Film actress Esha Deol is engaged

MUMBAI: Hema Malini and Dharmendra’s eldest daughter actress Esha Deol got engaged to her businessman beau Bharat Takhtat at a private ceremony took place this morning at Hema’s Juhu bungalow. The function was attended by relatives and close friends. Only Jaya Bachchan was one of the prominent faces from Bollywood seen at the do.

“We are very happy today for Esha and Bharat. It is a happy moment for all of us. Bharat is a very nice person. It is a private function,” Hema, 63, told reporters here.

An ecstatic Esha, 29, said, “I am happy and I thank everyone for their blessings.”

The ‘Dhoom’ star was dressed in a pink sari with green embellishments, teamed with minimalist jewellery. Her beau Takhtani donned a white shirt, white jacket and a pair of black trousers.

When asked about the marriage dates, Hema said, “It will happen soon and we will make an announcement. AGENCIES

After film on Bosnia war, Actress Jolie plans film on Afghanistan

BERLIN: Angelina Jolie says it was only natural that her directorial debut should tackle some of the toughest issues facing humanity and after wartime Bosnia, Afghanistan is likely to be her next subject.

At the Berlin film festival to present her unflinching drama about rape as a weapon of war, “In the Land of Blood and Honey”, the Hollywood icon-cum-humanitarian told AFP her turn behind the camera was aimed at using cinema as a force for reconciliation.

“I’ve written a lot of journals while travelling over 10 years in the conflicts around the world and being frustrated by the lack of intervention,” said the 36-year-old Oscar-winning actress.

“So I went to the region and started to really look at the Bosnian war, but I couldn’t really understand or figure it out, and I felt this is my generation this happened to so I should know this. So I gave myself some education.”

Jolie, who backs a range of causes as a UN goodwill ambassador, said her research inspired her to start writing a screenplay and her partner Brad Pitt encouraged her to show a rough draft to people from all sides of the brutal 1992-1995 war.

But when it came to making the film, she realised she was the only one with both the objective distance and passionate commitment to do the job.

“And this is how I found myself being a director!” she said.

“I knew that there might have been people who were technically more capable than me, but I knew I really, really cared from the bottom of my heart so therefore I felt I should do it.”

She filmed versions of the movie in local languages and English in parallel.

It tells the story of a young Muslim woman and the policeman son of a Bosnian Serb general who had a fling before the conflict broke out.

When they meet again, she has been taken prisoner by a unit of the Bosnian Serb army commanded by her former lover.

As the women around her are gang raped, the officer offers her protection, telling the other soldiers she is his “property”. But the upheaval of the relentless war means he is only able to shield her for so long.

Jolie said the most difficult part of filming was asking her actors, almost all of whom come from the former Yugoslavia and had their own bitter memories of the war, to simulate the savagery that tore their country apart.

“It was very hard for everybody, for the actors, the men who had to be the aggressors,” said Jolie, who is in the German capital with Pitt and their six children.

“They were fathers, husbands and very sweet men and they didn’t want to do that. But they knew also they had to do it on behalf of the women just to show the brutality they suffered.”

She said the hardest scene to shoot was one in which elderly women were ordered to undress at gunpoint while soldiers look on and laugh – an experience recounted to her by a prison camp survivor.

“This is one that you just never want to ask anybody to do and you are asking real older women to do this,” she said.

“The whole crew was very uncomfortable but the women were so sweet and so professional. I came to them several times asking, ‘Are you really OK, are you sure?’”

She said she hoped Serbs would see the film with open minds when it is screened in wide release this month.

“I went to Auschwitz recently and so many names are Serb names all along the walls because they fought against the Nazis .. and later they were to be the aggressors,” she said.

“I think it’s important to study (genocides) and to understand them so we will really understand how to stop them.”

Bosnia’s war between its Croat, Muslim and Serb communities claimed some 100,000 lives. Tens of thousands of people were held in prison camps, where torture and abuse were commonplace. Some 20,000 women were raped, according to the government’s estimates.

