JALFREZI MACARONI

INGREDIENTS:Chicken Boneless 300g
Capsicum (cut in large cubes)  1 large
Tomato (cut in large cubes)  3 pcs
Onion (cut in large cubes)  1 large
Cooking Oil   8 tbsp
Yogurt (whipped)   ½ cup
Tomato paste   ½ cup
Salt  1 tbsp
Ginger (sliced)  2 tbsp
Green Chili (sliced)  3 pcs
And Bake Parlor Macaroni, Bake Parlor Masala Mix Sachet (inside the pack)

METHOD:
Boil pasta in salted boiling water for 5-7 minutes or till tender. Rinse under cold running water. Drain. Add 1 tbsp of oil to pasta, mix and set aside.
In a pan add remaining oil add chicken spice sachet and tomato paste for a minute.
Add 2 cups of water and bring it to boil cook for another 5 minutes.
Add yogurt, ginger, green chili and cook on high heat for 3 minutes.
Add capsicum, onion and tomato and cook for ½ minute. Remove and serve hot with pasta.

Beef Fajita

Ingredients:Beef Strips  500 grams
Onion  1
Garlic 4-5 cloves
Worcester Sauce 2 tbsp
Green Chilies (Slice) 2-3
Red Chili Paste  1 tbsp
Crushed Black Pepper   ½ tsp
Capsicum 1
Green Onion 2-3 strands
Lemon Juice 2 tbsp
Oregano a pinch
Oil  3-4 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Take a cooking pan add 3-4 tbsp of oil heat the oil add 4-5 chopped garlic and 1 fry onion. Then add 500 grams of Beef when the beef change its colour add 2 tbsp of Worcester sauce ½ tsp crushed black pepper, 1 capsicum, 1 tbsp of red chili paste, 2-3 chopped green chilies, and add a pinch of salt 2 tbsp of lemon juice mix it well and roast it. Now add 1 pinch of oregano, 2-3 strands of green onion and fry for 2-3 minutes. Dish out and serve it.

Thai Red Chicken recipe

Ingredients:Chicken with bone 500 grams
Coconut milk 1 cup
Red Curry Paste 2-3 tbsp
Fish Sauce 2-3 tbsp
Mushroom  1 cup
Lemon Leaves  4-5
Garlic 5-6 cloves
Crushed Black Pepper ½ tsp
Finely Crushed Red Chili 2-3
Basil Leaves 10-12
Oil  3-4 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:
First take a cooking pan add 3-4 tbsp of oil add 5-6 chopped garlic and 500 grams of chicken with bone when the chicken colour is changed add 2-3 tbsp of red curry paste, 2-3 tbsp of fish sauce, 4-5 lemon leaves, ½ tsp crushed black pepper,2-3 tbsp of red chili flakes, cook 4-5 minutes. At last 1 cup of coconut milk, 1 cup of water to make a gravy when the gravy is thicken, dish out on serving bowl , 2-3 chopped red chilies, 10-12 basil leaves garnish and serve it hot.

Poye Poye recipe

Ingredients:
 Raw Chewra 2 cup
Onion 1
Potatoes (Boiled) 2
White Chick Peas ( Boiled ) 1 cup
Papri 3-4
Whole Red Chilies 3-4
Mustard Seeds 1 tsp
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste 1 tbsp
Red Chili Powder 1 tbsp
Turmeric ½ tsp
Curry Leaves 10-12
Oil 4 tbsp
Salt as required
Fresh Coriander For Garnishing

Method: 
Take 2 cups of raw chewra add in hot water when chewra soaks water take it out from water strain the water. Take a pan add 4 tbsp of oil, heat the oil add 10-12 curry leaves 3-4 whole red chilies add 1 tbsp of mustard seeds stir fry the ingredients when the smell comes up add 1 chopped onion add 1 tsp of ginger garlic, ½ tsp of turmeric powder ,a pinch of salt, 1 tbsp of red chili powder and 1 tsp of cumin powder and mix it well .Take boiled potatoes cut into small cubes add 2 cups of chewra mix the chewra with the help of spoons. Mix all the ingredients and remove from the heat Take a serving bowl ad poye poye chaat masala ,green chilies, coriander and serve it hot.

Noodles Tikyaan

Ingredients:
Noodles 1 packet
Chicken Mince 250 grams
Eggs 2-3
Garlic paste 1 tsp Finely Chopped
Green Chilies 4-5 Finely Chopped
Fresh Coriander ½ bunch
Green Onion 2-3
Rice Flour 3-4 tbsp
Lemon Juice 2-3 tbsp
Soya Sauce 2-3 tbsp
Oil as required
Salt to taste

Method:
 Boil the noodles hot water to 5 minutes strain the water and take it out of it and chopped the noodles. Take a half packet of noodles and fry the noodles spread the noodles in a platter. Half of the noodles and 2 cups of chicken mince2-3 eggs, 1 tsp of garlic paste, 4-5 chopped green chilies, ½ bunch chopped fresh coriander, 2-3 chopped green onion , 3-4 tbsp of rice flour, 2-3 tbsp of lemon juice , 2-3 tbsp of soya sauce and a pinch of salt mix it well and make pattie s like tikya,s . Heat as required oil in a deep wok fry the patties and spread the fried noodles and serve it with sauce.

SMOKED MACARONI recipe

INGREDIENTS:
Boiled Macaroni        1 packet
Boiled Chicken         ½ kg
Sausages          6
Crushed Red Chilies        1 tsp
Salt           1 tsp
Black Pepper   1 tsp
Chicken Cubes       1
Cream    1 packet
Finely Chopped Carrots                 1 cup
Cabbage                                            1 cup
Capsicum      1
Oil     3 tbsp
Coal     1 piece
Chopped Ginger Garlic   1 tsp

METHOD:
Heat 3 tbsp oil and add 1 tsp garlic. When aroma comes then add ½ cup water.
In water add 1 chicken cube, 1 tsp crushed red chilies, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp crushed red chilies.
Then add 1 cup finely chopped carrots, 1 capsicum, 1 cup cabbage, 6 sausages, ½ kg boiled chicken and 1 packet boiled macaroni and turn off the stove.
Then mix 1 packet cream and give smoke of the coal.

BADAMI CHATNI KABAB recipe

INGREDIENTS:Beef Boneless Pieces      ½ kg
Split Bengal Gram     ½ bowl
Garlic Cloves (peeled)        4
Ginger       1 small piece
Salt           as required
Whole Red Chilies         6
Whole All Spices       few
Whole Coriander        1 tsp
White Cumin           1 tsp
Oil for frying           as required
Egg Whites          1

INGREDIENTS FOR CHATNI:
 Almonds         20
Green Chilies         4
Green Coriander       1 bunch
Mint Leaves        1 bunch
Crushed Black Pepper      1 tsp
Lemons      2

METHOD:
In a pan add ½ kg beef boneless pieces, ½ bowl Bengal gram, 4 garlic cloves, 1 small piece of ginger, whole all spices, 6 whole red chilies, 1 tsp white cumin, 1 tsp whole coriander, 4 bowls of water and salt and then keep it to cook.
When the chicken is done and water evaporates then take it out from the stove and cool it down and chop it in the chopper and add 1 egg white in it.
Add 1 bunch mint leaves, 1 bunch green coriander and 4 green chilies and blend them. Later add salt as required and 20 chopped almonds.
Grease your hands and spread kabab masala and then put chatni in centre and make kababs.
When add kababs are ready, shallow fry them. Once they are done, then take them out and serve with garlic sauce.

