Rapper-actor Nick Cannon says that he and his former wife Mariah Carey are only best friends.

"Are you and Mariah still sleeping together?" he was asked on The Wendy Williams Show. 

The host also said that "In my mind, I believe you are and there would be nothing wrong with that." 

Cannon immediately denied it, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"There would be nothing wrong with that, but that's not the case," he stated. 

"There's nothing but unconditional love there, I mean she's gorgeous but you know, I'm respectful. I put the kids to bed and I go home." 

NASA appears to be ill prepared to have a new space suit ready for future deep-space missions, media reported citing the space agency's auditor report.

The spacesuits NASA astronauts currently use on the International Space Station (ISS) — known as Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) — were developed more than 40 years ago and have far outlasted their original 15-year design life.

"Despite spending nearly $200 million on NASA's next-generation spacesuit technologies, the Agency remains years away from having a flight-ready spacesuit capable of replacing the EMU or suitable for use on future exploration missions," NASA Office of Inspector General's Office of Audits said in the report.

"As different missions require different designs, the lack of a formal plan and specific destinations for future missions has complicated spacesuit development. Moreover, the Agency has reduced the funding dedicated to spacesuit development in favour of other priorities such as an in-space habitat," the report said.

Meanwhile, NASA seems to be running out of the space suits it does have for the astronauts on the ISS. Only a fraction of the original space suit supply for the station is fully functional right now, and NASA may risk not having enough space suits to last through the end of the ISS programme, currently scheduled for 2024, The Verge reported on Thursday.
 

A Mumbai court on Friday sentenced model-cum-wannabe actress Preeti Jain for plotting the murder of award winning Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar 12 years ago.

The Sessions Court, which also fined her Rs.10,000, found two other co-accused — Naresh Pardesi and Shivaram Das — guilty and awarded them three years in jail. Two more accused were acquitted.

Shortly after the verdict, Jain moved an application for bail which was granted on a surety of Rs.5,000.

When the matter was first highlighted in 2005, Jain had charged Bhandarkar with rape but the case was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2012 after she dropped the charges against him.

Earlier, in July 2004, Jain filed a complaint with police alleging that Bhandarkar raped her 16 times between 1999 and 2004 on the pretext of giving her important roles in his films.

The director denied the allegations.

In her statement then, Jain claimed that "we had sex 16 times and Madhur made promises of giving me a lead role in his films".

However, he didn't cast her in any of his films.

Barely months later, police investigations revealed that Jain had hired a contract killer to eliminate Bhandarkar and was arrested.

During the long trial, the court examined 51 witnesses including Bhandarkar.

The prosecution said Jain had paid Rs.75,000 to contract killer Pardeshi to kill Bhandarkar.

When he didn't carry out her bidding, she demanded the money back. When mafia don Arun Gawli learnt of the plot, he alerted the police, leading to Jain's arrest.

After the verdict, Jain merely expressed "shock".

Mumbai-based Bhandarkar is a renowned director of various blockbusters like Chandni Bar, Fashion, Traffic Signal and Page 3 among others.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday advocated expeditious use of penalising power by the Enforcement Directorate to deal with any non-compliance of the laid-down rules.

Speaking at the Enforcement Directorate Day, he said the interest of the larger public takes a hit when people indulge in non-compliance and hence, the revenue department and the ED have a key role to play to catch offenders.

The government, the finance minister stressed, trusts its citizens and allows them to deal in foreign exchange.

“There is an expectation of compliance and in the event of non-compliance, there is this power of penalising that the ED has. This power has to be expeditiously used whenever violations are detected,” Jaitley said.

He expressed hope that the enforcement agency will strictly implement law and help the exchequer raise legitimate revenue.

Earlier, at the same function, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said as many as 8-9 lakh registered companies are not filing annual returns with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and pose as a potential source of money laundering.

The task force set up by the PMO is monitoring these companies every 15 days, Adhia added.

“There are 15 lakh registered companies… as many as 8 -9 lakh are not filing annual returns with the corporate affairs ministry. They have become a potential threat for money laundering,” the secretary said.

Google's 44-year-old India-born CEO Sundar Pichai received nearly $200 million in compensation last year, double the amount he got in 2015.