Asked what’s next, Jolie said she would keep her focus on the world’s trouble spots.

“I have been working on something that deals with Afghanistan but I haven’t shown it yet to anybody,” she said. AGENCIES

Assad’s wife ‘defends’ Syria crackdown

LONDON: The British-born wife of Syria’s president has spoken in support of her husband for the first time since the 11-month uprising against his regime began, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

“The President is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role,” The Times quoted Asma al-Assad as saying in an email sent via an intermediary from her office.

The email is her first communication with the international media since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime began, The Times said.

“The First Lady’s very busy agenda is still focused on supporting the various charities she has long been involved with and rural development as well as supporting the President as needed,” the email reportedly continued.

“These days she is equally involved in bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue. She listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence.” it added.

The statement came after Syrian forces pounded protest hubs with rockets and shells, killing 79 civilians on Monday, according to activists, and as Britain recalled its ambassador to Syria “for consultations”.

Unlike her husband, a minority Alawite, the 36-year-old First Lady is a Sunni Muslim who originally hails from Homs — the central Syrian city rocked by some of the worst carnage since the revolt began in March last year.

Stylish and charismatic and with a degree from King’s College in London where she was raised, the former investment banker had helped promote the soft side of an iron-fisted regime.

But she has virtually disappeared from the public eye since the revolt broke out and had drawn criticism for her silence on a crisis that has left more than 5,000 people dead in her country.

Last month she appeared with two of her children to support her husband of 12 years as he spoke at a pro-regime rally, but did not speak herself. AGENCIES

Lhr factory collapse: 15 dead, 14 hurt; rescue op underway

TrendPK.com
LAHORE: As many as 15 bodies and 14 injured people have been retrieved thus far from under the rubble of the factory which came down after its boiler went off with a loud bang causing the cave-in of entire premises yesterday morning, TrendPK reports Tuesday.

According to details, the mishap occurred at 0810 PST in a medicine factory located on Multan Road, Kharak Stop, causing the entire building to collapse trapping under its debris people in large number. The debris could not be removed as yet despite the lapse of 24 hours.

Talking to TrendPK TV on the mishap site, Commissioner Lahore Jawwad Rafiq Malik said the rescue operation will continue till the last person is rescued safe and sound.

The injured and bodies have been shifted to nearby Jinnah Hospital, where Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s son Hamza Shahbaz Sharif visited to console him.

The bereaved families faced massive troubles in taking custody of their bodies from the hospital.

Meantime, a case has been lodged against the factory owners and government officers in Sabzazar Police Station. Also, police arrested factory manager Muneer Ahmed.

According to the sources, the factory has been working since eight months now, as its license was not renewed since June 2011. TrendPK

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US commander to visit Pakistan this month to repair ties: US paper

TrendPK.com
WASHINGTON: Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command will visit Pakistan this month and meet Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff, to discuss the investigations into the US attack at the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as well as new border coordination procedures to prevent a recurrence of the episode.

General Mattis’s visit was slated to begin Thursday, but has been postponed by at least a week pending debate in the Pakistani Parliament over a new security policy toward the United States.

General Mattis’s visit is aimed at formally presenting to Pakistan the Central Command’s findings in the Nov. 26 episode.

“We’ve felt an apology would be helpful in creating some space,” said an American official who has been briefed on the State Department’s view and who spoke on the condition of anonymity as internal discussions continued.

The State Department is in support a proposal for the United States government to issue a formal apology for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers in the Nov. 26 airstrike by American gunships. TrendPK

Cricket Australia in India tobacco ad row

SYDNEY: Cricket Australia has pulled Hindi adverts displayed during the series with India after being alerted that they could be promoting tobacco, which would attract big fines for breaching local laws.

Cricket bosses said they were assured by the Indian government that the signage was advertising a brand of mouthwash, but decided to take them down due to their apparent similarity to a brand of chewing tobacco.

