Countering al-Qaeda

LONDON: A British government agency is funnelling anti-al Qaeda propaganda to news organisations in a bid to damage the global terror network’s ‘brand’, The Guardian reported Tuesday. Citing a secret Home Office (interior ministry) document it had seen, the daily also said that the ministry plans to utilise websites to ‘channel messages ... in internet forums’. According to the paper, the report compiled by the Research, Information and Communication Unit (RICU) and dated July 21, 2008, said: ‘We are pushing this material to UK media channels, eg a BBC radio programme exposing tensions between AQ (al Qaeda) leadership and supporters.’



Film fan rents whole cinema!

NEW DELHI: An Indian filmgoer rented out an entire cinema to disprove a director’s claim that his latest horror movie is so scary no one can watch it alone, a newspaper said on Tuesday. Pavin Ponanna, 30, booked all 227 seats at a Bangalore multiplex for an evening screening of “Phoonk,” the Pioneer daily reported. He asked cinema staff to have a doctor on call, but emerged declaring: “I never felt scared, not even for a moment. I took just ten minutes to settle down.” Bollywood producer-director Ram Gopal Verma had challenged any fan to watch “Phoonk” — the story of a happy family suddenly beset by the evil forces of black magic — on their own. Ponanna, an advertising professional, visited a temple to prepare for the experience, the Pioneer said, adding that the tickets had cost him 47,000 rupees.