Big B discharged from Mumbai hospital

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan was on Thursday night discharged from hospital after a 12-day stay post his abdominal surgery.

"The actor is doing much better now following which he has been discharged," a hospital source said.
On Thursday night, Big B had tweeted, "Freedom !!! free from central line, free from all kites, free to sleep without precaution... Now await to be free from hospital !!."
Bachchan, who has a history of stomach ailments, was operated on February 11 at the Seven Hills hospital.
He had complained of acute abdominal pain and there were chances of him undergoing a second operation. But later it was decided by the doctors that another surgery was not required as the 69-year-old actor was getting better.

Malaika back as 'Anarkali in Housefull 2 item song!

After her smash hit item song Munni badnam in Dabangg, sexy Malaika Arora Khan is back with choreographer Farah Khan in another item song Anarkali disco.

She will be gyrating to the dance number from Housefull 2 which stars John Abraham and Akshay Kumar in the lead.

Malaika's look in this song can be compared to Aishwarya's in Kajra re from Bunty Aur Babli, but reportedly she has said that Anarkali is more sexy and modern in approach.

Oil price lower after 4-day rise

NEW YORK (AP) — A four-day rise in oil prices stalled Wednesday following a weak report on Chinese manufacturing and lingering concerns about Greece's bailout.
The price of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for oils produced in the U.S., fell 46 cents to $105.79 a barrel.
WTI had climbed 5 percent over the last four trading days as tensions escalated between the West and Iran, the world's third-biggest oil exporter. The West is worried that Iran is using its nuclear program to build a weapon, a claim that Iran denies. Traders fear that any military action to stop the program could disrupt oil shipments. That helped push prices up in recent days.
But oil's rise paused as traders focused on a report that China's manufacturing isn't expanding. HSBC's China manufacturing index rose in February, but the reading of 49.7 suggested that factory activity isn't growing. China's economy is expected to drive world oil demand to new heights this year, and investors took the weak reading as a sign that demand may not increase as much as expected.
Traders also worried that the latest Greek bailout isn't enough to revive that nation's economy. Analysts said a $172 billion rescue package may not be enough to save the country from defaulting on a mountain of debt. Massive budget cuts could keep the country stuck in recession, and the Greek bailout doesn't address debt problems in neighboring countries.
U.S., retail gasoline prices rose nearly a penny to a national average of $3.58 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline is at the highest price ever for this time of year, and analysts say the national average could hit $4.25 per gallon by late April.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose a penny to $3.25 per gallon. Gasoline futures also rose by 1 cent to $3.0603 per gallon. Natural gas futures fell by 4 cents to $2.59 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Brent crude, an international benchmark used to price oil imported by U.S. refineries, rose $1 to $122.66 per barrel.

Yani Tseng hopes to bag first HSBC Women's Champions

Taipei, Feb. 22 (CNA) Taiwan's Yani Tseng will be out to win her first HSBC Women's Champions tournament in Singapore when the event opens at the Tanah Merah Country Club on Thursday.

The top female golfer in the world, fresh from her successful defense of her title at the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament Sunday, has not won the Singapore tournament since it was launched in 2008.

Tseng, who needed a birdie on the final hole to defeat Japan's Ai Miyazato in Thailand, admitted after her victory that the pressure of living up to her spectacular year in 2011, when she won 12 events worldwide, was getting to her.

"I feel much more pressure coming into this year. Last year when I started, I was nothing. I was just in the top-five in the world but I don't have 12 wins or World No. 1 title," she said.

"After last year, I have World No. 1 and I had 12 wins and that pressure keeps going on and on."

Tseng may feel less stress at the US$1.4 million HSBC Women's Champions this week because she does not have to defend a title, but she will still hope to do well against an extremely strong field, which is expected to feature the top 30 players on the LPGA's moneylist last year.

Jeremy Lin a hot topic in Ma's meeting with U.S. congressmen

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou got a bit of a surprise when he brought up rising NBA star Jeremy Lin in a meeting with a visiting United States congressional delegation Tuesday.

Ma said Taiwan and the U.S. shared views on democracy and peace and many values and in addition "we both appreciate Jeremy Lin."

After a good laugh, the leader of the group, Representative Eni Faleomavaega from American Samoa, the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, had a comeback.

"I want to say that I'm sorry to tell you that Jeremy Lin is an American, a blue-blooded born American," Faleomavaega said, drawing hearty laughter from the president, and then added "who happens to be of Taiwanese ancestry, and we're proud to have him."

On a more serious note, Ma talked about his China policy and said it was designed to "replace conflicts with reconciliation, and use coordination and negotiations to solve problems."

He said that such an approach has made Taiwan's relations with China and the international community follow a "positive cycle" instead of the "vicious cycle" of the past.

He also said that "use of reconciliation to ease conflicts and negotiation to replace confrontation" will still be his policy in his second term.

The 10-member U.S. congressional delegation arrived in Taiwan Feb.18for a visit through Feb. 25.

Is Obama Getting Serious about China Trade?

“I will not stand by when our competitors don’t play by the rules,” said President Obama in his State of the Union message on Tuesday. And to make sure other nations comply with their obligations, he announced the creation of the “Trade Enforcement Unit.” According to the Wall Street Journal, the new grouping will be a task force combining officials from the Treasury, Commerce, and Energy Departments as well as the US Trade Representative’s office. Despite the generic name, the target of the Trade Enforcement Unit is China.

China may have racked up as much as a $300 billion trade surplus against America last year; if it failed to achieve that record-smashing mark, it was only billion or two short. In any event, it will surely surpass its 2010 surplus against the US of $273.1 billion. The 2010 deficit with China is the largest single-country one in the history of the United States.

If there were any time for the White House to get serious about Beijing’s predatory trade policies, this is it. Clearly, China’s surpluses are not sustainable, especially in a period of deteriorating economic conditions. Last Wednesday, the World Bank downgraded its global growth estimate by a full percentage point to 2.5 percent.

The president is right to highlight the China issue, and perhaps his organizational approach will result in more effective policies. Ted Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations, in comments carried in the January 12th Nelson Report, correctly called the task force proposal “the most comprehensive effort by any administration to rethink approaches to trade enforcement since the creation of the WTO.”

Yet that is not saying much. The Clinton administration made a strategic mistake by agreeing to China’s admission into the global trade organization before it was ready to abide by international standards, and the Bush team inexplicably allowed Beijing to continually game the system after the country’s accession in 2001. The common element of the policies of the two presidents is the belief that Washington must work cooperatively with the Chinese.

President Obama, despite the trade actions he has launched against China, still shares this view. For instance, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner apparently discussed the task force proposal with Chinese officials during his visit there this month.

Yet the effort to maintain this dialogue appears misguided, as this patient “engagement” approach is what contributed to our problems in the first place, by giving the Chinese more time to engage in delaying tactics while racking up trade surpluses. As Alan Tonelson of the US Business & Industry Council wrote this month, “Ever since he endorsed the 2008 version of the Senate currency bill early in his first White House run, President Obama has had all the evidence of Chinese economic transgressions he could possibly want to justify strong retaliatory actions.” And, as Tonelson also points out, the president already has the legal tools to enforce China’s trade obligations.

One does not need to believe that Obama’s task force is a ploy—“Will anyone be fooled?” Tonelson asked—to understand that the US will not make progress until Washington realizes it must move beyond “dialogue.” After decades of broken Chinese trade promises, we should realize that the only thing that will work going forward is the full use of our economic leverage.

And what would that leverage be? With the collapse of European orders for Chinese goods last year, America has become an even more important market for China. President Obama has the bargaining power. The question now is, does he have the will to use it? 

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