GEO SUPER

Geo super

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After Kancha Cheena, meet the new baddie: John Abraham

MUMBAI - After the success of ‘Agneepath’ and Kancha Cheena, actor John Abraham is all set to walk along the lines of Sanjay Dutt. Following the immense acclaim that Sanjay’s portrayal of Kancha Cheena received, John now wants to immortalise his Manya Surve in the upcoming offering from him, ‘Shootout at Wadala’. The movie, currently under production, is being directed by Sanjay Gupta and John’s role in the film is that of Manohar Arjun Surve, aka Manya Surve. Manya Surve was a dreaded member of the Mumbai underworld who succumbed to an encounter with the police in 1982. And now, about three decades down the line, actor John Abhraham is striving to resurrect the gangster and immortalize him in ‘Shootout at Wadala’. Abraham has apparently left no stone unturned in gathering information regarding the gangster whose role he performs in the movie, and has rigorously been perfecting himself for the same. The fact that Manya Surve was a Marathi, too, has been keeping John busy. John has been receiving lessons to chisel his Marathi to colloquial perfection, and we sincerely hope that he manages to flatten his fans. Kancha Cheena now has a successor. What remains to be seen, is whether or not the character Manya Surve is written in gold in the history of films.

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Shah Rukh interrogated by London police

MUMBAI - Actor Shah Rukh Khan, who is currently busy shooting for a film under the Yash Chopra banner, has had to face a round of stringent questionings in the United Kingdom. Shah Rukh, who is cast opposite to Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif in the hitherto unnamed Yash Chopra production, was interrogated by the London police recently. The YRF camp’s restrictive measures and eagerness to keep every iota of the shooting under wraps had resulted in seeking help from the London police regarding the same. The production house is super-secretive about the upcoming film, and doesn’t want any footage or video to leak out before they display the green signal. The lead actor, however, had to bear the brunt of the strictness of the rules of the London police. King Khan was questioned by the police so that the shooting could progress uninterrupted. Shah Rukh’s experiences with police departments abroad have been quite harrowing in the past. He had earlier been questioned by the New York Police. Seems like the Don is no longer able to evade the police.

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ActOne accuses Lush Productions of bribery

KARACHI - ActOne, Karachi’s oldest and most prestigious center for arts and wellness since its inception in 2006, will sue Lush Productions, a theatre production company managed by Usama Qazi and Waqas Bukhari, on accusations of bribery, dishonesty and mis-commitments. ActOne, which has been involved with musicals like ‘Chicago’, ‘Conversations’ and ‘Karachi, The Musical’, was approached by Lush Productions last November for a musical ‘la Cage Aux Folles’. A mutual agreement was reached that ActOne will be providing choreography, a rehearsal studio, and the dancers. In return the revenues generated from the third night would be given to ActOne. Five days before the show, Lush informed ActOne that the third night had been sold to a sponsor. Upon hearing this ActOne responded by asking them to pay the revenues of the third night. They refused and misbehaved with the female management of ActOne. The company has been a home of dancers, who dance with passion and ambition and for many, dance is their only source of income. They are hard-working and underpaid artists who earn a living through gigs. In protest, ActOne stopped the rehearsals. Lush tried bribing the dancers to join them. The ActOne dancers refused. Lush Production owes ActOne Rs 450,000 in revenues for the third night of the play. Two days before the rehearsals ActOne contacted Lush again and this time asked them to pay Rs 350,000 to cover the cost of the dancers and choreographers. Lush refused and instead offered the ActOne dancers thrice the signing amount they were originally receiving. They later contacted another choreographer for the show. Lush later announced that 70-80 dancers backed out of the show, while according to ActOne, only 9 dancers refused the gig. ActOne has made numerous contributions to the world of dance and theatre since its inception and has been responsible for the first ever documented flash mob, a world record for conducting the highest number of flash mobs, the first ever underground reality dance show and the first BBoy battle. ActOne has flown in internationally renowned dance instructors to teach at the institute. To date ActOne has instructed more than 6,000 students which includes giving workshops at Indus Valley and other institutes.

