Rumours about Salman Khan don't bother me: Katrina Kaif

Actress Katrina Kaif, who is teaming up with Salman Khan again in Ek Tha Tiger, says she is not bothered about the gossip that goes around regarding her and the actor.
Katrina reportedly dated Salman when she started off her career in Bollywood but later separated. And their new movie has got the rumour mills spinning again. She was last seen with the Dabangg star in 2008 movie Yuvraaj.
"When we start working for a movie we go in as professionals. I am here to do my job and if people want to highlight baseless stories then it's up to them. I don't think that these stories will have any affect on my work and the film.
"I am never bothered about such stories. Why should I? I think it's what every actor goes through. When you start working in the industry, people taking about you becomes a part of your life. Why analyse it so much?" Katrina told PTI.
The 27-year-old actress, who first starred alongside Salman in Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, said she is excited to work with him again.
"I am excited about the film, it's shaping up good. Salman is working with Yash Raj for the first time and it's my second film with them. It's always fun working with Salman, he makes everything very comfortable on the sets," she said.
Katrina is also working in another Yash Raj film opposite Shah Rukh Khan. The untitled film will mark the comeback of veteran director Yash Chopra after a gap of eight years.
"I am enjoying working with Shah Rukh and Yashji. Yashji is a living legend in Indian cinema and working with him has been a learning experience for me. I am very fortunate to have got an oppurtunity to work with him. Working with him is magical.
"And Shah Rukh is a wonderful co-star. I have learnt so much from him," she said.
With hits like Singh Is Kinng, Raajneeti, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and Namastey London to her credit, Katrina has always been experimental with her choice of roles.
The actress says she likes exploring herself and does not think there is any definite formula to success.
"I like experimenting with my roles... If you stick to one thing you can easily get bored. Everything in life is a risk, there is no definite way to success.
"Today if I do a role which I have done before there is no guarantee that the audience will like it. The higher the risk the greater will be the outcome. You won't be able to work if you fear taking risk. I just try to give my best," Katrina said.
The actress, who has made heads turn with her seductive act in a recent Slice ad, said, "It is a very different campaign. The new ad is very rustic and ethnic. I think it is the best one. I love the rapport which I share with the brand."

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Defence Ministry had looked into Tatra issue 7 years ago

Seven years before the issue rocked the country, the Defence Ministry had gone into the procurement of Tatra trucks through an intermediary company and not original manufacturers and had closed the matter.

With Army Chief Gen V.K. Singh raking up the issue of alleged bribes in procurement of Tatra trucks, the CBI is probing alleged irregularities in the procurement of trucks.

It is probing into alleged irregularities in assigning of supply from Czech Republic-based Tatra, with which the agreement was originally signed in 1986, to the Tatra Sipox U.K. owned by Ravi Rishi in 1997, showing it as Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and the fully-owned subsidiary of the Czech company.

There were allegations in 2005 that Tatra family of trucks were being procured from an agent and not directly from OEM and that BEML was at best an assembler of such vehicles without absorbing technology.

In the wake of these allegations, the Defence Ministry had gone into the matter and apparently found that there was nothing wrong in procuring components from the intermediary company.

Before coming to this conclusion, the Ministry got a letter from the Indian ambassador in Slovakia about the ownership of the Tatra Sipox U.K. company.

According to official documents accessed by PTI after a recent review of the issue, the Ambassador had reported in 2005 that Tatra Sipox company was set up to resolve coordination issues arising out of division of the country Czechoslovakia into Czech and Slovak republics resulting in the division of the company producing these trucks.

Giving details of the ownership pattern of the company, the Ambassador’s report concluded that ”... as the vehicles were being supplied by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) through its own subsidiary, there appeared to be no other channels to purchase Tatra vehicles.”

The Ministry had sought clarification and received a reply from Tatra Sipox Director Josef Majsky also who said Tatra Sipox UK was authorised to represent the parent company and was responsible for sale of trucks to India and a number of other countries including Israel, Indonesia and Taiwan.

The Ministry report said there was no option but to buy components from Tatra Sipox UK as the vehicles in question can be produced only if components manufactured by Tatra of Czech Republic and Tatra Sipox of Slovak Republic are both available for making the complete vehicle.

