Hey Yana! happy B'day!!

Yana Gupta turns 29 today. No, the lady is not averse to revealing her age. In fact, she is looking ahead to the New Year with anticipation as according to a Chinese friend of hers, 29 is the time when changes take place, “And they have already begun,” reveals the birthday girl who will spend the day all alone. “I love to be alone on my birthday. Last year, too I was in Goa for three days, all by myself.” So no party? “I might just invite a few friends over to my house for dinner,” says Yana who’s music album is ready for release. Her book on fitness too will be out by the year-end. “I’m finally doing what I always wanted to do, sing and write,” says the Czech beauty. So will she be singing happy birthday to herself? Laughter is all we hear from the other end. Happy Birthday Yana, let the party begin!

Priyanka met her father's assassin

Priyanka Vadra, who has created a flutter by meeting one of the conspirators in her father Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, on Tuesday said she does not believe in anger, hatred and violence and will not allow these to overpower her. "It was a very personal visit and completely on my own individual initiative. I would be deeply grateful if this could be respected," she said about her meeting with Nalini Sriharan in Vellore jail in Tamil Nadu last month. Nalini, married to Murugan, sentenced to death in the assassination case, was also awarded capital punishment. Her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment after Sonia Gandhi pleaded for clemency for the sake of the convict's daughter. "It is true that I met Nalini Sriharan in Vellore central jail on March 19, 2008. It was my way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced," she said. Recalling her mother's intervention in getting Nalini's death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, Priyanka said she did not believe in hatred and violence. "I do not believe in anger, hatred and violence and I refuse to allow these things to overpower my life," she said. Her brother Rahul Gandhi said "I have a different way of looking at these things. I don't have a problem either". Rahul said "we don't carry hatred, we don't carry anger. It's not an exercise...She felt that she wanted to go and see the person. She has been feeling it for sometime". The issue of Priyanka meeting Nalini in the Vellore jail came to the fore with a city lawyer, D Rajkumar, seeking queries from the prison authorities by invoking provisions under Right to Information (RTI) Act. Priyanka was in Vellore on March 19 to visit the newly constructed Sri Lakshmi Narayani Golden Temple. Rajkumar, in his application to the Superintendent of Prisons, had asked whether it was true that Priyanka met Nalini? And if so under which legal provisions was she allowed to meet the convict and who accompanied her? Vellore jail authorities, when contacted, declined to comment saying that they would reply to the RTI petition filed by Rajkumar.

Sexy Ayesha goes for liposuction!

After Esha Deol it’s now Ayesha Takia’s turn to undergo cosmetic surgery. Esha has reportedly undergone a lip surgery and now apparently, Ayesha, who has been criticised for her recent weight gain, is going abroad for liposuction.

The pretty actress, who recently starred in Sunday, looked quite chubby and definitely needs to shed those extra kilos. Maybe she has no time to exercise and burn it out in the gym so she has chosen the easy way out. We are waiting to see her all svelte and sexy when she comes back!

Is it Pam’s Angel love

Pamela Anderson is reportedly dating magician Criss Angel. The former Baywatch actress was spotted getting very cosy with Britney Spears’ rumoured ex-boyfriend at Elton John’s concert in Washington recently. An onlooker said, “They were dancing along to the music, and at a few different points during the evening they looked very cosy, hugging and kissing.” This is not the first time Pamela and Criss have sparked rumours of a relationship. They were seen together at an Los Angeles nightclub last December following Pamela’s split from her third husband Rick Salomon. The 40-year-old mother-of-two was recently rumoured to be dating magician Hans Klok, after working as his assistant in his Las Vegas show. Meanwhile, Criss is widely reported to be the father of Minnie Driver’s baby. The actress recently revealed she is expecting her first child, but has so far refused to reveal the identity of the father.

