Three men transporting buffaloes in a truck were allegedly roughed up by members of an animal rights group in south east Delhi's Kalkaji area, following which cross-complaints have been registered.

The FIR mentions that the accused are the members of PFA but the animal rights body has denied any association with the incident.

According to the police, they received a PCR call last night from one Gaurav Gupta, an animal activist and office bearer of PFA (People for Animals), claiming that buffaloes were being transported illegally.

The occupants of the truck claimed that they had been roughed up by a group of animal rights activists led by Gupta.

However, the PFA denied any association with the incident. Union minister Maneka Gandhi is one of the founding members of People For Animals and is also its chairperson.

"We have no PFA unit in Delhi. We have 10,000 volunteers across the country. Whoever acted did so in his individual capacity," Gandhi's office said.

Sources said that the minister spoke to the DCP of the area about the incident.

Medical examination of the injured–Rizwan, Ashu and Kaamil–was carried out and the truck carrying buffaloes was seized by the police.

A case has been registered against the three men on a complaint by the PFA members while the driver of the truck, that was going Ghazipur Mandi, made a complaint against the activists, police said.

A case of voluntarily causing hurt and wrongful restraint has been registered against the PFA members, they added.

Further investigation is underway.

Police said they are verifying whether the people who intercepted the truck are members of the PFA and after reaching a conclusion they'll decide the future course of action.

Mohammad Amir completed a five-wicket innings haul and West Indies captain Jason Holder reached a fifth half-century as the home side reached 278 for nine in their first innings on a rain-ruined second day of the first Test against Pakistan at Sabina Park.

Only 11.3 overs were bowled in the entire day as inadequate covering from heavy overnight and early morning rain left damp patches on the pitch and a sodden area of the outfield, delaying the start of play by four hours.

By the time the showers returned in late afternoon with even greater ferocity, just 55 minutes play was possible during which Amir and Holder shone through the gathering gloom.

After the home skipper and Devendra Bishoo extended their eighth-wicket partnership to 75 against the second new ball, Amir had Bishoo caught at the wicket for 28.

He then bowled Alzarri Joseph without scoring to achieve his first five-wicket haul since returning to international cricket last year following a five-year ban for spot-fixing.

Most impressive in the left-arm fast bowler's effort was his accuracy as reflected in figures of five for 41 off 24.3 overs before the showers swept across the ground and drove the players off the field for the last time for the day.

Holder's defiance was also admirable, the captain reaching the half-century mark by hoisting debutant Mohammed Abbas for a straight six.

He resumes alongside last man Shannon Gabriel on the third day, weather permitting, on 55 off 69 balls with two sixes and seven fours embellishing his defiant innings.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Sunday met with protesting farmers from his state at the Jantar Mantar and assured help.

The farmers have protested here for the past 40 days and demands loan waivers, drought relief packages and formation of a Cauvery management board to resolve their irrigation issues.

Palaniswami, in a brief 20 minutes meeting, assured that he will take up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for funds to waive off the loan and urged the farmers to end their protest.

"We will try to cut down the unnecessary expenses and make arrangements…I will take up the farmer's demands to the Prime Minister…We urge the farmers to end their protest," Palaniswami said. 

P Ayyakannu, president of the National-South Indian Rivers Linking Farmers Association, who is also leading the protest, said the agitation will not end until their demands are met which also includes meeting the Prime Minister. 

In past 40 days, the protesting farmers have marched naked outside the Prime Minister's office, ate mice, shaved their heads, marked mock funerals and on Saturday even drank their urine to attract the central government and the Prime Minster's attention towards their cause and plight. 

Bold in their way of protesting, farmers demonstrate with the skulls of their kin and other farmers from Tamil Nadu who committed suicide.

Earlier this month, the central government approved Rs.1,712 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for Tamil Nadu.

But the state government has sought a relief package of Rs.40,000 crore.

