Monday, January 23, 2017

Mahira on being sidelined for Raees promotions.

                                                        Mahira Khan, who is not able to promote her upcoming film Raees in India, said it was unfair that she could not participate in interviews beside Shah Rukh Khan.
Pakistani exports Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan had made it in India. With a feverish fan following back at home and excited Indians who wanted to see them perform more in Bollywood, things took a turn for the worse when relations between India and Pakistan took a turn for the worse. Unable to promote the movie in India, Mahira recently spoke to an English daily and voiced her frustration at being left out of the promotions in India.
                     “Yes I’m grateful, but it’s something I have worked for! Why shouldn’t I feel it? Just because I’m an actor? Just because it’s a film? Just because it seems like fluff? I also want to promote the film. I also want to be in an interview with Shah Rukh Khan talking about it. Why not? Why is it I get told that that’s asking for too much? It isn’t! It is my right. This was also my film,” she said.
The actress is currently in Dubai, promoting the film via print and radio interviews. Mahira also shed light on how it was to get to know someone like Shah Ruhk Khan on a personal level. The actress said that SRK was brilliant, intelligent as well as funny.
                             “We’ve had amazing conversations. It’s so much fun to talk to someone who’s intelligent. It’s not just about films, he can talk about anything! He was watching [Netflix TV series] Narcos while we were shooting, he can talk about books and history. Of course, I’ve always been a fan. But if you watch his interviews, you can tell he’s witty, smart. It was a pleasure working with someone you can have a conversation with. I think he’s hilarious, sometimes at my expense,” she gushed.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Women’s March On Washington.



                                                       It’s only one day after Trump’s inauguration, and tons of protesters have already taken to the streets around the nation in protest of his presidency. Click through our gallery to s ee pics of women, men, and children standing in solidarity together at the Women’s March...

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Glammed up Priyanka bags second People’s Choice Award...

           
                                                                       Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra aka PeeCee is back in action! And this time she won her second People’s Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic TV Actress. Priyanka bagged the trophy for her role as FBI recruit-turned-CIA agent Alex Parrish in the American TV series Quantico.
After her glittering gold appearance on Golden Globes 2017 red carpet, the ‘exotic’ singer had another big moment at the People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles, where she flaunted her pink blush tube frock with fringes at the bottom. As she picked up the People’s Choice Award for her ABC drama Quantico, Chopra said, “I’m really psyched”.
                                                                          Priyanka Chopra is recovering speedily from a concussion she suffered a week ago after falling on the set of Quantico.
                                                

Facebook’s Zuckerberg questioned at trial over virtual-reality technology...

                           
                                                             Facebook Inc (FB.O) chief executive Mark Zuckerberg took the witness stand in Dallas federal court on Tuesday and denied an allegation by a rival company that the virtual-reality technology of Facebook’s Oculus unit was stolen.
Zuckerberg, the founder of one of the world’s largest companies, faced hours of tough, public questioning about where Oculus obtained its ideas and how much he knew about the startup when Facebook bought it for $2 billion.
A jury is hearing evidence in a civil lawsuit brought by videogame publisher ZeniMax Media Inc against Oculus in 2014, in the middle of the Facebook-Oculus deal. ZeniMax said that Oculus unlawfully used its intellectual property to develop the virtual-reality system that includes the Rift headset…
During one heated exchange with ZeniMax lawyer Tony Sammi, Zuckerberg told a jury in the crowded courtroom that the technology was not even fully formed when Facebook bought it.
“Improving on that technology doesn’t make it yours,” Sammi countered. “If you steal my bike, paint it and put a bell on it, does that make it your bike?”
Zuckerberg, wearing a dark suit and striped tie rather than his typical T-shirt and jeans, answered, “no,” but then added: “The idea that Oculus technology is based on someone else’s is just wrong...”

                                   The 32-year-old Facebook founder has spoken about virtual reality as an important part of the company’s future business, especially as the technology becomes less expensive and its uses clearer.
The Oculus acquisition was more expensive than the $2 billion price tag indicated, Zuckerberg said in court, describing $700 million spent to retain employees and $300 million in payouts for reaching milestones. Oculus originally wanted $4 billion,he said…
Sammi questioned whether Facebook knew what it was doing when it made the acquisition. Zuckerberg said the Oculus deal was done over a weekend in 2014, which Sammi said did not show sufficient due diligence. Zuckerberg said, though, in later testimony that Facebook researched Oculus for months...
“It’s pretty common when you announce a big deal that people just come out of the woodwork and claim they own some part of the deal,” Zuckerberg said.
On the stand, he also gave details about Facebook’s $22 billion purchase of messaging service WhatsApp in 2014. While the deal was in progress, another company he did not identify made a last-minute bid that was higher, Zuckerberg said, but WhatsApp declined because of its good relationship with Facebook.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Priyanka Chopra recovering after mishap on ‘Quantico’ set.

