The Madhya Pradesh government has directed all educational institutions in the state to hold Surya Namaskar and Pranayam sessions on January 12, to mark the birth anniversary of spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda.

However, it also made it clear that participation in the Surya Namaskar or sun salutations would not be mandatory.

“Surya Namaskar and Pranayam will be performed in all academic institutions from 9 am tomorrow,” a government press release said on Thursday.

A state-level Surya Namaskar program will be organised at the Lal Parade ground here in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his cabinet colleagues Vijay Shah and Deepak Joshi.

Students from schools in Bhopal would participate in the program, the release said.

Following the controversies associated with such events on earlier occasions, the state government clarified that the participation would be voluntary.

Indian driver C S Santosh, racing for Hero MotoSports Team, gained five positions to be 51st overall after the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally, which will now move into Bolivia.

Santosh decided to play it safe and steady as the rally neared the halfway mark to finish the stage at 52nd position.

“It was a really hard day. I was feeling a bit tired in the morning as I didn’t have a good sleep, so it took me a little time to get going in the stage. The stage was tough, especially the last 50km or so,” Santosh said.

“The dunes were really churned up and the sand was incredibly soft. It took everything that I had and the machine had to make it through today. One more day to go before the much deserved rest day,” he added.

Dakar debutant Oriol Mena, also competing for Hero MotoSports Team, finished 11th, his second top-15 stage finish. Overall, Mena now stands at the 21st position at the end of stage 5.

In the 5th stage, the organisers separated the route for the Quads/Bikes and Cars/Trucks. The trucks and the cars, therefore, were the first to discover the stage, even before their riders, as they made their way through the sands of Tanaka, traversing through 30km or so of mountain dunes.

The next stage will see the rally change countries to enter into Bolivia making its first halt at La Paz – the world’s highest capital city.

The rally will move a gear up to become faster as it leaves the sands behind to tackle the Bolivian Altiplano at the altitude of 2500m and above.

Pakistani actors Mahira Khan and Ali Zafar condemned the rape and killing of an eight-year-old girl, who was found dumped in trash after being repeatedly assaulted sexually. The movie stars say “sexual abuse needs to spoken about openly”.

“This. We need to start talking about sexual abuse openly. We need to include that in our school curriculums. Awareness is key. Associating abuse and rape with shame is why countless go unheard. Stop with the shame,” Mahira tweeted on Thursday morning.

Riots erupted in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Wednesday over police inaction after the minor’s body was found.

The victim was last known to have attended a tuition centre near her house in the Road Kot area last Thursday on January 4, after which she went missing, Dawn reported.

Demanding justice for the victim, the actress added: “We fail as a nation every time we witness a crime as heinous as this. We fail even more when we aren’t able to bring these evil butchers to the gallows. And we fail the most when we sit in our homes instead of getting out on the roads. Press Club, Karachi. 2 p.m.”

We fail as a nation every time we witness a crime as heinous as this. We fail even more when we aren’t able to bring these evil butchers to the gallows. And we fail the most when we sit in our homes instead of getting out on the roads. Press club, Karachi. 2 pm. #Justice4Zainab

— Mahira Khan (@TheMahiraKhan) January 10, 2018

Ali said he was disgusted with the heinous crime and wants justice for the minor girl.

“Never been so angry and disgusted in my life. Her parents had gone for Umrah (pilgrimage) when this happened. Imagined their state of mind. Justice has to be served! Justice for (the girl),” he tweeted.

Never been so angry and disgusted in my life. Her parents had gone for Umrah when this happened. Imagined their state of mind. Justice has to be served! #Justice4Zainab pic.x.com/oI8dI1pDln

— Ali Zafar (@AliZafarsays) January 10, 2018

The brutal murder of the little girl has incited anger among residents as it is the 12th such case to occur within a two kilometre radius in the city since last year.

Kasur, over 400 km from Islamabad, made international headlines in 2015 when a gang of paedophiles were running a child sex racket that was busted, Dawn reported.

The paedophile gang allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted at least 280 children in the area, blackmailed the families of the victims since 2009, and even sold video clips and images of the assault.

Guitarist and songwriter Salman Ahmad shared on his popular Pakistani band Junoon’s Facebook page, that Kasur is the city of his father and ancestors.

“It is also the burial place of one of the greatest Sufi saints, Baba Bulleh Shah… Bulleh would be turning in his grave to learn of the monsters that prowl Punjab and hunt young children …

“Is there no law or justice left in Pakistan to reign in these satanic forces? Shame on the police and Punjab government for turning a blind eye or being complicit in the sex trade flourishing in Kasur and elsewhere in the country.

