Big bash planned for Tharoor's marriage

Former Union Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor is expected to tie the knot with his long-time friend Sunanda Pushkar on August 17, which is the Malayalam new year.

Sunanda is a Dubai-based businesswoman. According to reports, the Tharoor-Pushkar marriage will be solemnized in an auditorium in the premises of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

It is also official now that Tharoor has divorced his Canadian wife, Christa Giles.The parliament record of the Thiruvananthapuram MP mentions his status as divorcee.

Tharoor and Pushkar offered prayers at the famous Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi and at the Shani Shingnapur shrine in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district on Sunday.

After the visit to the two temples Shashi Tharoor tweeted: "Wonderful visit 2 open-air temple to Saturn at Shani Shingnapur. Simple ritual in clean, pure surroundings.1can nvr know enuf of our culture. Made 1st visit to Shirdi. Extraordinary temple to Sai Baba, who preached shraddha & saburi (faith&peace) 100yrs ago. 'Sab ka malik ek' (1God)."

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Tendulkar becomes most-capped Test player

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar has become the most-capped Test cricketer in the world after taking field for his 169th match, the third and final of the ongoing series against Sri Lanka.

The 37-year-old batsman holds almost every batting record. He overtook retired former Australian captain Steve Waugh with whom he was tied at 168 matches after the second Test at SSC.

Tendulkar has scored 13,742 runs in 168 Tests at an average of 56.08, notching up 48 hundreds and 55 half-centuries in the process.

Tendulkar has also played 442 one-day internationals, just a couple of matches less than Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya`s record of 444.

He has 17,598 runs, including 46 centuries, in his 442 one-dayers. He also holds the distinction of being the first batsman to score a double hundred in ODIs.

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Three more deaths in Kashmir today

Three more people died on Tuesday as crowds defying curfew orders clashed with security forces, taking the toll to 25 in the last five days of unrelenting violence in the Kashmir Valley.

An official said the security forces have been instructed to firmly tackle violence in the Kashmir Valley, but ensure that firearms are not used unless all other preventive measures are exhausted.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who returned after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Delhi, chaired a meeting in Srinagar late Monday.

The meeting was attended by senior officers of the army, state police, central and state intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces.

The valley has been on the boil due to violent protests against civilians being killed in firing by security forces since June 11. Thirty-seven civilians have been killed in the last six weeks, with 23 of them dying since Friday.

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Sushma attacks government in Lok Sabha on price rise

Both houses of parliament were adjourned Tuesday as opposition MPs disrupted proceedings over the Belgaum district dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka and alleged diversion in Commonwealth Games funds.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for half an hour after leaders from Maharashtra and Karnataka gathered near Speaker Meira Kumar`s podium over the disputed district of Belgaum.

The boundary row suddenly came to the limelight last month following the central government’s affidavit in the Supreme Court that the disputed areas could not be made a part ofMaharashtra merely because a majority of the population there speak Marathi.

Trouble began as soon as the house assembled in the morning. Shiv Sena members from Maharashtra sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s intervention in the matter, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members divided on the issue along state lines.

Deputy Leader of Opposition Gopinath Munde supported the cause of Maharashtra, while BJP leader from Karnataka Ananth Kumar raised his voice in support of Karnataka.

Shiv Sena MPs gathered near the speaker`s podium waving placards, prompting BJP MPs from Karnataka to do the same.

There was chaos in the Rajya Sabha too. The upper house was also adjourned till 12 noon as opposition party members protested against the diversion of funds meant for Scheduled Castes towards Commonwealth Games expenditure.

As soon as the house met for question hour, opposition MPs were on their feet protesting the diversion of funds.

MPs from the BJP, Left, Samajwadi Party and others shouted slogans against the government.

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Vivek Oberoi’s wife-to-be

She’s the one Vivek Oberoi is set to lead to the altar this October. Finally, after having had his share of love affairs and heart breaks, the Bollywood actor is ready to tie the knot with 28-year-old Priyanka Alva from Bangalore. Priyanka comes from an influential family. Her father is Karnataka Minister and senior Janata Dal leader Jeevaraj Alva. Her mother is social worker and danseuse Nandini Alva. Priyanka has studied Business Management from London. Catch her stills below and ahead:

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Salman to host Big Boss 4

After all the buzz that superstar Shah Rukh Khan is going to host the next season of "Bigg Boss", it is now confirmed that his arch rival Salman Khan has been roped in to replace megastar Amitabh Bachchan for the fourth season of the popular reality show.

"Salman Khan has been finalised as the host of the next season. We will announce the development officially soon," a source from entertainment channel Colors told IANS.

Earlier, grapevine was rife that either Shah Rukh or Akshay Kumar are being zeroed in on as the "Bigg Boss 4" host since Amitabh gave a nod to the upcoming season of "Kaun Banega Crorepati", to be aired on Sony. But now Salman's entry on the show will be officially announced at an event in Mumbai Tuesday evening.

Considering that the channel has plans to launch the show in October, there might also be a clash with "Kaun Banega Crorepati 4", the promos of which have already gone on air.

However, the source said: "We are not sure when exactly will the show go on air, but we plan to launch it in October for sure. The dates are still to be worked out."

"Bigg Boss" is the Indian version of popular British reality show "Big Brother". It has celebrity contestants locked in a house under the surveillance of multiple cameras for a period of three months without any contact with the outside world.

Its past three seasons were hosted by Arshad Warsi, Shilpa Shetty and Amitabh, respectively.

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When Aamir almost turned down Peepli Live

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There is a story about the making of director Anusha Rizvi's Peepli Live and it sounds hard to believe.

According to the story, Rizvi was looking for funding for the film. She somehow managed to get Aamir Khan's email and wrote to the star. The subject line of the email was "The Falling" -- Rizvi's first choice of title for the film. Khan received the email while he was on the set of The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey and he opened the email because of the subject line. He thought someone was playing a joke on him.

"It is true," Khan said recently as he visited New York City to promote his home production -- Peepli Live. "When I read the email I thought someone was being cheeky with me. So I didn't take it seriously. But she kept writing to me and told me that she was a journalist from NDTV. So that's when I started to take her a little bit more seriously."

Later when Khan was in New Delhi for the Rang De Basanti shoot, he called Rizvi (who is based in India's capital city) for a script narration meeting.

"I really loved it," Khan said. "I thought it was really funny, fast pace, thought provoking and heart breaking."

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