Tamil Nadu is facing a severe drought. In January, the state government declared Tamil Nadu drought-hit after over 100 farmers allegedly committed suicide. 

According to the farmers, nothing has grown over 29 lakh hectare in Cauvery delta since 2016 due to lack of water. 

A diet high in animal protein is associated with a higher risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition in which fat builds up in the liver, in overweight people, says a study.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a major health concern as it can lead to permanent scarring (cirrhosis) and subsequently to cancer and malfunction of the liver.

This may result in life-threatening complications for which a liver transplant is needed.

"A healthy lifestyle is the cornerstone of treatment in patients with NAFLD, but specific dietary recommendations are lacking," said led author of the study Louise Alferink from the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

"The results from this study demonstrate that animal protein is associated with NAFLD in overweight elderly people," Alferink said.

These findings presented at The International Liver Congress 2017 in Amsterdam also showed that fructose consumption per se might not be as harmful as previously assumed.

A total of 3,440 people were included in the study of whom 30 per cent were lean and 70 per cent were overweight (body mass index [BMI] of 25 kg/ square metre or greater).

The average age was 71 years and NAFLD, as assessed by abdominal ultrasound, was present in 35 per cent of the participants.

Macronutrient intake was recorded using an externally validated 389-item food frequency questionnaire and analysed in quartiles using the nutrition density method (energy percentage).

Furthermore, analyses were stratified for BMI to account for BMI-related differences in eating habits and dietary measurement errors.

Significant associations between macronutrients and NAFLD were found predominantly in overweight individuals.

The results showed that total protein was associated with higher odds of NAFLD and this association was mainly driven by animal protein.

Nirjuli village-1 in Papum Pare district was on April 22 declared as the first digital village of Arunachal Pradesh.
After inaugurating it, north-east circle chief general manager of SBI PVSLM Murty said, that the SBI had urged the state government to improve connectivity in the state to speed up socio-economic development of the people.

Announcing all out support of the SBI, the lead bank of the state, he assured that it would promote V-set linked customer service point (CSP).

He also urged the Arunachal Pradesh government to offer incentives like its Assam counterpart.

Digital village aims at cashless transactions even in 'sabji mandis' to make payment through mobile, he said and advocated awareness through schools for which the SBI could provide computers to promote digitalisation, micro ATM, CSP besides other financial support to the villagers to improve their income level.

Delhi went to polls on Sunday for municipal elections across 272 wards with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other public figures casting their ballots soon after voting began at 8.00 am.

Over 2,500 candidates are in the fray for elections to North Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 seats each) and East Delhi Municipal Congress (64 seats).

Over 56,000 Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel are on guard at the polling booths, while an additional 20,000 home guards have been deployed to ensure law and order in the city.

Kejriwal cast his vote along with his parents and daughter at Underhill Road Transport Office polling station in Civil Lines.

Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and his wife voted at a polling station in Greater Kailash 2.

Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra cast his franchise at M.C. Primary School in Yamuna Vihar and Rural Development Minister Gopal Rai voted at M.C. Primary School in Baburpur.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia stood in the queue and waited for his turn to vote at a polling station in Pandav Nagar.

He appealed to the people to come and vote for his party and "help the national capital fight corruption".

There were a good number of people outside polling stations in most of the areas including Pandav Nagar, Kondli, Patparganj, Sant Nagar and Burari.

In many areas, people had gathered outside the stations before the polling even began.

They chose to come early to beat the heat but many had a bad experience as the booths had been moved about 100 to 200 metres away which led to a lot of confusion.

Elaborate security arrangements were made across the national capital but the security personnel did not come forward to help the confused people.

"Voter slips have not been given to many people here and it has created a lot of confusion. I and my wife didn't get any voter slips. Also, the party stalls have been shifted 200 metres away," Amit Basu from Chittaranjan Park in South Delhi told IANS.

He said the police were misleading people.