                                                           
                                                                   NEW YORK: Actress Priyanka Chopra is resting at home after a “minor incident” on the set of her ABC show “Quantico,” the network said Friday.
Celebrity news website TMZ, citing unnamed sources, said Chopra had slipped and fallen during a stunt and suffered a concussion after hitting her head.
In a statement, ABC did not confirm this but said a “minor incident” took place on the New York set of the FBI drama series on Thursday night.
“It would be premature to comment further until we have all the information. Priyanka was examined by a doctor, released and is home resting comfortably,” the network added.
A representative for the actress said she will return to work after the weekend…
Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS.N) ABC did not comment further on whether production of the show will be halted, but trade publication Variety said production will not be shut down while Chopra recovers…
Chopra, 34, made her transition from Bollywood to Hollywood as the lead of “Quantico,” in which she plays an FBI recruit turned CIA agent. She will also be starring in the upcoming film reboot of “Baywatch.”

Actors Johnny Depp, Amber Heard finalize bitter divorce.

Film star Johnny Depp’s tumultuous divorce from actress Amber Heard was finalized on Friday, ending the couple’s marriage after months of highly publicized claims by Heard of domestic violence and counterclaims from Depp of financial blackmail.
Court papers filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday detailed a splitting of marital assets and an agreement by Depp, 53, to pay a previously announced sum of $7 million to Heard, 30, that she said will be donated to charity.
Heard filed for divorce in May after 15 months of marriage, and days later obtained a temporary restraining order against Depp.
She said in court filings that Depp was abusive to her throughout their marriage, culminating in an argument in May in which he hurled a cell phone into her face and shattered various objects in her apartment.
A lawyer for Depp denied allegations of abuse and argued that Heard was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
As part of the divorce settlement, Heard dismissed her request for a continued restraining order against Depp...

                                                                She also dropped her defamation lawsuit against Depp’s friend, comedian Doug Stanhope, over an article he had written accusing the actress of blackmailing and manipulating her estranged husband.
The divorce papers showed that Depp would retain sole possession of numerous real estate assets, including properties in Los Angeles, Paris and his private island in the Bahamas. He will also keep more than 40 vehicles and vessels, including vintage cars and his motorcycle collection.
Heard will maintain custody of her dogs Pistol and Boo, the two canines at the center of a scandal in Australia in which Heard pleaded guilty to falsifying travel documents to sneak her pets into the country in 2015 without proper quarantine procedures.
Heard said she would split her $7 million divorce settlement equally between the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
Court papers said Depp has paid $200,000 of the settlement so far, and will pay the rest over the course of the year.
The payments will be made from Depp’s compensation from his upcoming film “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” and sale of some of his properties, the papers showed…
Heard’s attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, hailed the finalization as a “great day” for his client, adding, “All Amber wanted was to be divorced and now she is.”
There was no immediate statement from Depp or his representatives.

Madonna blasts criticism over younger lovers.


                                                                                                    Pop icon Madonna has described herself as “oppressed,” saying she was tired of a gender double-standard over her relationships with younger men...
The 58-year-old singer said in an interview published Tuesday that she has endured criticism throughout her entire career despite her professional success.
“I’ve always felt oppressed,” she told Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
“A large part of that is because I’m female and also because I refuse to live a conventional life. I’ve created a very unconventional family.
“I have lovers who are three decades younger than me. This makes people very uncomfortable. I feel like everything I do makes people feel really uncomfortable,” she said.
Madonna has been linked romantically to a number of men in their 20s, most recently Ivorian model Aboubakar Soumahoro and earlier French choreographer Brahim Zaibat and Dutch dancer Timor Steffens.
The Material Girl — who has four children and has been married twice — also said she faced sexism in that she is often asked why she remains active as an artist.
“Did somebody go to Pablo Picasso and say, ‘Okay, you’re 80 years old. Haven’t you painted enough paintings?’ No. I’m so tired of that question..”
Madonna, who last year completed a global tour for her latest album “Rebel Heart,” will soon be directing a movie, “Loved.”
Madonna wrote the screenplay for the film, an adaptation of Andrew Sean Greer’s novel “The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells” about a woman who is transported to different eras as part of psychiatric treatment for depression.

I don’t have a relationship with Kajol. She doesn’t deserve me.


