A Right-To-Information activist and journalist has been arrested by the anti-corruption bureau of the Thane police for extorting money from a builder.

Charushila Patil (37), who works with a local news channel, was arrested here last evening while accepting money from the Kalyan-based builder, said police spokesperson Sukhada Narkar.

Patil had filed complaints against the builder with the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation, and had threatened to have his constructions demolished by the municipal body if he didn’t pay he Rs 50 lakh, police said.

On January 3, the builder paid her Rs 2 lakh, and then approached the Thane police, who laid a trap and arrested Patil yesterday when she was accepting another Rs five lakh from him, the police spokespeson said.

An offence of extortion under IPC section 384 has been registered against her at the Kolsewadi police station.

Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya came under heavy criticism from former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar and former India player Sanhay Manjrekar after he gifted his wicket due his silly error on Day 3 of the 2nd Test against South Africa at Centurion’s SuperSport Park.

After hitting a ball to mid-on, Pandya tried to steal a run but captain Kohli sent him back to the crease. Despite Proteas pacer Vernon Philander’s direct hit, Pandya had almost made it to back into the crease, but was given run out as he failed to drag his bat across the line.

In the television review, one can clearly see that, both, his feet and bat were in the air, while South African players were seen laughing as they were not able to believe their luck of getting Pandya’s priced wicket.

Today Hardik Pandya proved he is more dumber than Alia Bhatt. #SAvIND pic.x.com/xcpjuHDKDA

— Waѕiyullah Budye (@WasiyullahB) January 15, 2018

In the commentary box, Gavaskar said, “Casual. No not just casual, that is unforgivable”. Sanjay Manjrekar on the other hand took it another level and called Pandya “arrogant”.

Manjrekar took it to micro-blogging site and wrote, “Early lesson for Hardik Pandya that this game will come to bite you back if you let confidence become arrogance.”

Early lesson for Hardik Pandya that this game will come to bite you back if you let confidence become arrogance.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) January 15, 2018

Not just commentator but even cricket lovers were angry with Pandya’s attitude and wrote on Twitter that, “He may not be the next Kapil Dev, but he surely the next Sourav Ganguly”

“Hardik Pandya balancing out all the good things he has done on the tour. If you don’t respect the game enough, it’ll come back to bite you hard. #SAvIND,” read another Tweet from a fan.

He may not be the next Kapil Dev but Hardik Pandya, by not grounding bat, at least proved he’s the next Ganguly. #SAvIND #INDvSA

— Stereotypewriter (@babumoshoy) January 15, 2018

#INDvSA After struggling to stay in the series, India displacy complacency. Very poor running by Hardik Pandya

— Ajay Kaul (@ajaykaul10) January 15, 2018

Hardik Pandya balancing out all the good things he has done on the tour. If you don’t respect the game enough, it’ll come back to bite you hard. #SAvIND

— Aakash Bang (@ABCricket19) January 15, 2018

Everyone talked about the importance of the first hour, and how it can change the landscape of this game.

Hardik Pandya’s carelessness has overturned everything. #SAvsIND

— Gautam Sodhi (@GautamSodhi1) January 15, 2018

Schoolboy Error…..could possibly cost India the match. Inexplicable. #SAvIND

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) January 15, 2018

Meanwhile, on third day, till the story was filed, the visitors had scored 306 runs for eight wickets.

Jitender overpowered Parveen Rana in a pulsating  encounter as defending champions Punjab Royals  snuffed out debutants Veer Marathas’  spirited challenge to emerge 4-3  winner in the Pro Wrestling League at Siri Fort Indoor stadium in Delhi on Sunday.

The decider, after both teams were tied 3-3, between Jitender and Praveen Rana turned out to be on the edge of seat affair.

Parveen Rana known for his explosive style of play, sped to an early 4-0 lead for the Veer Marathas and seemed to be cruising towards victory.

Jitender, however, exhibited great grit and took four straight points to level the score. He then moved to a higher gear and downed Parveen for a 7-4 win in the dying seconds to win the tie for the Royals.

