James Ward-Prowse’s first-half goal helped Southampton beat Fulham 1-0 in the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday.

Happy with the win, Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino believes his side can use the 1-0 victory as a platform to build on. Pleased with the spirit of his players, he said, “It was important because we needed a performance like this to show to the others that we are really strong as a team.”

“I think we defended well and we showed spirit from the beginning until the end of the game. It was a difficult game, because Fulham are a good team who play good football and manage the ball well. But I think we looked dangerous on the counter-attack and could’ve scored the second goal,” he said to the official website of Southampton.

“We have to use this as a base to improve and learn that we are capable of being solid. This performance can help us to be better next week,” he was quoted by southamptonfc.com.

Malaysia’s veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad was named as the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate today as a bruising election battle looms against scandal-plagued premier Najib Razak and his long-ruling coalition.

The decision means the 92-year-old, a hugely divisive figure criticised for ruling with an iron fist during his long reign, could return as premier 15 years after stepping down.

But he also agreed to make way for jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim — his former nemesis turned political ally — to become prime minister on his release from prison if Anwar is granted a royal pardon.

Mahathir’s ascent to opposition prime ministerial candidate is the latest sign of how dramatically Malaysia’s political landscape has been shaken up by a massive financial scandal that has rocked Najib’s government.

Mahathir came out of retirement to take on Najib as anger mounted at allegations billions of dollars were looted from a state investment fund, 1MDB, founded by the current premier.

Both Najib, whose United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) has led the country in a coalition since independence in 1957, and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The elections must be called by August but speculation is mounting they will be held in the next few months.

The decision to pick Mahathir as candidate for premier was endorsed by senior leaders of four-party coalition Pact of Hope at their convention in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpur, to rousing cheers by hundreds of supporters.

“Our great focus is to save our beloved country,” Mahathir, who ruled the country for 22 years at the head of the UMNO, said in a speech.

“It wasn’t easy for the parties that were my enemies before to accept me — but they are aware of the importance of bringing down the current government.”

People’s Justice Party president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar’s wife, was named as deputy prime minister candidate.

The coalition will be hoping that Mahathir, who has set up his own party to take on Najib, will be able to attract votes of from Muslim Malays, who make up about 60 per cent of the population.

But most analysts think that the ruling coalition will win as the system is greatly stacked in their favour, the economy has performed well recently and the opposition has often appeared disunited.

Anwar, jailed after being convicted of sodomy, will be released on June 8, reports said today, but he will be barred from politics for five years unless granted a royal pardon.

Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt says in a world where money is made out of “selling love and friendship”, he is a “B-grade fear seller”.

“I am a fear seller. In a world where money is made out of selling love, friendship, laughter, hope and even tears, I sell fear. I do this unapologetically and at the cost of being called not aesthetic, crass and B-grade. Hang on, correction; I am a B-grade fear seller,” Vikram wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.

The filmmaker says it’s relieving not to be great or even attempt to be one. Bhatt is gearing up for the release of his next horror film “1921”.

The film, shot in London, revolves around the lead characters, played by Zareen Khan and Karan Kundra. They deal with their dark pasts and secrets to secure their present and future. It is about a struggle between life and death.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that most political parties are “fairly satisfied” with the present system of political funding and would not like to move on to a transparent system such as electoral bonds.

“India has not been able to evolve a transparent political funding system…Most political groups seem fairly satisfied with the present arrangement and would not mind this status quo to continue. The effort, therefore, is to run down any alternative system which is devised to cleanse up the political funding mechanism,” Jaitley said in a write-up.

The Finance Minister, who had announced the concept of electoral bonds in his Budget speech for the year 2017-18 and introduced the same in the Lok Sabha on January 2, said that a number of reforms made over the years have resulted in “only a small fraction of the donations” coming through cheques.

“In order to carry forward this reform process, I had announced in my 2017-18 Budget speech that… donations of clean money could be made to political parties in several ways. A donor could enjoy a tax deduction by donating in cheques. Donors were also free to donate money online to political parties.

“In addition, a scheme of electoral bonds was announced to enable clean money and substantial transparency being brought into the system of political funding,” he said, adding the scheme “envisages total clean money and substantial transparency” coming into the system of political funding.

