They may be singing each other’s praises now in rather saccharine tones, but it seems Madhavan wasn’t too happy with having Bipasha Basu for a co-star when filming on Jodi Breakers first started. “Madhavan was already on board for Jodi Breakers when director Ashwini Chaudhary informed him that he was considering Bips for the female lead. Maddy wasn’t overtly enthusiastic about the choice and expressed his reservations to Ashwini,” a little birdie tells us.

With the crisis in the Maldives deepening as defiant former President Mohamed Nasheed alleged a coup, India has stepped up its outreach to all key political interlocutors in the archipelago nation to push a political deal that spurs the process of forming a broad-based national government of unity.

Close on the heels of the Congress party’s statewide silent protest on Thursday, Madhya Pradesh BJP president Prabhat Jha took a jibe at the state Congress leaders, especially those holding ministerial berths at the Centre, and asked them what have they done to bring pressure on the Central government to ensure release of funds to the state government for maintenance of National Highways?

In the temple town of Ramnagar, the BSP is facing a litmus test for its social engineering, which had powered the party with absolute majority five years ago. The major crisis of the area, which came in the form of flooding of three-fourth of Ramnagar, is claimed by the sitting BSP MLA Amresh Shukla to have been solved by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati.

Though projected as the OBC mascot of the Congress, Union minister Beni Prasad Verma appears to be facing a tough fight on his home turf in Gonda. Even though Mr Verma is said to have been given a free hand in picking Congress candidates in the area, the Samajwadi Party appears to have made a strong comeback in the political arena, apart from the BSP still holding grounds here.

Less than a week after a similar move by micro-blogging site Twitter, Internet major Google has unveiled plans to make content on its blogger platform selectively available, depending on the local rules of each country.

In a tragic accident on an unmanned railway crossing, at least three people were killed and over 50 injured on Friday when a passenger train rammed into an earth-cutting vehicle on its track in Kamrup district of Assam.

In a sappy e-mail, Gisele Bundchen has implored her friends and family to pray hard for her footballer husband Tom Brady to win Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Giants.

When Bipasha Basu said she was looking for an image change, we thought she was referring to something along the lines of a light-hearted Jodi Breakers like comedy.

After having backed the BSP strongly in 2007, Barabanki appears to hint at a clear anti-incumbency undercurrent against the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh. The people on the ground indicate that Barabanki is set up for a tough triangular contest but at the same time suggest that they would have local factors in the mind while casting their votes.