                                                                                               Bollywood director, producer and actor Karan Johar spoke about his falling out with actress Kajol, stating that him and the Dilwale actress can never go back after she accused him of bribing someone to undermine her husband Ajay Devgan’s movie.
In his upcoming biography, Karan Johar opened up about his falling out with Kajol, someone with whom he was known for being close friends with. According to the Bollywood director, K-Jo and Kajol’s relationship turned sour after the latter endorsed an allegation by Ajay Devgan that Karan had bribed Kamaal R Khan to tweet negatively about his movie Shivaay, in a bid to prmote his own film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in a more positive light.
Kajol had retweeted her husband Ajay Devgan’s message with one word-‘Shocking’. That one word, according to Karan Johar, was enough to part their ways for good.
“That tweet validated the insanity, that she could believe I would bribe someone. I felt that’s it. It’s over. And she can never come back to my life. I don’t think she wants to either. I never want to have anything to do with them as a unit. She was the one who mattered to me but now it’s over,” wrote Johar.
“I wouldn’t like to give a piece of myself to her at all because she’s killed every bit of emotion I had for her for twenty-five years.”
Karan also wrote that it hurts him that people he’s close to are also close to the Bollywood actress. He wrote in his biography that when they talk about Kajol, it angers him and that normally he’s not territorial or asks his friends to choose sides but in this matter, he feels quite strongly.
Regarding Ajay Devgan, Karan Johar said that the actor did not mean anything to him.
“He doesn’t matter to me, he never did. I still don’t want to say anything about her husband because I want to respect the history she and I shared,” he said.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

China to develop prototype super, super computer in 2017.

China plans to develop a prototype exascale computer by the end of the year, state media said Tuesday, as it seeks to win a global race to be the first to build a machine capable of a billion, billion calculations per second…
The achievement would cement its place as a leading power in the world of supercomputing.
The Asian giant built the world´s fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight machine, in June last year, which was twice as fast as the previous number one.
It used only locally made microchips, making it the first time a country has taken the top spot without using US technology.
Exascale computers are even more powerful, and can execute at least one quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.
Though a prototype was in the pipeline, a complete version of such a machine would take a few more years to complete, Xinhua news agency cited Zhang Ting, application engineer at the National Supercomputer Center in the port city of Tianjin, as saying…
“A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country´s first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognised as the world´s fastest in 2010,” said Zhang.
The exascale computer could have applications in big data and cloud computing work, he added, noting that its prototype would lead the world in data transmission efficiency as well as calculation speed.

Samsung chief faces long day as South Korean court weighs arrest warrant.


The head of South Korea’s giant Samsung Group faces a long day in court on Wednesday as a judge decides whether he should be arrested for bribery in a corruption scandal that has engulfed President Park Geun-hye’s administration.
Investigators questioned Jay Y. Lee for 22 hours last week as a suspect in the scandal which led to parliament impeaching Park in December and throwing the country into crisis.
Park, 64, remains in office but has been stripped of her powers while the Constitutional Court decides whether to make her the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.
She is likely to undergo “face-to-face” questioning by early next month, the special prosecutor’s spokesman said.
The prosecutor’s office has accused Lee, 48, of paying bribes totaling 43 billion won ($36.55 million) to organizations linked to Choi Soon-sil, a friend of the president who is at the center of the scandal, to secure the 2015 merger of two affiliates and cement his control of the family business.
Lee, who has denied wrongdoing, is also accused of embezzlement and perjury. Lee’s lawyer could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Seoul Central District Court will hold the hearing to decide on his arrest warrant. A court official told Reuters that Lee and his lawyer would attend the hearing.
A spokesman for the special prosecutor’s team said Lee would then be held in detention until the court had made its ruling.
“A judge’s examination of a suspect normally finishes in 30 minutes at the earliest, but can take longer than two hours for complicated matters, which is likely to be the case,” the court official said…
“Then, after the examination, the judge goes back to his office to review records and evidence and deliberate arguments of the prosecution’s side and the suspect’s side,” said the official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“A final decision is more likely to be made at dawn on Thursday, as there are tons of records, evidence and lots of things to review.

Shakira urges Davos elite to nurture future leaders.


Music star Shakira urged world and business leaders at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum on Monday to support efforts to feed, educate and care for underprivileged children.
“Today’s babies will drive tomorrow’s business. Their capacity to contribute will shape tomorrow’s societies, will solve tomorrow’s problems,” the Colombian recording star, who is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador devoted to early childhood development, said in an impassioned speech.
Shakira, who was given a Crystal Award in Davos for her humanitarian work, is the founder of the Pies Descalzos Foundation, which works to provide underprivileged children in Colombia with access to quality education.
“In this room there are some of the most powerful people in the world, and definitely I’m convinced you know what it means to be ahead of the curve,” 
“We need to apply the brains and strategies of business and the assets and human resources and talents of your companies to do social good and to solve social problems.”
The World Economic Forum also gave awards to violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who runs a foundation providing scholarships for young musicians, and actor Forest Whitaker, who has worked as a global advocate for peace, focusing on empowering youth as leaders and entrepreneurs in communities touched by violence and poverty.