“A sexual assault which involves children should be dealt with ruthless punishment. If we don’t set an example with across the board accountability, right now, these monsters will continue their lustful orgies entrapping children… and extinguishing their light.”

Taking a swipe at its ally BJP over the Supreme Court’s ruling that playing the national anthem in cinema halls was optional, the Shiv Sena on Thursday urged “bhakts” and the RSS to clarify their stand on nationalism.

An editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ sarcastically described the SC ruling as “historic or revolutionary”, and said the ruling came after the BJP-led Union government took a position that playing the anthem in halls was “not important”.

“The Supreme Court did a U-turn on its own decision after the Centre took a stand that (playing) the national anthem in theatres was not important… What are the stand of the RSS and other nationalist organisations on this,” it asked.

“It (the apex court’s decision) is a jolt to those who took the stand in the Modi regime that those who sing ‘Vande Mataram’ are nationalists and those who do not are traitors,” the newspaper said.

Calling the government’s position on the anthem cowardly, it said the definition of nationalism was changing every day.

Till recently, it was asserted that those who protected cows were nationalists and those ate beef were traitors, but the chief minister of BJP-ruled Goa yesterday said there was no ban on beef in the state, it pointed out.

While it has become mandatory to display Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photographs in Madrassas in Uttar Pradesh, there are no norms for the national anthem now, it said.

“It is as if those who died at the gallows for freedom chanting ‘Vande Mataram’ were stupid. What does the BJP bhakts (supporters) have to say about this,” it asked.

India’s Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who joined forces for the 2018 season, fought their hearts out before losing the semifinal of the ATP Sydney International to world number one team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, here today.

The fourth-seeded Indo-French pair gave a scare to the top-seeded Polish-Brazilian pair before losing the closely- fought semifinal 4-6 7-5 8-10 in one hour and 29 minutes.

There was not much of a difference in the two teams as the winners won 70 points to the 64 of Bopanna and Roger- Vasselin.

They broke each other twice in the contest.

The victors will now fight it out with Germany’s Jan- Lennard Struff and Romanian Viktor Troicki, who toppled second seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-6(5) 6-1.

It was the last tournament in build up to the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open.

Bopanna had played the season-opening Tata Open Maharashtra with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan in Pune, losing in the quarterfinals.

For publishers in India, 2017 was a great year an amazing range of books, new imprints, rewards and recognitions and prized acquisitions.

The year saw numerous autobiographies and biographies, and books related to business, commercial and mass market fiction, besides literary fiction, sports, self help, chik-lit and culinary works. There were a number of works by new and little-known authors too.

Penguin celebrated its 30th anniversary in India and HarperCollins India its 25th year. Bloomsbury India marked five years of its launch and the quarterly The Equator Line magazine completed five years.

“We had a great year at HarperCollins. It was our 25th anniversary year and was really special. We celebrated the occasion with newly designed special editions of our 25 most iconic titles, launched an imprint for business books Harper Business,” says HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan.

“We also launched a brand new children’s publishing program in November and a range of educational toys called FLAP (Fun a Learning and Play), the first by any publisher in India,” he told PTI.

“We also won many awards; the best business book for Y V Reddy’s ‘Advice and Dissent’, one of the first books in the new list, Anuk Ardupragasam’s ‘The Story of A Brief Marriage’ won both the Shakti Bhatt Prize and the DSC South Asia Prize.

Our books were on every shortlist in 2017. In short it has been a spectacular and rewarding year of books and awards,” he adds.

“At Palimpsest, we look back on 2017 with satisfaction particularly for three books we put on our list: Sophie Judah’s ‘Victory Tea Estate’, Balraj Khanna’s iconic Partition narrative ‘Line of Blood’, and ‘Demonetization in the Detail’, a collection of essays edited by veteran journalist H K Dua,” says Bhaskar Roy, CEO of Palimpsest Publishers.

Hemali Sodhi, senior vice president (marketing) and publisher (children s) at Penguin Random House India, terms 2017 as an extraordinary year.

“We celebrated Penguin’s 30th anniversary in India. To mark the occasion, we published special collector’s editions across both the adult and children’s divisions. Beautifully designed, the 30 books in the adult list and 10 books in the children’s list featured some of our most beloved and popular titles published over the last 30 years. We also celebrated the 30th anniversary through the year with some very innovative and fun initiatives and campaigns,” she says.

