Five-year ban for star - Independent Online

Bollywood superstar, Shah Rukh Khan, faces a police probe and has been banned for five years from Mumbai’s main cricket stadium on Thursday after a furious late-night row with staff at the ground, officials said.

The actor, who co-owns the Indian Premier League (IPL) team, Kolkata Knight Riders, took a group of youngsters including his daughter, Suhana, on to the pitch of the Wankhede Stadium after a match on Wednesday night.

A security guard tried to stop them from playing, leading the multi-millionaire actor to argue angrily for 10-15 minutes before finally giving up and leaving the stadium.

“Security officials told him to leave but Shah Rukh Khan started the brawl,” said Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) secretary, Nitin Dalal.

“He entered the ground half an hour after the game. The officers told him that this was not the right time. He misbehaved and he used foul language.”

Khan denied reports he was drunk. He says he lost his temper when he saw security guards pushing his children.

Dalal said the MCA had filed a police complaint and would ban the cricket-crazy star from future attendance at the Wankhede Stadium.

“He’ll not be allowed for any match – Test match, one-day international or any T20 or IPL matches hereafter.

“That is what we have decided,” said MCA treasurer, Ravi Savant, soon after the incident.

Savant said MCA president, Vilasrao Deshmukh, was among the officials and security personnel “abused” by Khan, adding that the stadium ban would be “for life”.

However, on Friday Mumbai Cricket Association official Vilasrao Deshmukh said that Khan would be banned from the stadium for five years.

The sweaty and dishevelled appearance of Khan, one of the most popular stars of the nation’s prolific Bollywood film industry, was a far cry from the carefully managed image presented through his advertising and acting roles.

The 46-year-old was embroiled in another ugly row in January after a female director accused him of assaulting her husband at a late-night party.

Khan has also been summoned to appear before a court in Jaipur later this month after he was seen smoking at the city’s main cricket stadium, in violation of anti-smoking laws.

Balbir Punj, a senior leader of India’s political Bharatiya Janata Party, said Khan was an icon and public figure who “should know how to behave in public”.

He referred to an incident last month that saw Khan detained by US immigration authorities for questioning on arrival at a New York airport.

“When he was humiliated in America, the entire country stood by him.

“He should respect others and the law must take its course,” Punj said.

Khan’s agent was unavailable for comment yesterday. – Sapa-AFP

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Robin Gibb's last words - Independent Online

Reuters

Robin Gibb

Robin Gibb's last words saw him pay a touching tribute to his late twin brother Maurice.

The Bee Gees singer lost his long battle with colon and liver cancer on Sunday night and paid tribute to Maurice, who died in 2003 after complications during an operation on a twisted intestine, on his deathbed.

Speaking to family members shortly before he passed away, the 62-year-old star said: "I wish Mo was here, I can't believe he is gone."

His family, including wife, Dwina, brother Barry, daughter Melissa, 37, and sons Spencer, 39, and Robin-John, 29, had been keeping a bedside vigil at a London hospital in recent weeks, and family sources revealed the singer often talked about Maurice during his final few weeks.

But Robin never acknowledged the fact he might be dying, despite drifting in and out of a coma, and he "constantly" spoke of the possibility of touring with his brother Barry and at one point on his deathbed he called out for his son Robin-Junior.

A friend told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "We all knew he was seriously unwell, but his strength of character meant he never once mentioned the possibility he might not make it.

"Instead he talked constantly about touring again, working with his brother Barry and about how much he missed Maurice, or Mo as he always called him.

"It was very moving to hear him speak so lovingly of his twin brother - as though he had never quite accepted that he had gone and still felt the same amazing connection between the two of them that they'd always had.

"He was also an incredibly loving father and husband - on one occasion he woke from his coma and immediately called out for his son, asking 'where's RJ?' "

Barry's older brother Barry, 65, is said to be heartbroken after hearing the news at his home in Miami, Florida, and he made plans to fly back to London with his 92-year-old mother Barbara to mourn with the family.

As well as paying tribute to Maurice, Robin made a dying wish for the Bee Gees classic 1977 hit 'How Deep Is Your Love' to be the first song played at his funeral, asking Spencer to make it possible.

A close friend told The Sun newspaper: "It's a beautiful song, penned by a beautiful person. It couldn't be more appropriate when we all say goodbye."

The group – made up of Robin, his twin brother Maurice and Barry – sold over 220 million records in their career, but they also suffered heartache when their sibling Andy died of heart failure aged just 30.

A number of stars have paid tribute to the late singer including Duran Duran, Liam Gallagher, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, Diana Ross and John Travolta.

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German investor confidence falls - Independent Online

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N. Waziristan measles outbreak kills 12 - Central Asia Online

MIRANSHAH – Measles has killed 12 children during the past three weeks in North Waziristan Agency and is spreading fast because of a shortage of medicines, media reported May 14.

Mohammad Ali Shah, medical superintendent of Miranshah’s main hospital, said it was receiving 5 to 10 child measles patients daily, Dawn reported. He said measles typically kills 1 or 2 children a year.

Shah blamed the shortage of vaccine on curfews, military operations and long power outages, which prevented his hospital from storing the medicine properly, according to media.

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Talks between US, Pakistan fail - report - Independent Online

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High-level talks on ending a diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan have ended in failure over Pakistani demands for an apology from the United States, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The newspaper said US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman left the Pakistani capital Friday night with no agreement.

The departure followed two days of discussions aimed at patching up the damage caused by a US air strike last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghanistan border, the report said.

The United States refuses to apologize for the strike.

The incident has damaged the precarious US-Pakistani partnership and provoked outrage in Islamabad, which has retaliated by cutting off NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.

The United States and Pakistan disagree about the precise sequence of events in the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies shooting first, and has accused the Americans of an intentional attack on its troops.

The administration of President Barack Obama had been seriously debating whether to say “I'm sorry” to Pakistan's satisfaction - until April 15, when multiple simultaneous attacks struck Kabul and other Afghan cities, The Times said.

“What changed was the 15th of April,” the paper quotes an unnamed senior administration official as saying.

US military and intelligence officials concluded that the attacks were directed by the Haqqani network, a group working from a base in North Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal belt, the report said.

That swung the raging debate on whether Obama or another senior US official should go beyond the expression of regret that the administration had already given, and apologize, the paper said.

Without the apology, Pakistani officials say they cannot reopen the NATO supply routes into Afghanistan that have been closed since November, the report said.

The United States, in turn, is withholding from Pakistan between $1.18 billion and $3 billion (2.26 billion euros) of promised military aid.

The continuing deadlock does not bode well for Pakistan's attendance at a NATO meeting in Chicago in three weeks, assuming it is even invited, The Times said.

US administration officials acknowledged Friday that the stalemate would not be resolved quickly, the paper noted. - Sapa-AFP

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