Lisa Ray to open yoga studio in Toronto

Marriage seems far away from Lisa Ray’s mind. Speaking exclusively, Lisa reveals she has big career plans this year including the opening of a Yoga studio in Toronto for which, work is on full-throttle at the moment.
Yoga, it must be mentioned, provided Lisa with tremendous emotional spiritual and physical solace during her prolonged illness and recovery last year. And now Lisa is ready to share her Yoga gyan with the world.
Lisa says there’s no room for marriage in her life right now. “This news has come completely out of left field. It was most unexpected! I’d love to clarify matters as I’m working on projects in India and don’t want my work colleagues out in India to get the impression that I’m not committed to my projects and work out there.”

Ask her about the status of her relationship with her faithful companion Brett Wilson and Lisa says, “The point is, marriage is not on the cards. The news that came out is unfounded. I am very good friends with Brett and I described marriage as an ‘imperfect institution’ to make light of the situation, not to make light of marriage.”

Lisa is excited about her projects this year. “I’m opening a hot yoga studio here in Brampton, Canada. There’s so much to look forward to this year. Every day is a blessing. I was recently at the Toronto Film Critics Association dinner where I was surrounded with love and compliments on my ‘Second Coming’ (the near-death illness). I’m working on a kick-ass series for TLC. Finalising some film projects soon. Involved in another momentous stem-cell event in Toronto. Life is grand. I’m so blessed to live and work in two different worlds.”

Supreme Court adjourns hearing of RPP case till Nov.29

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The hearing of Rental Power Projects’ case has been adjourned till November 29, while the Ministry of Water and Power presented the record of Rental Power Projects (RPP) in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

A three member bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing of rental power projects’ case on Thursday.

Khawaja Tatriq Rahim, the counsel of the Ministry of Water and Power, argued during the hearing that due to the electricity crisis of the country the plan of rental power projects was inevitably started on emergency basis.

The Chief Justice said in his remarks that people bear the burden of the costly electricity.

The Supreme Court asked the government to submit a separate report of each rental power project’s infrastructure and adjourned the hearing till

Security row threatens Afghan reconstruction: report

KABUL: The US-funded reconstruction effort in Afghanistan is coming to an end because of an upcoming ban on foreign companies using private security guards, The Washington Post said quoting US officials and aid workers.

A US official said ending the reconstruction effort would have “catastrophic” consequences.

“If these projects grind to a halt, we might as well go home. They are essential to the counterinsurgency strategy,” added the unnamed US official involved in the issue.

The ban, enacted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, goes into effect on December 17, but many US-funded development firms are beginning to shut down their projects refusing to be guarded by Afghan police and military they deem corrupt, ill-trained and too few.

The ban on private security guards, Afghanistan says operate with little oversight or accountability and often function

Kareena Kapoor opposite Salman Khan in ‘Bodyguard’

It’s confirmed! Kareena Kapoor will star opposite Salman Khan in brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri’s next project, a remake of the Malayalam hit BODYGUARD. There was speculation that Katrina Kaif would essay the lead role, but Atul clarifies, “See, we have already decided to release our film during the Eid week next year. Since Katrina has committed her dates to other projects, we decided to cast an actor whose dates would match with Salman’s and would facilitate the release of the film during the festive week next year.”

However, this combo – Salman and Kareena – hasn’t delivered a Hit in the past. “It all depends on the film and how the audience takes to it. Why blame a pair for its failure? Besides, they may be third time lucky with my film,” Atul smiles. Meanwhile, Atul is keen on calling his film BODYGUARD, not MY LOVE STORY or MERI LOVE STORY. Directed by Siddique, the film has music by Pritam.

President Zardari favors small dams

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that construction of controversial dams could damage the unity of the country, adding that the energy crisis could be overcome by building small dams.

He chaired a meeting of the projects of water and power at the President House, and asked authorities to look at the projects of power plants at the local level.

President Zardari was of the view that local and foreign investors should be included in local level projects.

President Zardari directed the authorities to complete small projects immediately. SAMAA

EDB okays Rs.1271 bln export projects

ISLAMABAD: Aiming at promotion of export, the Export Development Board (EDB) has given green signal for 10 development projects worth 1271 billion rupees, Geo news reported Thursday.

This was decided in an EDB meeting held here with Federal Minister for Trade Makhdoom Ameen Fahim in chair.