“It was also a wonderful year for our local publishing program – our range of books and authors consistently won awards, garnered acclaim and hit the bestseller charts. We were awarded the publisher of the year at the Tata Literature Live, and also won all the industry awards for book production,” she adds.

According to Bloomsbury Publishing India Vice President (Sales & Marketing) Yogesh Sharma, 2017 was the best since Bloomsbury was launched five years ago in India.

“Our local publishing expanded significantly on the back of critically acclaimed books such as ‘The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta’ by Kushanava Choudhury, The Windfall’ by Diksha Basu, ‘Who Me, Poor?: How India’s Youth are Living in Urban Poverty to Make it Big’ by Gayatri Jayaraman, and ‘Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways’ by Arup K Chatterjee, among others,” he says.

“Both our trade and academic businesses including the digital collections grew as we strengthened our presence in sales and marketing. We grew by a record 32 per cent outstripping the industry average by far,” Sharma says.

According to Oxford University Press-India Managing Director Sivaramakrishnan V, the focus of OUP in 2017 was achieving learning outcomes, technology adopted quickly and content rewritten and redesigned to adapt to a variety of emerging media.

“Virtual and Augmented Reality was probably the most talked about trend of 2017. AR/VR technologies help learners experience and interact with digital learning objects to support their learning. Educators, who earlier had print or digital images/animations for teaching support, now can leverage these high-fidelity educational experiences to achieve better learning outcomes,” he says.

Among the highlights of Pan Macmillan India’s publishing list in 2017 were the 10th anniversary edition of Ramachandra Guha’s “India After Gandhi”; “Awaken”, the first book of Ashok Banker’s Shakti trilogy; “The Demon of Cawnpore” by Jules Verne; “The Party Worker” by Omar Shahid Hamid; Chhimi Tenduf-La’s “Loyal Stalkers”; “Mrs C Remembers” by Himanjali Sankar; and “Boy of Fire and Earth” by Sami Shah

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said “intolerance” was “rising” in the country while there was an attempt to distort history.

Speaking at the University of Calcutta after being decorated with a higher doctorate degree (D. Litt) during its convocation ceremony, Banerjee said: “Intolerance is rising in the country. History should not be distorted.”

“India has diversity of origin and we should respect that,” she added.

Meanwhile, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Calcutta High Court challenging the University’s move to confer the honourary doctorate on Banerjee.

The PIL, filed by Abu Taleb and Ranjugopal Mukherjee, argues that the varsity is a state-funded institution and will suffer a “credibility loss” if it confers the degree upon the highest executive authority of the state.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary Rahul Sinha also took a dig at the Calcutta University authorities for “stooping” to an unimaginable low.

(With agency inputs)

The IOC has said it will host a four-party meeting to decide on the participation of North Korea in the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games to be held in South Korea in February.

The meeting was called following a joint proposal by the North and South Korea on Tuesday, reports.

It would be chaired by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, on January 20, it was announced on Wednesday.

Bach is supposed to be joined by a delegation from the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee and delegations from the National Olympic Committees of both Koreas.

The meeting would have to take a series of essential decisions including the number and names of athletes and officials from the North since the deadlines for registration have expired.

It would also have to decide on the format of such participation, including questions related to the official protocol such as the flag, anthem, ceremonies, and uniform.

On Tuesday, North Korea confirmed it would join in the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games which is scheduled for February 9 to 25, following Seoul’s proposal that Pyongyang sends a large delegation as well as a cheering squad to PyeongChang.

Spaniard Joan Barreda (Honda) won the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally to vault up to fourth overall in the motorbike category.

Barreda on Wednesday finished the route between San Juan de Marcona and Arequipa more than 10 minutes faster than Austrian rider Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM), climbing nine spots in the general ranking, reports Efe.

France’s Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) retained the overall lead despite finishing fifth in the stage, but saw his advantage over Argentina’s Kevin Benavides (Honda) reduced to just one minute.

Walkner is third in the general.

Chilean rider Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) trailed Barreda by more than 28 minutes on Wednesday and tumbled to ninth place overall.

It was Barreda’s second stage win at Dakar 2018.

Though hampered by a nagging wrist injury, the Spaniard was aggressive from the start, determined to gain ground after a crash forced defending champion Sam Sunderland to abandon the race on Tuesday.

While competitors put the rigors of the Peruvian desert behind them with the end of Wednesday’s stage, they will now have to contend with the challenge of high altitude in Bolivia.

Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s son Galib Guru on Thursday passed the higher secondary school examination conducted by Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education, with a distinction.

