New Touch Experience

It took them long, but then they did launch a complete touch screen phone. Blackberry phone maker Research in Motion (RIM) launched its much awaited BlackBerry Torch 9860 in India, which will be available for Rs. 28,490. The mobile phone is one among the most advanced smartphone range offered by the brand in India till date.

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 runs on the new BlackBerry 7 operating system, which features the next generation BlackBerry browser, voice-activated searches and has the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as well as additional personal and productivity applications out-of-the-box.

Contempt of court notice

The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued a contempt notice to veteran Congress leader N.D. Tiwari for defying its order directing him to give his blood sample in a paternity suit filed by 32-year-old man claiming to be his son.

Justice Geeta Mittal, referring to her Sep 23 judgment in which she had termed Tiwari's refusal to submit the blood sample 'wilful, malicious, unreasonable and unjustified', issued the notice, returnable for Feb 14.
Meanwhile, the court has directed the claimant Rohit Shekhar, his mother Ujjwala Sharma and her former husband B.P. Sharma to appear before the joint registrar Oct 20 to give their blood samples for a DNA test.

Wake Up Early

A new study has found that people who wake up early are slimmer, happier and healthier than those who get up later in the day.

Researchers at the Roehampton University concluded that those who fight the urge to ignore the alarm clock complete morning chores faster, pack their children off to school earlier and thrive in the workplace.
However, night owls have a higher chance of feeling depressed or stressed and becoming overweight.
The researchers quizzed 1,068 adults about their health and sleeping habits and found that 'morning people' were out of bed by 6.58am on average, while 'evening people' waited until 8.54am to start their day.
At the weekend both groups enjoyed about an extra hour under the covers, with early risers waiting until 7.47am to get up and night owls lying in until 10.09am.
"There are morning people and evening people, and morning people tend to be healthier and happier as well as having lower body mass indices," the Telegraph quoted Dr Joerg Huber as telling a British Psychological Society conference.
The survey also found that people who watch a lot of television are more likely to skip breakfast.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is set to make his Hollywood debut with Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby', says larger numbers of the global population watch Indian movies as opposed to Hollywood and that Indian actors are a recognizable force outside the country.

'Indian actors are a recognizable force outside Indian shores as well. I may be wrong in my assessment here, but it has been statistically proven that a larger number of the world population watches Indian movies as opposed to Hollywood - 3.8 billion to 3.2 billion,' Big B posted on his blog Bigb.bigadda.com.

The 68-year-old also said that there are many Indian stars who get more attention than their Hollywood counterparts in international projects.

'Stars from India getting global celebrity managers is an individual decision. Perhaps you are unaware, but many already do. Hollywood is a richer entity and has the advantage of a more universal language, but there are several examples that I have been personally witness to, where the Indian stars, with all due respect, has garnered greater notice than his Hollywood counterpart,' he added.

However Amitabh, who will be making a special appearance in 'The Great Gatsby', feels it is obvious that in a Hollywood project, American actors will always get prominence.

'At the end of the day we must remember a most basic fact. We are the Indian film industry and they are Hollywood from America. There shall always be a prominence to American actors in Hollywood, just as there is a prominence of Indian actors in Indian films. A ShahRukh, Salman or Aamir may well be an unknown face in one of the towns in midwest USA, but so would a Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise in Yavatmal or Giridih,' he posted.

'How many foreign stars have you noticed gaining prominence in Hollywood apart from that odd Omar Sharif, Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee? Even British artists, which really should be considered, nationwise, as individuals from the same community, have a limited presence.

'And how many Hollywood stars do we see in our films? Forget Hollywood, even artists from regional cinema in India have a rare presence in our own films - Hindi film artists in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam or Bengali films and vice versa,' he added.