Taliban and Anti-Polio Campaign in AfPak

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Polio has been infecting humans since at least the time of the Pharaohs, until the 20th century when aggressive outbreaks led to intensified responses, and consequently to critical leaps forward in medicine at large. Polio cases were behind the introduction of intensive care units in hospitals. The millions in the West who survived epidemics, left with paralysis and other disabilities, spurred the modern disability rights movement. Most importantly was the discovery of the first polio vaccine in the 1950s.


Polio has no cure, so getting vaccinated is the best way to survive it. Vaccination campaigns that are national in scope can wipe out polio altogether from countries.

Canada saw its last polio epidemic in 1959, and along with all countries in the Americas, was certified polio free by 1994. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, and stands out as one of the great successes of disease eradication.

From 125 countries with endemic polio the year the campaign was launched, today there are only three countries left in the world with polio. They are Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
The end is in sight. Amidst the steady deluge of ominous headlines, here is a radiating bright spot: a debilitating and sometimes deadly disease that has ravaged humans for millennia is on the verge of becoming history. Finishing off polio will be a triumph: an undisputed, non-contentious and utterly noble objective—something all the world can agree upon.

Yet it's not. There is one group that doesn't care to see polio stop stealing and crippling young lives. It's the Taliban. In a part of the world constituting polio's last stronghold, the greatest foe is not new outbreaks or vaccine shortages. Its grizzly militants with room on their agenda for one more bone to add to the anatomy of their death cult ideology.

Polio vaccinations are now suspended in Pakistan, which has the highest polio rate in the world, after Taliban militants murdered nine women vaccination workers in highly coordinated, pre-planned attacks over a period of three days this month.

The Taliban have previously worked to block immunization workers in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A secondary school student named Anisa who volunteered as an antipolio vaccinator in Kapisa province was killed after being shot six times on December 2. In July 2011, a UN doctor was shot and killed in Karachi, and three days later another doctor was shot but survived.

These reports earned brief mention in the media. Most do not. Health workers in Afghanistan and Pakistan are not just on the frontline of the fight against polio, but find themselves explicit targets of the Taliban. Take for instance the experience of a single rural district in Afghanistan, Zhari in Kandahar. On December 5, polio immunization workers there were abducted for three days by insurgents. Another health worker was kidnapped there in January, and 10 vaccinators were kidnapped in the same district in 2008 and eventually released (though the abductors hung on to their vaccines).

Zhari is a microcosm of what's happening off the radar in Afghanistan's and Pakistan's most kinetic areas. The World Health Organization reports frequent threats against polio workers. Health workers involved in polio immunization have quit their jobs in fear for their lives, and volunteers who help the campaign run are reportedly not showing up to work anymore. And with good reason: more polio vaccinators in Afghanistan and Pakistan have now been killed by militants than people killed by polio.

It is no coincidence that polio infections are highest in areas of militant activity. The New York Times reported on December 18 that "people fleeing fighting in those areas have also spread the disease to Karachi, the country's largest city, where the disease has been making a worrisome comeback in recent years." The Asian Human Rights Commission reported that Karachi's slums, where many of the women health workers were killed, were Pashtun-speaking areas where Taliban were known to have a presence.

It is also not a coincidence that polio eradication depends on women, another foe of the Taliban's. It is women who can enter households to administer vaccines, in a society where unrelated men can't have contact with women. Consistent with the usual outcome of Taliban actions, their campaign against those working to end polio is not harming their avowed enemies in the West, but the most poor and vulnerable among Pakistanis and Afghans.

The Taliban have expressed various reasons for their opposition to the anti-polio drive. Radical militant Maulvi Fazlullah has said polio vaccines are used to sterilize Muslims. A Pakistani health official named Gul Naz reported that vaccinators receive calls warning them that the campaign against polio is "infidel" led. Other reports voiced in the Pakistani press have claimed that vaccinators were actually really killed by spies from, variably, the US, Israel or India. In Nigeria, Islamist militants say polio vaccinations go against the will of God.

There is no doubt that superstition, paranoia, and ignorance play a role in what is ultimately a deplorable position on a matter for which there is otherwise unanimous international consensus. But the underlying reason is even simpler, and it's also consistent with everything the Taliban have always stood for.

The Taliban are against modernity. They want to end girls' education, and secular education for everyone. They kill engineers and road workers trying to build infrastructure in Afghanistan. They stalk, mutilate and murder journalists, teachers, lawyers and human rights activists. They want women removed from politics, from the professions, and from public life. And now they want to sabotage the effort to end a disease so close to its twilight. If there is something that promotes health and happiness, the Taliban will oppose it. I believe that's called… well, evil.

TALE OF THE TAPE Photographer uses Scotch tape for a picture spread of fantastically mutilated faces

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A New Mexico-based photographer has uncovered the diverse nature of sticky situations using nothing but Scotch tape, his camera and a few beers.
In a collection of zany photos named simply, “The Scotch Tape Series,” Wes Naman, a 37-year-old photographer from Albuquerque, was able to capture a wide range of facial expression by snapping shots of people with Scotch tape affixed to their faces.

The series, which includes 33 photos of men and women with Scotch tape wrapped around different parts of their faces, offers expressions ranging from hilarious to horrified.
Some subjects are smoking cigarettes, while others are wielding axes or wearing wacky clothes and accessories. But the glue that holds it all together (other than the Scotch tape, of course)?

The intensely emotive facial expressions.

“We got a lot of great facial distortions. The best ones (I) got happened when I asked people to remove the tape,” Naman explained. “The grimaces they had when they were removing the tape — that brought forth the best expressions. A broad range of emotions.”
 The idea started when, last Christmas, Naman and his assistant were wrapping presents with Scotch tape.

“And I was just thinking about a fun project I could do,” Naman said. “I just wanted to get back to work and do something for myself and get away from the commercial work I’d been doing. My assistant and I were playing with the tape and just got a kick out of it, and then I just decided to gather some friends, buy them all some booze and just take their pictures with some Scotch tape.”

“We had a good laugh that night,“ added Naman, who started taking pictures in 1998, shortly after he graduated from college.

Before long, a local writer working for Wired Magazine took note of the photos and word of their charm quickly spread.

During the initial shoot, Naman photographed about eight people, but he expanded the series after the photos went viral.

SEE Channing Tatum and wife show off buff bods on St. Barts beach

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The 32-year-old actor showed off the abs that received top billing in this summer's "Magic Mike" Thursday while on a romantic St. Barts getaway with his pregnant wife, Jenna Dewan-Tatum.
Dewan-Tatum, 32, wasn't exactly chopped liver, looking bewitching in a purple sarong and an orange bikini that showed off a slight swell of her emerging baby bump. The child, which reportedly came as a bit of a surprise to the Hollywood hotties, will be the couple's first.
Jenna Dewan-Tatum and Channing Tatum are pleased to announce that they are expecting the birth of their first child next year," a rep for the actor told Us Weekly on Dec. 17.
On Christmas Day, Tatum posted a picture of himself caressing his wife's stomach, After starring in four movies this year — including "Haywire" and "The Vow" — and with another four scheduled for release in 2013, he has also said he will take an extended break around the birth of his child.
"I'm ready; I think she's ready (for a baby)," Tatum told People when the magazine named him "The Sexiest Man Alive" earlier this year. "The first number that pops into my head is three, but I just want one to be healthy and then we'll see where we go after that.
But on their tropical vacation at least, the couple, who met on the set of 2006’s "Step Up" playing on-screen lovers and married in 2009, only had eyes for each other.
Photographers captured the tender side of the "21 Jump Street" star as he cradled Dewan-Tatum in an embrace on the white-sand beach.