Pichai received a salary of $650,000 last year, slightly less than the $652,500 he earned in 2015.

But the long-time Google employee, who was named CEO during the company's re-organisation in August 2015, received a stock award of $198.7 million in 2016, roughly double his 2015 stock award of $99.8 million.

The company's compensation committee attributed the lavish pay to Pichai's promotion to CEO and “numerous successful product launches”, the CNN reported.

Larry Page, Google's co-founder and previous CEO, shifted his focus to growing new businesses under the Alphabet umbrella.

Under Pichai, Google has boosted sales from its core advertising and YouTube business, while also investing in machine learning, hardware and cloud computing, the report said.

In 2016, Google unveiled new smartphones, a virtual reality headset, a router, and a voice controlled smart speaker.

These efforts have started to pay off for the company.

Google's “other revenues”, a category that includes hardware and cloud services, hit nearly $3.1 billion in the most recent quarter, a gain of about 50 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier.

Alphabet's stock has soared this year, pushing it above a $600 billion market cap this week for the first time, the report said.

Ahead of his side’s crunch clash against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger spoke of the ‘special’ North London Derbies that the arch-rivals have shared, according to a statement on the club website.

The long-serving Frenchman, who completed two decades with the Gunners in 2016, has witnessed many derbies from the dugout, probably the most by any individual.

The 67-year-old takes charge of his 50th on Sunday but, with Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium move at the end of the 2016-17 season, Sunday's clash will be the final derby at White Hart Lane.

“Geographically, I know walking out that our fans are there on the right, that’s a reference point,” Wenger said.

“Then you know the pitch is a bit smaller like Highbury and that you expect huge commitment, frenetic pace, very high vocal games. Of course, it makes the day special. I personally won’t miss White Hart Lane but what I like is the atmosphere.”

“What makes English football special is the fact that the fans live the game. For me, there’s two kinds of supporters, the supporters you get in some foreign countries who sing the same song during the whole game, or some different songs but not linked with the game.”

“In England, the fans live the game every ball. When there’s a corner the sound goes up. When there’s a foul the sound goes up and that makes English football special and completely apart from everywhere else,” Wenger added.

(All quotes are from www.arsenal.com)

Quench your thirst with a desi cooling drink – Indian summer specialty. This one is a mix of sweet, sour, salty and spicy flavours. Cool off the heat this weekend with aam panna, made of green mango. A delightful mix of mint leaves and black pepper powder makes it truly mouthwatering. Here's a recipe you can make it yourself.

Serves: 10; Cooking time: 15 minutes; Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Raw mangoes 500 grams

Sugar 250 grams

Mint leaves few

Black salt 2 tsp

Black pepper powder 2 tsp

Roasted cumin seed powder 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Peel raw mangoes. Pressure cook them whole adding half cup of water.

After a whistle, reduce the flame for 10 minutes.

Turn off the gas and let the pressure comes out on its own.

Take out the mangoes and let them cool.

Take out the pulp and remove the seeds.

Process it in a food processor adding mint leaves and remaining water in the cooker.

Sieve it.

Add more water to make a consistency little thicker than soft drink.

Add sugar, black salt, salt, cumin powder and black pepper powder.

Serve in a tall glass with ice cubes.

Raw mangoes are in season only a few months of the year. Try this recipe before they are gone from the vegetable market. You will crave for this icy refreshing drink to cool your body once you know the the taste.

 Singer Gwen Stefani has ruptured her eardrum and was forced to cancel a live performance here.

Stefani was supposed to headline the 21st annual Power of Love gala inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Thursday, but she was unable to board her flight to Sin City under doctors orders, reports dailymail.co.uk.

"I am so sorry that I cannot attend tonight (Thursday), but I wanted to send a message of congratulations to Andre Agassi and my very dear friend Ronald Pearlman," Stefani said in a video.

"I cannot think of anyone more deserving for such a special award. The gala supports all the work being done at the Cleveland Clinic and Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which is an amazing organisation," she added.

The Delhi Police has questioned several men suspected to have been linked to the money trail in the Election Commission bribery case in which AIADMK (Amma) leader TTV Dinakaran was arrested.