Apple Streusel Bars recipe

Ingredients for Pastry:Flour 2 cups
Caster sugar 1/2 cup
Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Butter (softened) 1 cup
Egg (beaten) 1

for Apple Filling:
Caster sugar 1/2 cup
Flour 1/4 cup
Cinnamon 1 tsp
Apples (sliced & peeled) 4 cups

for Glaze:
Icing sugar 2 cups
Milk 3 tbsp
Almond essence 1 tsp

Method:
To prepare crust, mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until you have crumbs. Gently mix in beaten egg. Gently pat about 2/3 of the crumb mixture onto the bottom of a greased dish. To prepare apple filling, combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon and toss with apples. Spread apples out on prepared crust. Sprinkle reserved crust mixture over apples evenly and bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. When finished, allow to cool completely. To prepare glaze, whisk together icing sugar, almond essence, and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Place glaze in a plastic bag and cut off a very small portion of one of the corners to drizzle glaze over cooled pastry and allow to harden. Cut into bars and serve.

Chelsea buns recipe

Ingredients
Flour 4 cups or 400 gm
Butter 4 ounces
Caster sugar 1 tbsp
Instant yeast 1 tbsp
Powder milk 2 tbsp
Salt ½ tsp
Mace ¼ tsp
Nutmeg ¼ tsp
Cinnamon powder ¼ tsp
Egg 1
Luke warm water to knead
Walnuts ¼ cup
Almonds ¼ cup
Pistachio ¼ cup
Brown sugar ½ cup
Spice powder ½ tsp
Softened butter 2 tbsp

Method
Mix all together in a bowl Flour 4 cups or 400 gm, Butter 4 ounces, Caster sugar 1 tbsp, Instant yeast 1 tbsp, Powder milk 2 tbsp, Salt ½ tsp, Mace ¼ tsp, Nutmeg ¼ tsp, Cinnamon powder ¼ tsp, Egg 1 and knead into a soft dough adding Luke warm water as required. Leave to rise till double. punch down, roll to a rectangular, spread with butter, mix with brown sugar and spice powder. Leaving the edges, sprinkle with chopped nuts, roll firmly like Swiss roll, cut into 8 slices, grease your tray, line with foil, grease foil with oil, put buns in a round flower pattern. Press slightly, cover and leave to rise again till double then brush with beaten egg, bake for 15 minutes on 200 degree C. drizzle with prepared icing.

Ingredients for icing
Milk ¼ cup
Icing sugar ½ cup

Method
Cook both together.

CHILLED MINT CHOCOLATE DRINK

INGREDIENTS:

Milk      ½ liter
Mint Leaves      1 tbsp
Dark Chocolate      100g
Chocolate Sticks      For garnishing
Cream      ½ cup

METHOD:
In a sauce pan boil ½ liter milk. Then take it out off the stove and add 1 tbsp mint leaves. Now cover the sauce pan with the plastic for 30 minutes so that the leaves get soaked properly. Then drain the milk and again boil the milk in the same sauce pan. In a jug add 100g crushed dark chocolate and add heated milk and mix it until it gets smooth. Then freeze it in the freezer. Now in a glass add ¾ chocolate and then add mint drink. Make a scoop of whipped cream with the help of scooped spoon

Coffee Cookie Shake recipe

Ingredients:
Coffee ice cream 3 scoops
Cold milk 1-1/2 cups
Crushed ice 1 cup
Crumbled chocolate cookies 2 cups

Method:
Blend ice cream with milk and ice until smooth and well combined.

Govinda: I’ve no objections to daughter doing intimate scenes

Govinda's last visit to Jaipur was in June, and he recently took another trip to Pink City to attend a private function.

The actor also took out time to address the local media and didn't shy away from answering questions centred around his daughter Narmada's Bollywood debut. Admitting that the glam world has its own rules and regulations, he said, "Romantic scenes are a part of Bollywood cinema and if the script demands some kind of intimacy, I have no issues with my daughter doing those scenes. To get into the skin of a character, an artiste has to do certain things. And I won't have any objections unless my daughter is uncomfortable doing them." Narmada makes her Bollywood debut with Punjabi actor Gippy Grewal in an untitled film.
 
READ: Govinda's daughter Narmmadaa to debut opposite Punjabi superstar
As far as Govinda's upcoming films are concerned, his home production Abhinay Chakra, which was slated to hit the theatres soon, has been delayed. He explained, "I want the film to be released on a bigger platform. Due to unavailability of desired multiplexes and number of screens, we have decided to shift the release. But whenever it will hit the screens, we will do good promotions and will come back to Jaipur to promote the film as well." Calling 2014 as his lucky year, Govinda said he's looking forward to few other projects, too, and one of them will also show him in a negative role. "The year 2014 has been one of the luckiest years for me so far, and I'm soon starting work on some new projects as well," he added. In answer to constant comparisons between him and Varun Dhawan, the actor said, "Varun has got rave reviews for copying my style in dance and comedy. I really like him and love the way he dances. It feels great when people say that he copies me. I would like to work with the talented boy, if someone comes up with a good script."

Oil from BP Spill Coats Miles of Gulf Seafloor

A significant portion of the remaining oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sitting on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of the well, a new study finds.
The BP-operated Macondo well exploded in April 2010, and gushed an estimated 5 million barrels of oil into the ocean before engineers finally capped the well in July 2010. Since that time, research has suggested that the spilled oil has affected wildlife ranging from dolphins to corals. In 2014, researchers at Pennsylvania State University reported that coral communities up to 13.7 miles (22 km) from the spill site showed damage.
Now, researchers have tracked the path of oil from the water column to the ocean floor, and they found the final resting place of between 2 and 16 percent of the total oil spilled.

"This analysis provides us with, for the first time, some closure on the question, 'Where did the oil go, and how did it get there?'" Don Rice, the program director of the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences, said in a statement. The NSF funded the research.
Tracing a spill
Scientists estimate that about 2 million barrels of Deepwater Horizon oil ended up in the deep ocean. Tracing that oil has been challenging. [SOS! 10 Major Oil Disasters at Sea]

A research team led by David Valentine, a microbial geochemist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sampled more than 534 locations near the spill site, gathering more than 3,000 individual samples. They analyzed the samples for a hydrocarbon called hopane, which is found in oil and persists in the environment for a long time.
The researchers found an area of 1,250 square miles (3,237 square km), mostly southwest of the Macondo well, where a thin sheen of oil rests in patches on the top half-inch of the seafloor, according to the NSF.
"Based on the evidence, our findings suggest that these deposits are from Macondo oil that was first suspended in the deep ocean, then settled to the seafloor without ever reaching the ocean surface," Valentine said in the statement.
Oil damage
The droplets of oil started out 3,500 feet (1,067 meters) below the ocean surface and were caught by deep-ocean currents before raining down another 1,000 feet (305 m) to the seafloor, Valentine said. This hydrocarbon rain explains the damage suffered by coral around the site, he said.
"The pattern of contamination we observe is fully consistent with the Deepwater Horizon event but not with natural seeps," Valentine said.
Much of the deep ocean oil is still missing, however. The portion Valentine and his colleagues traced represents only 4 to 31 percent of the oil thought to be trapped in the depths of the ocean (up to 16 percent of the total oil spilled).
"This knowledge remains largely provisional until we can fully account for the remaining 70 percent," Rice said.
The researchers reported their findings Oct. 27 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Elon Musk: Artificial Intelligence Is Humanity's 'Biggest Existential Threat'

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is concerned about artificial intelligence. In fact, the inventor of the private spaceflight company SpaceX and the car company Tesla says that AI is humanity's "biggest existential threat."

"I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence," Musk said in response to an audience question during a Q&A on Friday (Oct. 24). "If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that, so we need to be very careful with artificial intelligence. I'm increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level just to make sure that we don't do something very foolish."