Asian Championship silver medalist Ritu Phogat of the Marathas overcame an initial scare to eke out a 9-7 win in the 50-kg women competition to send the tie into the decider.

Although Ritu was shocked by Nirmala Devi’s swiftness in the initial moments of the game, she did well to regroup and stay in the contest and pick up the crucial win for her side.

In the fifth bout of the day, National champion Utkarsh Kale picked up a thrilling 5-4 victory over his Shravan in the 57-kg event to send Punjab 3-2 up .

Earlier, Punjab  won the toss and  blocked World championship bronze medalist Georgi Ketoev while Marathas smartly kept Latvian perstar Grigorjeva Anastasija away from the mat.

In the opening tie, European champion Ilyas Bekbulatov gave Punjab a flying start, upstaging  national champion Amit Dhankar 8-0 in the 65-kg competition.

Ilyas, stepping on the mat for the first time this season, looked rusty initially but grew in confidence to dominate Dhankar. The Russian combined his moves well and strolled his way to a big victory.

The Marathas promptly clawed their way back in, with  World championship silver medalist Marwa Amri  ( Tunisia)  registering a convincing 10-3 victory over Commonwealth champion Pooja Dhanda..

Amri, who had lost her last bout, did not get the best of starts, with Pooja even winning the opening point. But the Rio Games bronze medalist got her act together to emerge victorious and help Marathas log their first win of the day.

In a clash of titans, World champion Geno Petriashvili ( Georgia) downed Armenian Levan Berianidze 3-0, in the 125-kg category, to shift the momentum back in Punjab’s favour.

Both wrestlers started off cautiously with Geno taking a narrow 1-0 lead in the opening period. The scoreline did not change for the most part of the second period; but in the dying moments of the bout, Geno collected two points to seal his victory.

With the Marathas trailing, their skipper Vasilisa Marzaliuk  ( Belarus)  wrestled with great determination to breeze past France’s Koumba Larroque 6-2 in the 76-kg category.

The Frenchwoman used all her might to pin her opponent but the World Championship bronze medalist used her experience to stay on top throughout the bout and helped Marathas pull level in the seven-bout contest.

Facebook was on course to lose 17 billion pounds ($23 billion) of its value after it announced it was making changes to its News Feed feature that will allow users to see more updates from family and friends than posts from businesses, brands and media.

Facebook share fell 4 percent within hours after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes to make the social network more meaningful, The Sun reported.

This could also result in lining them up for its worst financial position in more than three months – and Zuckerberg losing $3.3 billion of his own personal net worth.

“One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent. We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us,” Zuckerberg posted on Facebook late on Thursday.

The CEO said that Facebook has got a feedback from the community that public content – posts from businesses, brands and media – is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.

“We’re making a major change to how we build Facebook. I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions,” he said.

“As we roll this out, you will see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard – it should encourage meaningful interactions between people,” Zuckerberg added.

This planned change sparked fears people will spend less time on the site, leading to its share stock suddenly dropping.

Zuckerberg admitted that the new changes might not pay off at first, but believes it is important users have more meaningful social interactions, The Sun said.

A teenager, hailing from Paksitan- occupied Kashmir (PoK), escaped from a juvenile home in R S Pura sector here, police said on Monday.

Ashfaq Ali (16), a resident of the Bhimber area of PoK, was lodged at the juvenile home since May last year following his arrest from the Noushera area of Rajouri district.

“The boy scaled the boundary wall in the early hours on Sunday and fled,” a police official said.

A case has been registered and hunt launched to nab him, he said.

Jamie Lee Curtis has praised Eliza Dushku for opening up about being sexually molested by stunt coordinator Joel Kramer on the sets of True Lies, when she was a minor, saying the actor “has awakened us to a new, horrific reality”.

In a Facebook post, Dushku alleged that she was sexually harassed by Kramer, who was in-charge of her safety on the film sets.