Profile Ajmal Abidy, President Aria Television

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I recently sat with Ajmal Abidy, the owner and president of Aria television, to discuss his vision of the future of media in Afghanistan.Having returned to the country from Pakistan, in 2002, he worked various stints with the United Nations, USAID and the public affairs section of the Afghan president’s office.
He decided to launch Aria after realizing that there was no effective programming targeting children. And after several months of gathering content launched the station which has apparently taken of like a rocket.
AR: What was it like when you came back to Afghanistan?
Abidy: It was like being home. I missed my country and always wanted to be back. It was almost surreal for me. But surreal in a good way.

AR: As a media founder what are some f your challenges here?
Abidy: Well, the challenges change every day. One our initial challenges was to come up with programming which would be liked. And programming which would build a loyal following. That way we could get our messages out to the viewers. Which leads me to say that our viewers, as you know, are mostly children. These children are the most loyal viewers of all.

AR: Why did you decide to target the children?
Abidy: I just thought that the older generations were a bit too rigid. Just like everywhere in the world once people reach a certain age they get set in their ways. With children it is easier to entertain them, it is easier to use positive reinforcement with them and they retain more since their minds are still developing. Some children here take the Taliban as role models because that is what they know. We just wanted to give them a second option. A second option which would instill in them a need to learn…learn about their own country and about other places in the world.

AR: Did you see that as important.
Abidy: Of course. It is sort of like learning a new language. What I mean is when you are a child it is very easy to learn how to speak French or Turkish or some other language. But when you are an adult it becomes much more difficult. This is why I really wanted to target the young minds.

AR: Who are your direct competitors?
Abidy: We really don’t have any direct competitors for the target demographic we are aiming for. We really are the only station only going for the children and younger people. However, in terms of the advertising space we compete with every station in the country.

AR: What are your plans to expand?

Abidy: Right now we are only broadcasting in Kabul. But soon we will be broadcasting in many more provinces. As with any business plan we have to adjust and adapt and overcome issues as they arise. But I am please to tell you that we are on track to accomplish this.

AR: As your station progresses, do you see Afghanistan progressing?
Abidy: Well, Afghanistan, like all countries, has its problems. That goes without saying. I think Afghanistan will progress and even one day be a prosperous country again. It will take a lot of work, but it can be done. We will need help from the donors and from public and private organizations, but it can be done.

AR: Do you think the current help is doing the job?
Abidy: That is a very difficult question to answer. I think yes and no. I think a lot of money has come here but also a lot of that money has been misdirected. If the international community is really serious about helping Afghanistan it must focus on the youth of the country. Since young people make up the majority of our citizens they must be spoken to. Without them there is no Afghanistan.

AR: With media owners like you do you think there is a chance that Afghanistan will revert?
Abidy: I think the general consensus is that we won’t move backwards.

PICTURED MUMBLING PSYCHO suspect in fatal subway shove allegedly tells cops 'I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims'

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A deranged woman who told cops she detests Muslims broke into a maniacal fit of laughter as she was charged with a hate crime Saturday, three days after she allegedly shoved an Indian immigrant to his death in front of a Queens train.
Erika Menendez, 31, confessed to the savage act after she was nabbed on a Brooklyn street about 5 a.m. Saturday, authorities said.
“I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims — ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers, I’ve been beating them up,” cops said Menendez told detectives..”
At her arraignment late Saturday night, Menendez started cackling as prosecutors read aloud her bizarre and contradictory statements to detectives:
“I spent time in Times Square. You will find me on the video. I wasn’t in Queens,” she said. But at another point, she claimed “I pushed a Muslim on the tracks.”.
Menendez’s laughter accompanying the recitation of her statements infuriated the judge.
“Tell your client this is not funny,” Queens Criminal Court Judge Gia Morris thundered, speaking to defense lawyer Dietrich Epperson. “This is not appropriate.”
Menendez was charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime in connection with the gruesome death of Sunando Sen, 46, who was raised a Hindu.
Before she was ordered held without bail, prosecutors revealed Menendez has expressed no remorse — and even bragged about smoking pot and having sex with her “man in Brooklyn” after the murderous deed.
The demented drifter will undergo a psychiatric exam to determine whether she is mentally competent..
Cops say Menendez, without warning, pushed Sen in front of an oncoming No. 7 train at the 40th St./Lowery stop in Sunnyside about 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The deranged drifter - who witnesses said was mumbling to herself but never said a word to Sen before the fatal shove - ran downstairs from the elevated tracks after the attack.
A flood of tips came in, including one from the suspect's brother, after police released a grainy video showing a woman in a puffy jacket sprinting from the station.
The pudgy Menendez was captured near Bedford Ave. and Empire Blvd. in Crown Heights after she was spotted by an eagle-eyed passer-by, who recognized her from the video and called 911. Wearing the same jacket, Menendez appeared disoriented and was asking for directions to the subway, sources said.
She was hauled off to the 112th Precinct stationhouse in Forest Hills. A witness who had been sitting next to her on the subway platform picked her out of a line-up, cops said..
Three other witnesses identified Menendez in the video, said Prosecutor Michelle Kaszuba, who acknowledged there was only one positive identification from four line-ups.
A wild-eyed Menendez seemed startled as she was led out of the stationhouse in handcuffs, en route to her arraignment, about 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
“Whoa,” Menendez shouted as she was led past a horde of photographers, refusing to answer reporters’ questions.
In Rego Park, a doorman at the building where Menendez’s mother and stepfather live said she visited regularly.
“I know her. ... You could tell that something was not right, like she needed medication or something,” said the doorman, who didn't want to give his name. “It’s just very sad what happened.”
Angel Luis Santiago, who worked in the building as a doorman for 40 years, said Menendez spent time in rehab and hospitals.
“When she didn't take her medication, she got wacko,” said Santiago on Saturday.
Another building resident said she never thought Menendez was capable of killing anyone.
“I didn't see any anger in her, or any violent tendencies,” said Janet Heene.
Sen's roommate, Ar Suman, said he’s glad police made an arrest.
“This is good news,” said the 33-year-old Suman. “They need to keep her locked up. After that, it’s for God to decide.”5.