A donor can purchase electoral bonds from a specified bank only by a banking instrument. He would have to disclose in his accounts the number of political bonds that he has purchased. The life of the bond would be 15 days only.

A bond can only be encased in a pre-declared account of a political party. Every political party in its returns will have to disclose the number of donations it has received through electoral bonds to the Election Commission.

“In fact, the choice has now to be consciously made between the existing system of substantial cash donations which involves total unclean money and is non-transparent and the new scheme which gives the option to the donors to donate through entirely a transparent method of the cheque, online transaction or through electoral bonds,” Jaitley said.

Although the Finance Minister said that the amount of money given by a donor to a political party would be known “only to the donor”, the opposition has taken exception to this claim.

The Congress has said that hiding the donor names of electoral bonds is a regressive step and expressed concern that the move may stifle ‘transparency’ and give “unlimited access to ruling party to misuse information and state machinery to coerce the donors”.

The Finance Minister said that the government is “willing to consider all suggestions to further strengthen the cleansing of political funding” but “impractical suggestions” will not help.

Jeremy Renner, the sure shot archer from avengers, made a good name for himself playing the role of Hawkeye in the Marvel Avengers franchise. But the actor has made a name for himself doing other marvelous films as well, giving the viewers and his fans a lot more to offer than just one superhero role. It’s often forgotten that he started out as more of a character actor, with intense performances in smaller films, often playing unstable characters.

Here are a five of Jeremy Renner’s non-Marvel movies that proves that it’s not just Marvel that showcases him as a great actor:

Dahmer (2002)

Making his breakthrough into the industry, Jeremy Renner plays a role in the movie where he portrays Jeffery Dahmer, the notorious serial killer. Renner had a convincing, glassy eyed portrayal in David Jacobson’s psychological crime horror that earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

His work paid off big time as this was the performance that convinced Kathryn Bigelow to cast him in the ‘The Hurt Locker’

Neo Ned (2005)

In this film, Jeremy Renner is given the role of a white supremacist who falls in love after meeting a young black woman in a psychiatric hospital. The woman in the movie, however, believes the fact that she is the reincarnation of Hitler himself.

Though it might have sounded absurd, the film was a complete success and Renner won the Palm Beach international film festival’s Best Actor award for his captivating performance for enabling audiences to sympathise with an easily dislikable and difficult character.

North Country (2005)

North Country is based around the first successful sexual harassment case in the United States. Renner played the important role of Bobby Sharp in the entire film. His character was that of a mine worker who targets female staff members and people whom he considers as a person having a kind despicable character.

Also in this film Jeremy Renner gets a chance to showcase his singing talent as well.

The Hurt Locker (2008)

This was the film that was given to him after the successful run of Dahmer. Here Renner is best known for his leading role as Sgt. William James in Bigelow’s Iraq war drama. Even though this wasn’t the first time he was doing a military role since he had already played such a role in his movie ‘28 Weeks Later’, but the intensity of the role was certainly miles apart.

For his efforts, Renner received the best actor nomination from the Academy awards, Bafta awards, the Independent Spirit awards and from the Screen Actors Guild as well.

The Town (2010)

This film was one of those film that the actor went to lengths to make ends meet and create and understand the perfect persona for the character in the film.

Renner plays as a troubled criminal in this crime drama that was directed and starred by Ben Affleck. Renner tried to get inside the mind of a tough guy again for his roles so that it makes him relatable during the film.

He prepared for the role by visiting prisons and drinking beer with ex-cons and picked up another Oscar nomination for the trouble.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday announced the upgradation of the Community Health Centre in his constituency located in the interiors of Mandi district.

He announced the upgradation of the Community Health Centre Bag said to a Civil Hospital on his first visit there after taking charge in the state.

Accompanied by his wife and his cabinet colleague Mahinder Singh, Thakur was given a rousing reception on visiting his home constituency Seraj.

Donning traditional attire and playing and dancing to the tunes of traditional folk music, locals welcomed their leader.

Addressing public meetings en route, Thakur said the people of Mandi were demanding for long that the Chief Minister should belong to this district. It was after a long wait that their dream had been realised.

Thakur is the first Chief Minister from Mandi, the second biggest district in Himachal after Kangra. In the last assembly elections, the BJP won nine out of the 10 assembly seats in Mandi.

Earlier Chief Ministers of Himachal have hailed from Shimla, Kangra and Sirmaur districts.