Curtis, who played the then 12-year-old actor’s mother in the James Cameron directorial, penned a column in Huffington Post saying she had shared the story with her privately a few years ago.

“I was shocked and saddened then and still am today. We have all started to awaken to the fact that the terrible abuses now commonplace in daily news reports have been going on for a very long time… Eliza’s story has now awakened us from our denial slumber to a new, horrific reality. The abuse of children,” she wrote.

The actor said learning about the incident was a “terrible” experience for her.

“Many of us involved in ‘True Lies’ were parents. Jim, Arnold and myself. Parents of daughters. What allegedly happened to Eliza, away from the safety net of all of us and our purview is a terrible, terrible thing to learn about and have to reconcile.”

Curtis hopes affected people will continue to share their stories and that “all abusers will be held accountable”.

She added, “All of us must take some responsibility that the loose and relaxed camaraderie that we share with our young performers has carried with it a misguided assumption that they are adults in an adult world, capable of making adult choices.”

Cameron had also praised Duskhu for her bravery in speaking out and said had he had any inkling about such behaviour, “there would’ve been no mercy”.

Meanwhile, Kramer has denied Dushku’s claims calling them as “atrocious lies”.

He has been fired by his agency, Worldwide Production Agency following molestation allegations.

“WPA has elected to part ways with Joel Kramer based on the allegations of misconduct now being reported. Such behavior is unacceptable and entirely at odds with the the standards of conduct we demand of ourselves, and expect from our clients,” the agency’s president and general counsel Richard Caleel said in a statement to Deadline.

Sri Lankan authorities on Monday publicly destroyed more than 900 kilogrammes of cocaine that was the country’s largest single seizure of the illegal drug.

The public destruction of the drugs haul was the first such program in Sri Lanka as authorities seek to deter smugglers from using the Indian Ocean island nation as a transit point for drug distribution in the region.

Police officers first liquefied the cocaine, which was packed in 30 sacks in front of a magistrate at a pre- processing facility of a cement firm outside the capital Colombo. It was then taken to be disposed in a cement kiln north of the capital.

The 928 kilogrammes of cocaine was seized in 2016 at Sri Lanka’s main sea port following a tip off. The cocaine was concealed in a container carrying timber on a ship sailing from Ecuador and bound for India.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said the drugs were not meant for Sri Lanka and that no suspects were found.

President Maithripala Sirisena and other top officers attended today’s event.

Sri Lanka’s Law and Order minister Sagala Rathnayaka said Sri Lanka “is being used as a transit point” by drug dealers, although some of the drugs may come into the country.

Rathnayaka said publicly destroying the drugs would send a message that “we are very serious about the zero tolerance policy.”

Hollywood actors Gerard Butler and Curtis Jackson will be seen together on the big screen soon. With their upcoming film Den of Thieves that is slated for release on 2 February, the actors are set to entertain the public. We can expect it to be an action-packed experience when they both are together and would be a delight to watch.

According to reports in Indian Express, Gerard Butler said, “What I love about this movie is that it has a taste, an ingredient, of many of my favourite films, like Heist and Heat, with touches of a Dog Day Afternoon and The French Connection. But it stands entirely on its own. It may be a complex heist film, but there’s a surprising amount of heart and emotion. It has the potential to become one of those unforgettable movies because of the characters we’ve created.”

The plot is set in Los Angeles, story falls under crime genre, revolves around the chase between Country Sheriff’s department and a robbery group. As they plan to rob the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles the unit tries to protect it.

After ‘London Has Fallen’ Christian Gudegast and Gerard Butler will be team up again for this film. Along with Gerard and Curtis, Jordan Bridges, Pablo Schreiber, O’Shea Jackson Jr are also part of the cast.

Unable to sleep at night? Try writing a “to-do” list at bedtime as it may aid in falling asleep, a new study suggests.

“Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to explore whether the act of writing them down could counteract night time difficulties with falling asleep,” said the lead author of the study Michael K. Scullin from Baylor University, in the US.

