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Harbhajan Singh, who was present at the music launch of film Victory in Mumbai last night, hinted at a career in Bollywood. He said, “I am a great actor and if I come down to Bollywood and start acting, you can forget ‘Ghajini and Rajni’.” “If Ajit Pal wants then I could be the lead hero in Victory part 2,” he added.

Well, Aamir Khan now looks to have got competition, that too from a very unlikely candidate — cricketer Harbhajan Singh.

The spinner, who makes a special appearance in the film, sportingly posed for the cameras at the launch.

Though Harman Baweja is the lead hero of the movie but it was Bhajji who stole the limelight.

On stage, Harman said, “Bhajji, why don’t we make a film on you itself? I know in normal sense, a movie spans between 2-3 hours. But we can make a tele serial out of your life, thanks to the number of controversies.”

Following this comment, Bhajji showed his sporting spirit and said, “Yes. I will leave behind the famous serial Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi also.”

Victory follows the story of a father who witnesses an impossible dream for his son to play cricket for the Indian national team.

After the smashing success of Ghajini, Director A R Murugadoss is all set to direct his second Hindi film. He says he’s already decided on two stories but he’s keeping the details firmly under wraps.

“I will definitely make more Hindi films. I have two stories in mind. Will work out the details in eight to ten days,” said Murugadoss.

It was not the success of Ghajini that prompted him to pursue a Bollywood dream. He says Hindi movies were always on the cards.

“When I wrote Ghajini in Hindi, Aamir said he would act in it. It was a dream come true for me,” he said.

But it’s not only sucess that Murugadoss is relishing, he also savouring the experience of working with one of the best actors in Bollywood, Aamir Khan.

“At the start, Aamir told me, ‘Just let me know if you need my help, with the language and dialogues’,” he said.

The taste of sucess is sweet but it’s only a lucky few who get to experience it. As for Murugadoss, he seems to have hit upon a winning formula

South Africa have sealed a historic Test series victory in Australia, winning the second Test after reaching 183 for the loss of just one wicket.

It is Australia’s first defeat in a home series for 16 years.

Graeme Smith’s side hugged on the team balcony at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as Hashim Amla stroked the winning runs shortly after lunch on the fifth day.

The emphatic victory came after the captain thumped an impressive 75 before losing his wicket shortly before lunch.

His fellow opener Neil McKenzie carried on to score 59 not out, as the Proteas notched up an unassailable 2-0 lead ahead of the final Test in Sydney.

With Australian cricket’s iconic MCG awash with empty seats for the stunning victory, an emotional Smith said he was grateful for an incredible team effort.

He singled out for praise newcomer Jean-Paul Duminy, who scored a magnificent 166 in the first innings to put South Africa into a commanding position on the third day.

Fast bowler Dale Steyn, who took 10 wickets in the game and scored 76 in the first innings, was named man of the match.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said his side had been outplayed by South Africa in “all the big moments” of the two matches, and congratulated the Proteas on a victory that was “very well deserved”.

The baggy greens had not lost at home since 1992-93, when they were defeated by the West Indies.

They had seemed in a commanding position during the opening match of the current series, in Perth, before a stunning fight-back by South Africa saw the visitors chase down an unlikely second-inning target of 414.

Smith’s side came from behind equally strongly at the MCG, where they ended the second day at 198 for seven – nearly 200 runs behind their hosts.

But a ninth-wicket partnership of 180 between Duminy and Steyn helped turn the game around, and Steyn’s five-wicket haul in the second innings reduced Australia to just 247, leaving the visitors needing just 183 for victory.

The World Bank on Wednesday said Satyam Computer Services was debarred from getting direct contracts from it under its corporate procurement programme for eight years from September this year.

But it clarified there was no evidence of Satyam being involved in malacious attacks on the bank’s information system. The company was declared ineliglible for contracts for providing improper benefits to bank staff and for failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

Satyam shares slid 15% to Rs 119 per share during the course of trading on Wednesday, the lowest since September 2003.

The World’s Bank’s disclosure has become an embarrassment for Satyam that is embroiled in an unrelated controversy after its aborted bid to buy two firms linked to its promoter B Ramalinga Raju.

