Did you know?: Welcome back, LaBeouf!

Rock the Kasbah is one of the three movies that LaBeouf will soon be seen in.

We lamented over actor Shia LaBeouf’s short-lived career when he announced that he was “retiring from all public life” after being panned for plagiarising comic book writer Daniel Clowes in his short film Howard Cantour.com. But guess what? He’s back!

LaBeouf is trading in the possibility of a Florida resort home in favour of returning to work on director Barry Levinson’s indie comedy Rock the Kasbah, reports Huffington Post.

The film will enter production in June. Written by Mitch Glazer, the movie depicts a washed-up rock manager who gets trapped in Kabul, Afghanistan after taking his remaining client on a USO tour in the country.

He discovers a young and talented female singer there via Afghan Star, the country’s rendition of American Idol.

Rock the Kasbah is one of the three movies that LaBeouf will soon be seen in. The other two are Lars Von Trier’s two-part saga Nymphomaniac, which will open in March, and the World War II drama Fury that is slated to release in November.

Italy police recover blood cloth from relic of Pope John Paul

A broken glass of a niche where the reliquary with the blood of the late Pope John Paul II was located is seen next to a painting of the late Pope in the small mountain church of San Pietro della Ienca, near the city of L'Aquila January 28, 2014. PHOTO: REUTERS

ROME: Police on Friday recovered the piece of cloth stained with the blood of the late Pope John Paul, a day after they found the stolen gold and glass case which once contained the relic.

They told a news conference in L’Aquila, east of Rome, that they found the fragment in the garage of two men who were detained for having stolen the reliquary last week.

Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole told the same news conference he had pieced together the reliquary and the cloth after police found them in bits on successive days.

The recovered piece of fabric was missing just a few filaments of cloth and gold thread, he said.

“I think John Paul has forgiven them. I think we have to do the same,” D’Ercole said of the men, believed by police to be drug addicts.

The reliquary and a crucifix were stolen from the isolated mountain church of San Pietro della Ienca last weekend.

The cloth was a fragment of the cassock that John Paul was wearing on May 13, 1981 when he was shot in an assassination attempt.

Relics of saints and other holy figures are often displayed in reliquaries to be venerated by the Catholic faithful.

The late pope, who is due to be declared a saint on April 27, loved the mountains in the Abruzzo region because they reminded him of those in his native Poland. He would slip away secretly from the pressures of the Vatican to hike and ski there in the early years of his papacy.

His secretary, now Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow in Poland, gave the local community the relic.

Did you know? : Bob Dylan to star in Chrysler Super Bowl advertisement

After his song I Want You was featured in a Super Bowl commercial, Bob Dylan will be appearing in another Super Bowl advertisement this year. Multiple sources told Billboard that the veteran musician would make an appearance in a Chrysler advertisement which airs during the big game on Sunday, February 2.  The sources additionally mentioned that one of his hits would serve as the soundtrack. So far, there is no information regarding the song. Representatives for Dylan as well as Chrysler declined to comment.

If the report is true, Dylan will join previous stars such as Eminem, Clint Eastwood and Berry Gordy who contributed to the automaker’s campaigns.  Bloomberg News previously reported that Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne said the company would advertise their product at the event, but he declined to share more details. “Someone made the comment to me that I had the right commercial in 2011 and the wrong car. I think we now have hopefully the right commercial and the right car,” he said, referring to Eminem’s spot.  The possible upcoming advertisement will not be the first time Dylan works with the company. He licensed his trackMotherless Children to Jeep, a Chrysler company, last fall, reported aceshowbiz.com.

Game of Thrones: HBO releases first look at season 4

HBO has released the first official photos from the new season. PHOTO: FILE

Game of Thrones latest season will premiere on April 6, 2014 at 9 pm on HBO. We may have to wait till spring for the hit series, but that doesn’t mean we have to wait for our first look at Game of Thrones. HBO has released the first official photos of the fantasy hit’s highly anticipated fourth season. There are a set of 15 photos in which we spy new faces, old loves and a big battle to come.

Earlier in December last year, in a video that looked back over its 2013 season, HBO snuck in a sneak peek of the fourth season of Game of Thrones, reported E! Online. It spoke volumes about the quality of the show and the level of obsession with it, when fans were losing their minds over roughly eight seconds of new footage. Tyrion in cuffs, King Joffrey looking pensive, Sansa working some glorious hair and Jaime with a haircut is basically all that fans took away from the eight second GOT footage. But then again, it is Game of Thrones.

However, with just about two months left for the premiere, an influx of images of the new season has been delightful. Despite the bloodbath at the end of the last season, many familiar faces will be returning to screens. The pictures show ultimate favourites such as Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington. While they’re loaded with the requisite amounts of images of Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow and Arya Stark, the stills also officially introduce fans to three new faces in Season 4: Pedro Pascal as Oberyn Martell (the Red Viper), Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand and Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis.

You may say, Daario isn’t new, which is true, however, he’s been recast as Huisman after Ed Skrein (last season’s Daario) left the show. Huisman’s Daario has a completely different look. Viewers might be a bit confused by the makeover, but they’ll be too distracted by how great the Red Viper looks to notice that, according to tvline.com.

