Shah Rukh and Anubhav aren’t yet decided on 3D version for Ra. One
Hold on to your horses before you start jumping with joy around the prospects of watching Ra.One in 3D. Though Shah Rukh Khan has hinted that there would be some portions of the film in 3D, the fact is that a final decision on this is yet to be taken. The makers are currently testing the waters and trying to figure out whether it would indeed be feasible to bring the superhero multi crore action flick in 3D, especially since it was originally shot in 2D.
Informs a well placed source from the film’s technical team, “A few important scenes from Ra.One have been handed over to a couple of major studios who are currently working on applying 3D to these. This is currently in testing phase as all the 2D shots would be converted into 3D, unlike the recent hit Haunted which was originally shot in 3D.”
Both Shah Rukh Khan as well as the film’s director Anubhav Sinha are pretty excited though about the prospects of seeing their vision translate into 3D. Though this would further increase the film’s budget, they are not deterred. However before taking the final call they want to be dead sure that the effects are as per their expectations.
“More than half a decade has gone into bringing Ra.One from the ideation to the shape of a final product. Of course when the film was being designed, 3D wasn’t much in vogue but now there are studios, theatre owners as well as audience applying pressure on the team of Ra.One to bring the film in 3D”, continues the source, “Shah Rukh as well as Anubhav aren’t getting carried away though and would agree to the experiment only if the test results are on par or above their expectations. Otherwise they are pretty content with what they have managed to achieve with the original 2D version.”
On contacted, Anubhav confirms the news about some of the shots from the film being shared with the VFX studios for them to do their tests. He asserts though that this is one of the many things that are currently occupying everyone involved with Ra.One.
He says, “Decision on 3D is yet to be taken but we are having close look at our timelines. If things happen early enough then fine otherwise we are not budging from our Diwali release timeline. Whether it is Shah Rukh, the film’s editor, composers, VFX guys or I, none of us are sleeping more than five hours a day. There is no mind space to make any decision yet.”
Palestinians see no hope in peace talks
August 21, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
RAMALLAH: A resumption of Middle East peace talks inspires little hope among Palestinians who say the prospect of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel seems no more than a dream.
“There has been a lot of talk of peace, but we have seen no results. We no longer have hope,” said 30-year old Luay Kabbah, who was still at school when Palestinian and Israeli leaders first began talking peace nearly two decades ago.
His despondency reflects deep pessimism among Palestinians, mirrored in Israel, on the prospects for a new round of U.S.-mediated peace talks that are due to begin in September.
The talks are the latest chapter in a peace process which, interrupted by several years of violence earlier this decade, has given Palestinians limited self-rule but no state on lands occupied by Israel since a 1967 Middle East war.
Today, the idea of that
Argentina seek revenge in Germany clash
July 3, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Breaking News
CAPE TOWN: Argentina and Germany set off for the World Cup with huge doubts about their prospects but they meet today’s quarter-final in hot form with a great chance for the winners to go all the way to the final.
Read the rest here:
Argentina seek revenge in Germany clash
marie anne thiebaud
June 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Shania Twain’s 14 year marriage relationship with her husband Robert Lange came to an end.Her husband’s relationship with Marie Anne Thiebaud, who is a best friend to Shania Twain became the main reason for their split.
Shania Twain and Robert Lange are separate from May 2008 after his relationship with Marie Anne Thiebaud was broken up. Now, the divorce between the pair was confirmed and became official, the divorce being finalized in Switzerland.
ISI Surakarta could be Twain seems to get along with the divorce. A close source to Shania Twain declared that she seems to be “radiantly happy” after the official ending of their relationship.
a case of tradition-contemporary struggle in this era. In the genre of traditional Javanese dance-more specifically the traditional Javanese dance-known term besut and sindet. Fafa demonstrate the softness of the motion sindet as she recounted how the limited development of the motion to be contemporary. For those who never seen Marie Anne Thiebaud pictures. Some professors even prohibit the development of something that is considered to have become raw or grip.
Polemic between tradition and contemporary to warm. Creep up among students who split orientation. Berkukuh want to keep the tradition that make a T-shirt reads Ora waton obah (Not original motion). Students who prokontemporer compete by producing T-shirts with no less mocking tone, ngulet important Sing (The important thing is writhing). At that time, according Fafa, has job opportunities for students outside the lecture is also very limited. At least we can job on Mother’s Day, Education Day, opportunities like that. Out of the country also abuzz for tourism projects, recalls Fafa. For those who never seen Marie Anne Thiebaud pictures.