Earth in danger, warns NASA's top climate-scientist

Global warming has plunged the planet into a crisis and the fossil fuel industries are trying to hide the extent of the problem from the public, NASA's top climate-scientist says. "We've already reached the dangerous level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," James Hansen, 67, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said. "But there are ways to solve the problem" of heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which Hansen said has reached the "tipping point" of 385 parts per million. In a paper he was submitting to Science magazine on Monday, Hansen calls for phasing out all coal-fired plants by 2030, taxing their emissions until then, and banning the building of new plants unless they are designed to trap and segregate the carbon dioxide they emit. The major obstacle to saving the planet from its inhabitants is not technology, insisted Hansen, named one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2006 by Time magazine. "The problem is that 90 per cent of energy is fossil fuels. And that is such a huge business, it has permeated our government," he maintained. "What's become clear to me in the past several years is that both the executive branch and the legislative branch are strongly influenced by special fossil fuel interests," he said, referring to the providers of coal, oil and natural gas and the energy industry that burns them. In a recent survey of what concerns people, global warming ranked 25th. "The industry is misleading the public and policy makers about the cause of climate change. And that is analogous to what the cigarette manufacturers did. They knew smoking caused cancer, but they hired scientists who said that was not the case." Hansen says that with an administration and legislature that he believes are "well oiled, our best hope is the judicial branch." Last year Hansen testified before the US Congress that "interference with communication of science to the public has been greater during the current administration than at any time in my career." Government public relations officials, he said, filter the facts in science reports to reduce "concern about the relation of climate change to human-made greenhouse gas emissions." While he recognizes that he has stepped outside the traditional role of scientists as researchers rather than as public policy advocates, he says he does so because "in this particular situation we've reached a crisis." The policy makers, "the people who need to know are ignorant of the actual status of the matter, and the gravity of the matter, and most important, the urgency of the matter," he charged. "It's analogous to an engineer who sees that there's a flaw in the space shuttle before it is to be launched. You don't have any choice. You have to say something. That's really all that I'm doing," he explained. Hansen was in Wilmington to receive a 50,000 dollar Common Wealth Award for outstanding achievement, along with the former prime minister of Australia John Howard, the US actress Glenn Close, and NBC news anchor Ann Curry. The awards are provided by a trust of the late Ralph Hayes, a former director of Coca Cola and Bank of Delaware, now PNC. In 29 years, 165 former honorees in seven fields have included former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former US newsman Walter Cronkite, French marine biologist Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Howard, who would not sign the Kyoto protocol when he was in office, said: "I thought it was the right policy at the time because the major emitters" were not on board." He added: "You need a new Kyoto protocol with all the major emitters committed to it. Then you are cooking with gas."

Miss India World 2008 : Parthy Omanakuttan

Miss Earth 2007 Pooja Chitgopekar and Miss Tourism 2007 Priyanka Shah, Miss India Puja Gupta alongwith Kareena Kapoor on stage to crown the winners! Last year’s winner Sarah Jane could not come to the event.
Pantaloons Femina Miss India Earth 2008 is Harshita Saxena. Pooja Chitgopekar crowns the winner.
Pantaloons Femina Miss India Universe 2008 is Simran Kaur Mundi. Puja Gupta crowns Simran.
Pantaloons Femina Miss India World 2008 is Parvathy Omanakuttan. Kareena crowns Parvathy.

Both Clintons earn USD 109 mn in 8 years

US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton earned a combined USD 109 million in eight years, paid USD 33.8 million in taxes and gave away USD 10.2 million to charities, according to the tax return released by them. This puts them among the top tier of tax payers in the United States. Most of their income - after Bill Clinton left office in 2000 - came from the sale of books the two wrote as well as the former President's speaking tours. Expert tax analysts started closely examining the returns immediately after they were released but at least initially failed to find any smoking gun. The presidential candidates are not required to release their tax returns under the law but only provide rudimentary information. However, they do release the returns in the interest of transparency and to squash any rumours about their financial position. Barack Obama, who is fighting Hillary Clinton for Democratic presidential nomination, had earlier released his tax returns and had challenged her to do so. The documents show that Bill Clinton made much more after leaving the While House and the couple's income shot up to USD 16 million in 2001 from mere USD 350,000 in 2000, their last year in the White House.

