Vidya celebrates 33rd birthday today

MUMBAI: Vidya Balan turns 33 on January 1. The actress plans on bringing in her birthday and the New Year at her parents” place in Khar, Mumbai.

Initially, she was planning to spend the special day with friends, but given the fact that she”s been on the road promoting No One Killed Jessica for the last few weeks, Vidya wants to be with her mom and dad.

A source close to Vidya says, “She”s been in and out of Mumbai for the last six months. Earlier she was shooting for Sujoy Ghosh”s Kahaani for almost two months.

After that she got into the promotion of Jessica travelling to almost every major city. Her busy schedule hasn”t given her any chance to spend time with her parents.”

Since her birthday and New Year fall on the same day, Vidya has a double reason to celebrate.

Despite buying a new apartment in Khar, the actress wasn”t able to renovate the place or spend time in it. Her New Year resolution is to buy some antique furniture and do up her place.

Every year, Vidya prefers to keep her birthday a low-key affair. Rather than go out with friends, she enjoys spending quality time with her parents. “This year will be no different. She will bring in her birthday and the New Year at her parents” house. Since she doesn”t believe in cutting a cake, her mom plans to prepare a sweet dish on the occasion,” a source said.

After the release of No One Killed Jessica, Vidya plans to start preparing for her next film Balaji”s Dirty Picture based on the life of Silk Smitha.

US soldiers can be demoralized by WikiLeaks docs: Morrell

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says US did not ignore detainee abuse, following the release of classified military documents. The Pentagon decried the website’s publication of the secret reports, the largest security breach of its kind in US military history, far surpassing the group’s dump of more than 70,000 Afghan war files in July.
US officials said the leak endangered U.S. troops and threatened to put some 300 Iraqi collaborators at risk by exposing their identities. The bottom line is, our forces are still very much in danger here as a result of this exposure, given the fact that our tactics, techniques and procedures are exposed in these documents. And our enemies are undoubtedly going to try to use them against us, and making their jobs even more difficult and dangerous, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Working with Iraq Body Count, a group run by academics and peace activists that estimates Iraq casualties, WikiLeaks had calculated that the documents revealed about 15,000 previously unknown civilian deaths. Morrell spoke about casualties and the allegations made about US forces. WikiLeaks said it had edited out sensitive information and was confident the documents contained no detail that could lead to anyone being harmed. The Iraq war files, spanning 2003 to 2009, touched on other themes, including well-known US concerns about Iranian training and support for some Iraqi militias. More than 4,400 US soldiers have been killed since the start of the 2003 US-led invasion. All US forces are set to withdraw from Iraq by the end of next year.

US soldiers can be demoralized by WikiLeaks docs: Morrell

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says US did not ignore detainee abuse, following the release of classified military documents. The Pentagon decried the website’s publication of the secret reports, the largest security breach of its kind in US military history, far surpassing the group’s dump of more than 70,000 Afghan war files in July.
US officials said the leak endangered U.S. troops and threatened to put some 300 Iraqi collaborators at risk by exposing their identities. The bottom line is, our forces are still very much in danger here as a result of this exposure, given the fact that our tactics, techniques and procedures are exposed in these documents. And our enemies are undoubtedly going to try to use them against us, and making their jobs even more difficult and dangerous, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Working with Iraq Body Count, a group run by academics and peace activists that estimates Iraq casualties, WikiLeaks had calculated that the documents revealed about 15,000 previously unknown civilian deaths. Morrell spoke about casualties and the allegations made about US forces. WikiLeaks said it had edited out sensitive information and was confident the documents contained no detail that could lead to anyone being harmed. The Iraq war files, spanning 2003 to 2009, touched on other themes, including well-known US concerns about Iranian training and support for some Iraqi militias. More than 4,400 US soldiers have been killed since the start of the 2003 US-led invasion. All US forces are set to withdraw from Iraq by the end of next year.

Rabbani sees more amendments in the offing

KARACHI: Speaking at a reception given by Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in honour of Chairman Constitutional Reforms Committee Raza Rabbani and members of the committee at the Sindh Assembly building on Saturday night, Senator Raza Rabbani said 18th amendment is not the final words as more amendments are necessary given the fact that many points in constitution, needed to be set straight, left untouched in 18th amendment.

He said that the basic structure of the Constitution has not been altered through the 18th Amendment. He warned that dark clouds would hover over the Federation if the amendment was not implemented. “People especially of smaller provinces have attached great hopes with it.”

He believed that the amendment was a “culmination point” of the long struggle launched for the provincial autonomy. He said that the 1973 Constitution reflected federalism through provision of “collective dispute management” mechanism in the shape of Council of Common Interest but it was not implemented.

“It led to unitary form of government that triggered a sense of deprivation among smaller provinces and increased in polarization between the Federation and provinces. As a result, a ‘trust deficit’ was created, which to some extent has been reduced now, he said.

Rabbani said that ending concurrent list, giving 50 per cent ownership to the provinces over natural resources, allowing provinces to acquire foreign loans and ensuring its representation in the National Economic Council were some of the measures, which would strengthen the provincial autonomy.

gmail down

Gmail is down now;
you are not alone because Gmail is actually down for 20-30 minutes (4 PM EST) now and people are receiving “502 Server Error” message. This downtime is also being faced by Google Apps Mail service users.

MY Gmail’