Mumbai: Salman Khan, Bollywood’s favourite “Bhaijaan,” is known for his successful career in the entertainment industry. However, his most recent release, ‘Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan,’ is struggling at the box office, leaving the actor in a reflective mood.
Despite its holiday release, the film failed to create wonders at box office, prompting Salman to question his project selection.
And now, latest news has it that Salman has stopped signing new project sparking speculations about his retirement. According to a report in ETimes, Salman has been offered six new projects, but the actor is taking a break and will wait until the release of ‘Tiger 3’ in November to gauge public reaction before signing anything new. As a result of this news, Salman’s fans may miss out on a new film for Eid 2024.
Fans are looking forward to Salman’s upcoming project, ‘Tiger 3,’ directed by Maneesh Sharma and starring Katrina Kaif and Shah Rukh Khan. The star hopes that the success of this film will give him more confidence in choosing future projects.
The ‘Dabangg’ actor has recently been in the news for receiving various death threats. The actor had opened up about the same in a recent show and said, “Security is better than insecurity. Yes, security is there. Now it is not possible to ride a bicycle on the road and go alone anywhere. And more than that, now I have this problem that when I am in traffic, then there is so much security, vehicles creating inconvenience to other people. They also give me a look. And my poor fans. There is a serious threat that’s why there is security.”
Despite the difficulties, Salman Khan’s stardom remains unaffected, and his fans eagerly await his next move. The Bollywood superstar has always been a force to be reckoned with in the industry, and his upcoming projects will undoubtedly excite his fans to new heights.
Vijayawada: Tamil superstar Rajinikanth made some interesting remarks about politics while addressing the centenary celebrations of Telugu icon Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao or NTR.
He said, looking at the huge crowd, he wants to speak about politics but his experience is stopping him from doing so.
Rajinikanth, who dropped his plans to enter politics in 2021 citing his frail health, shared his thoughts in Telugu.
The superstar recalled how he was inspired by NTR, showered praise on his son and leading Tollywood actor Balakrishna and appreciated the vision of former chief minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The actor said NTR’s first film that he watched was ‘Patala Bhairavi’ and this left an imprint on his mind.
He said when he was working as a supporting actor and villain, a director approached him and wanted to know if he would act in a film as a hero.
“At that time I was not interested in working as a hero. The director told me to hear the script at least once and revealed that the title of the movie is Bhairavi. The moment I heard the name of the movie, I accepted it,” said Rajinikanth.
The Tamil superstar said, when NTR came to Chennai to celebrate the success of ‘Lava Kusa’, he watched NTR from a distance. Rajinikanth was then 13.
He recalled that he was greatly impressed by the role of Duryodhana played by NTR in ‘Srikrishna Pandaviyam’.
“When I was working as a bus conductor, I played the role of Duryodhana, played by NTR, at a function and, because of the appreciation I received, I started taking an interest in acting,” he said.
Rajinikanth spoke fondly about NTR’s son Nandamuri Balakrishna a.k.a. Balayya. He said Balayya can do what neither he nor Amitabh Bachchan can do.
“My friend (Balayya) kills with his single look. With a single eye blink, a vehicle can blast and go up to 30-feet-high. It cannot be done by Rajinikanth, Amitabh, Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan. The public won’t accept it if we do that kind of stuff.”
Rajinikanth said that the audience accepts whatever Balayya does on screen because when they look at him, they see his father NTR in him.
The actor was all praise for N. Chandrababu Naidu for his vision and said that the whole world knows about it.
He pointed out that Naidu developed Hyderabad into an IT hub. He said if lakhs of people are employed today in the IT sector, it was because of Naidu.
Gaza: Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, announced its decision to stop receiving donations via the digital currency Bitcoin.
The group said in a statement that the decision was taken “within the framework of ensuring the safety of the donors and not subjecting them to any harm”, reports Xinhua news agency.
“We took the decision, especially in light of the intensification of the pursuit and the doubling of the hostile effort against anyone who tries to support the resistance (Hamas) through this currency,” said the statement.
