cleanup teams on Wednesday took advantage of continuing good weather to skim and burn oil on the water”s surface.

Taming of The Heir Korean Drama

Taming of The Heir Korean DramaThe, Pyeong-gang moved to Gang-won Province, far away from Seoul as a teen due to her father’s occupation. Thanks to him, a renowned golf course designer, Pyeong-gang was able to fully understand every detail of golf course planning while growing up. Her father, however, unfortunately met with an untimely death before completing his ambitious work. Frustrated, Pyeong-gang tried to support the family, but the harsh reality didn’t allow her and the rest of the family to live a comfortable life.

8 years later.
Pyeong-gang who wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a golf course designer, has to come to terms with the reality. She is now the bread-winner of the family, living paycheck by paycheck. She does chores at a resort town where she meets Ondal, the owner’s eldest son.

Ondal’s charismatic father Pyeong-on demands Ondal pass the semi-pro qualification test in a month .When he fails to make it, Ondal is told that he will be removed from the inheritance list due to his incompetence. To make matters worse, Pyeong-on collapses from a sudden stroke and in the midst of misfortune rumor circulates that Ondal’s step mother and her son are going to take over the resort town. Being cornered, Ondal has no other choice but to stand on his own feet, but for Ondal who lacks competence and determination, retaking the resort is beyond his capacity.
Ondal and Pyeong-gang on bad terms with each other from the first time they met, join hands and Pyeong-gang’s journey to taming the spoiled heir finally begins!

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Taming of The Heir Korean Drama was first posted on December 22, 2009 at 9:32 pm.