Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldinho has formally confirmed his retirement from football, more than two years since his last appearance as a professional, reports in Brazil said.

The 37-year-old former Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona star, a key member of the Brazil side which won the World Cup in 2002, last played in 2015 during a brief stint with Fluminense.

However his brother and agent Roberto Assis said he would not play again and would now concentrate on tribute events.

“He stopped, we’re going to do something really big, nice, after the World Cup in Russia, probably in August, we’ll do several events in Brazil, Europe and Asia, and of course, we’re watching a game with the Brazilian team,” Assis said.

Ronaldinho’s career began with Gremio in Porto Alegre, his hometown, before he emerged as a star with French giants PSG.

He then spent five years with Barcelona between 2003 and 2008, helping the Catalans win the Champions League in 2006, after being awarded the Ballon D’Or in 2005.

He spent three more seasons in Europe with AC Milan between 2008 and 2011 before returning to Brazil, where he played with Flamengo and Atletico Mineiro.

A season in Mexico with Queretaro was followed by his return to Brazil and Fluminense, for whom he played seven times before cutting short his contract.

For Brazil, Ronaldinho made 97 appearances, scoring 33 goals, including two in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

Gayatri Projects has secured orders for two road projects worth Rs 923 crore from NHAI in Odisha.

“Gayatri Projects bagged two new orders worth Rs 529 crore and Rs 394 crore from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI),” Gayatri Projects said in a BSE filing on Wednesday.

The first project is for rehabilitation and up-gradation of four-laning of Cuttack-Angul section of NH-42 from km 60.200 to km 112 (package 2) in Odisha.

The second project is for four laning of Rajamunda- Barkote section of NH-23 in Odisha.

The company said these projects will be executed on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis.

Shares of Gayatri Projects were trading 0.99 per cent up at Rs 214.85 apiece on BSE.

A former CIA officer suspected by investigators of helping China dismantle Washington’s spying operations and identify informants has been arrested, the Justice Department said.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a naturalised US citizen, was held after arriving at New York’s JFK airport on Monday. Lee worked for the CIA between 1994 and 2007. He later left for Hong Kong.

When Lee returned to the US in 2012, FBI agents searched his hotel rooms in Hawaii and Virginia and found finding two small books with secret records, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Lee, 53, was charged in a federal court in northern Virginia with the “unlawful retention of national defence information and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted”, the Justice Department said.

He appeared in Brooklyn court on Tuesday and was being held there. He does not have a lawyer, an official said.

It was unclear why Lee decided to risk arrest by coming to the US this month, according to the report.

In the books the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents found, Lee had written down details about meetings between Central Intelligence Agency informants and undercover agents, as well as their real names and phone numbers, the court papers stated.

Prosecutors said that material in the books reflected the same information contained in classified cables that Lee had written while at the agency.

Lee, also known as Zhen Cheng Li, began his CIA career as a case officer, maintained a top secret clearance and signed non-disclosure agreements. He has made no public comments on the issue.

Officials expressed concern that Lee’s case and at least one other represent a troubling pattern of Chinese intelligence targeting former agency officials, an easier task than trying to recruit current CIA operatives.

In June, a former CIA officer was charged with providing classified information to China and making false statements. Prosecutors said that the former officer, Kevin Patrick Mallory, 60, of Leesburg, Virginia, had top-secret documents and incriminating messages on a communications device he brought back from Shanghai.

In March, prosecutors announced the arrest of a longtime State Department employee, Candace Marie Claiborne, accused of lying to investigators about her contacts with Chinese officials.

According to the criminal complaint against Claiborne, who pleaded not guilty, Chinese agents wired cash into her bank account and lavished her with thousands of dollars in gifts.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the plea of producers of controversial Bollywood movie Padmavaat against the ban imposed on its release by various state governments.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submission of the counsel of the producer that the matter be heard urgently in view of the ban on its release by various state governments.

After Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the period movie Padmaavat has been banned in Haryana too. So, Haryana is the fourth BJP-ruled state to ban Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movie.

Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have banned the movie citing law and order issues.

