The voice behind Maahiya in Awarapan!

Enough has been said and written about the Pakistani rock sensation Mustafa Zahid who makes his singing debut with Mahesh Bhatt’s forthcoming Awarapan.

However, the Gagan Grewal show on the BBC Asian Network in the UK managed to pin down the 22-year old British-Pakistani singer Annie whose super successful Maahiya track (released 1.5 years back in Pakistan) has also found favour on the soundtrack of Awarapan.

“My dad’s a bit of a joker! He called me from London when I was in Karachi to say that Mahesh Bhatt had heard Maahiya and wanted to include it in Awarapan. I couldn’t believe it for a minute but soon found myself flying down to Mumbai to record the track. Everything happened so fast!” she laughs.

The Maahiya music video, currently on air, has been picturised on Annie along with Emraan Hashmi and sultry model Mrinalini Sharma, who debuts in this film.

Annie also revealed that her real name was Noorul-ann but that everyone called her Annie!

ISI agent arrested in Hyderabad

The special investigation cell of the Hyderabad city police has arrested an Inter Services Intelligence agent Mohammed Abdul Sattar alias Sattar and seized provocative Urdu literature and VCD on the activities of mujahideen in the name of jihad.

Acting on a tip-off, the commissioner's special investigation cell arrested the accused on Friday near Secunderabad railway station while moving under suspicious circumstances with a travel bag.

On interrogation, he confessed that he had illegally crossed Bangladesh border twice and involved in ISI activities, City Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said in a statement.

Sattar, a mechanic by occupation and resident of First Lancer locality in Hyderabad, further confessed that he had attended classes run by a local Muslim organization Darsgah-Jihad-o-Shahadath in 2002 and had undergone terrorist training in Pakistan in 2004 through contact with ISI activists under the leadership of Shahed alias Bilal and Fayyaq alias Amer.

He was trained in physical fitness, handling of weapons, firing practice of field machine gun and light machine gun, pistol, grenade lobbing, prepation of explosives for about two and a half months.

During his stay for the second time in Bangladesh, he learnt to prepare bombs with the latest technology. Shahed alias Bilal handed over jihadi literature and VCDs on mujahideen activities with instructions to recruit youth for training in Pakistan and to motivate them for jihadi activities. He returned back to Hyderabad to carry out ISI activities.

The accused was earlier involved in an attempt to murder case in 2005 at Rajendranagar police station in Cyberabad.

The Hyderabad police registered a case against him in the instant case under Sections 120 (B), 125 and 126 of the Indian Penal Code. The accused was produced before a magistrate on Saturday. He was remanded him to judicial custody for 15 days.

Curiously, the police statement nowhere mentioned that he was linked to the bomb blast in Mecca Masjid during Friday prayers on May 18 in which five worshippers were killed and 58 others injured.

It may be recalled that the special investigation cell was formed by the city police to investigate the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case. The CBI has also begun its probe into the incident.

Courtesy : rediff.com

Samosas, hot bath and NASA honour for Sunita Williams

Ahead of her expected homecoming next week, more than six months after she left earth for her sojourn 250 miles up in the sky, Sunita Williams' family eagerly awaits the big day.

As of Thursday, June 14, Williams was slated to return to earth on June 21 on the space shuttle Atlantis, that took off last week to bring back Williams from the International Space Station [Images], where she has been based.

However, computer glitches on the ISS delayed the return by three days. But that has not discouraged her family as they prepare to welcome her home.

At her parents' home in Falmouth, Massachusetts, where Sunita grew up and visits often, her mother Bonnie Pandya has been looking at the many photographs of her "little Suni" in the family living room, as she has done many times these last six months.

Bonnie Pandya plans to cook her youngest child's favourite dishes when Suni -- as her family calls the astronaut -- comes home in Falmouth, hopefully in August.

"It is great to know she is coming back after so many months. I am very excited and looking forward to seeing my child," Bonnie Pandya told rediff.com

As always, Gorby, the Jack Russell terrier named after former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov, is getting special attention. Sunita left her dog with her parents when she went into space.

"We are putting together an album of the hundred and one things that Gorby did while she was away," says Bonnie Pandya. "I have taken a lot of pictures of what he has been doing. It may sound funny to other people, but Suni, as you know, likes him a lot."

These last six months the Pandyas have been sending Sunita information about Gorby. "You know how attached she is to him," her mother said.

Dina Pandya, Sunita's elder sister, will travel to Houston to meet the astronaut. She will take Gorby along with her; Sunita is expected to travel to Houston a few weeks after she lands on Earth.

Dina plans to take some home-made food for her sister. "Maybe, some samosas and other stuff, a combination of Indian and other food," she said. Sunita loves samosas. "I would like to smuggle some samosas into space. I love samosas. They are my favourites. My husband also makes them at times," Sunita had told this correspondent last year.

In honour of her record stint in space -- 188 days and four hours to be precise -- her colleagues at NASA's [Images] Johnson Space Centre will wear red. Red is the colour of her favourite baseball team, Boston's Red Sox.

The day she returns is "being christened Sunita Williams Day at NASA," Dina Pandya added.

There is one downside to Sunita's homecoming.

Barring her husband Michael Williams, an FBI agent, no one else is allowed to travel to the landing area in Florida [Images] or California, where Atlantis may land, depending on the weather on the day she returns.