Miz Right New kid in town Samantha Barks scores breakout role in Les Misérables

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Third place made Samantha Barks a winner.
Barks, who plays the lovelorn Éponine in the new film version of “Les Misérables,” got her break on the British reality contest show “I’d Do Anything.”
She finished third in a competition to play Nancy in a West End revival of “Oliver!” — but was launched into a musical theater career that led to her featured role in the Golden Globe-nominated film and potential Oscar contender.
In a movie that touts Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried (as Fantine and Cosette), Hugh Jackman (as Jean Valjean) and Russell Crowe (as Inspector Javert), it’s the unknown Barks who turns out to be the revelation of the French Revolution poperatic drama.
Even though she played Eponine for a year in London’s West End — and for a 25th anniversary concert at London’s O2 Arena — Barks had to go through four months of auditions before she landed the role in Oscar-winner Tom Hooper’s (“The King’s Speech”) film, reportedly beating out Taylor Swift and a handful of other Hollywood starlets.
“It was a grueling audition process,” Barks tells The News. “But then, I’d never done a film.”
She learned she had won the role in “Les Miz” during a curtain call with a different stage production of “Oliver!” in Manchester. Cameras caught the young actress’ look of shock, relief and amazement.
Having played Éponine in front of live audiences for a year, Barks had no problem with Hooper’s decision to have the actors sing live for the camera, rather than prerecording vocals and lip-synching for the camera.
“It’s not like I was going into an unknown role,” she says. “The main difference in doing it for the camera is that, while you still need the same emotional scale and climax, you don’t have to heighten it to hit 2,000 seats. You can rely on the beauty of the text. You can be more real, more subtle, more intimate.”
Barks, 22, started dancing at 3. At 10, she discovered singing and acting as well, always performing in something within the comfortable confines of the Isle of Man — population 84,000 — off the British coast. “I did plays and straight acting in school during the week and sang with rock groups at the weekend,” Barks told The News.
At 16, her parents sent her to London to study professionally. “In hindsight, it was probably scary,” Barks says. “I couldn’t believe how lucky I was that my parents supported me doing it.”
When Barks was 18, she landed on “I’d Do Anything,” whose judges included composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and “Les Miz” producer Cameron Mackintosh. After coming in third on the reality show, Barks almost immediately went into a U.K. touring production of “Cabaret” for a year, before playing Nancy in an “Oliver!” tour and then Eponine.
“I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t win,” she says. “I came third and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be third. I thought the whole thing was a fantastic opportunity. And I ended up playing the role, eventually, anyway. But it came around at the right time, when I was ready to play it.”
The competition, she says, helped her focus on a direction for her quickly budding career.
“I’ve found that musical theater is my passion,” she says. “I would love to have a varied career, like Hugh Jackman. He started in musical theater, then established himself in film, but he still does a lot of stage work. And he does it all beautifully.”
Jackman, a potential Oscar nominee, proved to be both mentor and role model. His work ethic in the demanding role, Barks says, was stimulating. “He’s such a hardworking person and he does it with such grace,” Barks says. “To have him as our leader was very inspiring for the whole cast.”
Barks’ turn in “Les Miz” has earned her big buzz as the film won the Christmas box office — the biggest-ever opening day for a musical.
But she says she wants to pick her next projects carefully.
“It’s a new world for me,” she says. “I want to make smart choices.”
Her dream role?
Barks laughs.
“I’d love to be a Bond girl.”

Idol worship

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tend to follow Art World news like it's The Bold and the Beautiful. I get off on the gossip and intrigue, on the meteoric rise and spectacular crash of artists as they make their way through galleries and art fairs, only to be spat out like used Kleenex. It's a savage world, built on delicacies and theories and aloof elitism. I stepped briefly into it while living in New York, made famous in every movie ever (Great Expectations has a particularly unrealistic take on it) and it took me about five minutes to figure out that, much like in Pakistan, the "global art world" consists of some 50 people, all of whom know one another and none of whom are likely to invite you to a party should you nudge them.

It's a savage world, built on delicacies and theories and aloof elitism
This week my news feeds were set aflame with the announcement that the most overrated artist of the world, that pallbearer of bad taste, that emperor with no clothes, the expensive Damien Hirst, has professionally divorced Larry Gagosian, owner of the eponymous mega-gallery. If you know nothing about the art world, know this: Larry Gagosian is it. If the art world was Star Wars, he'd be Darth Vader but with more money and a better wardrobe. He is the protege of Leo Castelli, the guy who discovered Andy Warhol. There are Gagosian galleries in almost every major world capital. They're less galleries and more museums - in their scope, resources and operational budget.

Given the respective star powers of both Hirst and Gagosian, you can imagine what shockwaves the divorce created. It was like Brangelina broke up (heaven forbid, praise the Technicolor Family of Beauty). That said, most people reading this probably don't know who Hirst is, or indeed Gagosian. That's okay. Contemporary art is so large, so multinational, so changeable, so crammed and so very full of complicated verbal BS that's its hard, if not impossible, to tell who is important. Or more accurately, who will remain important. That's partly why I don't like reading most contemporary art criticism. It'll always try to convince you "the work" you're reading about is the next best thing since croissants discovered chocolate, when it's hardly ever true. Most essays read like press releases, lifting paintings and photographs and sculptures and even (god help me) Happenings to a stratosphere of Amazingness they can hardly ever live up to.
It was while reading up on the art news of the week that I came across another interesting little story that shocked me to bits. Apparently the Starving Buddha (the single most important object in the Lahore Museum and the emaciated cover model of many a glam tourist postcard) was up for sale for millions of dollars at Christies last year. This was especially surprising, considering that the Fasting Bhudda was, when last I saw him, still looking bulimic behind a glass case in the museum.

The sculpture was part of a much larger sale of Gandharan art, almost sixty objects in total that ranged in value from a few thousand to a few million US dollars. And all the objects come from Pakistan.

A little background: in 1976 the intelligent countries of the world passed a law saying that after that year, it would be illegal to take archeological finds away from their country of origin. Anything acquired out of the ground after that year would have to be returned; things that happened before that are still in court. It's a fairly arbitrary pick, but there it is. The statue in question was bought fairly secretly in 1981, begging the question: who sold it?

Apparently the Starving Buddha, the single most important object in the Lahore Museum, was up for sale at Christies last year
won't know. Smuggling antiquities is an old and lucrative game, and like other vices, it does well in Pakistan. Did you know art and antiquities constitute the third biggest black market after arms and drugs? We of course are the perfect place for predators. We have a rich archeological history with absolutely no way or will to protect it. Or even to discover it. Did you know that a French team came here to excavate a stupa they found on the KK highway that led them to a massive monastic complex inside? The French. Not us. We didn't even know it existed. We still probably don't.

We also probably don't (and don't want to) know the extent of our heritage that has made its way to foreign collections. For a brief idea, visit Baltimore. In a small but famous museum there you will see the Ford wing of Gandharan art. The Fords are a childless couple who collect snuff boxes and Gandharan art and serve things like gazpacho for lunch. They gave the bulk of their collection to this museum for posterity. Lovely as the thought is, I felt physically ill walking around a mass of statuary knowing that 80% of the things I was seeing had a dubious provenance, if dubious meant fictitious. That must be what the Greeks feel like every time they see a classical wing in a museum.

The difference is that we are not producing enough new conservators or museum curators to deal with things even if we have them. There is little interaction between the NCA, a school funneling out art professionals, and the museum, despite the fact that they share a wall. Instead of fostering a love of culture, the museum and indeed all our cultural departments have become tacky temples to bureaucratic mismanagement. I mean, they used acrylic paint to restore the Wazir Khan Mosque frescoes. That's like using crayons to fix the Mona Lisa.

First Afghan web TV channel launched

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Kabul and Dubai-based producer Hamida Aman has launched Afghanistan’s first web TV channel Globox.tv, tapping into the country’s burgeoning social media culture.

The youth-focused platform streams two hours of new, short-format content every day, ranging from web series Campus FM, set in a journalism school, to a cultural programme called What Is Up In Kabul.
“It’s something totally new for Afghanistan,” says Aman, who has a track record in producing documentaries such as Kabul Underground through her Kabul-based Awaz Communication and Guru Production in Dubai.
“More and more young Afghanistans have access to the Internet and they’re heavily into social media, Facebook and YouTube,” said Aman.
“It’s a key way for them to communicate with their friends and other young people. It’s very difficult for them to socialise in person. There’s nowhere for them to hangout together, especially for girls.”
Afghan-born Aman grew-up in Switzerland and moved back to her native country in 2002 to work for an NGO specialising in media training, eventually setting up as an independent producer.
Most Globox.tv’s content is produced in Dari – an Afghan dialect of Farsi - in Awaz’ Kabul studio. Campus FM, consisting of 150 eight-minute episodes was shot there last year. A second series, bringing in a Hip-Hop element, is currently in production.
“Hip Hop is a way for young people to express themselves. There are more and more Hip Hop groups sprouting up in Afghanistan and we’re weaving this trend into the story,” said Aman.
Launched in October, Globox.tv is currently registering some 1,000 mainly Afghan-based hits a day.
Aman wants to extend the scope of its content. She recently set up a small production unit in Dubai to make Farsi-language, short format programmes capturing life in the UAE for the channel.