"We couldn't find a way till the time some Aam Aadmi Party worker came and informed that it has been pushed 200 metres. Police in our area were unhelpful," Basu said.

"A woman on a wheeled chair was constantly asking about the slips and party stalls but the policemen in our area were not helping," he added. 

Over 1.32 crore eligible voters are likely to exercise their franchise at 13,022 polling booths across Delhi.
 

The Ministry of External Affairs has made a provision enabling people to apply online for passports in Hindi.

The move comes after President Pranab Mukherjee recently accepted recommendations made in this regard by the Committee of Parliament on Official Language via its ninth report.

The report was submitted in 2011.

The panel had suggested that bilingual forms should be made available by all passport offices and forms filled in Hindi should also be accepted. It had recommended that entries should also be made in Hindi in all passports being issued.

These recommendations have been accepted by the president recently, as per an official order.

People can download the application form available in Hindi, fill it in and upload it while applying for the passport.

The printout of filled-in form will not be accepted by 'Passport Seva Kendra' and Regional Passport Offices.

The panel on the official language had also recommended that information regarding passport and visa should be made available in Hindi on the official website of the ministry.

"This recommendation is accepted," the order said.

The recommendation that the facility of working in Hindi is to be ensured on computers being used in passport offices, and that the work on computers should be done mainly in Hindi, has also been accepted.

The president has given approval for creation of posts of Hindi Officer in subordinate offices or embassies abroad.

"Vacant posts of Hindi (Officers) in offices/embassies should be filled as quickly as possible," as per the panel's suggestion which has now been accepted.

The Trump administration is pursuing over 3 per cent economic growth with the support of tax reforms and regulatory relief, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said.

"The US economy is well positioned," Xinhua news agency quoted Mnuchin as saying on April 22 during a conversation with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He called the IMF's forecast for US growth "a little conservative", saying that the country's economy could grow by 3 per cent or higher with the support of tax reforms and regulatory relief.

The IMF forecast the US economy to grow by 2.3 per cent this year and 2.5 per cent next year.

Mnuchin reiterated that President Donald Trump administration was planning to bring the high corporate tax rates down and simplify tax codes for individuals.

Trump on April 21 said the administration was going to release its tax plan next week.

Mnuchin suggested that the tax plan would not be revenue-neutral. "We're looking for reforms that will pay for themselves with growth."

He skipped questions about whether regulatory relief could affect financial stability, saying that the administration is trying to reduce conflicting regulations that hurt economic growth.

Actor Sumeet Raghvan, who is currently shooting for his much awaited web-series Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, celebrated his 46th birthday on Saturday with his co-stars.

"This birthday is special because as an actor its extremely creative. I was shooting for my show and later I shall be with my family. Of course I cut cakes with the Sarabhais as well as my drama troupe post the play," Sumeet said in a statement. 

The full cast of the show, including Satish Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rupali Ganguly, Deven Bhojani and Rajesh Kumar, were present during the play Ek Shoonya Teen where Sumeet played the lead.

Apart from the cast of the show, filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar and actor Mahesh Manjrekar were also present.

Sarabhai vs Sarabhai is returning in May as a web series.

The show, which went off the air over a decade ago, was based on the life of a hilarious Gujarati family living here. The show will take a seven-year leap.
 

Southern California-based social media company Snap Inc., which highly publicised IPO in March with value at $24 billion, faced backfire as CEO Evan Spiegel was accused of claiming that Snapchat was an app "only for rich people".

Snapchat, which was labeled by business analysts as the strongest rival to Facebook, had to start damage control urgently, saying Spiegel never made such remarks and "these words were written by a disgruntled former employee", Xinhua n ews agency reported on Sunday.

The quote, which Snapchat called "ridiculous", came from a recently unredacted court complaint by Anthony Pompliano, who was hired away by Snapchat from Facebook then served as the company's growth lead for a few weeks in 2015.