NATO blockade: Supplies sail past PTI sit-in, cross Torkham

Some of the containers entering Pakistan are parked at the terminal and provided security by khasadar and other paramilitary officials. PHOTO: FILE

LANDI KOTAL: Nato supplies and equipment continue to travel through Peshawar via Khyber Agency in spite of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) sit-in, which the party claims actively blocks such containers.

A political administration (PA) official, requesting anonymity, confirmed the restoration of Nato supply lines. He said containers loaded with equipment from the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan continue to traverse the border.

On Friday, three containers loaded with goods passed through Khyber Agency and made their way to Karachi, he added. The vehicles came the night before and, after screening, were parked at a Nato Terminal under high security.

After a go ahead from the customs, the vehicles set out for Karachi in the early hours of Friday morning, passing through the Jamrud check post and Peshawar.

The PA official said on January 23 and 24, two containers from Karachi went to Afghanistan after passing Peshawar; none of the PTI activists stopped them. “They (PTI protesters) cannot stop vehicles on their own. After screening, the vehicles are allowed to leave for Afghanistan.”

The PTI set up camps on Ring Road and the motorway on November 23, 2013 to block the inflow and outflow of Nato trucks from the province. PTI Chairman Imran Khan had declared the blockade would continue until the US stops drone strikes. Despite the prolonged protest, Nato containers continue to pour in across the border. Just five days later, six vehicles carrying supplies were allowed to go to Afghanistan while two more crossed Torkham border on November 29.

Another PA official deployed at the border said some of the containers entering Pakistan were parked at the terminal and provided security by khasadar and other paramilitary officials and will be allowed to leave for Karachi after PTI activists end their sit-in.

Kashmir border bus service to resume next week

Bus service resumes after Indian authorities detained a Pakistani truck driver for allegedly carrying 114 kilograms of heroin. PHOTO:INP/FILE

MUZAFFARABAD: The bus service across the de facto border in Kashmir will resume next week after being suspended for more than two weeks, a Pakistani official said Saturday.

All movement including travelling and trade along the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the disputed Himalayan region between Pakistan and India, had been suspended after Indian authorities detained a Pakistani truck driver for allegedly carrying 114 kilograms of heroin.

“Senior officials from the two sides met recently and decided to resume the bus service in the first phase from January 3,” Mohammad Ismail, chief of the Trade and Travel Authority (TTA) in Pakistani Kashmir, told AFP.

However, he said there has been an impasse over resumption of trade.

At least 49 Pakistani trucks and their drivers were being held on India’s side of the border following the incident, while Pakistan had retaliated by holding 27 trucks.

Meanwhile, traders and relatives of the detained truck drivers rallied in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on Saturday and said they would not allow resumption of the bus service until all the drivers return to their homes in safety.

“The government should not resume the bus service until India returns our drivers and their trucks. All the local traders and their families will stop this bus from leaving Muzaffarabad on Monday,” secretary general of Intra-Kashmir Trade Hamid Kashmiri told AFP.

Barter trade across the de facto border began in 2008 as part of peace efforts between the nuclear-armed neighbours, but it is frequently disrupted by disputes.

It was last suspended in September 2013 for a period of almost six weeks over a disagreement on the origin of goods being traded.

More than a dozen armed rebel groups have been fighting for the region’s independence or its merger with Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the fighting, according to an official count, while local rights groups estimate up to 70,000 have lost their lives.

Circular debt resurfaces: Provinces run up Rs500b power debt

Sindh claims wrong billing, Punjab denies subsidy to agri-consumers, AJK rejects Nepra’s jurisdiction. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: 

The Water and Power Ministry on Friday informed the National Assembly that around Rs500 billon is outstanding against various organisations and provincial governments, which is the main reason for a ballooning circular debt.

In a written reply to a question posed by MNA Shehryar Afridi, the ministry said the circular debt built mainly due to lack of funds to pay off the liabilities of power generation companies.

The government had taken some fiscal measures to control it, but the issue has re-emerged due to short payments by distribution companies (Discos) owing to less recovery, increasing line losses and short release of subsidy by the government.

Resultantly, receivable of power sector stood at Rs499 billion as of December 30, 2013.

The ministry informed the house that heavy amount stuck with AJK and all provincial governments mainly due to non-implementation of policy decisions of the government about the tariff determination and recovering mechanism.

Outstanding

The house was told that the AJK government does not accept Nepra’s jurisdiction for tariff determination and owes Rs30 billion in power dues.

K-Electric (KE), previously KESC, owes Rs50 billion due to non-payment of dues from July to November 2013.

Balochistan owes Rs70 billion on account of subsidy to the consumers using electricity to run agricultural tube wells and electricity dues.

Punjab government owes around Rs5.4 billion on account of energy charges and Rs5.6 billion on account of agriculture subsidy. The house was informed that Punjab government does not own the liability on the pretext that the decision of giving subsidy on electricity to farmers was taken by the cabinet without its consent.

Sindh government owes Rs50.9 billion in electricity dues. It has not been making payments on the pretext of wrong billing done against government connections.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa owes nearly Rs19.9 billion out of which Rs18.6 billion relate to tariff differential. K-P government is not paying on the plea that Wapda is not paying mark up on their hydel profit.