The study compared sleep patterns of participants who took five minutes to write down upcoming duties versus participants who chronicled completed activities.

“There are two schools of thought about this. One is that writing about the future would lead to increased worry about unfinished tasks and delay sleep, while journaling about completed activities should not trigger worry,” Scullin said.

“The alternative hypothesis is that writing a to-do list will ‘off-load’ those thoughts and reduce worry,” he added.

For the study, published in Journal of Experimental Psychology, researchers monitored electrical brain activity using electrodes on a group of healthy young adults.

They completed a writing assignment for five minutes prior to overnight polysomnography recording in a controlled sleep laboratory.

They were randomly assigned to write about tasks that they needed to remember to complete the next few days (to-do list) or about tasks they had completed the previous few days (completed list).

Participants in the to-do list condition fell asleep significantly faster than those in the completed-list condition.

The more specifically participants wrote their to-do list, the faster they subsequently fell asleep, whereas the opposite trend was observed when participants wrote about completed activities.

Therefore, to facilitate falling asleep, individuals may derive benefit from writing a very specific to-do list for five minutes at bedtime rather than journaling about completed activities, the researchers noted.

Security forces have been put on a heightened alert in Kashmir following inputs of a possible militant attack in the city ahead of the Republic Day celebrations, police said on Monday.

The security forces in Kashmir, especially the city, were put on heightened alert following recovery of two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in HMT area here over the past two days, the police official said.

The security forces have started carrying out area domination exercises in many parts of the city, including random vehicle checks and search operations, he said.

The official said as part of these exercises, the security forces carried out cordon and search operations in some parts of the old city for the first time in nearly two decades.

“There are intelligence inputs that militants might try to carry out an attack on security forces in the city ahead of the Republic Day celebrations. The security grid is geared up to thwart any such incident,” he said.

The militants, who suffered heavy casualties last year at the hands of security forces, have recently changed tactics, using IEDs in their bid to target security forces, he said.

The first IED was recovered from Zainakote area on Srinagar-Baramulla road on Saturday while the second was detected few kilometres away at Maloora on Srinagar-Bandipora road on Sunday.

Four policemen were killed in an IED explosion triggered by militants in Sopore area of Baramulla district on January 6.

Meanwhile, the main Republic Day function in Kashmir will be held at Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket stadium at Sonawar this year as the regular venue–Bakshi Stadium–is undergoing renovation.

Militants, in the past, tried to stage spectacular attacks ahead of Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations in Jammu and Kashmir but over the past decade, their plans were foiled by the security forces.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has for the first time claimed responsibility for the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a new book in written by Taliban leader Abu Mansoor Asim Mufti Noor Wali.

Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi shortly after she addressed an election rally on December 27, 2007 and members of the then military regime of General Pervez Musharraf had blamed the TTP for it. The outfit has so far maintained its silence over the assassination.

No group had claimed responsibility for Bhutto’s murder until the claim in “Inqilab Mehsood South Waziristan – From British Raj to American Imperialism.” The book says suicide bombers Bilal, who was also known as Saeed and Ikramullah were tasked to carry out the attack on Bhutto on December 27.

“Bomber Bilal first fired at Benazir Bhutto from his pistol and the bullet hit her neck. Then he detonated his explosive jacket and blew himself up among the participants of the procession,” Daily Times on Monday quoted the book as saying.

After Bhutto’s assassination, the Musharraf regime had released an audio conversation purpotedly between the two Taliban men talking about Bhutto’s death.

The book also claims that the Taliban was behind another attack on Bhutto, carried out by two suicide bombers in October 2007 in Karachi, in which nearly 140 people died.

“Despite attacks on Benazir Bhutto’s procession in Karachi, the government had not taken appropriate security measures that made it possible for the attackers to have easy access to Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi,” claims the book.

The book states that Baitullah Mehsud, the then head of the TTP, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2009, had approved the attack on Bhutto’s procession in October 2007, when she returned to Pakistan to lead campaign for the 2008 parliamentary elections.