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India rejects report of US troops on its soil

NEW DELHI - India has denied as “factually incorrect” a report that US special forces were stationed in the country as part of counter-terrorism cooperation.
Media reports quoted top Pentagon commander Admiral Robert Willard as telling a Congressional hearing on Thursday that US special forces teams were stationed in five South Asian countries, including India and Sri Lanka. “The report is factually incorrect in so far as the reference to India is concerned,” Indian defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said in a statement late on Friday. “US special forces teams have never been stationed in India in the past, nor are such teams stationed in the country presently,” Kar added. The two democracies, however, have a regular military exchange programme with cross visits for training and joint drills by soldiers of one country to another.
In Colombo, the US embassy on Saturday denied stationing special forces in Sri Lanka. “References in the press to US special forces being stationed in Sri Lanka are misleading,” the embassy said in a statement. However, it said members of the US military were assigned to work in the embassy in Colombo “as part of the bilateral engagement between the US and Sri Lanka.” The US admiral had been quoted as saying that the move to station US forces in the South Asian countries was part of the counter-terrorism cooperation with these nations.
US imposes sanctions on key Taliban bomb-maker: The US targeted a key Taliban bomb-maker for sanctions, the first of its kind that aims to stifle the flow of the deadly improvised explosive devices (IED). The Department of Treasury described Abdul Samad Achekzai, a 42-year-old Afghan national, as a key official in the Taliban’s IED supply network, who was as recently as mid-2010 tasked with IED component procurement and storage, detonator construction and IED training in support of Taliban fighters in western and southern Afghanistan.

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Government takes another jab at CNG sector

ISLAMABAD - After failing to restrict the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in public transport vehicles, the government has made another subtle attempt to throttle the sector by blocking gas supply to 551 CNG stations in Punjab for three months until May 31.
All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) Chairman Ghias Paracha condemned the government’s move and called it unjustified and illogical.
He said the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) had notified that all CNG stations set up after 2008 were eligible for only 9 months gas supply and their supply was being immediately suspended for the next three months.
He said the government had made an agreement with the association that the gas load shedding would be reduced from February. However, the SNGPL had notified an increase in the duration from two-and-half days to three days, which was illogical, as domestic pressure on gas reduced with the start of the spring season. He said the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) had cancelled 151 licenses of the CNG stations last week. Paracha said they had convened an emergency meeting of the association on March 5 to decide a future plan of action. He said they had also sent a letter to the Petroleum Ministry to for a meeting to listen to their point of view on the new move by the SNGPL. He said the association would take strong measures if the government did not dissuade from its subtle attempts to throttle the CNG sector.
The government estimates that during the last decade, gas production has increased by only seven percent, while its consumption increased by 40 percent per annum. CNG sector is identified as the major user of gas whose consumption has increased by 39 percent per annum during the last decade.
More than 3.5 million vehicles ply on CNG, which according to official estimates consume 390 mmcfd. The government wants to reverse its CNG policy but alliance of transporters and CNG investors is seen as a major pressure group that could put on halt any such plans. The government has now opted for a plan B in order to bring CNG prices at par with POL prices The government has already imposed a ban on the import of CNG kits and cylinders on December 15, 2011, which raised serious concerns in the automobile sector, saying the move would jeopardise investment.

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Sherpao survives yet another suicide attack

PESHAWAR - A suicide bomber targeted the convoy of Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao in Shabqadar area on Saturday, and killed two persons – a small girl and a policeman – and injured seven others, including two lawmakers of the provincial assembly.
Sources said the blast took place shortly after the PPP-S chief concluded a public meeting, and party leaders were returning from the rally venue near Kangra Public School, Shabqadar.
The bomber targeted a police van escorting the former interior minister’s convoy. His son, Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, a member of provincial assembly (MPA), and Mohammad Ali, also an MPA, sustained minor injuries, while the PPP-S chief remained safe.
Soon after the attack, a large number of people and rescue workers rushed to the site and shifted the injured people to Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. Contingents of police also reached the blast site and cordoned off the area. Sherpao also visited the blast site and examined the situation.
The dead include Constable Bashir and a minor daughter of PPP-S leader Syed Ahmad Shah, while those who were injured are: MPA Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, MPA Mohammad Ali, Inspector
Jamshed Khan, Constable Dawood Khan, Constable Anwar Ali and Constable Waqas.
Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour, PPP leaders Zahir Shah and Arbab Alamgir, and high-ranking police officers visited Lady Reading Hospital to enquire about the health of the injured persons. District police chief Nisar Khan confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack and its target was the former interior minister.
The latest attack suggests that Sherpao remains on the hit-list of militants, as he was the interior minister when the military operation against Lal Masjid was launched in the heart of Islamabad. Soon after the operation, the number of suicide attacks multiplied in Pakistan, and in April 2007 a suicide bomber attacked a rally of PPP-S, killing 28 people and injuring dozens of others.
Militants later targeted him while he was offering Eid prayers at a mosque in his hometown of Charsadda. The attack killed 50 persons and injured dozens of worshippers, but Sherpao survived. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman for Mohmand Agency claimed responsibility for the attack, and announced that the attacks
would continue.

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