After bringing Dinakaran from Delhi and conducting searches at his residence here, the Crime Branch police personnel also grilled some others who allegedly had knowledge about the money transaction, the police sources said.

Dinakaran was arrested on April 25 for allegedly attempting to bribe an unidentified EC official to get the undivided AIADMK's 'two leaves' election symbol for his faction.

The police had earlier arrested Sukesh Chandrasekar, who had allegedly struck a deal for Rs 50 crore to help the AIADMK (Amma) faction keep the two leaves symbol, and seized Rs 1.3 crore from him.

A Delhi court had remanded Dhinakaran to five days' police custody following which he was brought here.

The Delhi police after questioning the suspects asked some of them to appear again at the Central Government Office Complex, 'Rajaji Bhawan,' at Besant Nagar here, they said.

Besides, the police team visited various areas, including Adambakkam and Kolapakkam here, to question some persons, whose identity has not been disclosed.

The sources said that evidence was being gathered to sequence the Chennai-Delhi money trail, its alleged link to Dhinakaran, and how cash was routed through alleged hawala operators including Faisal and Naresh. The latter was arrested yesterday.

Besides the physical aspect involving the transfer, the source of the money, proof of cash transfer, and related transactions were being looked into.

With the arrest of Naresh, it was now only about “joining the dots” and the Delhi Police was trying to conclude the probe ahead of producing Dhinakaran before a court in the national capital when his five-day custody ends, the sources added.

Dinakaran continued to be housed in the Central Government Guest House in Rajaji Bhawan and was being confronted with the “developments” in the case, the police said.

The Delhi Police team declined to comment on the progress in the case.

A security blanket has been thrown around the Rajaji Bhawan complex with a posse of police personnel led by an assistant police commissioner guarding the entry points to the guest house. Journalists were not allowed to enter inside.

Naresh was detained at the Delhi Airport for involvement in “illegal transfer” of money to Chandrasekhar by Dinakaran.

The European Union (EU) countries will meet in Brussels to discuss a joint strategy for negotiations with the UK over Brexit, the media reported on Saturday.

Twenty-seven countries will be present, but the UK will not take part, the BBC reported.

The EU will insist that progress must be made in talks on separating the UK from the bloc, before any discussions can begin about future trade relations.

Official talks between London and the EU will not begin until after the UK general election on June 8.

In a letter to leaders of the EU-27, European Council President Donald Tusk on Friday said agreement on "people, money and Ireland" must come before negotiations on the EU's future relationship with the UK.

Tusk's letter – calling for a "phased" approach to Brexit – echoed German Chancellor Angela Merkel's priorities, which she set out on Thursday.

"Before discussing our future, we must first sort out our past," he said.

"We will not discuss our future relations with the UK until we have achieved sufficient progress on the main issues relating to the UK's withdrawal from the EU," the BBC quoted Tusk as saying in the letter.

Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the UK would not have advantages over the 27 EU members once Brexit negotiations were concluded.

EU officials estimate that the UK faces a bill of $65 billion because of EU budget rules. 

UK politicians have said the government will not pay a sum of that size.

Cautioning companies of strict action if they don’t file annual returns, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Saturday said that eight-nine lakh registered companies are not filing annual returns.

“8-9 lakh registered companies not filing annual returns,” Adhia said, adding the routine is a “potential threat of money laundering”.

According to Adhia, the Union government will take action against those who don’t file annual returns.

“We have given notices to them (companies),” Adhia said.

Meanwhile, explaining rules of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Adhia on Tuesday clarified that businessman will need to file only one return every month in addition to an annual return after the GST implementation.

The Union government is planning to implement GST from 1 July.

Supermodel Chrissy Teigen says her husband and singer John Legend gets "way too loving" when he is drunk.

Teigen likes it when Legend gets cosy and thinks it is very "sweet", reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"He'll be like, 'Let's go in the closet.' I'm like, 'We're home! Why do we have to go into the closet?'" Teigen said at the Cocktails with Chrissy event she hosted here earlier this week.

"He just gets very, very touchy and he's like a little baby — it's really sweet. He is way too loving," she added.

Teigen further said that she doesn't believe in hangover cures. 

"I think as long as you (drink) in moderation, that's the only cure — because everything else is b******t. There's no real trick, there's no powder," she said.