Delhi's women's helpline turns 'helpless', calls greeted by beep sound

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A helpline for women set up with great fanfare by beleaguered Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit through advertisement in newspapers on Monday morning itself appeared to be "helpless" as it was not working.

Calls to the number were greeted by a long beep sound.

Dikshit had last week announced launch of the round-the-clock helpline for offering help to women in distress amid nationwide uproar over the December 16 brutal gang-rape of the 23-year-old in Delhi. The girl had breathed her last on Saturday in a Singapore hospital.

Senior Delhi government officials said the helpline could not be made functional due to some glitches in the MTNL network.

They said the helpline, which will operate from the chief minister's office in Delhi Secretariat, can be contacted from landlines as well as mobile phones.

The Telecom Ministry had last week released the three-digit number following a request by Dikshit. It will be the first three-digit number to have been allotted by the Ministry in two years.

The ministry had earlier allotted '167' for the helpline, but upon request for a number that would be easier to remember, the number was changed to '181'.

Meanwhile in Mumbai, Shiv Sena's youth wing — Yuva Sena — has already launched their helpline to help the women against eve-teasing and sexual harrassment in the city.

Delhi gang-rape Rs15 lakh compensation for victim's family

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Delhi government on Monday announced a compensation of Rs15 lakh for the family of the gang-rape victim.

On Sunday, the 23-year-old paramedical student's father spoke to DNA and spoke about how he had invested all his money for the girl's education.

"They invested all their savings in her and were waiting for her to get a job in the hope that it would end their miseries. Our financial condition has deteriorated. If anybody voluntarily wants, we will accept some help,” the victim's cousin said.

my sunday activities

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The sunday's day mostly something busy for myself. it doesn't means that i do hard work on this day. Every sunday my both brother has a holiday. I'm taking a shower every sunday. Because i can't take a bath alone by myself, therefore, my both brothers has help with me. My one brother get up me on my wheelchair and lie down me on bath-room floor.
My brother keeps hold my both legs up and second brother putting water on me. It always has a painful time for me. Because my spastic legs always paining whenever i try to up and down. Afterwards next step, dressing up even more difficult part. 
So that's a my sunday activities.
I just wanna share with you all. 

Tom Cruise took Queens native Cynthia Jorge on dream date

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Tom Cruise cast a normal Queens gal in a starring role - his leading lady on a wild night on the town.
Less than six months after his divorce from Katie Holmes, the 50-year-old “Jack Reacher” star had a passionate pas-de-deux with Cynthia Jorge, a brunette Fresh Meadows native half his age, including some dirty dancing at the trendy Mulberry St. club, Le Baron, on Dec. 18.
The hookup came two days after Jorge attempted the “Mission: Impossible,” slipping her card to Cruise after a lunch at Beauty & Essex, the lower East Side restaurant she manages, according to In Touch magazine.
"He was mesmerized by Cynthia," a witness to the salsa dance interlude told In Touch, which broke the story. "She had her hair in a bun, wore tight black pants and looked gorgeous.
"At one point, they began grinding together. It was straight out of ‘Dirty Dancing.’ Tom seemed to be in his own world, completely smitten."
He wasn’t only in his own world — he was just a few subway stops from the apartment of his ex-wife Katie Holmes in nearby Chelsea.
But the head doorman at the Le Baron nightclub, who refused to give his man, doubted the dirty-dancing episode ever occurred.
"I was here all night and I didn’t see him," the doorman told the Daily News. "I read about it and I was surprised. If he was here, I would have seen him. I don’t believe it. It didn’t happen here.”
A source said the action hero and Jorge, 26, are not currently an item — and a relative of Jorge’s expressed surprise at the news of his cousin’s close encounter with the Hollywood hunk.
“I don’t know what to say. What would you say if your cousin was dating Tom Cruise?” said Pietro Jorge, 25.
He wouldn’t comment on whether the pair are in a relationship, but he did say Cruise would be the lucky one if there is: “She's nice. She's outgoing. She's a people person," he said.
Jorge’s also not seemingly ready for her closeup. After news of Jorge’s star-studded dance date went public, her bosses at Beauty & Essex asked her to stay home Wednesday night.
"She's a sweetheart,” a restaurant worker at the posh eatery told the News. “She's not working tonight. They called her off work because of (the media scrutiny)."
Jorge may not be a regular on the red carpet, but the 2008 Boston University graduate has made a name for herself in a few short years in New York City’s culinary world.
“As a New Yorker, I have learned that in order to succeed, one must work fast, strike hard and make every move count,” she wrote on her Linked In profile.
Jorge previously worked at Benvenuti Public Relations firm and as the marketing director at Benjamin’s Steakhouse in midtown.
“She was a hard worker," said a floor manager at Benjamin’s.
She told Joonbug.com six months ago that she liked her job at Benjamin’s because she enjoyed, “meeting new people, from CEOs to celebrities to just really interesting people in the industry.”
And, apparently, dating them, too.
In the topsy-turvy world of silver screen romances, it’s not uncommon for stars to connect with civilians. Indeed, Matt Damon dated and later married bartender Luciana Barroso, who he met in Miami. Nicholas Cage met his current wife Alice Kim, 21 years his junior, when she waited on him at a Los Angeles restaurant.
“We have seen this with a lot of people in Hollywood where they say, ‘Maybe it’s better if I date someone who’s not famous,’” In Touch Weekly senior editor Dorothy Cascerceri told the News.
“She’s just an average kind of girl from Queens, but she’s beautiful and Tom Cruise seems to be very taken by her.”
At the end of night, the witness said Cruise played the role of perfect gentleman, ordering a private car to whisk her home to distant Queens.
It had been a rough year off screen for Cruise, who had been reportedly blindsided and “devastated” by Holmes’ divorce filing in June - his third strike after failed marriages to Nicole Kidman and Mimi Rogers.
“Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy,” Cruise’s rep said in a statement to the Daily News at the time.
Then an explosive cover story surfaced in the October issue of Vanity Fair, claiming the Church of Scientology had auditioned Iranian-American actress Nazanin Boniadi to be his girlfriend before his courtship with Holmes. (Cruise vehemently denied those rumors through a rep.)
Cruise’s luck with the ladies, however, may finally be changing.
“People love these kind of stories because it gives them hope that it could happen to them. It’s like winning the lottery,” says Cascerceri.
With Kerry Burke and Allison Joyce

There was just so much devastation this year… We just wanted to see something survive Rescuers face long odds to save beached whale in Queens

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The thought of another loss in Breezy Point was too much for Diane Bassolino to swallow.
The Queens mom, joined by her family, neighbors and local firefighters, battled Wednesday to save the life of a beached 60-foot whale found struggling in the sand.