The country’s fourth largest software exporter faced a major shareholder rebellion last week after it announced plans to buy two firms linked to the promoter for $ 1.6 billion. The decision was endorsed by the Board. However, within a few hours Satyam called off the deal to buy Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties. It has, however, been tight-lipped on key questions on who did the valuation of the real estate firm.

Apple has announced that it has introduced a new range of iPods in India to coincide with the festive season. The new range varies from the 1GB iPod Shuffle starting at Rs2,300 to a 32GB iPod Touch at Rs21,100.

THe iPod Nano is now available in eight colours such as silver, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, and black, it also sports a curved aluminum enclosure.

It comes wit the option of an 8GB or 16GB flash drive and holds up to 2,000 or 4,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format.

When fully charged, music playback time is up to 24 hours and video playback time up to 4 hours.

The second generation iPod Touch is smaller and lighter and features a thin contoured metal design, a 3.5-inch widescreen glass display, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, integrated volume control buttons, built-in speaker and accelerometer and other advanced sensors.

It has options of 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB flash drive and can hold up to 1,750, 3,500, or 7,000 songs respectively in 128-Kbps AAC format and hold up to 10 hours, 20 hours, or 40 hours of video and when fully charged.

The Touch has a music playback time up to 36 hours and video playback up to 6 hours.

The 120GB iPod Classic, with up to 36 hours of audio playback time and a 2.5-inch color displaycan store up to 30,000 songs, 150 hours of video, 25000 photos, or any in combination.

It has a music playback time up to 36 hours when fully charged and video playback time of up to 6 hours.

Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’ will face some elephantine competition from none other than Akshay Kumar’s first animation film ‘Jumbo’. Both films are releasing simultaneously on Christmas day. However, this is not the first time that the films of the two stars are pitched together. Last year too Akshay’s ‘Welcome’ and Aamir’s directorial debut ‘Taare Zameen par’ were competing for audience attention during the last part of the year.

Interestingly both the films are remakes of previously made made films in other languages. ‘Jumbo’ is made from Thai film ‘Khan Kluay’ with Akshay and Lara Dutta’s voice overs while ‘Ghajini’ was previously made in Tamil by AR Murugadoss with the same title. Both the films have been promoted and packaged informatively with the lead actors going the extra mile to make sure that their movies catch audience attention.

Aamir Khan took part in a fashion show to promote his upcoming action thriller where he modeled for a collection that was created exclusively for ‘Ghajini.’ He didn’t stop at that and even turned barber for a day giving the ‘Ghajini’ hair cut to fans at promotional events. The star has expressed his desire to see more and more youngsters sporting the hair do.
Despite being an animation film ‘Jumbo’ is being pitched as an Akshay film and is banking on the actor’s star power to attract audiences. Akshay who is reportedly being paid 9 crores for the film has also shot a separate video for promotional purposes.

But Akshay is not the only celebrity to market the film, cricketer Yuvraj Singh has also been roped in to promote the movie. Yuvraj was recently in the Capital to promote “Jumbo” and has also agreed to do the voice over in Punjabi for the movie.

New Evidence and Theory Suggests Einstein May Have Been Right

Science has long speculated that the earth’s center rotates at a different speed from the crust. The big question really has been “What holds the earth’s crust in equilibrium with the center?” Visionary writer and inventor Carl Peterson may have discovered the answer. In looking for the reasons “magnetic north” lies far from the North Pole, Peterson has stumbled upon a scientific explanation that also fits with past polar shifts; and offers probable causes, timing, and local effects of the next shift. His theory complements and completes a Charles Hapgood theory endorsed by Albert Einstein, in which the poles, aided by massive ice build up, are eventually thrown by centrifugal force to the equator.

If the center rotates at a different speed from the crust, there is good reason to believe that this is the cause for the static electricity apparent on the earth’s surface. If that is true, then North Pole on the crust must have an opposite magnetic charge from north in the earth’s core.

The obvious conlusion is that “magnetic north” is not a specific designated point on the globe, but rather an “average” location determined by the confluence of the magnetic north of the massive earth center, and what must be in reality the weaker “magnetic south” of the earth’s crust, which in fact rests at the North Pole.