“The return of Benazir Bhutto was planned on the behest of the Americans as they had given her a plan against the Mujahideed-e-Islam. Baitullah had received information of the plan.

“So when Benazir Bhutto arrived in Karachi, two suicide bombers Mohsin Mehsood and Rehmatullah Mehsod carried out attacks on her procession at Karsaz area of Karachi,” the book claims.

Musharraf had been formally charged in the case by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi in August 2017. The ATC also declared Musharraf an absconder in the case. Musharraf has denied any involvement in Bhutto’s assassination on a number of occasions.

The book also mentions that the investigating bodies had held the outfit responsible for Bhutto’s killing but they had denied their involvement until 27 December 2017, on her 10th death anniversary. It presents no reason why the TTP changed its stance.

The book, according to Daily Times, covers the TTP’s history, its attacks, military operations in the tribal regions, TTP’s activities in Afghanistan, tribal system, Mehsood tribe role in the TTP, TTP operations in Karachi and its campaign against polio vaccination.

From looking absolutely stunning in a black Manish Malhotra sheer gown at the New Year bash to all the airport looks, Kareena Kapoor Khan has been setting fashion goals for all.

And once again the fashion diva surprised us by her looks at the Golden Sprint event and at Kaajal Anand’s birthday bash hosted at Shah Rukh Khan’s residence.

#abouttoday❤ make-up and hair by @subbu28 styled by @tanghavri

A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@therealkareenakapoor) on Jan 12, 2018 at 8:00am PST

For Golden Sprint, her outfit was styled by Tanya Ghavri and the Bollywood opted for asymmetrical hem dress by Lavish Alice. The elegant look in Bardot neckline looked perfect with her minimal accessories. She opted for a couple of statement rings by Tanshiq and pair of fringe earrings by Deepa Gurnani. The ankle-strap heels from Charles and Keith added a touch to her look.

Event today in @lavishalice @heygirl.in Jewelry by @tanishqjewellery @deepagurnani shoes by @charleskeithofficial make up and hair by @subbu28 assisted by @ekta_shah managed by @poonamdamania

A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@therealkareenakapoor) on Jan 12, 2018 at 9:09am PST

Her makeup was minimal and was perfect for Nude lips and perfectly lined eyes and wavy hair.

For the birthday bash of her friend, she was spotted wearing a shimmery silver top from MSGM teamed with a pleated mini skirt. She kept the look simple and added a pair of black pumps, a clutch, minimal makeup and wavy hair.

📷 @poonamdamania

A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@therealkareenakapoor) on Jan 12, 2018 at 5:25pm PST

On the work front, Kareena is all set to hit the silver screen again after her pregnancy, in Rhea Kapoor’s Veere Di Wedding, which will also feature Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar. The film is slated to release on June 1.

The Delhi Assembly witnessed repeated adjournments on Monday as AAP legislators protested loudly over a sealing drive in the city and accused the BJP-led corporations of using it to extort money from business persons.

AAP MLAs protested in the well of the House by holding banners against the sealing drive and raised slogans against the BJP.

The sealing drive is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed ‘Monitoring Committee’ against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes.

The sealing drive is being implemented by the three BJP-led municipal corporations.

The AAP MLAs alleged that businessmen were being harassed by the BJP-led corporations and there was huge corruption in the whole process.

The Monitoring Committee was set up by the Supreme Court in 2006 for sealing of offending premises.

But in 2012, it asked the committee to stop the drive.

In December 2017, the Supreme Court ordered the sealing drive be re-started and revived the Monitoring Committee.

The AAP had opposed revival of the committee in the Supreme Court and later accused the municipal corporations of corruption in the process.

“AAP will not allow BJP to go scot-free for its corruption which resulted in traders suffering due to the sealing of shops in various parts of Delhi because BJP-ruled MCDs wanted to extort money,” AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said earlier.

“Action is being taken against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes without paying conversion charges,” North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) spokesperson Yogendra Mann told IANS.