Pope Francis is set to lead a mass for Egypt's small Catholic community on Saturday as he visits the country in support of its Christians following a series of deadly church bombings.

The spiritual leader of the world's 1.3 billion Christians will lead mass for some 30,000 believers in a stadium on the outskirts of Cairo.

The event will bring together members of all Catholic rites in the country — Coptic, Armenian, Maronite and Melkite.

Egypt's Catholic community is estimated at about 272,000.

The Argentine pontiff will give a homily during the mass, which is to be held in Arabic and Latin.

After lunching with Egyptian bishops, the pope will meet seminarians before wrapping up his 27-hour visit in the afternoon.

Earlier this week, 23-year-old student Karim Saber said he was impatient to see the pope in his country.

“By coming to Egypt, the pope is showing us that nothing can prevent us from praying, including terrorism,” he said, referring to recent church bombings.

The bombings killed 29 people in Cairo in December, and 45 people north of the capital earlier this month. All were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Ibrahim Isaac, the Catholic Coptic patriarch in Egypt, has said the papal visit represents “moral and spiritual support” at a time when “the succession of incidents is causing a form of frustration among the people, and sometimes anger”.

Christians, who make up around 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have long complained of marginalisation in the Muslim-majority country.

Egypt has the largest Christian community of the Middle East.

While most of Egypt's Christians are Coptic Orthodox, Roman Catholics have also lived in the country since the fifth century.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Catholic orders in Egypt — Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits — developed a network of schools, hospitals and charitable activities.

The papacy formally and legally established the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate in the 19th century.

The 80-year-old pope's visit come 17 years after Pope John Paul II made a trip to the Arab world's most populous nation.

Yesterday, the Argentine met Coptic Orthodox patriarch Pope Tawadros II, and both attended an emotional mass at the church hit in the December suicide bombing.

They prayed at a makeshift shrine for its victims, who were mostly women.

They also signed a joint declaration pledging to “strive for serenity and concord through a peaceful co-existence of Christians and Muslims”.

“All members of society have the right and duty to participate fully in the life of the nation, enjoying full and equal citizenship and collaborating to build up their country,” the declaration also said, striking a more political tone.

Earlier in the day, the pope met Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of the Al-Azhar institution, one of Muslim world's leading authorities, to push for dialogue between the two faiths.

In a speech to a Muslim-Christian conference, the 80- year-old pontiff denounced violence and populism.

“Peace alone… is holy and no act of violence can be perpetrated in the name of God, for it would profane his name,” Francis said.

He criticised what he called “demagogic forms of populism… on the rise”, saying they were unhelpful to peace.

The evergreen blockbuster Amar Akbar Anthony starring Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor and directed by Manmohan Desai, is now an inspiration for the Harvard University press for a book on Bollywood, Brotherhood and the Nation.

The 1977 blockbuster — an escapist adage on unity and brotherhood — known for its non-stop entertainment right from the word go and the iconic Anthony Gonsalves played by Big B, all this is now part of the book.

Around ten days ago, the megastar Amitabh Bachchan took to social media to share the look of the cover which reads: Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, Brotherhood and the Nation.

Big B captioned the image: "The Harvard University Press brings out a book on 'Amar Akbar Anthony', a thesis almost on the merits of the film. Amazing!"

The film, which is based on the lost and found theme, is about three brothers separated from their parents and each other in childhood, and raised in three different faiths, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. 

They unite in their youth to fight a common villain. It was the biggest blockbuster of 1977 and it won several awards at the 25th Filmfare Awards including Best Actor, Best Music Director and Best Editing.

The film about religious tolerance became a hallmark for Bollywood masala films. 

It also had a lasting impact on the pop culture, with its catchy songs, one-liners and the character of Anthony Gonsalves. 

It was later remade in Tamil as Shankar Salim Simon; in Telugu as Ram Robert Rahim and in Malayalam as John Jaffer Janardhanan.

The film starred three actors: Amitabh Bachchan (as Anthony Gonsalves), Vinod Khanna (as Amar Khanna) and Rishi Kapoor (as Akbar Allahabadi). 