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usc sanctions
June 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The chances of USC sanctions have come true after the National Collegiate Athletic Association have banned them for violating rules. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has put a ban of two years on the USC and has even taken away twenty scholarships form them. The USC sanctions will prove to be very devastating for the prospects of the college. The national collegiate athletic association will officially announce their final decision about the USC Sanctions and will give a chance to USC to speak for their defense. Ass far as USC is concerned they don’t have any relevant defense to cover their mistake. The main issue arises when the college will be suffering the ban as a whole. It will destroy the reputation of the college and it will no longer be the same. The college had some good reputation at the NCAA and now they will be facing their biggest sanctions this year.
The sanctions, of course, come on the heels of a four-year investigation of former football player Reggie Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo. In 2006, reports surfaced that several members of Bush’s immediate family had lived in a home in San Diego that was owned by some dude who intended to work for a group that represented Bush when he turned pro. Mayo reportedly took cash and other benefits from a guy who helped get him to USC.
Vol fans are feeling some sort of sweet justice that the Kiffin clan that helicoptered out of here without warning for a “better job” out West finds himself on the deck of a flaming, sinking ship on an oil spill during a hurricane. The rats always survive, though, and I just wonder where he’ll go next. And I almost hate to relish what’s happening to USC just because of some residual bitterness toward their coach. I have good friends who are USC fans, and I feel bad for them. On the other hand, they sure had a good time with Reggie Bush and Pete Carroll, and until the NCAA figures out how to void cheers and shouts and remove all remnants of actually-experienced historical joy, no amount of after-the-fact forfeited victories can undo the thrill they experienced from 2003 to 2005.
SBP keeps interest rates unchanged at 12.5pc
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced today its sixth monetary policy for the next two months, Geo News reported Monday.
It should be mentioned that that the central bank was widely expected to keep the interest rates unchanged at 12.5 percent this year because of resurgent inflation. The decision has been caused by the unexpected rise in the consumer prices by over 13 per cent year-on-year in April, 2010.
The central bank has reviewed monetary policy every two months since September last year.
The bank said the power crisis would affect the commercial and financial activities in the country.
Direct foreign investment in the country is subject to quite precarious condition. The inflation rate made surge to 13.3 percent in April.
The government would not be able to cope with the fiscal deficit by 5.1 percent, according to the new monetary policy.
Monetary Policy: Discount rate kept unchanged at 12.5%
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan has decided to keep its policy discount rate unchanged at 12.5 percent.
This decision was taken at a meeting of the Central Board of Directorsof State Bank held under the Chairmanship of SBP Governor, Syed Salim Raza here on Monday.
The policy statement said the economy is recovering but it lacks the necessary infrastructure and sufficient macroeconomic stability to build on the momentum.
Stabilization efforts over the last one and a half year have brought dividends in the shape of contraction in the external current account deficit, containment of excessive money growth, and reduction in inflation.
However, it said, the worsening power crisis, which has severely hampered economic activity in the economy, and fiscal weaknesses, continue to impede sustainable recovery and comprehensive macroeconomic stability.
At the same time, inflation has started to increase gradually. In this scenario, monetary policy, being a stabilization tool, has to remain focused on its ultimate target of monetary and financial stability. Encouraged by an increase in exports, over dollars 1.8 billion in each of the last two months, supported by steady workers remittances, and helped by the realization of $656 million from the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) in May 2010, the external current account deficit will be close to 2.5 percent of GDP for FY10.
The variables of concern, however, are uncertain official foreign flows and declining Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Thus, despite a significant contraction in the external current account deficit, dollars 3.1 billion during July-April FY10, SBP s foreign exchange reserves have largely remained unchanged, around $11.5 billion on average, during the course of the current fiscal year.
With an expected export and import to GDP ratios of 10.5 and 17 percent for FY11, keeping SBP s foreign exchange reserves stable in the medium term without a discernable increase in financial inflows would be challenging. Moreover, since the financial inflows are, and expected to remain, heavily skewed in favour of borrowings, sustainability of external debt would require a manageable current account deficit and dependable financial inflows.