Hamas called for the continuation of donations in various available ways other than donating funds with Bitcoin.
Israel Radio reported that the Israeli counterterrorism office for economic affairs last week seized funds in crypto-currency which amounted to more than half a million shekels.
According to the report, more than 80 digital accounts of exchange companies working to serve Hamas in the Gaza Strip were seized.
The Al-Qassam Brigades previously called for providing financial support through digital currency to help it to deal with financing challenges.
Bitcoin, the worldwide cryptocurrency and digital payment system, was released as open-source software in 2009.
The system works without a central repository or administrator, and the transactions take place between users directly.
“There’s nothing new in this statement. The statement is a lot of handwaving,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor and expert on legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis. “The problem is not with foundational ethics principles. The problem is there’s no accountability for violating the law. And there’s nothing in this statement that suggests the court even understands what the problem is.”
The statement, consisting of three pages of text and two pages of citations, was attached to a short letter that Roberts sent to Durbin declining to appear at a Senate Judiciary hearing on Supreme Court ethics.
“This statement aims to provide new clarity to the bar and to the public on how the Justices address certain recurring issues, and also seeks to dispel some common misconceptions,” the justices’ pronouncement says. It largely echoes previous commitments the justices have made about financial disclosures and recusal practices, and it says the justices “consult” various non-binding sources when faced with ethical issues.
The push for ethics reform at the Supreme Court is intensifying after recent revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship with a Republican megadonor and Justice Neil Gorsuch’s sale of a property to the head of a law firm with business before the court.
Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a bill Wednesday that would require the high court to adopt a code of conduct within a year. It’s a bipartisan boost for a court-reform movement that has largely been led by Democrats — though like prior efforts to enact a Supreme Court code of conduct, the bill has little chance of passage.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a longtime critic of the court’s ethics practices, derided the court’s latest attempt to assure Congress and the public that it can largely police itself.
“This new statement of principles has virtually no utility,” he said. “There is still no inbox to file a complaint, no process for fact finding, no way of making ethics determinations, and thus no way of holding justices accountable.”
Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, was a bit less confrontational, but said the high court’s response further demonstrates the need for court-reform legislation.
“I am surprised that the Chief Justice’s recounting of existing legal standards of ethics suggests current law is adequate and ignores the obvious,” Durbin said. “It is time for Congress to accept its responsibility to establish an enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court, the only agency of our government without it.”
The Supreme Court seldom comments publicly about its ethics practices.
In 2019, Justice Elena Kagan told a House subcommittee that Roberts was actively considering whether the court should adopt a formal ethics code.
“The chief justice is studying the question of whether to have a code of judicial conduct that’s applicable only to the United States Supreme Court,” Kagan told lawmakers at the time. “That has pros and cons, I’m sure, but it’s something that is being thought very seriously about.”
The court has provided no further update about the adoption of any ethics code since then, and Tuesday’s statement from the court seems to confirm that the effort petered out.
In fact, the new statement closely tracks a 2011 exposition from Roberts on the subject. Writing in his year-end report on the judiciary, he defended the lack of a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court. Like Roberts’ 2011 comments, Tuesday’s statement invokes the court’s “unique” qualities and institutional interests.
Before this week, the last time the justices issued a joint statement about their own ethics practices appears to have been in 1993, when seven justices published a “Statement of Recusal Policy” about cases that might involve attorneys in their families or law firms employing those relatives. The absence of two justices from that declaration appeared to stem not from disagreement but from the fact those jurists didn’t have relatives working as lawyers.
Two years before that, the court issued a resolution in which the justices agreed to abide by regulations on gifts and outside income adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States, a body created by Congress to write rules for federal courts.
More recently, the court put out a rare joint statement deploring the disclosure to POLITICO of a draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. In the statement — issued in January and apparently on behalf of all nine justices — the court called the breach of confidentiality “a grave assault on the judicial process” and an “extraordinary betrayal of trust,” but also said the court had been unable to determine the source of the draft, which was largely identical to the majority opinion the court issued last June ending the federal constitutional right to abortion after nearly a half-century.