Pompliano's lawsuit filed in redacted form in Los Angeles Superior Court in January. Snap Inc. dropped its efforts to keep the unredacted complaint under seal and released it in a public filing last week.

In the complaint, Pompliano recounted an exchange he said he had with Spiegel in a September 2015 meeting about the app's international growth plans. He said he presented methods to address the issue, but Spiegel abruptly cut him off.

"This app is only for rich people," Spiegel said, according to Pompliano. "I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain."

These words sparked outrages from all around world, especially in India. 

Hundreds of thousands users voiced their disapproval via social-media posts and one-star reviews in Google and Apple's app stores.

"Mr. CEO of Snapchat, we may be poor but we have bigger hearts than you," a user named K.P. Naik said in a recent one-star review in Play store.

Another tweet posted by Shreyas Singh on April 15 said: "I am very poor so uninstalled #snapchat but thanks for entertaining for this many days. @evanspiegel @Snapchat don't mess with India."

"This is ridiculous," as statement released by Snap argued, saying those words were written by "a disgruntled former employee".

"We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world," the statement said.

However, Snapchat would face huge challenge in this lawsuit more than PR works as Pompliano also claimed that he learned the company had exaggerated its user data and that top executives were "completely misinformed" about key metrics.

According to report of Variety, in the lawsuit, Pompliano said that on his second day of the job he met with two data analysts, who confided to him that Snapchat had "an institutional aversion to looking at user data", and its efforts in that area were marked by "utter incompetence."

Pompliano said he found Snapchat's daily active users (DAUs) was much less than the company's boasted number, 100 million DAUs at the time, moreover, the user base increased only one to four per cent per quarter, far less than the double-digit month-over-month growth the company was claiming.

Pompliano also claimed that he was fired because Spiegel determined that he "presented a risk to Snapchat's IPO".

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Sunday met with protesting farmers from his state at the Jantar Mantar and assured help.

The farmers have protested here for the past 40 days and demands loan waivers, drought relief packages and formation of a Cauvery management board to resolve their irrigation issues.

Palaniswami, in a brief 20 minutes meeting, assured that he will take up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for funds to waive off the loan and urged the farmers to end their protest.

"We will try to cut down the unnecessary expenses and make arrangements…I will take up the farmer's demands to the Prime Minister…We urge the farmers to end their protest," Palaniswami said. 

P. Ayyakannu, president of the National-South Indian Rivers Linking Farmers Association, who is also leading the protest, said the agitation will not end until their demands are met which also includes meeting the Prime Minister. 

In past 40 days, the protesting farmers have marched naked outside the Prime Minister's office, ate mice, shaved their heads, marked mock funerals and on Saturday even drank their urine to attract the central government and the Prime Minster's attention towards their cause and plight. 

Bold in their way of protesting, farmers demonstrate with the skulls of their kin and other farmers from Tamil Nadu who committed suicide.

Earlier this month, the central government approved Rs 1,712 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for Tamil Nadu.

But the state government has sought a relief package of Rs 40,000 crore.

Tamil Nadu is facing a severe drought. In January, the state government declared Tamil Nadu drought-hit after over 100 farmers allegedly committed suicide. 

According to the farmersm nothing has grown over 29 lakh hectare in Cauvery delta since 2016 due to lack of water. 

Indian IT companies, which conquered the world with their software skills, don't steal jobs anywhere in the world but create them, asserted Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on April 22.

"Indian IT companies do not steal jobs but create jobs, be it in the US or any other country. We are proud of their contribution in America and the world over," he said at an interactive meet with leaders of the IT and Electronics System Design Manufacturing industries here.

On the recent executive order US President Donald Trump signed to reform the H-1B visas, Prasad said the concerns of the Indian IT firms have been conveyed to the US administration.

"Our Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is currently in Washington, has conveyed your (IT firms) concerns on the H-1B visa reform move to US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the key role of Indian professionals in the US economy," he said.