“We asked (the Indian government’s) advice because we are not familiar with the Hindi language,” a Cricket Australia spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.

“They came back and said it’s an Indian mouthwash — or at least they said it’s not a tobacco product. We don’t have one million percent certainty about all of the detail.

“It appears that there is a tobacco company with the same or similar brand name to the product that is being advertised. We have just become uneasy about it and said, let’s withdraw this,” he added.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

The boundary-line adverts, aimed at the massive TV audience in India, were reportedly worth thousands of dollars and displayed during seven games.

But they will not be seen at future matches, starting with the one-dayer between India and Sri Lanka at Perth on Wednesday.

Cricket Australia acted after Health Minister Tanya Plibersek warned they faced fines of up to Aus$66,000 (US$70,000) for each breach of the 1992 tobacco advertising ban.

“The Gillard government has received a number of complaints alleging that advertisements for tobacco products have been displayed at cricket grounds,” she told News Limited newspapers.

“The government is taking the allegations very seriously and has written to Cricket Australia seeking detailed information about the advertising.”

Karachi pharma factory raided; 4 nabbed

TrendPK.com
KARACHI: Police in a raid on a pharmaceutical factory manufacturing fake medicines in the city, arrested at least four people including the owners.

Police conducted raid on a pharmaceutical factory located in Malir cantt area of Gulshan Mehran and seized fake drugs and fertilizers, according to Shaukat Jokhio, Deputy Commissioner Malir.

A case has been registered in Shah Latif Town Police Station against the accused. TrendPK

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SC takes up plea against likely dismissal of Kayani, Pasha

TrendPK.com
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) has taken up an application against the potential sacking of Army Chief Kayani and the ISI Chief Pasha as maintainable, TrendPK reports Tuesday.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry heard the petition concerning the objections leveled by the Registrar regarding the potential dismissal of Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha from their offices.

The Chief Justice Chaudhry remarked the appeal against the order of the registrar is heard at the chamber; but, keeping in view the import of the matter, the appeal has been put forward before a bench to elicit the opinion of the Attorney General.

The Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq said he has done away with some of the objections; and the arguments regarding the maintainability of the plea should be left to the parties to the case.

The court ordered to present the appeal before any bench for hearing. TrendPK

LHC’s 4 additional session judges take oath

TrendPK.com
LAHORE: As many as four additional session judges of Lahore High Court (LHC) took oath today, TrendPK reports Tuesday.

Chief Justice of the LHC Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed administered oath to the judges including Justice Yawar Ali, Justice Mamoon Rasheed, Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan and Justice Mazhar Ali.

It should be mentioned here President Asif Ali Zardari approved to make these additional session judges permanent. TrendPK

Lahore factory collapse: toll rises to 17

TrendPK.com
LAHORE: As many as two more bodies were excavated this morning from under the rubble of the factory, which crumbled down as a result of explosion of its boiler yesterday morning, raising the overall toll to 17 thus far, TrendPK reports Tuesday.

Several people are believed to be still trapped under the debris of the factory, which had women and children as its employees.

As many as 14 people were taken out in injured state from the devastated building debris.

According to details, the mishap occurred at 0810 PST in a medicine factory located on Multan Road, Kharak Stop, causing the entire building to collapse trapping under its debris people in large number. The debris could not be removed as yet despite the lapse of 24 hours.

Talking to TrendPK TV on the mishap site, Commissioner Lahore Jawwad Rafiq Malik said the rescue operation will continue till the last person is rescued safe and sound.

The injured and bodies have been shifted to nearby Jinnah Hospital, where Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s son Hamza Shahbaz Sharif visited to console him.

The bereaved families faced massive troubles in taking custody of their bodies from the hospital.

Meantime, a case has been lodged against the factory owners and government officers in Sabzazar Police Station. Also, police arrested factory manager Muneer Ahmed.

According to the sources, the factory has been working since eight months now, as its license was not renewed since June 2011. TrendPK

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