The Chief Minister said he used to travel nine km from his Tandi village to Bagsaid for education.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to review the state government’s decision of not becoming part of the Centre’s backward district development initiative.

I request Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to review the decision. The Centre has not forced any decision on the state.

The state has all rights to bring in changes in the proposal.

Besides, the whole process will be carried out under the Chief Secretary,” Pradhan told reporters two days after the Odisha government boycotted a meeting of Niti Aayog addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Pradhan said only two states — Odisha and West Bengal — did not send district collectors to the meeting.

Pradhan clarified that the Niti Aayog s proposal should not be seen as an interference of the Centre into the business of the state.

Pradhan said Odisha s Chief Secretary A P Padhi was approached by the Niti Aayog several times to cooperate with the initiative so that eight districts of the state would get special attention.

“Odisha Chief Secretary is an intelligent person. I do not know who pressurised him to write that Odisha was not taken into confidence while appointing the Prabhari officers by the Centre, the minister said.

Opposing the Centre s action of appointing IAS officers as Prabhari (in-charge) officers in eight most backward districts of Odisha Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Koraput, Dhenkanal and Bolangir to address specific developmental needs, the state government had decided to give the event a miss, he said.

While requesting Patnaik ro reconsider the state’s decision in regard to the backward area development, Pradhan said: “The chief minister should prove that he is the best administrator through actions and not just words.”

Meanwhile, ruling BJD spokesperson P K Deb said the state government has already appointed senior IAS officers for monitoring the developmental works in all the districts and there was no need to appoint more officers for the same job.

The objective of the Centre’s initiative is to transform 115 backward districts across the country of which 35 are affected by Left Wing violence.

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt says actor Sanjay Dutt had a really hard time dealing with his addiction to heroin.

“Sanjay Dutt had a really hard time dealing with his addiction. It went to a point where his first thought in the morning was about heroin. Hear me and Pooja Bhatt (daughter and actress-filmmaker) talk about substance abuse only on ‘Bhatt Naturally’ (radio show),” Mahesh tweeted on Sunday.  Sanjay has worked with Vishesh Films, which is co-owned by Mahesh, for films like “Kabzaa”, “Sadak” and “Dushman”.

Last year, Pooja said “Sadak 2”, the sequel of her 1991 hit film “Sadak”, is in the works.  “We are making ‘Sadak 2’ in which we are showing Sanjay Dutt in his true and present time, so we are dealing with issue of depression in that film but we are making a commercial film,” she had said.

Pitching for rule by the same party in the states as in the Centre, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday urged the electorate to vote for the BJP again in the ensuing Karnataka assembly elections to step up development in the state.

“Karnataka will benefit like Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh if it is also ruled by the BJP, which is heading the NDA government at the Centre under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said at a party rally here.

Addressing about 50,000 people at the function here as part of the BJP’s 90-day statewide “Nava Karnataka Nirmana Pari-varthana Yatra”, Adityanath, speaking in Hindi, said Karnataka stagnated in development over the last four years under the Congress, which had failed to implement various schemes of the Modi government.

“Though the Modi government had included Bengaluru and nine other cities across the state under its ambitious Smart City project, the state government has not taken action to utilize its funds or improve the quality of life in the state.

“The Congress government has been busy polarising the people, dividing them on caste and religious basis and failed to check the worsening law and order situation. It has no time for the development of the state, which was once known for its phenomenal growth in the knowledge sector, especially IT and biotech,” said Adityanath.

Noting that the BJP was ruling in 19 states and as a coalition partner in five more states across the country, he said his party had wrested power from the Congress in Himachal Pradesh and won in Gujarat for a record sixth time solely on the development plank.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power in the state for the first time in 2008, lost to the Congress in 2013 following a split in its state unit and five years of “misrule” with three Chief Ministers.

It is the second time Adityanath attended and addressed a BJP rally in the state after he did on December 21 at Hubballi.

Party’s state unit President B.S. Yeddyurappa, central ministers from the state Ananth Kumar and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Union HRD Minister and party’s state in-charge Prakash Javdekar and its state unit leaders Jagadish Shettar, K.S Eshwarappa and A.R. Ashok also addressed the rally.