Musk explained his views on AI, referring to intelligent machines, when he took questions from the audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AeroAstro 100 conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of the university's aeronautics and astronautics department. [The History of Artificial Intelligence (Infographic)]

"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon," Musk added. "You know all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water and … he's sure he can control the demon. It doesn't work out."

The SpaceX founder went on to say that HAL 9000 — the murderous artificially intelligent computer from "2001: A Space Odyssey" — would be "like a puppy dog" compared to the AI he's imagining.

Musk had to ask the next person asking a question to repeat herself, because he was so caught up in thinking about artificial intelligence.

This isn't the first time Musk has made his views on AI known. In August, Musk wrote about his feelings on artificial intelligence on Twitter, according to Mashable.

"We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes," Musk tweeted on Aug. 2, 2014, after recommending a book about AI called "Superintelligence" (Oxford University Press, 2014) written by Nick Bostrom.

Musk is also putting his money where his worries are. Last year, actor Ashton Kutcher, Facebook inventor Mark Zuckerberg and Musk invested $40 million in the company Vicarious FPC, which is planning to build an artificial brain that can think like a person.

While it may seem odd that Musk is investing in AI, in June, he told CNBC that he'd like to "keep an eye on what's going on with artificial intelligence. I think there's potentially a dangerous outcome there."

Fitbit Announces Three New Trackers, Including Smartwatch

Three new activity trackers from Fitbit are being revealed today, including the company's first trackers with heart rate monitoring and smartwatch features. The trackers — called the Fitbit Charge, Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge — are each designed for people at different levels of fitness. Only the Charge is available immediately; the Charge HR and Surge will be available in early 2015, the company said.
The Fitbit Charge is for average Joe's who want to step up their everyday activities and become more active. Like the Fitbit Force (which was recalled earlier this year), the Charge has a small screen to display your stats. It tracks steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, and sleep, and has caller ID if you're near your smartphone (the caller's name and number appears on the screen). The battery lasts up to seven days, Fitbit says.

monitors heart rate from the wrist throughout the day, which may help people to better estimate how many calories they burn, Fitbit says. The Charge HR is aimed at people who are already regular exercisers. The battery lasts up to five days, according to Fitbit.

The Fitbit Charge HR includes all the features of the Charge, but also
The pricier Fitbit Surge similarly has heart rate monitor, and also includes a built-in GPS to show your distance and route history. The device, which is aimed at athletes working towards peak performance, can show your pace, elevation, spit times and workout intensity. It has more smartwatch features, including text alerts, and its battery lasts up to five days. [Fantasy Fitness Tracker: 8 Absolutely Must-Have Features]

"We understand that everyone’s approach to fitness is different," James Park, CEO of Fitbit, said in a statement. The variety of Fitbit trackers ensures that "everyone can find the right fit for their lifestyle and their goals," Park said.
The Fitbit Charge costs $129.95. The Fitbit Charge HR  will cost $149.95, and the Fitbit Surge  will be priced at $249.95, the company said.

Amazon's Cold Fire Phone Inflames Investors

Amazon on Thursday posted a net loss of US$437 million for the third quarter, or 95 cents per diluted share. For the same period in 2013, it posted a net loss of $41 million, or 9 cents per diluted share.

Amazon had warned shareholders when it reported its bleak second quarter performance in July that the next quarter would be equally grim. However, that did not keep investors from reacting in surprise and dismay when the Q3 report arrived. Shares dropped 10 percent on Friday.
Not all of the news was bad. Net sales increased 20 percent to $20.58 billion in the third quarter, compared with $17.09 billion in third quarter 2013. For the fourth quarter, Amazon expects net sales to be between $27.3 billion and $30.3 billion -- a growth rate that will range between 7 percent and 18 percent compared with fourth quarter 2013.

It's not clear how long the bleeding will continue. The company's forecast for the fourth quarter ranges from a possible operating loss of $570 million to a potential $430 million profit, compared with its $510 million profit in the fourth quarter 2013 and its $544 million loss in the quarter just ended.
When releasing the numbers, CEO Jeff Bezos paid little attention to the red ink, preferring to focus on the upcoming holiday shopping season.
"We are focused on making the customer experience easier and more stress-free than ever," he said. "In addition to our already low prices, we will offer more than 15,000 Lightning Deals with early access to select deals for Prime members, hundreds of millions of products across dozens of categories, curated gift lists like Holiday Toy List and Electronics Holiday Gift Guide, new features like #AmazonWishList, and a great new lineup of products like Kindle Voyage and Fire HD Kids Edition." High-Class Problems
Bezos also made no mention of the Amazon Fire Phone, which resulted in unsold inventory and a $170 million writeoff.
To a certain extent Bezos is entitled to focus on the positive.
"Keep in mind that some of Amazon's problems are high-class ones," Barry Randall, technology portfolio manager for Covestor, told the E-Commerce Times.
"Amazon's third-quarter revenue shortfall was due in part to an accounting quirk: They sold more third-party merchandise than expected; this is product for which Amazon doesn't recognize revenue and expense, only a margin contribution. But it's still Amazon making a sale and possibly a happy new customer."
Amazon's new Fire Phone is a bust, Randall acknowledged, "but Amazon Web Services is now a billion-dollar business growing in excess of 30 percent annually, which only supports Bezos' desire to spend big to get big."

Primed for Success

Investor pressure on Amazon to shift strategies is mounting, however, and likely will continue to do so if the company reports losses every quarter.
Bezos is unlikely to cave, though, said Val Wright of Val Wright Consulting.
"Jeff Bezos has never cared what investors think and isn't going to start any time soon," she told the E-Commerce Times. "His obsession is with customers, and he rapidly grows the business by his fanatical focus on customers."
Also, despite the current financial picture, Amazon has positioned itself well for long-term growth, Wright said.
"Amazon consistently hires two years ahead -- they bring in industry experts to break into new markets and catapult new investment ideas," she pointed out.
It also is not afraid to invest for growth -- although admittedly that is a reason for discontent with shareholders right now, Wright said.
This year Amazon has acquired Twitch, expanded its grocery delivery service AmazonFresh, and launched a credit card reader, a set-top box and the new Fire Phone.
"That is a phenomenal set of achievements in a year," said Wright.
Amazon's culture also is primed for success, she observed -- precisely because the company doesn't blame its employees for its failings.
"There will be no repercussions at Amazon today in the Fire division for the $170 million writeoff -- that isn't how the Amazon culture works," Wright explained. "Failure is tolerated, and [employees are] encouraged to talk about what could be improved and how the customer experience can be enhanced."
There is no blame game played at Amazon, she emphasized.
That is not the case, though, among shareholders and analysts.

Marvel Reveals Complete Phase 3 Plans, Dates 'Black Panther,' 'Inhumans,' 'Avengers: Infinity War'

At a special presentation at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on Tuesday, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gave the press and around 600 fans some insight into the studio's plans for their huge superhero movie slate.
Avengers helmer Joss Whedon, Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson and Captain America 2 and 3 helmers the Russo brothers were all in attendance.