The historical drama directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali had gone through a lot of controversies — be it death threat to actor Deepika Padukone or damaging the sets during its shooting.

The Deepika Padukone-starrer Padmaavat is set to be released on January 25.

After opening a research lab focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in China – its first such centre in Asia – Google has reportedly opened another office in the country.

According to a report in TechCrunch on Wednesday, the new workspace for Googlers is in Shenzhen – a city that is home to Tencent, Huawei and ZTE.

“We have many important clients and partners in Shenzhen. We’re setting up this e-suite office to be able to communicate and work with them better,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

The Shenzhen office is likely to be used by teams that already spend a lot of time in the city. Focused on basic AI research, the new Google lab will consist of a team of AI researchers in Beijing, supported by the company’s engineering teams.

Google AI China Centre will publish its own work, support the AI research community by funding and sponsoring AI conferences and workshops and work closely with the AI research community.

“I am excited to launch the Google AI China Centre, our first such in Asia, at our ‘Google Developer Days’ event in Shanghai. This Centre joins other AI research groups we have all over the world,” Fei-Fei Li, Chief Scientist, Google Cloud AI and Machine Learning, wrote in a blog post.

The tech giant has many employees in China who work on its international services. However, its search engine is blocked in the country.

Following his decision to form a political party, Kamal Haasan will begin a state-wide tour of Tamil Nadu from Ramanathapuram, his hometown, on February 21. He will also be announcing the name of his party on the same day.

The tour, which will be held in phases, will mark Haasan’s official entry into politics. The actor-turned-politician will meet people from nearby districts of Madurai, Dindigul and Sivagangai.

“At the commencement of the journey, I intend to announce the name of my political party along with the guiding principles we intend to live by,” Haasan said in a statement on Tuesday.

Haasan said that he wants to challenge the status quo “plaguing the politics of Tamil Nadu for some time now”.

The purpose of his tour, Haasan informed, is to help him “familiarise himself with the people’s concerns”.

“My thoughts and actions need to collectively resonate with the people…to truly understand as to what the needs of my people are, what is afflicting them, what their aspirations are,” he said.

He added that his tour should not be seen as “an act of rebellion or a gathering for glamour”.

“This is a journey of discovery and learning and an opportunity for me to truly understand my people,” Haasan said.

Urging people to “question mediocrity” and “raise the bar” of governance and welfare in Tamil Nadu, Haasan said that his journey is intended towards that goal.

“I begin this journey with your support. Join hands with me to empower our country and state. I will see you soon,” he said.

Haasan has been sending clear signals that he is planning an entry into politics through his statements issued in the last one year.

After a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala on 1 September 2017, Haasan had said that his “colour” is not saffron and that his “heroes” are from the left-wing.

The National Award winner’s political plunge comes after Tamil superstar Rajinikanth announced his entry into politics on 31 December 2017.

Rajinikanth will be contesting all 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu when the state goes to polls in 2021. He has said that he will be forming the party just a few months ahead of the elections.

(With PTI inputs)

The government on Wednesday lowered the additional borrowing requirement for the current fiscal to Rs 20,000 crore from Rs 50,000 crore estimated earlier.

“Government has reassessed additional borrowing requirements taking note of revenue receipts and expenditure pattern. Requirement of additional borrowing being reduced from Rs 50,000 crore as notified earlier to Rs 20,000 crore,” Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg tweeted.

Last month, after consultation with the RBI the government had said that it would make additional borrowing of Rs 50,000 crore this fiscal through dated securities. However, there will be no change in the net borrowings as envisaged in the Budget for 2017-18.

The reduced borrowing would help contain fiscal deficit within the target.

The government in the 2017-18 budget had estimated borrowings at Rs 43,000 crore through dated securities in current fiscal.

A decline in revenue collections from the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and lower non-tax revenue have led to worry about government meeting the fiscal deficit target.

The government has budgeted gross and net market borrowings at Rs 5.8 lakh crore and Rs 4.23 lakh crore, respectively in 2017-18.

As per the latest figure, in November 2017 the fiscal deficit target had breached budget target and touched 112 per cent of the budget estimate for 2017-18 mainly due to lower GST collections and higher expenditure.