The Department of Defence Production said it concluded that the issue regarding BEML working through an agent and not through the OEM was examined.

“It was concluded that there is no option but to buy components from Tatra Sipox (UK) as the vehicles in question can be produced only if components produced by Tatra AS of the Czech Republic and Tatra Sipox/Tanax of the Slovak Republic are both available for the manufacture of the complete vehicle,” the Department said.

The report stated that in view of the “peculiar situation” created as a result of the division of the original company, dealing with the OEM would entail dealing with not one but two OEMs in two countries not having best of relationships.”

It said the incorporation of Tatra Sipox (UK) Limited, it appears, was essentially to resolve the coordination issues arising out of the division and was authorised by the OEMs to sell to India components required for production of trucks by BEML.

The Ministry subsequently “closed” the issue, the documents suggest.

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Chen Guangcheng's escape sparks China round-up

Chinese authorities have begun to round up relatives and associates of blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who fled from house arrest last week, reports say.

Several people involved in Mr Chen's escape have been detained or have disappeared in recent days, and fellow activist Hu Jia is being questioned.
Mr Chen is believed to be sheltering at the US embassy in Beijing.
The US and international rights groups have frequently expressed alarm at the treatment of Mr Chen and his family.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has demanded his release in the past, is due in China this week for a previously arranged meeting which is now likely to be overshadowed by Mr Chen's case.
The US government has not so far commented publicly on the whereabouts of Mr Chen.
Analysts say the issue will be highly sensitive for both sides, and will not be easy to resolve.
If Mr Chen is in the embassy, his case will raise memories of an incident in 1989 when another prominent activist, Fang Lizhi, fled to the US mission in Beijing.
He remained there for more than a year while the two sides attempted to broker a deal.
'Shameful saga' Mr Chen was placed under house arrest in 2010 after spending more than four years in jail for disrupting traffic and damaging property.
He had exposed how local authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, forced thousands of women to have abortions or be sterilised as part of China's one-child policy.

His colleagues said last Sunday's escape had taken months to plan, and was carried out with the help of a network of friends and activists.

He scaled the wall that the authorities had built around his house, and was driven hundreds of miles to Beijing, where activists say he stayed in safe-houses before fleeing to the embassy.
His wife and six-year-old daughter remain under house arrest, but several of his family members have been detained and others are being sought by the authorities.
One of Mr Chen's friends, He Peirong - who wrote on her microblog that she had driven him to Beijing - is believed to have been detained in the city of Nanjing.
"I was actually talking to her and the last words she said were 'the PSB [Public Security Bureau] has arrived,'" said Bob Fu, of the US-based ChinaAid pressure group.
Her microblog was later deleted, and all searches on popular microblogging sites for Mr Chen's name and other related terms were being blocked by the censors.
On Saturday, the authorities detained Hu Jia, who had earlier told the BBC how he had met Mr Chen since his escape.
Mr Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan, said late on Saturday that her husband's detention had been extended for a further 24 hours.
"I asked where Hu Jia would sleep, they said on a chair," she said.
The fate of other associates of Mr Chen also remains unclear, with reports claiming several have disappeared.
The treatment of Mr Chen and his family by local authorities has long been controversial.
Amnesty International regards him as a "prisoner of conscience" and has called on the authorities to end the "shameful saga" of his detention.

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Petitions filed in Pak court against Gilani holding PM office

Two petitions have been filed in a Pakistani court asking it to restrain Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani from holding office in the w

ake of his conviction for contempt by the Supreme Court.
The petitions filed in the Lahore High Court yesterday asked it to direct Gilani to explain under which law he was claiming to be the chief executive of the country after his conviction.
The petitions were filed by Shahid Naseem Gondal and Rana Ilamuddin Ghazi, who are known for approaching courts on such issues.
The petitioners' lawyer AK Dogar, also the counsel for Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, said the apex court had convicted and sentenced Gilani for failing to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
After the conviction, Gilani could not hold the office of Prime Minister, Dogar contended.
He claimed Gilani had ceased to hold office and that under Article 199(1b) of the Constitution, the Premier is liable to show under what authority he claimed to hold his office.
Dogar asked the high court to restrain Gilani from holding office and "misusing" facilities connected with it.
In a separate development, Gilani has been served with a legal notice by Azhar Siddique, a lawyer of the Supreme Court who contended that his continuation in office is a violation of the Constitution.
The notice said Gilani must leave office, failing which Siddique will approach the courts to get the office vacated.
Siddique said he had sent copies of the notice to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Chief Election Commissioner, Attorney General and the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
Following his conviction, Gilani has said he can be disqualified only by the Speaker of the National Assembly.