Read more: 5 Things Missing From Marvel's Phase 3 News
It was a dizzying parade of news, with Feige revealing complete plans for Phase 3 and announcing new titles like Black Panther and Inhumans, plus two more Avengers films.
Marvel made it official that Captain America: Civil War will hit theaters on May 6, 2016, and pushed the release of Doctor Strange to Nov. 4, 2016.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which will see James Gunn return to direct, will hit theaters on May 5, 2017 (moved up from the previously announced date of July 2017). That will be followed by next Thor film, Thor 3: Ragnarok, slated for July 28, 2017. Black Panther, headlined by 42 and Get On Up star Chadwick Boseman, also will hit theaters in 2017, on Nov. 3.
Feige also announced that the studio will make a Captain Marvel film, set for July 6, 2018. It will be the studio's first female-led film, ending speculation that Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) would be the first female character to get her own stand-alone movie.
Read more: Marvel Casts Chadwick Boseman as 'Black Panther'
Marvel will also make an Inhumans film, set for Nov. 2, 2018. The Inhumans are a group of superpowered alien beings that have appeared in various Marvel comics including Fantastic Four and Captain America.
Two more ensemble Avengers films were also dated: Avengers: Infinity War — Part 1 for May 4, 2018, and Part 2 for May 2019. All films will be released in 3D.
Marvel has already announced dates for several Phase 3 films: Ant-Man, starring Paul Rudd, is slated for July 17, 2015, and Captain America 3, which will star Chris Evans, is slated for May 6, 2016.
Doctor Strange had been originally dated for July 8, 2016, but Derrickson and Marvel have been unable to nail down a leading man. After negotiations with Joaquin Phoenix fell apart in early October, Benedict Cumberbatch entered talks to take on the titular role.
Read more Is Benedict Cumberbatch Too Obvious a Choice for 'Doctor Strange'?
Marvel is currently in Phase 2 of its universe-building film slate, which will culminate with Avengers: Age of Ultron (hitting U.S. theaters on May 1, 2015).
The whole notion of phases emerged when Marvel found itself overperforming with its initial movies. That first wave consisted of Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. Phase 1 climaxed with 2012's Avengers, which grossed more than $1 billion and set the stage for Marvel to secretly plan out years and years of possible movies.
Phase 2 includes Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Phase 1 has grossed more than $3.8 billion worldwide while Phase 2 has made $3.3 billion, with the Avengers sequel still to come.

Aamir Khan plans special screening of 'PK' for Sanjay Dutt

Actor Aamir Khan who Thursday unveiled the teaser of his upcoming movie "PK" said he was planning a special screening of the film for fellow actor Sanjay Dutt who is currently in jail.

Sanjay Dutt has a prominent role in "PK".

Asked if the team was planning to hold a special screening for Sanjay Dutt, Aamir Khan said: "I was talking about this with Raj Kumar Hirani... we have this thing in mind. We are planning to have a special screening for Sanjay but depending on the permission. We will try our best."

Research Shows Black Holes Can Block the Formation of New Stars

A new study from Johns Hopkins University reveals that massive black holes spewing out radio-frequency-emitting particles at near-light speed can block formation of new stars in aging galaxies, providing crucial new evidence that it is these jets of “radio-frequency feedback” streaming from mature galaxies’ central black holes that prevent hot free gas from cooling and collapsing into baby stars.
“When you look into the past history of the universe, you see these galaxies building stars,” said Tobias Marriage, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins and co-lead author of the study. “At some point, they stop forming stars and the question is: Why? Basically, these active black holes give a reason for why stars stop forming in the universe.”
The findings have been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. They were made possible by adaptation of a well-known research technique for use in solving a new problem.
Johns Hopkins postdoctoral fellow Megan Gralla found that the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect signature – typically used to study large galaxy clusters – can also be used to learn a great deal about smaller formations. The SZ effect occurs when high-energy electrons in hot gas interact with faint light in the cosmic microwave background, light left over from earliest times when the universe was a thousand times hotter and a billion times denser than today.
“The SZ is usually used to study clusters of hundreds of galaxies but the galaxies we’re looking for are much smaller and have just a companion or two,” Gralla said.
“What we’re doing is asking a different question than what has been previously asked,” Gralla said. “We’re using a technique that’s been around for some time and that researchers have been very successful with, and we’re using it to answer a totally different question in a totally different subfield of astronomy.”
“I was stunned when I saw this paper, because I’ve never thought that detecting the SZ effect from active galactic nuclei was possible,” said Eiichiro Komatsu, director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany and an expert in the field who was not involved in the research. “I was wrong. … It makes those of us who work on the SZ effect from galaxy clusters feel old; research on the SZ effect has entered a new era.”
In space, hot gas drawn into a galaxy can cool and condense, forming stars. Some gas also funnels down into the galaxy’s black hole, which grows together with the stellar population. This cycle can repeat continuously; more gas is pulled in to cool and condense, more stars begin to shine and the central black hole grows more massive.
But in nearly all mature galaxies – the big galaxies called “elliptical” because of their shape – that gas doesn’t cool any more. “If gas is kept hot, it can’t collapse,” Marriage said. When that happens: No new stars.
Marriage, Gralla and their collaborators found that the elliptical galaxies with radio-frequency feedback – relativistic radio-frequency-emitting particles shooting from the massive central black holes at their center at close to the speed of light – all contain hot gas and a dearth of infant stars. That provides crucial evidence for their hypothesis that this radio-frequency feedback is the “off switch” for star-making in mature galaxies.
Marriage said, however, that it is still not known just why black holes in mature elliptical galaxies begin to emit radio-frequency feedback. “The exact mechanism behind this is not fully understood and there are still debates,” he said.
Komatsu said that the new Johns Hopkins-led study, combined with others detecting SZ signals from more ordinary galaxies, “pose new challenges to the theory of galaxy formation, as there were hardly any data which told us how much hot gas there is around galaxies.”
Marriage and Gralla were joined as co-lead authors by Devin Crichton, a Johns Hopkins graduate student in physics and astronomy, and Wenli Mo, a physics and astronomy undergraduate student who earned her degree in May 2011. She is now studying at the University of Florida on a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.
The team used data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, a 6-meter telescope in northern Chile; the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array in New Mexico and its Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia; the Parkes Observatory in Australia; and the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory.
Collaborators were from the University of Pennsylvania; Carnegie Mellon; the California Institute of Technology; Princeton; Florida State; Rutgers; the University of Pittsburgh; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Cornell; Haverford College; Moorpark College; Stony Brook University; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; the universities of British Columbia and Toronto in Canada; the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa; the universities of Nottingham, Edinburgh and Sussex in the United Kingdom; Academia Sinica in Taiwan; Leiden University in the Netherlands; and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation grants AST-­‐0408698, AST-­‐0965625, PHY-­‐0855887 and PHY-­‐1214379.

Seiko Astron GPS Solar Watch Review: Great Style Meets High Tech

Among the many industries that smartphones effectively killed, the demise of watches has perhaps been the most pronounced. With most people preferring to consult their phone - smart or otherwise - to tell time, sales of low- and mid-range watches have steadily declined over the years. However, high-end watches are as, if not more, popular than ever, especially amongst those over 30 with the financial resources to indulge themselves. In that sense, the watch has gone from being utilitarian to - almost entirely - a fashion statement.
This began to change with the rise of smartwatch, looking to woo the cellphone generation with something that's more than just a timekeeper. But most smartwatches - even the Moto 360 that is widely regarded as the best looking smartwatch - pale in comparison to even the most basic watches in terms of looks. As smartwatch makers focus on the problems of design and battery life, watchmakers are approaching the problem from the other end, by integrating features like touch screen and GPS into their well-crafted offerings.
The Seiko Astron series of watches is one such example that comes with solar charging as well as GPS support. The Citizen Eco-Drive range of watches made solar charging popular and since then the feature has been spotted in various other models. The concept is pretty simple - a rechargeable battery stores energy whenever the watch is exposed to a source of light. In the Seiko for example, just 10 minutes of exposure to the sun - or 1 hour in a brightly lit room - is enough for the battery to power the watch for a full day. Of course the battery is continuously recharging itself when the watch is exposed to light and you shouldn't really need to worry about battery life unless you plan to go underground for long durations of time. Seiko claims the watch, once fully charged, can go up to 6 months with all its functionality intact, and up to two years in the Power Saving mode that cuts down on some of the features.
The indicator hand of the watch - the one on the tiny dial towards the bottom - shows how much charge the watch currently has, and during the couple of weeks we spent using the watch, it always showed full charge. Unless the watch is running low on battery, it will periodically connect to the GPS satellites when you are outdoors and automatically adjust the time without you having to do anything. The watch relies on brightness levels to get a sense of when you are outdoors. Since GPS data includes location information, the watch also knows where you are, so it can automatically set itself to the local timezone should you travel to new country.