The decision overturning Roe and the recent string of ethics controversies — including reports of efforts to lobby justices through meals, vacations and social events — likely have contributed to declining public trust in the court. Only 37% of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the Supreme Court, according a new poll released Monday by NPR, PBS NewsHour and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. That’s the lowest number since the poll began asking the question in 2018.
Clark, the legal ethics expert, said the court’s new statement on Tuesday has a face-saving quality to it, but will not accomplish what the justices appear to have intended.
“These folks are politicians. They’re absolutely politicians, so they apparently thought signing their names, all nine of them, to this two-plus-page statement was better than not doing it,” she said. “There’s no reason to think these folks are going to start being accountable until Congress takes some action. They’re going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the post-Watergate accountability world.”
Tuesday’s statement does raise one new issue not contained in previous court statements on ethics: fears for the justices’ safety.
“Judges at all levels face increased threats to personal safety. These threats are magnified with respect to Members of the Supreme Court, given the higher profile of the matters they address,” the justices wrote. “Recent episodes confirm that such dangers are not merely hypothetical. … Matters considered here concerning issues such as travel, accommodations, and disclosure may at times have to take into account security guidance.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Thiruvananthapuram: An order by the Kerala Jails Department stopping all religious discourses in the jails for the benefit of the prisoners has drawn the ire of a Christian group.
The order, issued a few days back, said there will be no more permission granted to conduct religious discourses which saw priests from all the religions arriving in the jails to interact with the prisoners.
George Sebastian, an office bearer of the Assembly of Christian Trust Services (ACTS), a body of all Christian churches and prayer groups, deplored that such an order has come when the Passion Week (the Aweek leading to Easter Sunday is presently on.
“The order bans all such interactions with the prisoners and no religious leaders will now be allowed entry to the jails. What has pained us is this has happened during the Passion Week, a holy time for all Christians. The leaders of ACTS will soon be meeting with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to see that this practise should not be discontinued as this interaction definitely is a way for the prisoners’ redemption,” he said.
Incidentally, this practice of leaders from various religions interacting with the prisoners for a fixed time a few days every month was there for long and now the top officials of the Kerala Police are tight-lipped on why it has been stopped. The buzz is that motivational speakers might be allowed.
Bajrang Dal workers allegedly stopped a late-night ladies’ party at a hotel on Kuvempu Road on Friday evening in an act of moral policing.
The police were called to the scene to prevent any ‘untoward incidents’. After the workers objected to the party, those inside the hotel, including women, men, and a few children, came out.
“We informed the police a week ago that a ladies’ night party would be held,” Bajrang Dal leader Rajesh Gowda said, speaking to media. “Such gatherings should not be held in the Malnad region. We went with the cops and put an end to the party,” he added.
He claimed that women participating in such events is against ‘Hindu culture.’ “The Bajrang Dal would not tolerate such events in Shivamogga,” he said, objecting to the women’s attire at the party, among other things.
Lahore: In a temporary relief for Imran Khan, a Pakistani court on Wednesday ordered the police to stop till Thursday its operation outside the former prime minister’s residence here to arrest him in a corruption case after a scuffle between the security personnel and his supporters.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Tuesday challenged the police operation in the Lahore High Court, requesting it to direct the government to end it.
On Wednesday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) stopped police operation at Zaman Park till 10 am Thursday, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Hearing the petition filed by PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, LHC’s Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh passed these orders, the paper said.
Earlier, the court had instructed the Punjab inspector general, chief secretary and Islamabad police (operations) head to appear in court by 3 pm.
In a separate development, Islamabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a petition filed by Khan to suspend arrest warrants against him in the Toshakhana case.
The district and sessions court in Islamabad on February 28 issued non-bailable arrest orders against Khan in the Toshakhana case about the concealment of the proceeds from the sale of state gifts.
The Islamabad High Court heard the petition by Khan against arrest orders. He also submitted an affidavit through his counsel that he would appear before the court at the next hearing on March 18.