A positive implication of the strengthened balance of payment position is a gradual build-up in the Net Foreign Asset (NFA) component of broad money. After experiencing an outflow of Rs150 billion in FY09, NFA now shows an inflow of Rs90 billion during July 1 May 14, FY10. This has facilitated market liquidity; although most of the increase in NFA took place in Q1-FY10. SBPs” Open Market Operations provided the necessary support to adequately manage the market liquidity from September 2009 onwards. More importantly, this correction in the components of M2, in favour of NFA, has helped purchasing power of the rupee in the domestic economy and in the foreign exchange market. For instance, the ratio of outstanding stocks of Net Domestic Assets (NDA) to NFA has come down from a high of 14 in November 2008, when inflation peaked at 25 percent, to around 8.4 by end-April 2010.
The NDA continues to be driven by governments” borrowings for budgetary support. In fact, for Q3-FY10, government breached its quarterly borrowing limits from SBP by about Rs30 billion. Since the beginning of Q4-FY10, government borrowing has increased by another Rs150 billion, reaching Rs1310 billion (on cash basis) on 14 May 2010 against the end-June target of Rs1130 billion. Similarly, government borrowing (net of deposits) of Rs206 billion from scheduled banks during July 1 May 14, FY10 is also substantial.
This persistent borrowing from the banking system for budgetary support coupled with expected borrowings for commodity operations in Q4-FY10 is jeopardizing the space for private sector credit, causing inertia in market interest rates, running the risk of excess domestic credit creation, and increasing the debt burden of future generations.
The need for heavy government borrowings for budgetary support from the banking system emanates from the unsustainable equation of revenues and expenditures and uncertain external borrowings of the fiscal authority. The Federal Bureau of Revenue s (FBR) provisional tax collection figures, during the first ten months of the current fiscal year, were Rs1026 billion. This implies that, to meet the yearly target of Rs1380 billion, a collection of another Rs354 billion is required in the next two months.
This would be quite challenging given a monthly average of Rs 102 billion in the last ten months. Even if the target is met, the FBR tax-GDP ratio is likely to be less than 10 percent, which is one of the lowest in the world. There is a risk that the government may miss the revised fiscal deficit target of 5.1 percent of GDP, which will be inconsistent with the objectives of macroeconomic stability. Moreover, further deterioration of the fiscal account will have consequences for debt sustainability and the external balances.
For medium term fiscal sustainability, necessary for overall macroeconomic stability, it is of utmost importance that effective measures are taken to increase the tax-GDP ratio and reduce the current expenditures of the government. Revenue deficit, the difference between total revenues and current expenditure, must be brought down to zero as stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation (FRDL) Act of 2005.
It was 1.5 percent of GDP in FY09 and may cross 2 percent of the expected GDP in FY10. Cutting development expenditures may provide immediate relief but damages the prospects of much needed investment in infrastructure such as electricity generation and human capital. This, in turn, limits the future productive capacity of the economy and adversely affects the inflation outlook as the gap between aggregate demand and aggregate supply widens.
All inflation indicators, whether it is Consumer Price Index (CPI), Wholesale Price Index (WPI), Sensitive Price Index (SPI), or Non-food Non-energy (NFNE) and trimmed measures of core inflation, have shown an upward movement in recent months. The year-on-year CPI inflation, for instance, was recorded at 13.3 percent for the month of April with a month-on-month growth of 1.7 percent.
While adjustments in electricity prices, increase in domestic prices of petroleum products, and volatile movements in various food items have given a spurt to inflation, its persistence at a high level indicates that a fall in productivity has played a role as well. This signifies an entrenchment of expectations of double digit inflation, which must be checked to improve the prospects of sustainable economic growth. The cumulative growth of 4.4 percent in Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) during July-March, FY10 is encouraging. However, its sustainability would require supportive growth in private sector credit and improvement in the availability of electricity. The former would be difficult to achieve without reduction in the scale of fiscal and public sector borrowings from the banking system and the latter requires forward looking infrastructure investment and resolution of energy sector circular debt.
In these circumstances, with inflation on the rise and the fiscal position not responding to the current monetary policy stance, SBP will closely monitor developments to ensure stability of aggregate prices and support nascent recovery of private economic activity. Therefore, SBP has decided to maintain the policy discount rate at 12.5 percent, the SBP policy statement said.
naomi campbell
April 23, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
International supermodel Naomi Campbell’s anger issues hit the front-page headlines once again. This time, she threw a punch at an ABC News camera when an interviewer asked her about allegations that she had received a “blood diamond” from deposed African despot Charles Taylor.