Before flying back to Lucknow, Adityanath had lunch at the Adichunchanagiri Mutt with its seer Nirmalanandanath Swami.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church today scored a historic victory with the inauguration of the Shamshabad Diocese here with pan-India jurisdiction, excluding the existing 30 dioceses, something they lost in 1886 to the Latin Church.

With over 5 million followers, the Kerala-based church is the second largest Christian grouping in India.

Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, formally dedicated the diocese to the Vatican with the installation of Raphael Thattil as its first bishop.

The enthronement ceremony was attended by two cardinals – including Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, the president of the Catholics Bishops Conference of India – senior Vatican representative Archbishop Cyril Vasil and Hyderabad Archbishop Thumma Bala, along with over a dozen archbishops and more than 40 bishops from across the country.

The Diocese of Shamshabad in Hyderabad is the 31st for the Kerala-based church and also the largest in the country with administrative control across 24 states, including the entire Eastern and Northeastern regions, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, four Union Territories and all those areas which are not governed by the 14 dioceses outside Kerala.

This Kerala church, which traces its origins to 52 AD and is believed to be founded directly by St Thomas the Apostle, is also the third largest under the Vatican, after the Latin Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Catholic Churches.

Its members are a financially, politically and numerically a powerful community in Kerala. This church also has four dioceses outside India in Australia, Britain, Canada and the US – and 14 other dioceses in the country.

The Vatican, the global headquarters of the Catholic Church and the seat of Pope Francis, had announced the creation of the Shamshabad diocese on October 9 last year.

The new bishop Thattil will serve 1,30,000 faithful spread across 100 cities in the country and has 11 functional churches and seven under construction with around 90 priests and a few hundred nuns.

The Syro-Malabar Church is one of the oldest churches in the world, in fact, much older than those in the Western Hemisphere, and traces its origins to the Apostle Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, who arrived in Kerala in 52 AD at Kodungallur in the central part of the present-day Kerala.

The name Syro-Malabar Church is coined from the words `Syriac’, referring to the East Syriac liturgy, and `Malabar’, the historical name of Kerala.

The Syro-Malabar Catholics, also known as St Thomas Christians, lost their administrative powers to the Latin Church after the Portuguese missionaries wrested control over them in 1886 and were limited to just two territories — Thrissur and Kottayam — in the present-day Kerala.

Till then, Kodungallur was the headquarters of these Christians. In 1955, the Vatican extended the territory of this church to the whole of Kerala and a few districts of neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

More than 70 girls were found staying in a Rajasthan ashram run by self-styled godman Virendra Dev Dixit, the accused in the Rohini-ashram case, the police said today.

On December 24, 47 women and six minor girls were rescued from different centres of Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh run by Dixit, with the CBI probing charges of rape and illegal confinement of girls and women at the centres against him.

The search at Abu Road in Sirohi district of Rajasthan was conducted yesterday following directions from senior officers.

The 72 girls claimed that they were staying in the ashram for spiritual activities and living there willingly. They asserted that they are allowed to meet their guardians, said Mithu Lal, Station House Officer (SHO) of Abu Road police station.

The caretaker of the ashram has been told to provide documents of the girls. However, no suspicious activity was noticed in the ashram as of now, the SHO said.

“We are verifying the credentials of the girls and other staffers,” he said.

Last month, the Delhi Commission for Women along with a police contingent raided two centres of Dixit in Rohini and Dwarka and rescued over 40 girls who were allegedly confined there.

The matter had come to light after a PIL was filed by an NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, in the Delhi High Court. The NGO had informed the court that several girls and women were allegedly being illegally confined there.

A 32-year-old man named from Mahishadal in East Midnapore district of West Bengal has been held for allegedly stalking cricket great Sachin Tendulkar’s daughter Sara.

As per reports, the stalker, Debkumar Maity, had made lewd comment about Sachin’s daughter and made 20 calls at Tendulkar’s residence. The stalker, who is reportedly mentally unstable, had even threatened to kidnap Sachin’s daughter.

As per reports in TOI, Debkumar Maity told police that, “I saw her on TV sitting at the pavilion during a match and fell in love…I want to marry her. I fetched the landline number of Tendulkar and have called on it some 20 times…Have never seen her in person.”

Debkumar is likely going to stand before the Haldia court and after that he will be taken to Mumbai on transit remand.

Maity is a college dropout and currently unemployed. His family is claiming that he is not mentally stable.