 A chargesheet against seven Kashmiri separatists and a businessman in a case of funding terror in the Kashmir Valley will be filed by the NIA on Thursday, the day their judicial custody ends, officials said.

According to National Investigation Agency (NIA) sources, the agency will file the chargesheet against the arrested separatist leaders and a businessman under various sections of money laundering and waging war against country as the judicial custody ends on January 18.

A Delhi court on January 12 extended the judicial custody of the eight accused till January 18.

The eight have been charged with receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir.

Kashmir was rocked by violent protests after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with security forces on July 8, 2016.

An official of the agency said that they will be charged under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAP Act of 1967) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 121 Waging, or attempting to wage war against the state and Section 120 B entering into criminal conspiracy.

According to a senior official of the agency, the main chargesheet prepared by the NIA contains close to 50 pages and the annexure attached to the chargesheet, may run into nearly 5,000 pages.

On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them — Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah — on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.

Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, accused of acting as a conduit for channelling funds for separatists and terror activities in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested on August 17 last year.

He was allegedly collecting funds from Pakistan and banned terrorist organisations and transferring the same to Hurriyat leaders.

Watali is known to be friends with Pakistani leaders as well as separatists, besides leading politicians in Kashmir, the NIA said.

The NIA has filed a case against the separatist leaders on May 30 following a sting operation by a television channel after the Geelani-led Hurriyat suspended Nayeem Khan confessed that Hurriyat leaders had been receiving funds from Pakistan for subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.

Hafeez Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ul Dawah, the front of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), has been named in the FIR as an accused besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Dukhtaran-e-Milat.

The NIA had questioned the arrested persons after the May 2017 expose. The counter-terror probe agency had also conducted raids in Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi and Haryana and reportedly seized incriminating evidence against those involved in receiving, acting as intermediaries and final beneficiaries of funds coming from Pakistan.

India has for decades accused Pakistan of arming, financing and training militants fighting to end Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir. Islamabad says it provides only political and diplomatic support.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu will experience Gujarat’s “remarkable hospitality” as both the leaders landed in Ahmedabad on Wednesday for a day-long visit to the state.

“PM @netanyahu will experience Gujarat’s remarkable hospitality during our visit to the state today,” Modi tweeted.

“We will attend various programmes and interact with a wide range of people, ranging from innovators, entrepreneurs and farmers,” he added.

After holding a mega roadshow from Ahmedabad airport to Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, Modi and Netanyahu will visit an entrepreneurial centre and a horticultural centre.

The dignitaries will receive a grand reception with over 50 stages set up along the route jointly by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and the Gujarat government. This is Modi’s first to his home state after the assembly elections.

The 14-km-long roadshow will be heavily guarded by security forces including Israeli snipers along the route, where almost 50,000 people are expected to be present.

Both the Prime Ministers will return to the airport along the same route and will fly in a chopper to the ‘I-create’ centre at Bawla, where they will address the youth. They will also have lunch at the centre along with various industrialists.

They will then fly off to the horticulture centre near Prantij around 2 pm where they will address a congregation of agricultural experts and farmers. They will head back to the airport in the evening.

The Japanese state broadcaster NHK apologized for mistakenly issuing a news alert claiming that North Korea had launched a missile and citizens should seek refuge, only a few days after a similar incident in Hawaii.

NHK sent the message around 7 p.m. on Tuesday citing “J-Alert”, a centralized satellite system used by the government to issue warnings to its citizens about emergencies such as missile launches or earthquakes, although the broadcaster corrected itself five minutes later.

The broadcaster apologised for issuing a false alert in a written statement which stated, however, that there were no reports of problems caused by the mistake.

The false missile alert was the second in a matter of days. Last week, an emergency alert notification sent out to residents of Hawaii warning of an incoming “ballistic missile threat” turned out to be a false alarm. The error was blamed on an employee who “pushed the wrong button”, CNN reported.

An NHK spokesperson said that staff had mistakenly operated the equipment to deliver news alerts over the Internet, although the reactions expressing concern and criticism soon hit social media.