You can initiate this process manually as well. Like other GPS devices, you will need to be outdoors and have open skies for it to work reliably. Press the B button (top left) for 6 seconds and the watch will try to lock GPS signal from various satellites. The top left dial shows how many satellites the watch is currently receiving data from. As with other GPS devices, the more satellites your device can receive information from, the faster the process will be. Seiko recommends you keep your wrist straight and pointed upwards, but if the watch cannot see at least 4 satellites, it will not be able to adjust the time (zone).
The feature works as advertised, as long as you are out in the open and not surrounded by trees or tall buildings, something not entirely unexpected. You can also manually change the timezone, and with it the local time. Pull the crown out halfway, and with every twist you change the timezone. Each clockwise movement suggests you've moved one timezone eastwards, while an anti-clockwise movement indicates a move in the opposite direction. The dial has codes for 29 cities, each representing a timezone, engraved of the outside. However, the Seiko Astron GPS Solar comes with support for 40 timezones in total, with others like Kathmandu (GMT +5.75) left out in between Delhi (DEL, GMT +5.5) and Dhaka (DAC, GMT +6), ostensibly due to space constraints.
What this means is, when moving from one timezone to the other, you don't need to make precise moments to adjust time to the last minute. Just twist the dial the number of timezones you've jumped, and the watch does the rest. Of course, you shouldn't have to do this at all, thanks to GPS-based time synchronisation. The fact that a feature you'll rarely use is so well implemented is an indicator of the attention to detail that's gone into designing this watch.
Unfortunately, you'll have to account for the daylight savings changes in each country yourself. The Seiko Astron GPS Solar does come with a perpetual calendar until the year 2100, which means it will automatically account for months with 30 days and February, including leap years. Since it comes with GPS, there's also a flight mode that prevents the watch from trying to communicate with satellites in-flight.
In terms of physical design, the watch is classy and understated. At 44.6mm, the dial is not as large as some of the watches that are in vogue these days, which, as someone with relatively tiny - some may say unmanly - wrists, we quite appreciated. The unit we received was the SSE003 model of the 8X Seiko GPS Solar series, which comes with a titanium case with super-hard coating. The glass is made out of sapphire crystal with super-clear coating and right underneath it has solar cells that turn light into electrical energy that is used to recharge the built-in battery.
The band too is made out of titanium with super-hard coating and it feels comfortable and looks great. It snaps open pretty easily by simultaneously pressing tiny buttons on either side and the rather unconventional locking mechanism with a largish pin that snaps into the other end keeps the watch secure enough that you don't worry about accidentally snapping it open. The SEIKO branding on the clasp is a nice touch, though it may bother those who prefer a clean finish.
The only complaint we have in terms of design is about the four buttons that stick out from the watch a bit too much for our liking. Of course design is completely subjective, and your opinion may vary. The 8X series of GPS Solar watches by Seiko has various other models with choice of titanium and steel bodies, and other colour options too, so if the SSE003 isn't quite to your taste, do check out the entire lineup.
The Rs. 1,95,000 tag may sound steep, but in the world of luxury watches, the Seiko Astron GPS SSE003 is a mid- to entry-level priced offering, that gets a thumbs up from us for its blend of style and technology.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 also known as China's Apple Review

Xiaomi, the popular smartphone maker also known as China's Apple, has been rumoured to be working on a successor to the Redmi Note, expected to be called the Redmi Note 2, for a while. Earlier this week however, a purported image of the handset's rear panel, including the camera module, has been leaked online.
The successor of Redmi Note phablet, as per the leaked image by a Chinese website (via GSMArena) that shows the upper part of the back panel, sports what seems to be an 8-megapixel camera with flash, along with a microphone and an MI logo placed below the camera module.
Notably, the 8-megapixel rear camera sensor size is different from last month's rumoured 20-megapixel snapper. Previous rumours had indicated the unannounced Redmi Note 2 phablet will be powered by MediaTek's octa-core MT6595 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. The chipset might work on the big.LITTLE architecture with 4 Cortex-A17 cores (up to 2.2GHz clock speed) and 4 Cortex-A7 cores (up to 1.7GHz clock speed).
Other purported specifications of the rumoured Redmi Note's successor include a 5.5-inch display (unspecified resolution); a 3500mAh battery; 4G LTE, and NFC support. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 is also rumoured to launch in four storage variants - 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB priced at $165, $215 and $245 respectively, while the price of the 128GB variant is not available.
While the company might be gearing up to launch the rumoured successor to the Redmi Note globally, Mi India is yet to provide an actual release date for the first-generation Redmi Note for the Indian market. However, earlier this month, Hugo Barra, Xiaomi's Vice President of International Operations, said the Redmi Note can be expected to launch within the next two months.

US isolates troops, Australia slaps visa ban on Ebola-hit West Africa states

WASHINGTON: The US military has started isolating soldiers returning from an Ebola response mission in West Africa and Australia became the first rich nation to impose a visa ban on the affected countries amid global anxiety about the spread of the virus.
The latest measures, along with decisions by some US states to impose mandatory quarantines on health workers returning home from treating Ebola victims in West Africa, have been condemned by health authorities and the United Nations as extreme.
The top health official in charge of dealing with Washington's response to Ebola warned against turning doctors and nurses who travel to West Africa to tackle Ebola into “pariahs”.
The Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 5,000 people since March, the vast majority in West Africa, but nine Ebola cases in the United States have caused alarm, and states such as New York and New Jersey have ignored federal advice by introducing their own strict controls.
The United Nations on Monday sharply criticised the new restrictions imposed by some US states on health workers returning home from the affected West African states of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
“Returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said. “They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science. Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatised.”
American soldiers returning from West Africa are also being isolated, even though they showed no symptoms of infection and were not believed to have been exposed to the deadly virus, officials said on Monday.
In a statement, the Army said Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno ordered the 21-day monitoring period for returning soldiers “to ensure soldiers, family members and their surrounding communities are confident that we are taking all steps necessary to protect their health.”
The Army isolated about a dozen soldiers on their return during the weekend to their home base in Vicenza, Italy.
That included Major General Darryl Williams, the commander of US Army Africa, who oversaw the military's initial response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
“We are billeted in a separate area (on the base). There's no contact with the general population or with family. No one will be walking around Vicenza,” Williams told Reuters in a telephone interview.
The US military has repeatedly stressed that its personnel are not interacting with Ebola patients and are instead building treatment units to help health authorities battle the epidemic.
Up to 4,000 US troops may be deployed on the mission.
“From a public health perspective, we would not feel that isolation is appropriate,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Washington State epidemiologist and chairman of the public health committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The decision goes well beyond previously established military protocols and came just as President Barack Obama's administration sought to discourage precautionary quarantines being imposed by some US states on healthcare workers returning from countries battling Ebola.

Spin-hit Australia try to bounce back

ABU DHABI: After failing another Asian spin test, Australia will strive to bounce back in the second and final Test against Pakistan starting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

The world number two team were all at sea against an inexperienced but effective Pakistan spin attack and suffered a crushing 221-run defeat in the first Test in Dubai. It was their fifth consecutive flop against spinners in Asia after being routed 4-0 in India last year.