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Maharashtra, Karnataka topped cyber crime list in 2010

Maharashtra and Karnataka topped the list of cyber crimes registered in 2010 with 246 cases and 176 cases respectively, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said.
"With the increase in the proliferation of Information Technology and related services, there is a rise in number of cyber crimes and cyber security incidents. The trend in increase in cyber incidents is similar to that worldwide," Sibal had said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Maharashtra recorded the highest number of cyber crime cases at 104 under IPC (Indian Penal Code) in 2010 and had registered 142 cases under the IT Act in the same year, putting the combined cybercrime count at 246.

Similarly, under the IT Act, Karnataka in 2010 had the highest incidents of 153 cyber crime cases while it had 23 cases in the same year registered under IPC - taking its total tally to 176 cases.

Across the country, a total 966 cases of cyber crime reported under Information Technology Act, 2000 in 2010, Sibal said.

As per data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 288, 420 and 966 cyber crime cases were registered under the Information Technology Act, 2000 during 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively, thereby showing an increasing trend, he added.
Under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a total of 176, 276 and 356 cyber crimes were reported during 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively.

The minister said the government has put in place a monitoring mechanism to detect such cases.

"The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) scans the Indian cyber space to detect traces of untoward incidents that poses a threat to the cyber space purely from technical point of view," he said.

CERT-In provides mechanisms to detect cyber frauds and cyber crimes like phishing, spamming, pharming and detection of 'BOTS' which are used in cyber frauds and cyber crimes.

CERT-In and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) are involved in providing basic and advanced training to law enforcement agencies, forensics labs and judiciary on the procedures on the methodology of collecting, analysing and presenting digital evidence, he said.

"Cyber forensic training lab has been set up at Training Academy of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to impart basic and advanced training in cyber forensics and investigation of cyber crimes to police officers associated with CBI," Sibal said.
In addition, the government has also set up such labs in Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, Sibal said.

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Sukma collector in good health, say mediators after meeting Maoists

Abducted Sukma District Collector Alex Paul Menon is in "good health", said the two mediators who briefed Maoists on their talks with the Chhattisgarh government on their demands for release of the IAS officer.
B D Sharma, a former IAS officer, and Hyderabad-based academic Professor G Hargopal, who have held two rounds of talks on behalf of the Maoists, returned to Chintanlar today after visiting Tadmetla forests, where they had gone yesterday to update Maoists about the deliberations with the government.
The two mediators told reporters that they will now meet the government-appointed interlocutors Nirmala Buch and S K Mishra and give them details of their talks with the Maoists.
They declined to share with the media details of their discussions with the rebels, who have put forward three demands for the release of the 32-year-old 2006-batch IAS officer.
Sharma and Hargopal said they did not meet Menon, who was abducted on April 21 from Majhipara village in Raipur district, but they were told by Naxal leaders that he was in "good health". He was abducted when he was holding a meeting as part of the government's Special Gram Suraj Abhiyan.
A CPI leader had last week delivered medicines for the officer, who is asthmatic.
The Maoist-appointed mediators reached Chintanlar, about 450 kms from the state capital, this morning from Tadmetla, a Naxal stronghold in Sukma district.
Their arrival in Raipur was delayed due to bad weather in Chintanlar, government officials said.
No breakthrough has been achieved after two rounds of talks between the mediators appointed by the Maoists and the state government.
To free the bureaucrat, Maoists have demanded release of 17 of their jailed leaders, halt to the anti-Maoist offensive "Operation Green Hunt" and sending security forces in Bastar to the barracks.

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