Afzal Guru was executed in 2013 for his role in the 2001 Parliament attack.

Galib secured 88 per cent in the examination, the results for which were announced on Thursday.

According to Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE) officials, 33,893 of the 55,163 candidates qualified the examination held in November last.

While the overall pass percentage was 61.44, more girls (64.31 per cent) passed the examination compared to boys (58.92 per cent), they said.

Congratulatory messages poured in for the 17-year-old on social media, even as friends and family made a beeline to his house in Sopore town of Baramulla district.

“A big shout-out to Ghalib Afzal Guroo on clearing his 12th class exams with flying colours- 441 marks. Ghalib has definitely proven ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’. All the best for the future endeavours! Rise and shine!,” Sarah Hayat, spokesperson of opposition National Conference, said in a tweet.

A big shoutout to Ghalib Afzal Guroo on clearing his 12th class exams with flying colours- 441 marks👏👏 . Ghalib has definitely proven “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. All the best for the future endeavours! Rise and shine! pic.x.com/09zhvlf0tA

— Sarah Hayat Shah (@SaraHayatShah) January 11, 2018

Spain’s Rafael Nadal has been top seeded at the Australian Open, above Swiss great Roger Federer at two, followed by Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem of Austria.

Serbia’s Djokovic, who is making a comeback after a six month lay-off due to a tennis elbow injury, is ranked at 14. He is chasing a seventh Australian Open title and started off well with a reassuring 6-1, 6-4 win at the Kooyong Classic on January 10.

“I don’t want to be over confident but I’m very, very happy with how it went today,” Djokovic said after the match.

At the 14th rank, Djokovic may run into a tough opponent early on but the win against Thiem has set him up as a potential finalist.

Despite the tournament suffering due to withdrawals by Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori, the return to fitness of Djokovic and hopefully Nadal too opens up the tournament.

In women’s rankings, Romanian Simona Halep tops the chart followed by Danish player Caroline Wozniacki, Spanish-Venezuelan Garbine Muguruza, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina and America’s Venus Williams.

Muguruza is injured and is not sure if she will take the field.

The US Open winner Sloane Stephens, who has been struggling with her form, has been seeded 13th.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday dared Siddaramaiah to arrest its cadre after the Karnataka Chief Minister said that members of the BJP and RSS were “Hindu terrorists”.

Addressing the media, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said: “If we are extremists and terrorists, why aren’t you arresting us.”

The BJP leader further said that Siddaramaiah’s statement has exposed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s visits to temples.

“The statement of Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has reiterated Congress’s policy of appeasement and its hatred towards Hindus. The CM has attacked Hindus and Rahul Gandhi’s temple runs stand exposed,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the Karnataka CM said that members of the BJP and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) were “Hindutva terrorists.”

The statement comes a day after Siddaramaiah said the BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal were harbouring extremists.

On Wednesday, BJP chief Amit Shah hit back at the CM and accused him of being anti-Hindu and indulging in vote-bank politics.

Assembly elections in Karnataka are likely to be held in May and the BJP is going all guns blazing to oust the Congress from the state and has set itself a target of 150 seats.

The party is planning to launch a two-front attack on the incumbent Congress with Shah along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath consolidating Hindu votes while Modi, with a blitzkrieg of rallies later, will woo the urban voters.

The Congress and the BJP had won 122 and 40 seats respectively in the last assembly polls.

The horror-comedy starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor has been titled Stree.

Rajkummar on Thursday shared a photograph of the film’s clapboard.

He captioned it: “We have a title! Shoot starts on our horror-comedy Stree. Exciting schedule ahead! Shraddha Kapoor. Directed by Amar Kaushik, written by Raj and DK, Produced by Dinesh Vijan, Raj and DK.”

We have a title! Shoot starts on our horror-comedy #Stree.
Exciting schedule ahead! @ShraddhaKapoor

Directed by Amar Kaushik
Written by Raj&DK
Produced by Dinesh Vijan, Raj&DK pic.x.com/uoyPtTTkdD

— Rajkummar Rao (@RajkummarRao) January 11, 2018

Stree will be backed by Maddock Films and is directed by Raj and DK, known for movies like Shor in the City, Go Goa Gone, Happy Ending and A Gentleman.

Other details of the film are still under wraps.

This will be the first time Rajkummar and Shraddha will be seen sharing screen space together.

BJP MLC Satyendra Kushwaha died at a hospital here in the early hours of today following prolonged illness, party sources said. He was 49.