Hot-headed British supermodel is now more famous for her violent behavior than modeling, facing a series of lawsuits and criminal charges by staff members and others who claim they were abused.
Naomi storms off, again!
Campbell flashed another of her infamous outbursts of anger during an interview with ABC News.
The ill-tempered temptress erupted when the interviewer asked her about reports that she received a “blood diamond” as a gift from former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
“I didn’t receive a diamond and I’m not going to speak about that, thank you,” she told the reporter. “I’m not here (to talk about) that.”
The reporter continued to ask Campbell about her refusal to be interviewed by prosecutors in The Hague for the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is trying to link Taylor, the former president of Liberia, to the possession of uncut diamonds used to purchase weapons for the bloody massacres over the Liberian border in Sierra Leone between 1997 and 2001.
Taylor, Naomi and blood diamonds
Taylor is currently facing trial for crimes against humanity at the Hague for his alleged role in the killing of thousands of people in Sierra Leone, leading to the phrase “blood diamonds.”
It’s believed that Campbell had received a “huge” uncut “blood diamond” from the dictator in 1997, while she was staying as a guest of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, an allegation that has landed the Brit model at the center of Taylor’s trial for crimes against humanity.
But, the 39-year-old mega-model denied allegation that she received ‘Huge’ uncut gem from the deposed African despot Charles Taylor. She also refused to cooperate in Taylor’s international trial for crimes against humanity.
Naomi’s violent reaction
During the interview, Campbell became increasingly frustrated when asked again about the diamond and why she had been resistant in helping the case against Taylor.
“We’ve been told that you didn’t help the prosecution in this very important case,” the reporter said.
Campbell first looked away from the reporter and then suddenly got up and walked out of the interview before punching the camera of an ABC News producer.
ifo
April 23, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
German business confidence jumps to 2-year high The Munich-based Ifo institute’s closely watched business confidence index rose more than expected to 101.6 points this month, after hitting a 20-month high of 98.1 in March as a weak euro fueled export hopes.
Analysts had expected the indicator would edge up to 98.9 points this month.
The rise in the Ifo index is the latest sign that German industry leaders have laid aside worries about Greece’s debt crisis and the possible business fallout from the shutdown of European airspace to focus on the prospects for an economic recovery.
Indeed, the further rise in the Ifo indicator in April is likely to add to hopes that Europe’s biggest economy remains on track to emerge from what has been its deepest recession in a generation.
But also helping to bolster business expectations in Germany has been the steady fall of the euro, which has lost ground against the dollar on worries about Greece’s financial plight and expectations that US economic growth will outpace Europe’s expansion rate this year.
Aamir Khan Who,Tour Guide Has Not Heard Of The Star
MUMBAI: As one of Bollywood’s most recognised faces, superstar Aamir Khan is not accustomed to drawing blank looks at the mention of his name.
A tour guide in southern India’s temple town of Mahabalipuram took Khan by surprise when he admitted to never even having heard of the actor.
“I asked him if he had heard of Shah Rukh Khan, he said no. I asked him if he knew Aamir Khan, but he just shook his head.
“That is when I realised that I had gone through the trouble of wearing a wig, and false teeth for someone who wouldn’t have recognised me anyway,” Khan said.
The 44-year-old actor recently undertook a whirlwind trip round the country to promote his latest film ‘3 Idiots’. Khan was in disguise most of the time as part of a contest that was part of the promotions.
“I asked him if he watched Hindi movies, but he said he didn’t. He said the only Hindi movie he had watched was one with Dharmendra, and therefore the only Hindi film hero he knew was Dharmendra. He had absolutely no idea of any Hindi films,” Khan told reporters.
The actor invited the guide to Mumbai for the film’s premiere, saying it made him realise that his status as a Bollywood film star didn’t always guarantee him instant recognition.
Khan toured Benaras, Punjab, Kolkata and Gujarat in two weeks, almost always in a different disguise, and challenged fans to guess where he would be going next.
‘3 Idiots’, which stars Khan along with Sharman Joshi, R. Madhavan and Kareena Kapoor releases on December 24.
Khan plays an engineering student in the film, which has been directed by Raj Kumar Hirani.
“I am not sure what kind of effect this kind of promotion will have on the prospects of the film. In fact I am not even sure it will affect the prospects of the film at all. But I do know that it has been a personal journey for me,” the actor said.