NHK’s quick rectification of its error stands in contrast to the 40-minute delay by authorities in Hawaii in cancelling the false warning.

Japan conducted several citizen evacuation drills using its “J-Alert” system in the face of an eventual missile attack. The next evacuation drill is set to be conducted in Tokyo on January 22, in response to the repeated missile launches by North Korea, some of which flew over Japan’s territory in 2017.

Delhi Sultans cup of woes was filled to the brim as they crashed out of contention after suffering their third successive defeat, going down to UP Dangal 3-4 in the Pro Wrestling League season at the Siri Fort Sports Complex New Delhi on Monday.

The rampaging unbeaten UP Dangal on the other hand moved a step closer to seal a spot in the knock-out stages of the league.

Down 2-3 in the seven contest duel, UP’s ICON Vinesh Phogat and Abdurakhmonob Bekzod won the last two bouts of the day to maintain UP’s unbeaten run.

Vinesh, the 2017 Commonwealth champion who came into the tie without dropping a single point continued buoyant run and steamrolled Maroi Mezien 15-0 in the 50 kg competition via technical superiority to make it 3-3 for Dangal.

Then Asian championship gold medalist Abdurakhmonob Bekzod hammered Vinod Omprakash 9-0 in the 74 kg competition to complete the rout for UP.

In the fifth bout of the day, Jamalladin Magomedov (Azerbaijan) registered a comfortable 6-2 victory through pinfall over Hitender in the super heavyweight clash of the day, to keep UP stay afloat in the tie.

Earlier, UP won the toss and forced World Champion Haji Aliev out of the equation; Delhi Sultans, on the other hand, decided to block Geeta Phogat.

Delhi logged in the first win of the day, with Sandeep Tomar beating Nitin Rathi who flattered to deceive.

Nitin started on a strong note as he raced to a 5-0 lead in the opening period but  the former Asian Championship gold medalist, who came into the bout undefeated, launched a great comeback to tie the score 8-8 at the end of regulation time in the 57 kg competition.

However, the referees awarded the match in Sandeep’s favour, thanks to his big-scoring move in the second period.

European Championship silver medalist Zsanett Nemeth (Hungary ), however, restored parity for UP. She overcame Egyptian Samar Hamza Egypt 3-2, via a fall in the 76-kg women’s event.

Nemeth, who started as a strong favourite, was behind 1-2 for the most part of the bout but she turned it around in style to steer her side to victory.

World Championship bronze medalist Alborov Aslan of Delhi Sultans then defeated Junior National Championship silver medalist Vicky 7-1 in a lop-sided affair to send the home team 2-1 ahead in the tie.

The Delhi Icon grappler was in control throughout, not letting his opponent any chance to display his prowess and strolled to a comfortable victory in the 92-kg contest.

Commonwealth champion Sangeeta Phogat caused the biggest upset of the tournament, getting the better of World Champion Vanesa Kaladzinskaya 7-4 in the 57-kg women’s contest.

Vanesa started off on expected lines and blitzed to a 4-2 lead. But Sangeeta showed great tenacity and turned the tables on her more fancied rival. Vanesa did try to launch a massive attack but the Indian defended well to help Delhi take a critical 3-1 lead in the tie.

Myanmar police opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as they tried to seize a government office, in unrest that left seven dead and injured around a dozen more, police said.

Several thousand Buddhist protesters had gathered yesterday for a ceremony in Mrauk U, an ancient temple complex that has so far remained unscathed by the military’s crackdown on the region’s minority Rohingya Muslim community.

It was not immediately clear why the rally descended into violence.

But the clashes came on the same day as a repatriation agreement was signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh to start the return of some 655,000 Rohingya refugees from squalid camps back over the border.

A police spokesman blamed the crowd for “starting the violence” after barging into a district administrative office and hoisting the Rakhine State flag.

“Security forces asked them to disperse and fired warning shots with rubber bullets… but they didn’t stop, so police had to use real bullets,” Myanmar police spokesman Colonel Myo Soe told AFP.

“Seven people were killed and 13 injured during last night’s violence in Mrauk U,” he said adding more than 20 police were wounded by slingshots and stones hurled by the crowd.