“There was just so much devastation this year,” said DianeBassolino after using a water bucket to keep the creature hydrated. “We just wanted to see something survive.”
The giant blue-grey finback, bleeding from its mouth and tail, fought for its life as the beachfront enclave did its best to soothe the stranded beast.
The best-case scenario was for the tide to float the seriously-ill whale out to sea and into better health — although the odds were against its recovery.

“It’s severely emaciated,” said Kim Durham of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, a Long Island rescue and research facility.
 We don’t think it will make it,” she warned. “We’re going to let nature take its course.”
Experts theorized the whale, an endangered species which would typically weigh about 60 tons, was injured by a ship and never recovered before washing ashore in the hours after Christmas.
“New York Harbor is like a four-lane highway, so it could have been struck,” Durham said.

But Breezy Point residents, already scarred this year by fire and flood that destroyed dozens of homes, were rooting for the whale to provide a happy ending to a difficult 2012.

“We wanted to save the whale,” said Louis Bassolino, 66, who was hunting for a boat lost in Hurricane Sandy when he came upon the beached finback.

He initially thought the beast was a capsized craft until he came closer — and spotted its huge tail flapping in the surf.

Bassolino quickly woke his family before calling the local NYPD and FDNY.
Wife Diane and daughter Deirdre, 23, were soon tossing buckets of water on the weakened beast.

“We didn’t know what to do,” said Deidre. “I was shocked. I never saw anything that big wash up before. We just wanted to help. We went out there and lo and behold — there’s a whale.”

The Bassolinos worked as a team for about an hour before police and firefighters arrived to pump water on the whale. The Long Island experts were then summoned to the shore to take a look.

“Just seeing it there, it was helpless and injured,” said Louis Bassolino. “It was sad.”

Ed Manley, 50, was among the other volunteer rescuers trying to keep the whale from succumbing. Its tail moved sporadically in the grey morning, offering a hint of its power.

“It’s a beautiful whale,” said Manley. “It’s a shame. I hope we can save her.”
Plumber Paul O’Donnell, 50, rushed to the beach after seeing helicopters in the winter sky above.

“I’ve never seen a whale like that,” he said. “A day after Christmas, that’s pretty wild.”

The finback — second in size only to the blue whale — is an endangered species that can grow to 70 feet in length and 70 tons in size. It also features the deepest voice of any animal on earth.

When healthy, the massive whale can still hit speeds of 35 mph and cruise at about 14 mph. Riverhead rescue director Durham planned to stay at the beach until the whale’s situation is resolved.

A necropsy was planned if the whale can’t survive. The tide starting coming in as the sun went down over Breezy Point.

“This animal has not been fed in a long time,” she said. “It’s a very sick whale. It’s on its last legs.”

It was unclear if the whale was a male or a female.

Louis Bassolino, after surviving the fierce hurricane and its aftermath in Breezy Point, said the tale of the whale seemed like just another day at the beach.

“Nothing surprises me any more,” said Bassolino, “The last year has been crazy around here. Who expected to see a whale after Christmas?”

NBC host may have broken law when using gun prop on 'Meet the Press' -- and cops say network was fully aware it was illegal

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NBC’s David Gregory is an expert on politics, but he may need to brush up on local D.C. law.
Gregory may have run afoul of local Washington police when he brandished a high-capacity gun magazine on “Meet the Press” during an interview with NRA chief Wayne LaPierre on Sunday.
Here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets,” Gregory said, holding up the long, black casing. “Now isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these — if we replaced them and said, ‘Well you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets or 10 bullets’ — isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?”

“I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference,” LaPierre responded. “There are so many different ways to evade that even if you had that (ban).”

After Gregory’s “Meet the Press” show-and-tell, some gun rights activists noted that a section in the D.C. code prohibited the show from having the magazine in its Washington studio.

“No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm,” it reportedly says.

And a spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department confirmed to Politico that Gregory’s demonstration might have broken a local law. On Wednesday, the police also said that NBC News was aware that its prop was not lawful.

“NBC contacted (the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department) inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment,” police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump told Politico in an email. “NBC was informed that possession of a high capacity magazine is not permissible and their request was denied.”

The D.C. police did not immediately respond to a request for more information. A spokeswoman for NBC News declined to comment.

Meet Hollywood's 'most bankable' actors

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Black Swan” was the dark horse Natalie Portman rode to the top of Forbes’ Most Bankable Actors list.
Films in which Portman stars reportedly earn $42.70 for every dollar she earns on average.

With a budget of about $13 million, “Black Swan,” the critically acclaimed juggernaut, grossed $329 million worldwide.

Her roles in “No Strings Attached” and “Your Highness” were also taken into account. “No Strings Attached,” a romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher, earned $150 million at the global box office and only cost about $25 million to produce.

“Your Highness,” on the other hand, was a veritable flop. The $50 million budget produced a movie that only grossed $25 million, failing to cover expenses. But that was not enough to topple her ranking as the actor who provides studios the best bang for the buck.
Coming in second place, Kristen Stewart is part of movies that rake in $40.60 for every dollar she is paid. Since the “Twilight” films grossed $3.3 billion worldwide, her return on investment was high.

Stewart received the same salaries as her Twilight co-stars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner for the final films. But Pattison ranked the fourth most-bankable actor, and Lautner placed sixth.
This happened because “Snow White and the Huntsman” – which grossed $400 million with a $118 million budget – pushed her ahead to become the list’s runner-up.

Forbes assembled the rankings by comparing actors’ earnings from the magazine’s Celebrity 100 list with movie grosses and budgets from Box Office Mojo.
We looked at the last three films each actor starred in over the last three years that opened in more than 2,000 theaters, calculating the return on investment for the studios who pay his (or her) salary,” explained Forbes writer Dorothy Pomerantz, who oversees the Celebrity 100 list.

Forbes did not take into account supporting roles, so Portman’s part in “Thor,” for instance, did not come into play. Even with this money-making marvel omitted, Portman still skyrocketed to the top.

Lovett When it comes to firearms Killers still prefer pistols for their crimes

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ALBANY — The gun scourge in New York goes far beyond the assault weapons that are grabbing headlines in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre.
New state stats show that firearms were responsible for more than 58% of the murders statewide last year — but the biggest problem was handguns.
Of the 769 homicides reported in 2011, 393 were the result of handguns. There were 16 deaths by shotgun, five by rifle, and 33 by an unknown “firearm-type,” the state Division of Criminal Justice Services reports.
The rest of the killings were a mix of stabbings, beatings and other assaults.
A package of new proposals that Gov. Cuomo says he’ll push to give New York the nation’s toughest gun laws would come down on the military-style assault rifles like those used to kill 26 people in Newtown and by the crazed gunman who attacked firefighters responding to a blaze in Webster, N.Y., on Monday.
But Cuomo is also mulling measures that would rein in handguns including tougher gun registration rules and limits on the size of gun magazines to no more than seven bullets.
That would affect magazines for all firearms including handguns.
The new numbers “point to the fact that we must enact sensible restrictions on firearms,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. “The Assembly has long been a champion for common sense reforms, and I hope the Senate will finally agree.”
Senate Republicans, who for years blocked gun control measures in Albany, for the first time have said they are open to expanding the assault weapons ban, though they have not offered specifics.
But Thomas King, president of the state Rifle & Pistol Association, said the latest numbers showing just five murders linked to rifles prove that assault weapon bans won’t stop a culture of violence.
“Banning assault weapons is not going to do anything to make the people of New York State safer,” King said. “It is not the weapon of choice except for maybe some cartels or drug gangs.”