Left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar, playing only his third Test, finished with seven wickets in the match as did debutant leggie Yasir Shah. Pakistan's batsmen also had a field day. Veteran Younis Khan scored a century in each innings while Sarfraz Ahmed and Ahmed Shehzad chipped in with hundreds.

Pakistan will maintain that spin pressure as they look to win their first Test series against Australia since beating them at home in 1994.

Australian captain Michael Clarke promised a fight back. “Any time we lose a game it breeds fire in our belly. We don't like losing, Australians in general don't like losing,” he said after Sunday's defeat.

“We got outplayed and Pakistan deserve a lot of credit for the way they played over the whole five days. We know we can play a lot better and look forward to showing that in the second Test match.”

Australia's top order of David Warner, who hit a hundred in the first Test, and Chris Rogers were steady. But the middle order, especially Clarke and Alex Doolan, failed in both innings.

Clarke was confident runs would come in the second Test. “I do have that confidence. We do have to find a way though,” said the Australian skipper, who was the highest run-scorer in Tests in 2013 with 1,093.

Australia have the option of bringing in Glenn Maxwell, who can also bowl off-spin, for either Mitchell Marsh or Doolan.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq warned his team not to be complacent against a tough Australian team. “We have to make sure that we remain focused,” said Misbah. “We often get lazy and lose focus but we can't afford this against a tough opponent like Australia, so we must keep that focus and achieve an important series win.”

If Pakistan win 2-0 they will jump to number three in the Test rankings, and Misbah called this a strong incentive. “We have to keep in mind that if we win we achieve our first series win for so many years and also get into the top three,” he said.

West Indies will be at World Cup, says official

SYDNEY: Cricket World Cup chief executive John Harnden said Tuesday he was confident the West Indies would play in next year's tournament, despite their shock withdrawal from a tour of India.

The West Indies cut short their India tour this month over an internal pay dispute, despite a fifth and final one-day international, a Twenty20 match and three Tests still to be played. The situation has raised doubts as to whether the Caribbean side will be able to fulfil its upcoming international engagements, including a tour of South Africa followed by the World Cup.

Harnden said he was confident the issues would be resolved and the West Indies would play in the World Cup being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand from mid-February.

“We see that everyone's very focused on resolving the situation as quickly as possible,” Harnden said. “We've got 108 days until the World Cup and from our point of view I've no doubt the West Indies will be here and entertaining the crowd as only they know how.”

The World Cup 2015 will begin on February 14, with New Zealand taking on Sri Lanka in Christchurch and England facing Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Former Australian paceman Glenn McGrath said the home side could win its fifth one-day World Cup trophy given the current form of bowler Mitchell Johnson, despite this week's loss to Pakistan in the first Test in Dubai. Johnson delayed Pakistan's win by top-scoring for Australia in the second innings with 61, and also took three wickets.

“We've been playing some pretty good cricket of late and we're a tough team to beat at home in our home conditions,” McGrath said. “If you look at the T20s and three one-dayers we won them so it has only been that last Test. To me the true indicator of where the Australian team is, is this next Test, whether they learnt a lot from that first game.”

'Hurt' Australia will bounce back, warns Waqar

ABU DHABI: Pakistan coach Waqar Younis on Tuesday warned his team to be prepared for a backlash from wounded Australia in the second Test.

Pakistan thrashed Australia in the first Test by 221 runs in Dubai on Sunday. They now seek their first series win over Australia for 20 years in the second Test starting in Abu Dhabi from Thursday. But Waqar, a member of the team which last beat Australia in Pakistan in 1994, warned Australia will hit back.

“We have won the first Test but it's a long way to go, the second Test will be tough,” Waqar told reporters. “We all know that Australia are very positive about their cricket and they feel hurt, they will bounce back, I am sure, and we have to be prepared for that.”

Pakistan have an extra incentive to win the second Test as besides the elusive series win they would also jump to number three in Test rankings. Waqar admitted being number three is big but for him consistency is more important.

“To come into [the] top three is a big thing,” said Waqar, with Pakistan placed sixth before the series. “But besides coming into the top three, consistency is more important for me because we have always been unpredictable, some times up and then down, so we need to give consistent performances.

“It's necessary that if we give a good performance then we must have a follow through so that people have confidence in us as a side, which we have proved in the first Test that we have got the talent and the potential. So if we apply ourselves then results will come,” said Waqar.

“The message is simple: don't give up, the series is not finished, there is a second Test and we have to win the second Test and have to work hard consistently every day to win the series.”

Waqar praised left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar as a “special talent”. “He has been performing well in the domestic season and never got the chance, but the guy he has replaced [Abdul Rehman] was doing well ...

Now Babar got the opportunity and he is serious quality, something which the world was missing, I believe.”

Germany dominate controversial Ballon d'Or list

BERNE: Germany dominated the FIFA Player of the Year shortlist, with six nominees among the 23 candidates announced on Tuesday, while the 10-man coaching shortlist was full of anomalies and controversy.

Juergen Klinsmann was included among the coaches after leading United States to the last 16 of the World Cup but Jorge Luis Pinto and Jose Pekerman, who took Costa Rica and Colombia respectively to the quarter-finals, were overlooked.

Jorge Sampaoli, whose hugely entertaining Chile side knocked out defending champions Spain on their way to the last sixteen, and Vahid Halilhodzic, who took an inspirational Algeria to the knockout stages, were also ignored.

On the other hand, there was room for Bayern Munich's Pep Guardiola, even though his team's most important match of the year, a Champions League semi-final at home to Real Madrid, ended in a 4-0 defeat.
Almost inevitably, Chelsea's Jose Mourinho also sneaked in despite failing to land a trophy on his return to Stamford Bridge.

The players' list showed similar anomalies and appeared to be based more on European club football than FIFA's flagship tournament.

Manuel Neuer, Thomas Mueller, Toni Kroos, Mario Goetze, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger were six players from world champions Germany to be included and beaten finalists Argentina had three, Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano.

Last year's winner Cristiano Ronaldo was duly named along with his Real Madrid team mates Gareth Bale (Wales) and James Rodriguez (Colombia).

Manchester City and Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure was the only African player short-listed, Neymar was Brazil's sole representative, and there were none at all from CONCACAF region or Asia.

Notable absentees included United States goalkeeper Tim Howard and Costa Rica stopper Keylor Navas, both outstanding in Brazil, and Costa Rica defender Giancarlo Gonzalez, who many critics saw as one of the tournament's most influential players.

FIFA, who organise the award jointly with France Football, said the final three candidates for both awards, officially known as the Ballon d'Or, would be announced on Dec 1 with the award ceremony in Zurich on Jan 12.

“The list of 23 male candidates has been drawn up by football experts from the FIFA Football Committee and by a group of experts from France Football,” FIFA said.

“The list of ten coaches has been drawn up by the committee for Women's Football and FIFA Women's World Cup and by the FIFA Football Committee, as well as by a group of experts from France Football.”

Player of the Year shortlist: Mario Goetze (Germany) Toni Kroos (Germany) Philipp Lahm (Germany)
Thomas Mueller (Germany) Manuel Neuer (Germany) Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany) Angel Di Maria (Argentina) Javier Mascherano (Argentina) Lionel Messi (Argentina) Andres Iniesta (Spain) Sergio Ramos (Spain) Diego Costa (Spain) Karim Benzema (France) Paul Pogba (France) Gareth Bale (Wales) Eden Hazard (Belgium) Thibaut Courtois (Belgium) Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) Neymar (Brazil) Arjen Robben (Netherlands) James Rodriguez (Colombia) Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast) Coach of the Year Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid) Antonio Conte (Italy/Juventus FC) Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich) Juergen Klinsmann (United States) Joachim Loew (Germany) Jose Mourinho (Chelsea) Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City) Alejandro Sabella (Argentina) Diego Simeone (Argentina) Louis van Gaal (Netherlands)

Prince of Asturias Award: Shehzad Hameed Ahmad is the first Pakistani who received this award

Broadcast journalist and documentary filmmaker Shehzad Hameed Ahmad from Pakistan has won the Prince of Asturias Award — Spain's equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize — for his work during Fulbright scholarship which also included a documentary 'The Pakistan Four'.