"I am not going to Florida. Suni will come home in August. They (NASA) do not allow us to be near someone who has stayed in space for so long," Bonnie Pandya said. "Mike (Sunita's husband) is the only one who can see her close, although he too will be behind a glass wall."

The other astronauts on the Atlantis can leave after the shuttle lands. Not Sunita. "She will be carried off and put in rehab. That is why we are not planning to go to Florida," her mother said.

"Suni is thrilled about coming home," her mother added. "She loves New England [Images]. She wants to take Gorby to the ocean, go up to New Hampshire, have cups of coffee, take a nice hot bath and wash our hair really good. We are doing that."

Sunita sets record, Atlantis cleared for re-entry

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams on Saturday added yet another feather to her cap by setting a new world record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman and is now poised to return home next week after NASA [Images] cleared the space shuttle Atlantis' thermal protection system for re-entry to earth's atmosphere.

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams on Saturday added yet another feather to her cap by setting a new world record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman.

"Early this morning, Mission Specialist Sunita Williams set the record for the longest-duration single spaceflight by a woman," NASA said in a statement.

Williams, who began her spaceflight in December 10, 2006, broke the 188-day, four-hour mark at 1113 IST set by Shannon Lucid in 1996 on a mission to the Russian Mir space station.

Earlier this year, she broke the record for most spacewalk time by a woman by logging 29 hours and 17 minutes in four spacewalks.

The record for most spacewalk time by a woman was held by astronaut Kathryn Thornton.

In April, she also became the first astronaut to run a marathon in orbit.

Williams' feat was followed by a good news when the Mission Control Centre in Houston told the shuttle crew that Atlantis' thermal protection system is cleared for re-entry.

The astronauts got the news while they were transferring cargo between Atlantis and the International Space Station [Images], NASA said.

The heat shield was cleared after Mission Specialist Danny Olivas repaired a protruding thermal blanket on one of Atlantis' orbital maneuvering system pods during a spacewalk.

Atlantis is scheduled to leave the station on Tuesday and land on Thursday, the agency said.

Now set to return home, Williams, being congratulated by the Mission Control for her record, said, "It's just that I'm in the right place at the right time."

"It's just an honour to be up here. Even when the station has little problems, it's just a beautiful, wonderful place to live," she said.

Russian cosmonauts began turning back on some crucial systems that had been shut down more than four days ago when a computer system on the Russian side of the ISS crashed.

NASA said efforts to bring the Russian navigation computers back to full operation will continue on Saturday.

On Friday, "Russian flight controllers and the station crew were able to power-up two lanes of the Russian central computer and two lanes of the terminal computer by using a jumper cable to bypass a faulty secondary power switch.

Flight controllers began sending commands overnight to restart some systems. The central computer is now communicating with the US command and control computer, and the terminal computer is communicating with US navigation computers. The plan calls for more system restarts today," the space agency said.

NASA officials said the crew was never in danger of running out of oxygen, power or essentials.

The computer glitch had added to the NASA's concerns about the space shuttle's heat shield.

The agency had been cautious about the shuttles' thermal protection systems since the Columbia accident killed seven astronauts, including Indian-origin Kalpana Chawla in 2003.

Foam from the shuttle's external tank came loose during launch, striking Columbia's wing and allowing fiery gases to penetrate it during re-entry.

Mittal eyes an English football club

After the successful take over of French steel company Arcelor, the world's richest Indian, Laxmi Mittal, is eyeing another grand acquisition. This time it is in the field of sport.

The 'Iron Man of India' has emerged a contender to buy English Premiership football club Birmingham City after making an initial inquiry, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

The 56-year-old Mittal, at 19.25-billion-pounds twice as rich as Roman Abramovich, the Russian millionaire owner of Chelsea, is yet to follow up on his preliminary inquiry, the newspaper said.

Besides Mittal, a London-based NRI, another unnamed business magnate from the Far East is also said to be interested in the club and likely to make a formal bid later this week.

David Sullivan and David and Ralph Gold, owners of Birmingham, which caused a flutter by getting promoted to the top league of the competition, are looking to sell the club and would be glad to finish with a speedy handover.

Besides Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are the other English Premiership clubs that have been bought over by business tycoons in recent years.

Graham Ford new Team India coach

South African Graham Ford was on Saturday appointed as India's cricket coach for a one-year period.

"The seven-member Special Committee headed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India President Sharad Pawar [Images] has decided to appoint for as the Indian team coach initially for one year," Board Treasurer N Srinivasan told media persons in Chennai.

Ford's appointment came after a marathon two-hour meeting of the special committee, which also interviewed former England [Images] spinner John Emburey.

"Ford will intimate the BCCI before its working committee meeting in Delhi on June 12 as to when he would be able to join the team," Srinivasan said.

"No ratification (of the committee's decision) is necessary as Board president himself was the chairman of the committee," he said.

Ford, 46, was the coach of the South African team between 1999 and 2002, having taken over from the late Bob Woolmer [Images].

He then joined Kent County Club in 2004 as director of coaching where he has a contract running till 2008.

The special committee had earlier invited Ford and Emburey to make a presentation after its June 4 meeting in Bangalore when it also rejected an application by former Sri Lankan and Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore.

Ford had an edge over Emburey as he was the favourite among the senior members of the Indian team.