LITTLEST NEW YORKER After mad rush to hospital is cut short, baby boy is born early Wednesday morning on the Manahattan side of the Holland Tunnel

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He was the light at the end of the Holland Tunnel.
A New Jersey couple, aided by a pair of Port Authority workers, welcomed their premature son, Nassim Mohammed Elkarhat, around 7 a.m. Wednesday on the tunnel’s Manhattan side.

Dad Abdel Elkarhat and mom Soukaina Nekhlaoui of Lodi, N.J., were headed to a Brooklyn hospital for Nassim’s sudden delivery when the mom-to-be’s labor pains intensified, a Port Authority spokesman said.

When their black Cadillac reached the Manhattan side of the tunnel, Elkarhat pulled over — and the baby was ready to join the family.

“The father was really frantic,” said PA senior tunnel and bridge officer George McCann, 52, a father of two children — but a rookie at delivering one.
You could tell he was a new father,” McCann continued. “He was running around screaming, ‘Help me! Help me!’”

McCann, a 34-year PA veteran, said the baby — born six weeks early — was blue when he first hit the air.

But the boy’s eyes opened once he was placed on mom’s chest, and McCann and colleague Jean Bernard administered oxygen through a makeshift tent fashioned from a wool blanket.

“We kept the baby stable,” said McCann, who ran over when he spotted Elkarhat pull over just outside the tunnel from New Jersey.

A city EMS crew arrived at the scene to cut the umbilical cord. Both mother and son — whose name means “scent of a morning flower,” were doing well hours later at New York Downtown Hospital.

“It was great,” said Bernard. “The baby looked up, looked at us and was like, ‘Why are you bothering me? I want to go back to sleep.’”

The couple, already the parents of a girl, were headed to Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn — where their first child was born — when Nassim changed their plans.

Land a starring role in 'The Great Gatsby' for only $15,000

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You can  watch “The Great Gatsby” when it opens on the silver screen next year, or you can live like Fitzgerald’s greatest character with a Roaring Twenties getaway reminiscent of the fictional East Egg.
The Oheka Castle hotel on Long Island is offering a $15,000 “Romantic Evening Package” this holiday season, putting the hotel that’s located inside what was the second-largest private home in the country at your beck and call.
This Gatsby-esque one-night hotel stay in Cold Spring Harbor begins with a limo drive from anywhere in the five boroughs to the 127-room Oheka Castle, which is named from the letters in original owner Otto Hermann Kahn’s name.
Kahn, by the way, not only inspired “Gatsby” author F. Scott Fitzgerald, but also the makers of Monopoly, providing the look for the board game’s fictional capitalist, Rich Uncle Pennybags.
Upon arrival, a white-gloved butler will carry your bags to your luxury suite. Then you can take over the entire ballroom: It’s been reserved for just you and your date. If the Charleston isn’t your thing — heck, Gatsby wasn’t such a great dancer — the hotel includes a lesson and a string quartet.
Follow that up with a dozen roses and a seven-course menu designed in consultation with your private chef.
You also get a personal photographer to record it all.
Long Island was home to more than a thousand such castles in America’s Gilded Age — six are now open to the public. Kahn’s summer home on 443 acres cost $11 million a hundred years ago. That would be roughly $110 million by today’s standards.
Original plans were found and checked for historical accuracy. Slate roof tiles were cut from the same Vermont quarry that formed the original ones. More than 250 windows and doors were replaced.
Oheka again has eight reflecting pools and three fountains. No wonder it’s a popular wedding and event venue and has been home to countless movie and advertising shoots.
The USA Network’s show “Royal Pains” filmed there, too.
Oheka fell into disrepair after Kahn’s death in 1934, becoming a summer retreat for New York City sanitation workers, a training school for the Merchant Marines and a military academy. Abandoned in the 1970s, vandals stripped the plumbing, plundered ornate chandeliers and even stole most of the 39 gigantic fireplaces right from the walls.
In 1984, Gary Melius bought the shell of the glorious estate and 23 acres around it for $1.5 million.
He restored the mansion and gardens to grandeur, investing $30 million in the painstaking process.
 If the Jay Gatz-like price of $15,000 a night is out of reach, old sport, you can still visit Oheka, where $25 guided tours are offered every day.

Jennifer Aniston shows off bikini body that looks like a Christmas miracle during holiday with fiance Justin Theroux

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Jennifer Aniston’s fiance received the perfect Christmas gift — the chance to spend the holiday on the beach staring at the love of his life in a itsy-bitsy hot pink bikini.
The star turned heads in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with the love of her life, Justin Theroux, lounging at her side.
Theroux, 41, didn’t look so bad himself, showing off his washboard abs and full-back Asian tatto.
There have been rumors circulating in the glossy gossip tabloids that the 43-year-old actress was pregnant, but Aniston showed no sign of a baby bump Monday.
Cabo San Lucas’ high-end resort community has become a winter wonderland for many celebrities during Christmas week. George Clooney and girlfriend Stacy Keibler also opted for sunnshine over sleigh bells, according to gossip site TMZ.com.
Aniston and Theroux have been one of Hollywood’s hottest couples since they met on the set of this summer’s “Wanderlust.” The screenwriter behind “Tropic Thunder” proposed to his girlfriend on Aug. 10, his birthday, during a dinner at Greenwhich Village eatery Blue Hill.
“Everyone is really excited for them," the source told People magazine at the time. "It's amazing to see how happy Justin makes Jen, and everyone was always hoping that he would propose."

Arizona cat badly injured by a cactus, Prickly Pete, adopted by proud new owner

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No one stepped forward to claim Prickly Pete after the unlucky cat received emergency medical attention for cactus injuries. But Pete’s luck turned around when a Sun City, Ariz., woman adopted him Wednesday.

“I fell in love with him the minute I saw him,” Jean Mann, the cat’s new owner, told the Daily News.
Mann, 72, thought Pete was adorable as soon as she saw his yellow eyes and orange and white markings.

“He’s beautiful and loving,” she said. “We were lucky that he was there waiting for us.”

Mann, a retired nurse’s assistant, visited the Arizona Humane Society with her son and 8-year-old granddaughter to buy the child a kitten for Christmas. She did not expect to get a cat for herself, but when she heard Pete’s sad story, she knew that she wanted to give him a loving home.

“It’s really sad,” Mann said. “I can’t imagine that he survived, and he’s such a nice kitty.
ust last week, Pete was recovering at the society’s Second Chance Animal Hospital from an unfortunate incident that left cactus spines in his eyelids, muzzle, face, and body. Pete will be safe with Mann partly because she shares his dislike for cacti.

“Even if he was to go outside, there will be no cactus. We only have grass and trees,” she said. “And he won’t be alone, because he’s got a brother and a sister.”

His new siblings are Mann’s Maltese dogs, with whom Pete already gets along.

Mann is thrilled about the energy Pete has brought to the household. Her husband passed away in June, and the home has not been the same without him. She said that she and her dogs miss him tremendously.

“We’re kind of bored around here,” Mann said. “We’re ready for a new person in our life.”
Pete is not skittish in his new home. He has spent almost the entire time by Mann’s side.

“The minute I sit down, Prickly Pete is right there. He likes to sit on the chair with me,” she said. “He’s gonna get a lot of loving.”