Kushwaha was admitted to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences two years ago after he suffered a brain stroke. He breathed his last at 0135 hours, the sources said.

He is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter.

Kushwaha was a co-incharge of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit and became a member of the Bihar Vidhan Parishad in May, 2012.

Condoling his death, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar described Kushwaha as “a skilled political leader and a hard-working social activist” and prayed that his family members find the strength to bear the loss.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi said Kushwaha was “a young and dynamic leader whose death has caused an irreparable loss to the party”.

Mumbai registered a thumping seven-wicket win over arch rivals Maharashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 West Zone League match here today.

For Mumbai, medium pacer Akash Parkar starred with the bowl as he picked up three wickets to help his side bundle out Maharashtra for a meager 89.

Parkar, who returned with the impressive figures of 3-22 was superbly aided by all other bowlers – Shivam Dube (2-7), Parikshit Valsangkar (2-22), experienced Shardul Thakur (1-13) and Dhawal Kulkarni (1-20).

For Maharashtra, expect opener Rahul Tripathi and one down Vijay Zol (both 21 runs in 16 balls), no other batsman was able to make a mark and steer the team out of trouble.

Another opener Ruturaj Gaikwad (3) and experienced Ankit Bawne (9) too fell cheaply.

The Mumbai Bowlers took wickets and never allowed the opposition batsman to set in.

While chasing, skipper Aditya Tare remained unbeaten on 42 in 26 balls to romp the side home.

The experienced Siddhesh Lad, who was the team’s crisis man in the Ranji Trophy this year, chipped in with a valuable 25 off 15 balls and steaded their ship after the side was teetering at 17 for 2.

Earlier, Mumbai lost both their openers Eknath Kerkar (2) and Jay Bista (3) quickly.

Surya Kumar Yadav remained unbeaten on 12 with skipper Tare as Mumbai overhauled the target in the tenth over.

Brief Scores:

Maharashtra 89 all out (Rahul Tripathi 21, Akash Parkar 3-22) lost to Mumbai 92/3 (Aditya Tare 42 not out, Siddesh Lad 25, J P Zope 1-14).

Staying at the Bigg Boss house can be adventurous as unpredictable things can happen. We have seen people falling in love, falling out of love, kicking each other, spitting at the fellow contestants, food and what not. Many of the participants found love in the show, however, eventually, each of them broke off. Similarly, a few of them found enemies in the house and we have no idea if that continued out of the house too. These ‘foes’ had huge spats during their stay in the house. Let’s have a look at the most famous quarrels in the history of the show.

Bigg Boss 1: Kashmira Shah vs Rakhi Sawant

In the very first season of the show, Kashmira and Rakhi became sworn enemies. These two women raised the TRP of the show with their interesting fights, the whole house turned against Rakhi.

Bigg Boss 2: Sambhavna Seth vs Payal Rohatgi

Nominations are the most terrible times in the house. Payal and Sambhavna were in no mood to settle things peacefully, as it happens in the Bigg Boss house, it led to an ugly wrath. They even dragged Rahul Mahajan, Payal’s then-boyfriend, into the fight.

Bigg Boss 4: Dolly Bindra against the house

Dolly Bindra was the highlight of the 4th season, during her stay in the house she fought with almost everyone there. Among which the most memorable was one with Manoj Tiwari, I bet every Bigg Boss fan remembers the ‘Baap pe mat jana’ threat. She bruised actress Shweta Tiwari while getting involved in a physical fight with her.

Bigg Boss 6: Urvashi Dholakia vs Imam Siddique

Who can ever forget the wild card entry of Imam Siddique to the house? He scared everyone with his various disguise and weird acts. He fought with Urvashi Dholakia and made her cry. Imam stole the limelight with everything that he did in the show.

Bigg Boss 9: Kishwer Merchant vs Mandana Karimi

Madana and Kishwer never got along with each other in the show but it went to another level when Mandana kicked Kishwer. While defending herself, she said whatever she did was to protect herself as Kishwer tried to choke her. Kishwer threatened to leave the show after the incident.

Bigg Boss 10: Priya Malik vs Kanwaljeet Singh

Priya Malik who resides in Australia fought with another contestant Kanwaljeet after he passed a racist comment on her. Priya being wouldn’t tolerate any such thing and it snowballed into a huge fight.

Bigg Boss 11: Hina Khan vs Shilpa Shinde

In the latest season, Hina Khan and Shilpa got into a massive fight just on the 4th day of the show. Since then, they have never got along on the show.