Each hero had a heroine — these women were played by Parveen Babi, Shabana Azmi and Neetu Singh. Nirupa Roy, Pran and Jeevan played supporting roles. The music was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

On Thursday, one of the lead actor Vinod Khanna (Amar) breathed his last in Mumbai after fighting a long battle with bladder cancer. His co-stars Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kappor paid their last respect for their fellow actor and friend and also mourned his death on the social media.

US President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a centrepiece of his administration, but so far his administration has deported fewer people than his predecessor, according to the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ICE statistics on Friday showed from Inauguration Day — January 20 — until this week, the agency has removed 54,564 individuals, including 30,667 convicted criminals and 23,897 non-criminals, reports CNN.

Thus far, those numbers track slightly behind the pace of removals during the same time period during the past two years of the former President Barack Obama's administration.

From January 20, 2016, to April 24, 2016, ICE removed 62,062 individuals, including 24,953 non-criminals. 

The same time period in 2015 saw 59,938 removals, including 23,571 non-criminals.

During the year that led to Obama hearing the nickname "deporter in chief" from pro-immigrant advocacy groups, the same time period in 2014 saw 87,690 removals, including 38,471 non-criminals.

In contrast with deportations, arrests of undocumented immigrants increased in the first few months of the Trump administration. 

In the first two months since the inauguration, the ICE arrested roughly one-third more people than in the previous year, and more than double the number of non-criminal immigrants than the previous year, CNN reported.

In a statement, the ICE said that it is focusing its resources on people who are a threat to "national security, public safety and border security", but under the Trump administration, no undocumented immigrants will be exempted from potential deportation.

Sepang boss Razlan Razali has urged Formula One's new owners to "put their ego aside" and learn from the "two wheels" of Moto GP if they are to revive their sport.

2017 will witness the last Malaysian Grand Prix before the race disappears from the calendar after a combination of low attendances and high fees, with the government spending some $67.6 million annually to stage the event, something the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) and their political bosses were no longer prepared to tolerate.

Earlier in April former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, ousted from his position after a takeover by the US-based Liberty Media in the off-season, gave an interview in which he admitted over-charging tracks to stage races.

Sepang chief executive Razlan in London on Friday, slammed Ecclestone for "making us look like idiots".

But while acknowledging Liberty were "easier to talk to", he said chief executive Chase Carey and managing director Sean Bratches, needed to make greater personal contact with promoters.

"I always feel for a new company to take over a championship like Formula One, they need to move faster than the Formula One cars themselves," Razlan said.

"They are too slow to react…For circuit owners who pay them a lot of money every year, the least they could do is introduce themselves, rather than us going to them and saying 'Are you Chase?, are you Sean?'"

Razlan added: "They are trying their hardest to make it work, but they are too focused on the paddock club, which, let's face it, are less than a thousand people, rather than the masses.

"What triggers the masses is to buy tickets to watch Formula One, what they experience at the Formula One is secondary.

"They want to buy tickets because Formula One is damn interesting or because they are supporting a particular driver or a team."

Sepang may be giving up its Formula One Grand Prix, but it will remain on the Moto GP calendar and Razlan said: "Moto GP, they have everything, they have great support races with Moto Three and Moto Two.

"There are three world championship races and they create fans from the beginning.

"When a new rider comes into Moto Three, younger fans follow this particular rider.

"Maverick Vinales, for example, he started in Moto Three, he moved all the way up to Moto GP and the fans did the same."

But the pathway on four wheels is not so clear and Razlan said: "You look at Formula One, who's Lance Stroll (a new Williams driver this season), you tell me?

"There's no harm in looking at what the two wheels are doing, put ego aside, put whatever aside, and look at what they are doing."

Meanwhile Razlan, while pleased the F1 calendar now had back-to back races in the same region, said a gap of two weeks, as will happen when October's Malaysia Grand Prix follows September's Singapore Grand Prix later in 2017, was too long to persuade international fans to stay in the region for both races.

"Last year we were two weeks back-to-back with Singapore, that's still a long wait — it should be one week, directly back-to-back," he insisted.

"It's unique for Asia, having one week to watch a night street race and then one week you go to a proper circuit like Sepang. I think it's fantastic for the global fans.

"It's something we talked about with Bernie in the past and sort of mentioned to Liberty Media, but they seem to have other plans."