Jiah jale? Jiah Khan

Ken Ghosh’s untitled film with Shahid Kapoor will see a change in its leading lady soon. Reportedly, the production house does not wish to continue with Jiah Khan any more and has approached Katrina Kaif to be part of the film. Interestingly, Jiah Khan has already shot for the film and is currently shooting for it. But our source from the industry informs that Katrina has been approached to replace Jiah. When contacted, Jiah said, “I have not been told anything and as far as I know I am doing the film.” When contacted, Katrina messaged saying, “Not signed”. However, when asked if she has been approached for the film she did not revert. However, a close friend of Katrina informed us, “Though she was approached, producers have not given any reason to her but have offered her around Rs 4.5 crore. Katrina is in two minds about doing the film as it is completely hero-centric

A man relocates lost family with Google Earth in Agra

Agra: Orphaned at seven, he ran away from home to escape the tyranny of his uncle and was taken care of by an affluent Muslim family in northern India. Now at 20, Rakesh Singh has through Google Earth traced his village near Agra and is fighting to get his property back.
Rakesh, who developed an early fascination for computers, has found his village in Kiraoli, about 22 km from the Taj Mahal city, thanks to his interest in the internet.
"Google Earth helped me locate the village that was faintly in my dreams. I knew the name of the village but did not have any idea where in India it was," Rakesh said.
For the past few weeks, Rakesh has been running from one office to the other to get his house and land back from his uncle. He accuses his uncle of torturing him, beating him, and even trying to get rid of him after his father Jagan Singh's death when he was just seven. His mother was kicked out of the house and died under "mysterious circumstances".
Desperate, little Rakesh ran away. Railway stations became his home. Then one day, a university couple from Delhi spotted him on a train, took pity and asked him to accompany them to their home where they looked after him, educated him and gave him a decent life.

"Every now and then the days of my childhood would wake me up. My village would appear in my dreams. I kept thinking hard about my roots but with no success. All I could remember all these years was Kiraoli. I did my diploma in computers and got involved with this fascinating technology. Then I searched various districts, one by one, on the internet.
"I looked up the maps on Google Earth and finally zeroed on Kiraoli in Agra district. A visit to the village confirmed this was the place of my birth. I found my relatives and my uncle and now I am trying to win back my property," Rakesh said.
Retired professor S W Hassan, his foster father, recounting how they got Rakesh, said he and his wife were going to Varanasi from Delhi when they saw a little boy on the train with high fever and crying endlessly. The couple asked him about his whereabouts, which he did not know as he was hardly seven at the time. The boy was brought to Delhi and a First Information Report filed at the police station. In the school records his name is Bilal alias Rakesh.
"I filed an FIR (First Information Report), on June 8, 1996, describing how the boy came with us from a railway station. Rakesh has a copy of it. But no one came to claim the boy, so we brought him up to the best of our ability, got him educated, gave him whatever he wanted. I have a son in America. Our family considered him as a member and there were no differences," Hassan said.
Hassan's wife is also a teacher.
"We are happy and relieved that he has found his home though sad he will be leaving us," Hassan said. "Please do whatever you can to help him get his lost identity and property. I am a kidney patient on dialysis."
Rakesh has all the documents and is even prepared to have a DNA test because his uncle is not accepting him for fear of losing the property. But the villagers are solidly with him.
Tall and well built, Rakesh is also a trainer at a gym. He is keen to settle down among his people and do something for those similarly distressed - making the best use of the technology he loves.

