Bollywood megastar Amitab Bachchan and actress Vidya Balan have been named PETA's hottest celebrity vegetarians of 2012.

The other names in the running were Miss India Neha Dhupia, actor Shahid Kapoor, Sonu Sood, southern star Dhanush, Kareena Kapoor and veteran actress Hema Malini.

Bachchan, 70, has been named the hottest vegetarian celebrity three times in the past and even won the crown in PETA Asia's equivalent contest last year.

Balan, who has won the crown in 2010, too has often credited her curves to her meat-free diet, saying, "I am a vegetarian, as a result my metabolism has improved and this is a huge contributor to weight loss."......Read More

Kashmir Valley continued to reel under intense cold as temperatures across the state plunged further, even as the fringes of the famous Dal Lake here were frozen for the first time this winter.

The summer capital Srinagar registered the coldest night of the season for the second time this winter as minimum temperature dropped to minus four degrees Celsius, a MeT Department spokesman said.
 
Srinagar had registered the season's coldest night on December 23, when the MeT department recorded the temperature
at minus four degrees Celsius.
 
He said Kargil, in the frontier region of Ladakh, was the coldest recorded place in the state with a low of minus 16.2 degrees Celsius, while the nearby Leh town shivered at minus 16.0 degree Celsius.

The famous ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 9.0 degree Celsius, while Pahalgam in south Kashmir registered a minimum of minus 7.8 degrees..... Read More

Rapper Honey Singh, who was forced to cancel his scheduled New Year’s Eve show following protests against the backdrop of the recent brutal gang-rape incident, sought on Tuesday to wash his hands off the controversy triggered by offensive lyrics in some of his songs.

Singh (28), who has sung for several Bollywood movies, said he had not authored the lyrics that are being attributed to him. The lyrics have been termed offensive towards women by activists, who have started an online campaign against Singh.

A first information report has also been lodged against the rapper in Lucknow. When contacted, his manager Anup Kumar claimed the Gurgaon show was cancelled not because of the protests but in solidarity with the Delhi gang-rape victim.

“We did not cancel the show because of this petition and FIR. We cancelled it in the wake of the Delhi gang-rape issue. This is not the first concert we are cancelling in Delhi after that horrific incident. We had also cancelled our much publicised December 25 event,” Mr. Kumar told PTI.

Bristol Hotel, however, disputed Singh’s version, saying it was the management and not Singh who decided to cancel the performance.......Read More

She comes from a film family and is married into another one but actress Kareena Kapoor says she endeavours to have a life outside the world of showbiz.

The 32-year-old actress, who tied the knot with actor Saif Ali Khan in October last year, says she has friends outside Bollywood and she tries to keep her personal life separate from her work.
 
"The key is to realise that we are here to work in this industry. I'm not over-friendly with anyone, I don't get into anyone's personal space because I don't want people to get into mine. I have a life outside of films," Kareena said.
 
Having faced huge media curiosity surrounding her marriage to Saif, Kareena says she prefers her work to make
more news than her personal life.
 
"Some of my friends are from the industry but most of them are not. So that is a part of life that I cherish. I go to work and come back. I want to keep it like that - go to work, come home and let my work talk more than anything else," she says......Read More

Pacemen Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc bowled Australia to victory over Sri Lanka in the first Hobart Test Tuesday, claiming six wickets in the final session for a thrilling win.

The Sri Lankans looked to be batting out for a draw until Siddle and Starc struck to secure Australia's first win of the home season, after losing to South Africa 1-0 in the recent three-Test series.

Starc claimed the last four wickets to fall to end with five for 63, while Siddle was named man of the match after his four for 50 to finish with nine wickets for the match.

Australia found it hard going to gouge out the batsmen on a fifth-day pitch until the wickets tumbled in the final two hours.

They got the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene before lunch, Kumar Sangakkara in the middle session and the remaining six wickets in the final session after the tourists appeared headed for a morale-boosting draw.

Siddle struck in the fourth over after tea when Angelo Mathews needlessly flicked outside his off stump and nicked to Matthew Wade for 19, giving the Australians a glimmer of victory.
Read More.....

Indo-Canadian adult movie star Sunny Leone was the Most Searched Indian Celebrity on the net in 2012, in Yahoo’s Year in Review (YIR) released Thursday.

The review "reflects topics that dominated the daily online habits of Indian net users across 15 categories. This combines search trends with the editorial selection of what users read, recommended and shared most on the Yahoo! network in India during 2012", a Yahoo statement said.

It "offers a glimpse into the social trends, compelling newsmakers and top stories of 2012, based on what Internet users in India looked for. It is clear while looking at the top trends that scams and controversies, with a large dose of Bollywood gossip, captured the attention of the user in 2012", the statement said.

Leone grabbed the spot ahead of Bollywood's leading ladies, thanks to her controversial entry into Bollywood with "Big Boss 5" and "Jism 2".

Mary Kom's selection followed India's biggest Olympics medals haul at the London Games, equaling the collective tally of the country's previous seven campaigns.

Arvind Kejriwal, the new poster boy for the crusade against corruption, knocked off mentor Anna Hazare from the position to become Top Newsmaker in India for 2012.

Read More....

Noted astronomer D P Durai has dismissed the prediction of the world ending on December 21 as a mere rumour, saying next Friday would be like any other day.

  
Durai, a NASA educator and director of M P Birla Planetarium, said December 21 would be marked different only because it is a day of winter solstice and the world would not certainly meet its end on that day.
  
"December 21, 2012 will be another normal day, the only speciality being that it will be the day of winter solstice when sun will be at the southernmost point of the sky and the amount of day time will be the shortest."
  
Durai noted that doomsday stories had become the centre of discussion around the globe in recent weeks and India was no different, thanks to social networking sites and the Internet.
  
Explaining the origin of the world-wide buzz, the astronomer said that at the core of this rumour lay a belief by certain people that the ancient Mayan civilisation in Latin America had December 21, 2012 as the last day of their calendar and thereafter the earth's life span would expire.
  
There are other theories too of how the earth will come to an end on that day, one of them being a devastating collision between the earth and a planet of the yet-undiscovered solar system called 'Niburu', he pointed out.
  
He explained that there was no scientific basis behind the claim that December, 2012 would have a solar maxima resulting in the reversal of the polarity of the earth's magnetic field.
  
Another theory that spoke of a rare planetary alignment of earth, sun and the earth's galactic centre thereby causing a huge gravitational instability was also unfounded, Durai said.

"21st December, 2012 is not the end of time as indicated by the Mayan calendar. It is rather the end of an era which, according to the Mayans, was of duration of 5,125 years or 13 Bakhtuns, each Bakhtun being of a duration of little more than 393 years," Durai explained.
  
At the end of the 13 Bakhtuns, the Mayans believed, there would be the beginning of a new era, he pointed out.

Read More