Ahmad received the award from the Spain's King Felipe Juan on behalf of the Fulbright Global Program for International Cooperation.

Nelson Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, had also been a recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award in 1992.

 Ahmad's documentary was also the recipient of the best documentary award at the Indiana Short Film Festival 2014. The film is in the running at the Seattle South Asian Film Festival as well.

The Seattle South Film Festival would also see other Pakistani films 'Anima State' and 'Without Shepherds' tying for an award.

The Prince of Asturias Foundation has been convening the Prince of Asturias Awards since 1981. The awards are presented at an academic ceremony held each year in Oviedo, the capital of the Principality of Asturias.

The aim of the foundation is to consolidate the existing links between the Principality and the person who bears the title of Prince or Princess of Asturias — a title which corresponds to the heir to the Spanish throne — and to contribute to promoting the scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of mankind's universal heritage.

Cyclone 'Nilofar' will bring heavy rains to Pakistan coast

KARACHI: A deep depression over the Arabian Sea is expected to turn into tropical cyclone 'Nilofar' and will bring heavy rains along the coast of Pakistan, according to an official of the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

Mohammad Junaid, an official of the Pakistan Meteorological Department said that the weather system was headed towards Gwadar's coast in Balochistan but the cyclone could land in Oman as well. He also predicted that weather in the coastal areas may turn hot and humid prior to the storm.

JIGARIYAA is a love story that lacks the lustre of romance with clichés and an elongated

From William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to films like BOBBY, MAINE PYAAR KIYA, QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK, DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE to the recent GOLIYON KI RASLEELA RAMLEELA, romance has been a favourite genre of Bollywood. And attempting a film in similar genre is JIGARIYAA, the love story of Shaamu and Radha.

Set in the 80s, JIGARIYAA is the story of undying love that struggles to break through the norms of the society. Shaamlal Gupta aka Shaamu (Harshvardhan Deo) is the son of a sweet shop owner (halwai), living in Agra who has a penchant for poetry. While he is working at his father's shop after failing his exams, in what we term as serendipity, Shaam meets the pretty Radhika (Cherry Mardia) who belongs to an affluent family of Pandit Shankar Dayal in Mathura. Destiny brings the two of them closer and they fall in love. The romance blooms amidst majestic historical monuments and rhythmically penned sher-o-shariyi but the two are separated by the orthodox society. When his Radha is taken away to her hometown after her grandmother confronts Shaam's father about their 'affair', a dejected Shaam finds ways to eliminate the distance and despite living in different towns, the two continue their relationship. After their relationship is exposed on Holi in front of Radha's father, Radha is forced into marriage but the two decide to flee and make a life of their own. As the two attempt to fulfill their wish in Mumbai, their dreams are shattered. With strong resistance from families, the social stigma of class and caste system being posed as bondage, will the lovers get a chance to prove their love to the world?

After his last directorial SIXTEEN, and now with JIGARIYAA, we still believe Raj Purohit has many lessons to learn when it comes to making Bollywood movies. Romance in Indian cinema works but it needs to be devoid of clichés. Raj Purohit gets his script completely wrong by adding all the possible stereotypes. From a mother angrily screaming at her daughter saying, 'babuji ko aane do main unhe bataongi' to the father saying, 'tumhari saagai ho rahi hai kal hi', after Radha's family gets to know about her relationship with Shaam, the film is filled with predictable dialogues. The plot that stretches over a span of approximately 140 minutes seems to be a mix of QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK to SAATHIYA.

Adding to the woes are the actors Harshvardhan and Cherry who do not add the needed 'spark' in this romantic drama. Chemistry is the key to all love stories but though Harshvardhan and Cherry give fairly good performances, the love story between the two just doesn't seem to work on screen. Veteran actors like K K Raina, Virendra Saxena and Navni Parihar haven't been given their due and their melodramatic expression and dialogues do not really take the movie forward. However, it is actor Ketan Singh who is the show stealer in an extended cameo. He not only adds a quirky touch to the otherwise slow moving film but also maintains the attention of the audience with his sense of humour.

On the other hand, the only saving grace for the film is the soulful music with songs like 'Ishq Hai' and 'Arziyaan' that portray the 80s romance perfectly along with contemporary touch to it. The song 'Rang Rang De' that depicts the Holi celebration picturized on Harshvardhan and Cherry has a commendable cinematography.

Overall, JIGARIYAA is a love story that lacks the lustre of romance with cliches and an elongated runtime.

Fame didn't come to me so easily: Vidya Balan

Wearing an orange and pink Rahul Mishra sari, Vidya Balan walks onto stage at The Anupam Kher show with a big smile and exuding elegance.

"I love people!" was one of the first things the actress said on the show aired Sunday when host Anupam Kher asked her where she gets the warmth that is so evident in her personality from.

But what happens when life isn't all rainbows and butterflies?
 
"Being around people makes me happy. Even during bad times, being surrounded by people makes me forget all that," said Vidya.

Talking about her struggle to find a footing in the industry, Vidya shared just how long she struggled for.
When a television serial that she had been shooting for, got unexpectedly cancelled and never saw the light of day, she was sent to audition for Ekta Kapoor's television comedy, Hum Paanch.

"Even though my mother was generally against the notion of me becoming an actor, she was supportive when I was offered Hum Paanch because of the wholesome image the show entailed," shared Vidya.

After working for a year an a half on Hum Paanch, Vidya eventually left the show due to her college attendance being affected. Soon after, an ad film for a detergent fell into her lap, where she had to play the mother of an eight-year-old. Vidya, aged 19 at the time, reluctantly did the ad and it proved to be a good exposure since she went on to do 90 advertisements after that.

"It was convenient, since the shoots were only for a day or two, and my education was not neglected."
Coming from a South Indian background, education was important in Vidya's family.

"My parents said that if I want to live in the house, I must complete my graduation first before taking up acting seriously."

Starting her career in the south, Vidya shared that the first film she shot was a Malayalam movie with Mohanlal.

"My mother only let me audition thinking I won't get it," said the Bobby Jasoos leading lady.

"The project titled Chakram shut down when Mohanlal and the director had an ego clash. Director Kamal had previously made eight successful movies with Mohanlal," said Vidya. "Hence, the media started saying that since I was the new addition in the equation, the shutdown of the project was probably my fault and I must be jinxed."

"I was rejected from twelve films after that," shared Vidya.

Though it took a toll on her self-esteem, she decided to approach theatre guru Satyadev Dubey to train her and was shocked when he asked to see her kundli.

"He [Satyadev Dubey] told me: 'If it's not written in the stars for you and you don't have a future, I would rather not invest my time in you.'"

Vidya wasn't comfortable with this attitude and decided not to pursue training with the guru.
After a year, Vidya signed yet another film which also shut down due to lack of money.

When she was offered a music video for the Indian band Euphoria, an opportunity she instantly grabbed, the director Pradeep Sarkar deemed her eyes lifeless. However, Vidya finally got the part after auditioning.

"I was at the lowest point when I met him [Pradeep Sarkar]. But [when I got the part], I felt that that spark was returning," shared Vidya.

Pradeep Sarker later offered Vidya her debut film, Parineeta (starring Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt) that catapulted her to stardom.

But like evertything else, Parineeta also didn't come to Vidya so easily.