“We had no idea how he got embroiled in this case. Even at home he used to torture his parents. He lost his father recently. He has been undergoing medical treatment for his condition for last eight years,” said the stalker’s relatives.

The relative of the accused has claim that Debkumar is a very good painter. A diary has also been recovered from his house in which he has described Sachin’s daughter as his wife.

However, how the accused managed to get Tendulkar’s landline number is a mystery to police and it is being investigated. The medical investigation is also going to take place to examine whether the accused is mentally unstable or not.

Earlier, Sara had filed a complaint against the stalker at the Bandra police station.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has done a look test for his next film, which he describes as an entertaining high-octane drama.

Amitabh on Sunday took to Instagram to share a black and white collage of himself with 12 different facial expressions.

“Prepping and doing look tests for my next film. It’s a multi-starrer. Err sorry, it’s a multi-faced entertaining high-octane drama extended by hilarious comedic interludes that ride the most bizarre riddles of music,” he captioned the image.

Prepping and doing Look tests for my next film .. it’s a multi starrer .. err .. sorry .. it’s a multi faced entertaining high octane drama extended by hilarious comedic interludes that ride the most bizarre riddles of music !! Ya .. !!

A post shared by Amitabh Bachchan (@amitabhbachchan) on Jan 6, 2018 at 7:07pm PST

The details about the film have not been revealed.

Amitabh currently has three films in his kitty — “102 Not Out”, “Thugs Of Hindostan” and “Brahmastra”.

Actress Yami Gautam says she is excited to start working on her next film, “Batti Gul Meter Chalu”, which will also star Shahid Kapoor.

“Batti Gul Meter Chalu” will be directed by Shree Narayan Singh, who previously helmed “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha”. The project will be co-produced by T-Series and KriArj Entertainment.

“Super happy to commence this special journey with KriArj Entertainment on ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’. Really excited for this one Prernaa, Shree Narayan Singh, Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor,” Yami, who is “basking in the lap of nature”, tweeted on Saturday night. Shahid feels “great” to have her on board.

Singer Britney Spears’ former house in Calabasas, California, was sold for $8.1 million — the most expensive sold in the exclusive enclave in 2017.

The pop star never actually owned the property, instead leasing the estate, which boasts 10,000 square feet of living space, a two-storey library and a glass-bottom swimming pool, reports people.com.

The seller was producer David Broome, who purchased the estate in 2013 for about $5.4 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Isadora and Tomer Fridman — who also work with several of the Calabasas-based Kardashian-Jenner family members — co-listed the property with several other Compass agents and Hilton & Hyland.

The second most expensive home in the enclave also has celebrity ties. The 15,000-square-foot-spread belongs to 20-year-old YouTuber Jake Paul. He purchased the estate for $6.9 million in October.

Actor Vatsal Sheth says the set for his show Haasil was not affected by the fire that raged across Cinevista Studios here on Saturday.

Cinevista Studios is owned by former actor Prem Kishen and his filmmaker-son Siddharth P Malhotra, who said on Sunday that the fire is fully under control and that there are no casualties.

Vatsal feels lucky as he wasn’t there.

“I was shooting at Madh Island. And the set for our serial Haasil was not affected by the fire. But the adjoining set where another serial Beypanhaa was being shot was completely gutted,” he said.

“My heart reaches out to the cast and crew though luckily I hear there were no casualties. I feel really sorry for the channel Colors which telecasts the serial. This is indeed a setback for the whole team.”

“I shot for Cinevista’s Ek Hasina Thi in 2015 on the same set that got destroyed. So lots of fond memories of shared work-related activities on the gutted set,” he added.

Having said this, Vatsal, who has been doing cinema and television for several years now feels it is time to follow safety measures during shooting.

“We don’t take the dangers seriously or maybe we are just not aware of the risk factors, especially the fire hazards,” he said.

“I remember when I was shooting on an international cruiser with actor Ajay Devgn Sir — I was an assistant on his directorial venture U Me Aur Hum. The laws regarding fire safety were so strict and inviolable, there was just no way a mishap like the one we saw at the pub in Mumbai could happen,” he added.

Vatsal is concerned about the long hours and confined spaces where television serials are shot.

“We keep shooting without caring about the work conditions. We all need to get more serious about safety precautions at our work place before another catastrophe happens,” he said.