Chief Justice Amir Farooq observed during the hearing that the court would come out with an order to avoid conflict and ensure respect for the courts.
The court reserved the decision without giving any time when it would be announced today.
Khan was disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan last year in October for not sharing details of the sales. The election body later filed a complaint with the district court to punish him under criminal laws for selling the gifts he had received as prime minister of the country.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Rangers and police personnel who were closing in on Khan’s residence to arrest him in a corruption case on Wednesday started retreating, prompting cheers and celebrations among his supporters.
In a tweet, the party said that more workers were reaching Zaman Park and vowed not to let the “impure intentions” of the coalition government succeed.
Earlier in the day, authorities deployed the elite Rangers outside Khan’s residence, a day after clashes with police left over 60 people injured, including 54 policemen.
Lahore’s Zaman Park area was turned into a battleground after 70-year-old Khan’s defiant supporters engaged in pitched battles with policemen on Tuesday to stop them from arresting their leader in the Toshakhana case, resulting in injuries on both sides.
Khan has been in the crosshairs for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profit.
Established in 1974, the Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.
Khan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.
Abu Dhabi: Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced its decision to construct rest stops for delivery riders in the country. RTA has issued a tender for the construction of three integrated rest stops in the emirate.
The stations will be located in three areas. The first will be on Sheikh Zayed Road near the Festival Plaza at Jebel Ali Village. and the second will be at Port Saeed next to Al Muraqabat Street 22. The third will be located at Ras Al Khor Industrial Area 2 close to Al Manama Street.
The goal is to provide essential services to passengers such as maintenance, refuelling, rest areas and restaurants.
At these facilities, the RTA will also provide ‘educational materials on public safety and quality regulation’. The project is in line with the RTA’s efforts to regulate and enhance the safety of the delivery business, which has been booming in the past few years.
RTA had launched a set of initiatives to enhance the efficiency and safety of the sector. This included issuing professional driver certificates, an award for excellence in delivery service, and conducting traffic awareness workshops for passengers.
Delhi: After the much disputed DDA demolition drive in Mehrauli was stopped on Lt Governor VK Saxena’s direction, the Aam Aadmi party on Wednesday sought compensation from him for the victims of the area.
In a letter to the L-G, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti said, “Direct the concerned to assess the damages already caused to many houses by the said demolition and do the needful, including appropriate compensation and to get them reinstated at the locations from where they have been uprooted without any further delay”.
The AAP leader further said that till the time it takes place, please direct the concerned to put some makeshift arrangements like tents etc.
Bharti also sought the investigation into the issues, calling it “serious breach of transaction of business rules, Govt. of NCT of Delhi Act, Constitution of India and various judgments of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India” and has urged to punish the officials guilty of this severe dereliction.
“When it became apparent after making enquiries with District Magistrate (South) Office that the demarcation which became the basis of demolition, in Mehrauli, by DDA was neither in the knowledge of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal nor Revenue Minister Kailash Gehlot ji, then why the press release released from your office attributed the flawed demarcation to the Aam Aadmi Party Government? the letter reads further.
Such an attempt was surely political from the L-G office with the sole intent to malign the clean image of Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party government, he said.
“On 14.02.2023, the reason issued by your esteemed office for stopping the massive and inhuman demolition exercise being carried out by DDA in Mehrauli was the same which we have been agitating since day one under the leadership of Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal i.e. the flawed demarcation report.
“Had you agreed on this most important flaw brought out to you/your officers’ notice by us on day one of the demolition exercise which rendered many people, including old people, women and children homeless then such a massive tragedy would have been avoided”, the AAP MLA stated in the letter.
The letter reads, “Since in the urbanised villages applicability of Delhi Land Reforms Act ceases and hence the demarcation work should be carried out directly by DDA following the due process, which requires the demarcating agency to invite objections from the people who at present are residing on the land being demarcated and ensure their full participation before finalizing the demarcation report or if you still wish to go ahead with the Revenue Office of Delhi government then it is urged that offices of Chief Minister and Revenue Minister must not be bypassed”.