Before confirming her part in the film, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra tested Vidya for months.
"I just got so sick of it that eventually I adopted an 'I don't care' attitude," conveyed the Shaadi Ke Side Effects star.

"I remember I was at a concert with my friends when I got the call from Mr Chopra to tell me that he was going to change my life," reminisced Vidya. "He told me I was his Parineeta in a very dramatic fashion. Standing there, my tears just wouldn't stop."

"He said I was like a piece of coal he were polishing to become a diamond and I am forever grateful to him and Pradeep Sarker for that."

Later, Vidya was offered The Dirty Picture, which she was very hesitant about.

"I don't even wear sleeveless and I had to show so much skin in the movie. I was apprehensive, but when I did it, it liberated something within me," shared Vidya.

Explaining why she prefers doing strong women-centric roles, Vidya said, "I can't just be happy doing a couple of scenes and a few songs. I need more to chew into, I can't resonate with roles like that."

Moving towards her personal life, the smitten star talks about her husband, Siddharth Roy Kapur.

"I was very restless in life, but after meeting Siddharth, I've become calmer. He really makes me enjoy life and what draws us closer is how passionate the two of us are about our work," gushed Vidya.

A personal achievement that made her believe that anything is possible was when she was chosen to be part of the Cannes Film Festival jury.

"I was initially very nervous when I met the President of the jury, Steven Speilberg. But after a day or two I would meet him like he was a friend," said Vidya. "He was so grounded; he'd ask me questions about food and family and my marriage. It was such a strange, yet thrilling feeling to know he cared enough to ask."

Talking about destiny, the 36-year-old talks about a higher power. She ended the show with inspiring words.
"Stop obsessing over what you want. Take that thought and put it out there in the universe. If it's meant to be, the universe will make it happen."

Airstrikes kill 33 suspected militants in North Waziristan: ISPR

BANNU: Pakistani jets and helicopter gunships attacked suspected militant hideouts in restive North Waziristan tribal agency on Monday and killed at least 33 people, the military said.

The strikes took place in the Datta Khel and Gharlamai districts of the remote tribal region.
“In two different aerial engagements in North Waziristan today, nine terrorist hideouts were destroyed killing a total of 33 terrorists,” a military statement said.

Local security officials said the militants killed in the Datta Khel area were mostly Uzbeks and others who belonged to the Haqqani network.

In a separate incident on Monday, at least nine soldiers were injured when militants targeted a security forces vehicle with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Charmang tehsil of Bajaur tribal agency.

The injured included seven Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and two Levies men.

Pakistan has been battling extremist militants in its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after the army entered the region to search for Al Qaeda fighters who had fled across the border following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

In June, the military began an offensive dubbed Operation Zarb-i-Azb against militant hideouts in North Waziristan after a bloody raid on Karachi Airport ended faltering peace talks between the government and Pakistani Taliban militants.

North Waziristan is a major base for the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of extremist militants mainly based in the remote tribal areas.

The military says it has killed more than a thousand militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the operation.

But the toll and identity of those killed is difficult to verify because journalists do not have regular access to the conflict zones.

The offensive has driven out over 800,000 residents from North Waziristan, where the army says it has cleared 90 percent of the tribal region.

Reform alone is no solution for eurozone

MIGHT the policies of the eurozone result in a robust recovery? My answer is: no. Since the eurozone generated 17pc of world output in 2013 (at market prices), that answer has global significance.

It is Germany that set the economic strategy of the eurozone. It consists of three elements: structural reform; fiscal discipline; and monetary accommodation. So far, this set of policies has failed to generate adequate demand: in the second quarter of 2014, real demand in the eurozone was 5pc smaller than it was in the first quarter of 2008.

Both France and Italy are being encouraged to accelerate ‘structural reforms’ as a way to reignite growth in their own economies and so, given their importance, also in the eurozone. These two countries generate 38pc of eurozone gross domestic product, against 28pc for Germany alone. In both economies, the recommended programmes involve liberalising the labour market. They are both being encouraged to follow Germany’s ‘Hartz reforms’, introduced between 2003 and 2005, to which the country’s relatively good recent labour market performance is often attributed.

Yet the one thing those reforms did not do is create dynamic aggregate demand. Between the second quarter of 2004 and the second quarter of 2014, Germany’s real domestic demand grew 11.2pc, a compound annual rate of 1pc. It could have been worse. But this is hardly the performance of a ‘locomotive’.

Examination of Germany’s sectoral financial balances — the differences between income and spending of the government, private sector and foreigners — strengthens this point. The response of the German private sector to the reforms of the early 2000s was to increase financial surpluses massively: that is, to spend far less than their incomes. Since the fiscal deficit also shrank, the capital outflow soared. This is striking and significant. In brief, the response of the private sector to the labour market reforms and fiscal tightening was to become increasingly frugal and so accumulate large quantities of (often poor-quality) foreign assets.
In terms of raising private domestic demand, reforms achieved little. On the contrary, Germany became heavily dependent on foreign demand. Similarly, fiscal tightening did not unleash stronger private spending. Expecting similar labour-market reforms to promote demand in France and Italy is likely to prove highly over-optimistic.

This does not mean reforms achieved nothing. Germany has low unemployment despite quite weak growth. The UK also has relatively low unemployment despite still weaker post-crisis economic growth. In both cases, the labour reforms encouraged the sharing of a large negative shock across the population via stagnant or even falling real earnings. A symptom of this form of an adjustment is weak productivity. In German industry, productivity has not risen since 2007. Productivity performance has also been poor in the UK. But German unemployment was 4.9pc in July and the UK’s only 6pc against 10.4pc in France.

The upshot is that labour market reforms do little if anything to promote demand; in Germany’s case, much of the demand has come from abroad. What might this mean for the eurozone as a whole? A theoretical possibility is that the eurozone would seek to generate a current account surplus that is as big relative to GDP as Germany’s. This would mean a surplus not of $300bn, as in 2013, but of $900bn.

This could never be sustained: the rest of the world would not absorb it and an appreciation of the euro is likely to defeat it. The proper complement to structural reform is additional demand inside the eurozone. That is needed, in any case, to eliminate the difficulties being created by ultra-low inflation and the possibility of deflation. German core inflation of only 1.2pc is too low to let adjustment work satisfactorily.
With conventional monetary policy at its limits, the choices are between unconventional monetary policy or expansionary fiscal policy. Germany is extremely uncomfortable with both.

Yet, partly because of its haven status, Germany is also able to borrow at extraordinarily favourable interest rates. The 30-year Bund is now yielding 1.8pc. If one assumes the European Central Bank will meet its inflation target, this means a long-term real interest rate of zero. Such negligible costs of borrowing must transform views of the costs of fiscal deficits. Germany should both refinance its debt at such rates and borrow to finance additional public investment. Focusing on deficits and debts, without noticing the interest rate, makes no sense. In the same way, the focus on whether the French deficit breaks the rules is absurd. Even French 10-year bonds are yielding 1.1pc. The markets are screaming: borrow.

The big challenge for the eurozone is not to create institutions, but to promote adjustment and restore growth. The people of the eurozone cannot be expected to remain patient forever. Indeed, the dangers of continuing economic stagnation are obvious.

Germany is right that euro states need much long-term reform. But Germany is wrong to believe that this might, on its own, generate strong growth. The evidence from its experience with reforms is decisive on this point: it will not do so.

Nor does it make sense to rely on ever-greater external surpluses, instead. A policy that may work for Germany alone (a debatable proposition) cannot work for an economy more than three times as big as Germany’s.

The eurozone needs to reach a bargain between more reform and extra demand. In doing so, it must recognise that persistent stagnation is a big threat to stability. The eurozone should risk expansion. That is now the safer course.