Mrauk U lies only a few dozen kilometres from the epicentre of violence that saw Rohingya driven in their hundreds of thousands into Bangladesh last August.

Rakhine state is bisected by divisions and communal hatreds.

Poor and marginalised, the ethnic Rakhine have a long-standing enmity with the Bamar-majority Burmese state.

The US has announced that it will withhold more than half of the funding it provides for a UN agency that supports Palestinians, about two weeks after President Donald Trump threatened to pull funding for the group.

Washington will withhold $65 million out of its scheduled $125 million payment to the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides humanitarian aid, education, social services and medical care to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, CNN reported.

Trump had said that the US could cut aid if Palestinians rejected peace efforts with Israel.

The decision drew condemnation from Palestinians and praise from Israel. The UN officials expressed deep concern and refugee groups worried about the humanitarian impact, particularly the potential for further destabilisation of a region already reeling from conflict in Syria.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Tuesday that the move had nothing to do with “punishing” the Palestinians for their refusal to enter into negotiations with Israel, or their decision to push for a UN vote that resulted in global condemnation of the US decision to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“This is not aimed at punishing anyone,” Nauert said on Tuesday as she outlined the Trump administration’s decision to release $60 million in funding for the agency, while indefinitely withholding another $65 million.

The decision came two weeks after Trump complained that Washington receives “no appreciation or respect” in return for its aid.

“The move will have devastating consequences for vulnerable Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including hundreds of thousands of refugee children in the West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria,” said Jan Egeland, former Norwegian Foreign Minister and former UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “very concerned” about the impact on the region.

Nauert said the money was being withheld because the US would like to see reforms at UNRWA and added that Washington would also like to see other countries contribute more to the relief agency, which was founded in 1949 after the Arab-Israeli war, to deal specifically with Palestinian refugees.

PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi slammed the decision to withhold the funds, saying it targeted “the most vulnerable segment of the Palestinian people”, adding that it “will generate further instability throughout the region”.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, praising the move said: “UNRWA has proven time and again to be an agency that misuses the humanitarian aid of the international community and instead supports anti-Israel propaganda, perpetuates the plight of Palestinian refugees and encourages hate.”

Arguing that terrorist organisations use social media to propagate themselves, Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday called for “some checks and curbs” on internet to deal with terrorism.

Speaking at the third edition of the geo-political conference, ‘Raisina Dialogue’, in the national capital, Rawat said it was for the government and the people to decide if they were willing to accept curbs temporarily so that terrorism can be dealt with effectively.

“Putting some checks and curbs on internet and social media that terrorist organisations always resort to… In a democratic country people won’t like it but have to take a call on whether we want safe and secure environment or willing to accept curbs temporarily so terrorism can be dealt with,” Rawat said.

Rawat said that terrorists are using systems which are highly technology enabled and transcending international borders.

“We need to disrupt terrorists and their sponsors. We need to identify nations who are sponsors of terror,” he said.

The army chief further said that the threat of nuclear and chemical weapons falling in the hands of terrorists can be disaster for humanity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inaugurated conference and its inaugural session was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

More than 12 policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured when a mob attacked them with stones and torched to a place of worship and few vehicles over the last rites of a Hindu woman married to a Christian man in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.

Seema Kumari got married to Rinku Kumar, who later embraced Christianity. They belonged to Sayal village in Nowshera town.

Kumar worked as a labourer in Jalandhar, Punjab.

Kumari died on Sunday. Her family alleged she was killed and that she was forced to convert to Christianity.

They wanted her body to be burnt according to Hindu customs, but Kumar’s family objected to it, insisting that it should be buried.

The woman’s family members and and a number of people from the village protested it.

Kumar’s family was given police protection.

Flying into a rage, the protesters torched a makeshift place of worship, two shops, a few vehicles and structures, police said.

A mob threw stones at policemen, who used teargas shells to disperse them.

A police officer said standard operation procedures were followed and the protesters baton charged.

He said at least 12 policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured in stone pelting.

A few persons have been rounded up for interrogation and a case has been registered in connection with the incident, he said.

Additional force was deployed in the area to bring situation under control.