Mumbai, July 12 (ANI): Having already given many hit movies, Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif is ecstatic over the success of her latest movie ‘New York’.

The film is based on the 9/11 Twin Towers attacks and it stars well-known actors like John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, and Irrfan Khan in the lead.
“New York was really one of the most special films for me. It is an amazing story and for me it was such a connected film. I really wanted to do the film to do well. I am so happy that it did. Also for director Mr. Kabir Khan; he is really one of the nicest people I know and I really wanted to work for him and I think we all are really happy that it worked….,” said Kaif on the occasion of launch of a jewellery range on Saturday.

Directed by Kabir Khan, ‘New York’ is made on a budget 4.6 million dollars and it revolves round the saga of three friends who live in the city before, during and after the 9/11 attacks.

“New York” puts the spotlight on that aspect of prejudice through the story of Samir (one of the three friends), an American of Indian origin who turns to terrorism after he is picked up by the FBI and brutally tortured for months only because he took some photographs of the twin towers for a school project.

Khan said that while researching for the film he discovered ‘a huge volume of prejudice’ and how at least 1,200 people of different nationalities were detained on the ‘basis of suspicion alone’ after the attack. (ANI)

WASHINGTON: A resurgent al-Qaida and the Taliban pose a serious threat from its safe haven in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border, the US President Barack Obama
has said.

“We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention. The Taliban is resurgent and al-Qaida threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border,” Obama wrote in a letter to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Giving brief description of the situation in the region, Obama asked the House of Representatives Speaker to approve his war supplemental request of USD 83.4 billion.

“Nearly 95% of these funds will be used to support our men and women in uniform as they help the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own future — and work to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Obama said in his letter on Thursday.

Though the US Congress since September 2001 has approved 17 separate emergency funding amounting to USD 822.1 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama said this would be the last supplemental request coming from the White House.

“After seven years of war, the American people deserve an honest accounting of the cost of our involvement in our ongoing military operations. We must break that recent tradition and include future military costs in the regular budget so that we have an honest, more accurate, and fiscally responsible estimate of Federal spending,” Obama argued.

“We should not label military costs as emergency funds so as to avoid our responsibility to abide by the spending limitations set forth by the Congress,” he said adding that after years of budget gimmicks and wasteful spending, it is time to end the era of irresponsibility in Washington.

Obama assured the Congress that his funding request will ensure that the full force of the US — military, intelligence, diplomatic, and economic power — are engaged in an overall effort to defeat al-Qaida and uproot the safe haven from which it plans and trains for attacks on the US and its allies.

“At the same time that we are increasing our troop commitment, we will employ the necessary civilian resources to build Afghan governance capacity and self-sufficiency,” Obama said.