How to do safe netbanking

Are you one of those wizards whose Internet banking password is `Password123’? You are in August company. Most don't seem to have the patience to create an elaborate password. Your Internet banking account is only as secure as its password. A weak password exposes it to strangers and hackers. If you love the ease of online transactions, you have to learn the ropes of basic online security, in your own interest. Here are a few tips for creating and more importantly, remembering a secure password. Your name, surname, pet name, names of your kids, your birthday, your employee number, your car’s number plate, and your account number, are all easy to guess. Avoid them completely. Don’t create lazy passwords. To make passwords strong, complicate them with capitals and small letters; use numbers and characters such as !@#$% ^&*() . Create an algorithm. It could be important dates, the first line of your favourite song or your favourite movie. Like `One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest', will get you ‘1F^TCNest’. Don’t scramble around wondering if `F’ was capital or if it was `o’ or `0’ or `1’. Have an algo and always apply it. For example, one number, one character, beginning with caps and ending with the last word in full. Use the algo to reset and change passwords. Don’t discuss your algorithm, it is the formula to your password.
Learn to differentiate :-
There are passwords to your Yahoo and Hotmail accounts and there are passwords to your bank account. Don’t sweat over the small stuff. If your friend logged in to read your mail, you may at the most lose a friend; if someone logs in to sweep off your cash, you lose both the money and the friend. Keep your critical passwords strictly confidential. Also, avoid typing a password in front of someone. Passwords like ‘qwerty123456’ are so easy for peepers to figure. Avoid strokes to adjacent keys that can be cracked by mere observation.
The longer, the better :-
Short passwords can be easily assaulted. Hackers routinely crack up to six characters. If your algo is a good one, remembering may not be tough. `Raindrops keep falling on my head and I want to steal your umbrella’ can become a superb password -- RkFoMh&Iw 2SyU. Longer a password, the more secure it is. For, every extra character increases the potential for more possible combinations. Anyone who uses a combination of at least eight letters, numbers and special symbols make things hard for decryption software.
Choose non-dictionary words :-
If you use 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet and a password length of seven characters you will have 26 = 8.03 billion combinations to choose from.This may appear large but it will be cracked in 45 minutes by a common computer. Passwords longer than seven characters, using non-dictionary words are therefore to be preferred in an attempt to use 'good' passwords.
Deadly writing :-
Don’t make the password so complicated and bizarre that you cannot remember it unless you wrote it down somewhere. Commit your password to memory with a keyword or picturisation. Imagine for example, a cuckoo clock striking one, on the top of your bank building. If you don’t leave your house key below the door mat, you don’t leave your password below the keyboard, mouse pad, in your diary, or on a post it slip stuck to your monitor. If you have to store it, make it a sentence only you understand. For example, cuckoo clock above the bank strikes one. Never keep the user name and password together.Follow system rulesOnline banking comes with some preset safeguards. Your password is masked when you type it -- it is not displayed on the screen. You are required to reset passwords periodically. When you reset, you are asked for the old password for authentication. Your new password has to be typed twice, so that you don’t inadvertently set a password with a typo and are unable to retrieve it. Your account is locked after a few attempts at guessing the password. You can ask for resetting if you have genuinely lost the password. As most writers on the subject say, a password is like your toothbrush: choose carefully, change regularly, and never share it with anyone.

Why Madonna sleeps with her mobile phone

Pop superstar Madonna sleeps with her mobile phone and so does her husband Guy Ritchie. She says it is not unromantic. She says, “We lie right next to each other with our cell phones under our pillows. It is not unromantic, it’s practical. I’m sure loads of couples keep their mobile phones in bed with them.” She further adds, “I often wake up in the middle of the night and remember that I’ve forgotten something, so I jump up and make notes.”

Tanushree Dutta : I want justice

It looks like Tanushree Dutta will not let go of this issue without a fight. Here’s a recap: Tanushree was supposed to do an item number in the film Horn Ok Please. But she refused to do an intimate step with Nana Patekar, and so got kicked out of the film, and Rakhi Sawant was given the item number. Not only that, Tanu alleges that mediapersons, along with the crew of the film, damaged her car, and harassed her. Tanu has now filed a complaint with the Cine and Television Artistes Association (CINTAA), demanding compensation for damage to property and her reputation. “I’ve spoken to Raza Murad from CINTAA and have explained my case to him. He has promised that notices will be sent to all the people involved. I am claiming compensation for both damage to property and my reputation,” she says. Rakhi Sawant may also get into trouble for replacing Tanushree in the item number without seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from her. Dinesh Chaturvedi, general secretary of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, said, “Rakhi should have sought an NOC from Tanushree before shooting for the song. She will definitely get pulled up for this.” Echoes Murad, “Had Tanushree left the sets without informing the producer and the director of the film then Rakhi had every right to shoot the song. But since that did not happen, as per the regulations, Rakhi will be held accountable.” He added, “As far as Tanushree’s complaint goes, we will look into the matter and take action. All the parties involved in the case will be questioned before we take a decision on this.” Tanu still cannot accept the fact that people damaged her car. “I still can’t get over the fact that people were climbing over my car and damaging it while we all were inside,” she says. Did Nana Patekar misbehave with her on the sets? “The less said about him, the better. If a co-star behaves in the manner he did with me, others will definitely take us for granted.” However, an eye-witness from the sets reveals, “The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena arrived on the set in huge numbers and began abusing Tanu. Nana was also present, did nothing to stop them, and Rakhi was shouting slogans.”