Those projects given approval included General Subsidy Scheme worth of Rs.88.20 crore, establishment of London office of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturer worth Rs.10.70 crore, establishment of fresh fruit processing center in Karachi worth Rs.88.80 crore.

Moreover, Rs.04.30 crore were allocated for Pakistan Horticulture Development Board Lahore, Rs.05 crore were allocated for Pakistan School of Fashion and Design and some other projects.

PPP resolves action against Musharraf, aides

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) here held its Core Committee (CC) meeting late on Saturday night.

Core Committee meeting reviewed report, investigated and presented by UN’s three-member independent panel to figure out causes of Benazir Bhutto assassination.

According to knowledgeable sources, In connection with UN investigative report, the meeting decided to move court against those officials from previous government, which were named as being responsible for allowing assassination on former premier Benazir Bhutto to happen due to non-serious security measures and former President Pervez Musharraf is no exception.

Also, the alleged suspects’ names will be put on Exit Control List (ECL), sources said.

June 30 deadline for initiation of delayed projects, says PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza on Saturday fixed June 30 as deadline for initiation of all the projects which could not start due to non availability of land.

Chairing the 12th ERRA Council meeting at the Prime Minister House, Gilani directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and the AJK governments to ensure that requisite land is provided for the projects till June 30 else these projects (18 in Pakhtunkhwa and nine in AJK) would be dropped and deleted from the reconstruction strategy.

The Prime Minister further asked the two governments to take responsibility of the completed projects and ensure their sustainability, particularly in health and education sectors.

The recurring expenditures of the completed projects, he said, would be borne by the respective governments.

He also directed them to complete the requisite formalities and settle the issues for the completion of projects in urban areas.

He particularly referred to New Balakot, Bakrial and Muzafarabad in this context and directed that all efforts in this regard be made on war footings and accordingly Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) be kept updated with progress so that these projects could be completed at the earliest.

Lauding the role of ERRA, the Prime Minister said the government from the very first day was committed to the renewal of livelihood and re-establishment of infrastructure in the earthquake affected areas.

The progress made in the two-year period is remarkable, which shows the focused nature of government’s resolve, he added.

Pakistan has Evidence of Indian intervention in Balochistan

Islamabad, Pakistan :- Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan has evidence of Indian intervention in Balochistan. The Prime Minister (PM) while speaking in the Senate said unlike the previous governments that tried to strengthen ‘One Party Rule,’ the PPP-led coalition government had worked for reconciliation in politics. The Prime Minister said that on the day he assumed office, he announced the manifesto of coalition government and it also had the endorsement of Pakistan Muslim League-N. “We’ve tried to implement our manifesto in the most difficult times,” he added.

Gilani said his government had convinced the world that Pakistan was playing a crucial role as a frontline state against terrorism. It had suffered massive losses in its fight against terrorism including the economic sector.

“Unlike the past when USA didn’t trust you, today the whole world is supporting Pakistan. Today Pakistan is being offered ‘Strategic Dialogue, which is a paradigm shift,” he said. Prime Minister said he would inform the nation about the result that Pakistan would attain in the strategic dialogue and assured the nation that nothing would be kept secret from it. He said the Pakistan People’s Party from the day one had accorded priority to empowerment of the people of remote areas and added once terrorism was crushed political parties would then be allowed in Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Gilani said he himself went to NWFP and announced a package for the relief of people, but if there was still any shortcoming in the package, it would be removed. He directed Interior Minister Rehman Malik to resolve the problems faced by Pushtun people or in any other part of the country n acquiring National Identity Cards.

Wikipedia Down

Wikipedia Down Breaking alerts, Quite a few languages on the encyclopedia are down, including English, meaning that college students everywhere are unable to write their papers filled with misinformation.

The Wikipedia Technical Blog explains,

Due to an overheating problem in our European data center many of our servers turned off to protect themselves. As this impacted all Wikipedia and other projects access from European users, we were forced to move all user traffic to our Florida cluster, for which we have a standard quick failover procedure in place, that changes our DNS entries.
However, shortly after we did this failover switch, it turned out that this failover mechanism was now broken, causing the DNS resolution of Wikimedia sites to stop working globally. This problem was quickly resolved, but unfortunately it may take up to an hour before access is restored for everyone, due to caching effects.

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