سلمان اور سوناکشی کی فلم کا نیا پرومو ڈائیلاگ ریلیز

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 بالی و ڈ اسٹارز سلمان اور سوناکشی نئی فلم ’’دبنگ ٹو‘‘ کا نیا ڈائیلاگ پرومو ریلیز کردیا گیا ہے ۔ 
اسٹائل میں سینما گھروں میں واپسی کے لیے تیار ہیں ۔قبل ازیں بلاک بسٹر فلم دبنگ کے سیکوئل’’ دبنگ ٹو‘‘ کے نئے رومانٹک سانگ’’سانسوں نے‘‘کی وڈیوجاری کی گئی تھی ۔اب فلم کے ولن کے ساتھ ہیرو سلمان کا پرومو ڈائیلاگ ریلیز ہوا ہے ۔اس سے پہلے سونو نگم اورتلسی کمار کی آوازمیں ریکارڈ ہونیوالے سانگ کو ریلیز کیا گیا یہ گیت سلمان اور سوناکشی پر فلمایا گیا ہے۔سلمان کے بھائی ارباز خان کی ہدایتکاری میں بننے والی اس فلم کو ارباز اور انکی اہلیہ ملائیکا اروڑا خان نے مشترکہ طور پر پروڈیوس کیا ہے۔پچھلی فلم کی طرح اس فلم میں سلمان چلبل پانڈے کے کردار میں بطور ہیرو جب کہ سوناکشی ایک بار پھر ہیروئن رجو پانڈے کے کردار میں موجود ہیں تاہم فلم کے ولن اس بار سونو سوڈ کے بجائے پرکاش راج ہیں۔ 

Sunny Leone to shake her booty for Rs 1 cr at a New Year bash

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Shortly after news of her being approached for an item song, adult star Sunny Leone is apparently a hot favourite this year for New Year bashes being held in the city.
After her debut film, she has been approached by a lot of suburban hotels to perform at the New Year's Eve and looks like Sunny has given her nod to one of them.
A source close to her reveals, "Sunny has chosen to perform at a famous property in Delhi. She is being paid close to a crore to dance to a medley of popular Bollywood numbers. She loves to dance and has already started rehearsing for her

Poonam's raunchy photoshoot

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Poonam Jhawer is an Indian glamour model, Bollywood film maker, singer and actress. She started her bollywood career with the blockbuster Hindi film Mohra. After her role in Mohra, Poonam Jhawer got typecast and soon her career in Bollywood started sinking. It was then that Poonam started acting in raunchy B-grade films

Picture abhi baaki hai

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If the Mayans were to be believed then the world was supposed to end this year. Outrageous as it may sound, the thought couldn’t scare Bollywood for what could possibly be more outrageous! The world might not have come to an end but the old order to things did change for Bollywood. Additionally, there was a lot new in terms of not just faces but also stories, and more importantly attitude across the entire spectrum.

2012 is the year where the 100 crore box-office collection mark almost became a norm for the big releases. For the first time seven films (Ek Tha Tiger, Rowdy Rathore, Agneepath, Housefull 2, Barfi!, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, and Bol Bachchan) collected over 100 crores in the domestic market. But the good thing is that in spite of such a record setting feat, 2012 might just be recalled more for films like Paan Singh Tomar, Kahaani, and Vicky Donor.

A mix of commercial as well as critical success, these three films broke a lot of myths such as heroine-oriented films, biopics that don’t feature stars and mature comedies being risky projects. Sujoy Ghosh’s sequel to Kahaani featuring Vidya Balan is already in the works and Ayushman Khurana’s performance in Vicky Donor has been one of the best things to happen to commercial Hindi cinema for a while. As far as performances went then the year clearly belonged to Nawazuddin Siddiqui who not had two of his films (Gangs of Wasseypur, Miss Lovely) screened at the Cannes Film Festival but also pitched in a riveting performance as Timur in Talaash. Similarly, Siddique’s costar from Gangs of Wasseypur Huma Qureshi too lapped up rave reviews but the one superlative performance of the year was Sridevi’s English Vinglish. Returning to the silver screen after almost 15 years, Sridevi did what she’s best at – setting the screen on fire and proving that there’s nothing like old gold.

The biggest contribution 2012 made was in in clearing a little of the predicament that many production houses found themselves in about a cinema where the big budget event films and the middle of the path cinema could happily co-exist. Often the success of smaller films like Kahaani or Vicky Donor would make them scurry around the directors who made them and give them a carte blance for the future. Sujoy Ghosh suffered when the success of Jhankar Beats got him Alladin but he seems to have understood what he’s best at, and hopefully this time around the second-half would be different.

On a sadder note, the year saw the death of Hindi cinema’s first bona fide superstar Rajesh Khanna and Yash Chopra, a filmmaker who perhaps redefined Hindi films on more occasion than anyone else in living memory. In spite of all the change and freshness and what have you, the success of the tried and tested especially the fact that the more regressive a film seemed the greater money it made will ensure that nothing changes in real terms.

If we know one thing about Bollywood is that the more things change the more they remain the same. So, if this year we saw a Rowdy Rathore, 2013 promises to unleash the remake of Himmatwala and who knows which oldie would Team Golmaal rehash this time around. The success of the comparatively smaller films such as Paan Singh Tomar, Kahaani and Vicky Donor has been more than a silver lining and will no doubt inspire a few more in similar lines. This fight of the two opposing schools of Hindi cinema is what makes it interesting, and hopefully 2013 will give us more to cheer.

Paul Simon sings at funeral of Sandy Hook heroine teacher Victoria Soto as Newtown lays to rest another hero school staffer and four slain students

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She went to her grave to the strains of “The Sound of Silence.”

Teacher Victoria Soto, who used her body to shield her students from a madman’s bullets, was serenaded by Paul Simon before she was laid to rest Wednesday.
The singer, who knows the Soto family through his nurse sister-in-law, picked up his acoustic guitar midway through the funeral at the Lordship Community Church in Stratford and — without any introduction — sang the 27-year-old Soto’s favorite song.
When Simon finished, there was no applause. Just a hushed and reverent silence.

As Soto lay in a wooden casket covered with white flowers, her 24-year-old sister Jillian broke down as she eulogized the teacher.
“Somebody wrote me a letter about the recent tragedy that I would like to share with you: In it, it said they had to sit down with three small children, explaining to them that monsters sadly do exist out there. But they felt relief that because of my sister, they were able to tell them that superheroes also are very real.

“You are my superhero.”

Another of Soto’s sisters, Carlee, also recalled the teacher’s selfless courage.

“My sister gave her life to save her kids, and if that's not true strength and heroism, I don’t know what is.”
Soto, who inherited her namesake great-grandmother’s blue eyes, was inspired by her aunt Debbie Cronk to become a teacher.

“I can still hear her voice the day she called me and said, ‘Aunt Debbie, I got a job teaching first grade in Newtown,’” Cronk said, tears cascading down her cheeks. “I think I was more excited than she was.”
Police say when disturbed gunman Adam Lanza burst into Soto’s first-grade class, the young teacher rushed her students into a closet and then placed herself in the path of the bullets.

“You just needed to be an angel, an angel to the 19 children you protected,” said Jillian Soto
Relatives and friends remembered another Soto, the one who played with Barbie dolls and pretended to be a Spice Girl when she was a child, the one who loved family picnics and cracking jokes, burnt macaroni and cheese and the Yankees. The one who loved life.

“She loved to dance, be silly, make people laugh and just do crazy things,” college roommate Rachel Schiavone said of the fifth-year Sandy Hook teacher, who nicknamed her new car “Blaze.”
Funerals for four of the slain Sandy Hook Elementary School students followed, along with a wake for the school’s principal, Dawn Hochsprung.