If the earth’s center has a pronounced “wobble” as it spins, slipping and sliding as it were beneath the crust, it is then the intense magnetic attraction between the two that defines the speed of the earth crust rotation. In other words, the crust spins at exactly the same speed as the wobble, or interior “precession”. This effect can be demonstrated with a gyroscope or simple child’s top. The top can have a high exterior spin rate, and at the same time a slowly wandering wobble.

The magnetic characteristics of the crust are then probably electromagnetic in nature, fully dependent upon the core for activation. If so, it will require a relatively weak catalyst to break this bond, sending the ice at the poles on a journey once again down (or up) to the equator.

Engineering students who are tired of installing and uninstalling various  software pertaining to their course of study can now hope  to breathe easy.

A new “free software Operating System” developed by ‘e-Swecha’, a variant of Linux–a popular open source OS, promises to solve their problems concerning the installation and uninstallation of software for the purpose of study.

“The e-Swecha Operating System, has software dealing with the various streams of engineering in it. This OS eases students of the pain of losing time on futile installations. e-Swecha OS came as a boon to the student fraternity by reducing all the hassels that obstructed their work,” organisers of e-Swecha said.

Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation and GNU Project, will launch the e-Swecha initiative at a function, wherein about 21,000 computers will see migration from present OS to e-Swecha across the state in the next one month, they said.

JNTU Hyderabad has already taken an initiative to promote the usage of free software in colleges and has stood by its word for transformation of the current OS to e-Swecha OS, they added.

Stallman said Kerala initiated the process of switching computers in its public schools to free software in association with Free Software Foundation of India.

“Nearly 700 high schools in Karnataka and about 400 in West Bengal have also switched over to free software, but nothing substantial had been done in AP, so far,” Stallman said.

The fourth-largest Indian IT company Satyam Computer Services has been banned by World Bank says a Fox News report. The report quotes a

senior World Bank official admitting that Satyam has been barred from all business at the bank for eight years.

The World Bank debarment has been meted out for “improper benefits to bank staff” and “lack of documentation on invoices,” according to Fox News report.

World Bank information security chief Robert Van Pulley admitted to the ban during a recent meeting with the officials of Government Accountability Project (GAP), a whistleblower protection organisation in the US, as per the report. The bank has handed over the case to the US Justice Department and the Treasury Department.

Satyam reportedly refused to comment on the story when cotacted, saying that it does not comment on individual clients.

Satyam started providing IT services to the World Bank in 2003. Two years later, allegations of bribery surfaced. In 2007, an internal World Bank investigation found that former VP Mohamed Muhsin had secured contracts and purchase orders worth $100 million for the Indian firm in return for Satyam’s stock options (ADRs) at preferential prices. After which Muhsin was banned permanently from the bank. However, Satyam was allowed to work for the bank till 2008.

There have also been allegations against Satyam of causing security breaches at the bank. World Bank’s records, which contain sensitive financial information, have reportedly been illegally accessed over the last year.

Previous Fox News reports have accused Satyam of installing spyware on World Bank workstations that would have allowed access to sensitive financial information at the bank. During the meeting with GAP officials, Pulley denied Satyam was behind any of the security breaches.

According to Fox reports the Satyam case had been turned over to the Justice Department in 2006 as well as to the US Treasury Department but no legal action against the company is known as yet.

World Bank’s revelation couldn’t have come at a worst time for Satyam. The company is already facing flak from investors on its decision to acquire Maytas’ distressed real estate and infrastructure industries for $1.6 billion.

A court officer has deemed that Britney Spears’s father is worth even more to his daughter’s resurgent pop music fortunes than previously estimated — to the tune of more than $50,000. On Monday a Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner awarded Ms. Spears’s father, Jamie, an additional $51,000 in back pay and a raise of $1,200 a month, on top of the $10,000-a-month salary he receives as conservator of his daughter’s career, The Associated Press reported. In February Mr. Spears was granted temporary control of his daughter after Ms. Spears, 27, was placed under psychiatric evaluation. That conservatorship was made permanent in October, though Ms. Spears can petition to have it removed. This month Ms. Spears’s “Circus” entered the Billboard album chart at No. 1.