Mumbai, June 18 : Ranbir Kapoor, who is on cloud nine after the success of "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani", is leaving no stone unturned to give his best in "Besharam". The Bollywood heartthrob is polishing his Punjabi diction for the comedy.

"They are shooting a lot in Chandigarh, so Ranbir has been learning the language. It is crucial for his character, so a tutor has been hired. He's been practising to speak like the locals there - in terms of usage of words and their pronunciations," said a source.

Bangalore, June 18 : Karnataka will soon permit the state ombudsman (Lokayukta) to prosecute senior officials named in the probe report on the multi-crore iron ore mining scam in the state, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Tuesday.

"We will sanction permission to the ombudsman to prosecute about 130 officials, including those of IAS and IPS ranks named in the Lokayukta report, which named them for their role in the mining scam," Siddaramaiah told editors of local newspapers and bureau chiefs of news agencies here.

Drug maker Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals on Monday announced that U. S. health regulator Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved its Irungattukottai, Chennai-based oral formulations facility.

Orchid revealed that the U. S. health regulator inspected its facility and approved it without any observations.

Patna, June 18 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is confident of proving his majority in the assembly Wednesday after dumping the BJP as an ally, party leaders said Tuesday.

Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leaders said Nitish Kumar was "calm and cool" and spent the day in office Tuesday, not worried about the trust vote in the 243-seat legislature.

Soon after the JD-U ended its 17-year-old alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party Sunday, the chief minister vowed to seek a vote of confidence at a special session of the state assembly Wednesday.

London, June 18 : Senior Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene has said they need to contain the "strong Indian batting" when the two teams meet in the Champions Trophy semifinal Thursday.

The 36-year-old led his team to victory over Australia by scoring an unbeaten 84 in their last group match Monday when Sri Lanka won by 33 runs, to fix a date with India at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.

Mumbai, June 18 : Actress Soha Ali Khan, soon to be seen in comedies like "Calling Mr. Joe B Carvalho" and "War Chod Na Yaar", says comedy is tough but she is capturing nuances of the "most-liked" genre.

"It is tough to do a comedy but I am getting to learn a lot in that (genre)," Soha said here Monday at the launch of a clothing store.

"I felt that now I should do comedy as people also love comedies," added the actress, last seen in a cameo in zombie comedy "Go Goa Gone".

Washington, June 18 : A man stood up from his seat during a flight to the US, and screamed about the CIA, security leaks and poison, but was subdued by fellow passengers, a media report said Tuesday.

The disruption occurred Monday during the United Airlines Flight 116 from Hong Kong that eventually landed safely at its scheduled destination in Newark, CNN reported.

Passengers onboard the Boeing 777 flight said the unidentified man began screaming around 10 hours into the flight.

Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) is vying for defence orders worth up to Rs 80 billion ($1.4 billion) that the government will award in the coming few months, a senior executive of the engineering group revealed.

M. V. Kotwal, president of heavy engineering department at L&T, announced on Monday that the company had placed bids for four contracts worth nearly Rs 40 billion with the Indian Coast Guard to supply training ships & support vehicles.

Chennai, June 18 : Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia Tuesday formally announced the appointment of Subramanian Ramadorai, chairman of the National Skills development Corporation (NSDC), as its non-executive chairman of India operations.

"He is an exceptionally experienced executive with a proven track record of building and grooming dynamic, young and energetic teams," Tony Fernandes, group chief executive, AirAsia said in a statement.

Riyadh, June 18 : Saudi Arabia has set up a national e-security centre to protect the country's e-system from hackers, a media report said Tuesday.

Several hackers have been attacking government websites to steal data by planting undetected viruses for months, the centre's director, Abdulrahman Al Mueeqal, was quoted as saying by the Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper.

The centre will review the e-security system and set criteria for software to immediately stop the use of unlicensed programmes, he said.

Male, June 18 : The Maldives anti-corruption watchdog has ruled out any corruption in the deal to award the country's only operational international airport to Indian infrastructure giant GMR group, a media report said Tuesday.

The $511 million project was abruptly cancelled by the Maldivian government in November 2012.

The prices of several hundred essential medicines will now fall significantly as the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has already listed ceiling prices for as many as 199 essential medicines, and ceiling prices for around 300 more formulations will be listed soon.

NPPA Chairman CP Singh said the authority had already notified the prices of 199 formulations, in accordance with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy 2012.

American automobile giant Ford Motor Co expects China, India and some other markets in the Asia-Pacific region to grow at the fastest pace in the world in the next four-five years.

Asia-Pacific currently accounts for nearly 19 per cent of Ford Motors' global sales, but Ford CEO Alan Mulally said that the region would be contributing nearly 40 per cent to its global sales in the next four-five years.

New Delhi, June 18 : The internal strife in the BJP is like a "civil war playing out on reality television", Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said Tuesday, in a dig at the national opposition party.

"What is happening in the BJP is their internal matter. It is a civil war situation playing out like reality television," said the minister when asked to comment on Bharatiya Janata Party strongman and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi going to meet party veteran L. K. Advani who has not shied from displaying his reservations against Modi's elevation in the party.

Sydney, June 18 : Using ultra-high resolution mapping techniques, scientists from Australia have identified 280 craters on the moon that have never been mapped before.

The researchers at Curtin University in Western Australia used computer modelling of lunar gravity and topography data to explore detailed basins that would be obscured using other methods, Xinhua reported.

A total of 66 of the craters identified were described as "distinctly visible" from a gravity and topographic view.

New Delhi, June 18 : Domestic air passenger traffic increased 4.81 percent in May, the civil aviation ministry said Tuesday.

According to the data furnished by the ministry, domestic traffic in May stood at 57.10 lakh from 54.48 lakh passengers ferried during the corresponding month of last year, signifying an upswing in the civil aviation sector.

The passenger traffic had decreased 0.27 percent in April and stood at 50.77 lakh from 50.91 lakh.

Chennai, June 18 : Officials of the Income Tax department Tuesday conducted search operations in various offices belonging to SRM group having interests in education, news channel, transport and other sectors.

Confirming the raid, a senior official in the Income Tax department told IANS: "The raids are being held in 40 locations across the state."

According to him, the business group was being raided to unearth unaccounted money.

The raids started in the morning and were still on, he said.

The group owns the Puthiaya Thalaimurai channel and magazines.(IANS)

Tune Hotels, a leading International hotel group, Has announced its first venture in Australia in Melbourne, whcih already hosts the company's head office for the Australia and New Zealand region.

The company will open its first hotel in the country during anovember at the time of Victoria's Spring Racing Carnival in November this year. The company also indicated that it would staff its office in the city in way that it is able to oversee operations in Australia and New Zealand.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has indicated that there is further scopre for interest rate cuts as the Australian dollar rises against the lboal currencies.

The country's central bank noted that a cut in cash rate has helped control the currency, which was high against other currencies. It said that the surprise cash rate cut in May to 2.75 per cent might have resulted in the fall of the exchange rate but added that it still remains high compared to the fall in export prices during the previous year.

Sprint has filed a law suit to prevent the takeover of Clearwire by DISH after it lost out to the company for taking control of Clearwire.

Sprint has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery on monday claiming that the takeover deal valued at $6.3 billion violates the rights of Sprint and other Clearwire shareholders. It also claimed that the takeover deal is against Delaware law.