While Soto’s funeral was going on, Education Secretary Arne Duncan met privately in Newtown with still-stunned Sandy Hook Elementary School staffers.
Newtown’s students went back to school on Tuesday. Sandy Hook students are expected to return after the holidays at a former middle school in nearby Monroe.

As Duncan was bucking up the staffers, yet another child-sized coffin was carried into the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, this one bearing the body of 7-year-old Daniel Barden.



Daniel was a smiling, soccer-loving son whose unfailing sweetness made his death so much harder for his parents to bear. He dreamed of being a New York City firefighter, like some of his relatives.

While Daniel didn’t get to live out that dream, he got a firefighter’s farewell. Hundreds of them formed a line outside the church while bagpipers played.

“How could this happen?” the Rev. Robert Weiss asked, posing a question all of America has been asking since the senseless slaughter. “It was just like any other day. A child goes to school and you expect them to be safe — then in a matter of moments, life changes forever.”

Daniel’s funeral Mass was followed by another at the church for 6-year-old Caroline Previdi, another of the 20 children slain by Lanza.
“Caroline was our little dancer,” her mother, Sandy, said. “She loved to dance and sing. She brought such joy to those around her.”

In total, nine funerals for slain children will be held at the church before Christmas.

Not far away, at King Lutheran Church, mourners gathered for the funeral service of Charlotte Bacon, a 6-year-old with a shock of curly red hair.
My wish today, is that when you think of Charlotte, or when we speak of her, that we remember a sweet, bright little girl who loved animals, the color pink and dresses — not how she was killed,” her aunt Georgie told mourners.

Among the mourners was Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy.
Over at Trinity Episcopal Church, friends and family said farewell to 6-year-old Benjamin Wheeler, a New York City boy transplanted to Newtown who loved riding the subway when his family lived in Sunnyside,

Ninth death reported in polio team attacks

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Health official Janbaz Afridi said 20-year-old Hilal Khan died on Thursday, a day after he was shot in the head in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Since Monday, gunmen had launched attacks across Pakistan on teams vaccinating children against polio.

Six women are among the nine anti-polio workers killed in the vaccination campaign jointly conducted with the Pakistani government.

The UN has suspended the drive until a government investigation is completed.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the crippling disease is endemic.

Former Marine suffering from PTSD and jailed in Mexican prison over antique shotgun released in time for holidays

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A former Marine imprisoned in Mexico since August for carrying an antique shotgun was abruptly released Friday night and returned safely to the United States, his lawyer said.

“He’s out. Going home,” Eddie Varon Levy, Hammar’s lawyer, wrote in a message posted to Twitter.
A Mexican judge ruled Friday to free Jon Hammar, 27, from the notorious CEDES prison where he has been jailed since August after trying to declare the weapon at the border.
“These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over,” U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of the most vocal proponents for Hammar’s release,  said in a statement. “ I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends.”
A spokesman for Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) also confirmed to the Daily News that a gun charge against the former Marine will be dropped.
Earlier Friday, a representative of the Mexican attorney general’s office confirmed to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that Hammar would be released.
No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge,” Nelson said in that statement. “We’re grateful; this is a good Christmas present.”
The court ruling came as a bit of a surprise. Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, penned a letter this week saying Hammar had been rightly arrested in August for the “federal crime” of carrying a shotgun “restricted for the exclusive use of the Mexican Armed Forces.”
Hammar and a friend were en route to Costa Rica for a surfing trip when they passed through the border checkpoint in Brownsville, Texas, allegedly declaring the old shotgun to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
The agents allowed the pair to continue, allegedly telling them the gun wouldn’t be a problem at the Matamoros, Mexico checkpoint. There, Hammar tried to declare the gun and both he and his friend, a former Marine, were immediately arrested. His friend was released days later.
The chain of events at the border was almost “like a trap,” Hammar’s father, Jon Hammar Sr., told the  News earlier this month.
Hammar, who spent four years in Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was jailed in CEDES, a well-known lockup for criminals linked to Mexico’s violent drug cartels. His life has allegedly been threatened and his family says they received late night extortion calls to their home in Florida seeking thousands of dollars to keep the young man safe.
For his own protection, prison officials, with the help of U.S. consular officials, moved Hammar out of the prison’s general population. For a time, he was handcuffed to a bed because there were no cells available, a source said.
Hammar's parents began a very public push this month to get him freed. U.S. lawmakers, including Ros-Lehtinen and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla),, joined the chorus of calls urging Mexico to drop the felony charge, which could have kept him behind bars for 12 years.
Hammar's defense attorney argued the arrest was based on a misunderstanding and the attempt to declare the gun showed he had no criminal intent nor was he aware of Mexico's gun laws.
Mexican officials maintained that Hammar was arrested according to the letter of the law, and that border guards did not have discretion to send him back to the U.S. checkpoint.  They also said the Marine's rights were respected and the judicial process was observed.

Feds arrest 25-year-old woman accused of producing kiddie porn video with 4 to 5-year-old victim

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PENSACOLA, Fla. — Federal authorities have arrested a Florida Panhandle woman on producing child pornography charges.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations said Friday that 25-year-old Corine Danielle Motley was apprehended following a nationwide public appeal for help.
ICE received an arrest warrant Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for Motley. Officials say she's believed to have produced at least one video with her engaging in explicit sexual conduct with a 4 to 5-year-old victim.
The video was brought to authorities' attention by law enforcement in Denmark, who downloaded the video during a child pornography investigation in that country.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says the victim has not been identified.
Motley is being held in the Escambia County Jail without bond.

Dog’s best friend Heartbroken pooch bravely stands in traffic for SIX HOURS to guard dead companion struck by car

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Heart-stirring photos out of China show a stray dog braving traffic to stand vigil over a dead female companion, who appears to have been hit by a car.
The brown and white mutt, a stray known to some locals in Zhangzhou, in southern China's Fujian Province, licks his partner's head and nudges her with his nose, as if trying to gently coax her awake.
The loyal pooch reportedly stood watch over his slain friend for more than six hours.
Xiao Wu, a local butcher, said the dog was a stray he had recently started to feed.
He often saw the two playing together, and he watched as the heartbroken pup tended to his partner's broken body, the Daily Mail reported.
The heartbroken pup licked his mate's head and tried to hug her with his front paws. The butchers swore he saw tears.
"He stayed beside her the whole day, keeping licking her and pushing her, trying to wake her up. It's very touching."
"Then he pushed her with his head, and licked her face," he told the Mail. "I even saw tears."
Witnesses said the dog stayed with his fallen companion for six hours.

$500 million in checks found at Jerusalem’s Western Wall

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Holy Powerball.
For centuries, worshippers have been tucking slips containing written prayers into the cracks of Jerusalem’s Western Wall. On Wednesday, one man found an answer he wasn’t expecting.
The man came to the wall to pray for financial security, according to the Jerusalem Post. He found an envelope at the site stuffed with checks that added up to $500 million dollars.
There were 507 checks total, signed and written for about $1 million each. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who oversees the Wall, said most of them were Nigerian, but some came from the United States, Europe, and Asia.
The checks weren’t addressed to anyone and they probably can’t be cashed in
The man, working through a lawyer, took the envelope to the police. A spokesperson said the police were investigating whether the checks were forged.
This isn’t the first time such holy checks have surfaced. Rabinovitch said he has found checks in the Wall’s charity boxes before, mostly written by worshippers from Africa. All of those checks bounced.
Rabinovitch said he believes the check writers had good intentions. He thinks they “wanted to give all they had to the Creator of the Universe.”