Noting that Indian IT firms had paid $22 billion in taxes and generated about 4 lakh jobs in the US over the last five years, the Minister said the Indian software firms had also created value and competitive edge for two-thirds of Fortune 500 firms the world over, including the US.

"The Indian IT eco-system is based on reciprocity. India's human resources contribute to the US economy and many American firms benefit in Bengaluru and other parts of the country where they have set up development centres to use our unique talent in creating products for their global markets," he pointed out.

Acknowledging that the $150 billion Indian IT industry was under stress due to what is happening in the US and global headwinds, Prasad asked the IT honchos to suggest measures to de-stress them.

"What is your suggestion to me as IT Minister to de-stress your industry. We held your hands when you conquered the world with tax incentives and other benefits," he asked the gathering.

He also told them to after having "conquered the world with your software expertise", it was the time they looked inside India to "explore the vast market of 'Digital India' opened by our government to improve the quality of services and life of people".

In a tweet later, Prasad said opportunities in emerging areas of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data presented a huge market for Indian IT firms.

Singer Kelly Osbourne has revealed that she was once attacked with a Subway sandwich shortly after she came into limelight in 2002.

The 32-year-old shot to fame when her family invited the cameras into their home for their show The Osbourne, but she says she wasn't prepared for the scrutiny she would receive over her weight.

She said at one time a guy asked her to roll down her car window, which she assumed was to ask for directions, in Los Angeles and he launched sandwich on her, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Recalling the moment in her new autobiography "There is No F*****g Secret: Letters From a Bada** B***h", Osbourne said: "Instead, he threw a foot-long Subway sandwich in my window, which hit me on the side of my head and exploded. Then he called me fat b**h and sped off."

Kelly's friends tried to persuade her to report the incident, but she refused because she thought the police would laugh if she told them she had been assaulted by a sandwich.

Amid the revival in industry sentiment in Punjab, Hero Cycles on April 22 expressed interest in setting up a Rs.400 crore 'cycle valley', on the lines of the Silicon Valley, near the state's Sahnewal town.

This was conveyed by Hero Cycles' Pankaj Munjal at a meeting with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh here.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister asked Munjal to share a detailed proposal for the project, which would include technical and research and development centres, among other critical industry facilities, according to a spokesperson in the Chief Minister's office.

Munjal informed the Chief Minister the project would require about 100 acres of land and would lead to a doubling, from the current 4.5 lakh, of the people involved directly or indirectly in the cycle industry.

The government plans to put in place a fast-track resolution process for startups and small companies under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Looking to provide a faster exit mechanism for certain class of entities, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has come out with draft norms in this regard.

The proposal is to fast-track the insolvency resolution process for three classes of entities — startups, small companies and companies or Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs).

Comments have been sought from the public till May 8 on the draft IBBI (Fast Track Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Regulations, 2017.

IBBI comes under the corporate affairs ministry. The draft regulations were prepared by a working group that was constituted by the ministry.

Small companies will be those fulfilling the criteria as laid down in the Companies Act, 2013, while startups are defined by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

As per the draft norms, a company or LLP which has not borrowed more than Rs 2 crore in any manner will be eligible for the process fast-track.

While the draft norms do not spell out the timeframe for a fast-track process under the Code, it is expected to be 90 days.

"Fast-track is a process which has to close in 90 days and these are likely to be applied to cases with less complications… The example could be startups," IBBI Chairperson M S Sahoo told PTI earlier this month.

The Code provides for completing insolvency resolution process within 180 days and the timeframe starts from the insolvency commencement date.

It seeks to consolidate and amend laws relating to reorganisation as well as insolvency resolution of corporate persons, partnership firms and individuals in a time-bound manner.

France is preparing to elect its new President on Sunday, amid high security after a series of terror attacks including a fatal assault on a Paris policeman three days ago.

Voting for the first round will begin at 8.00 am.

About 50,000 police and 7,000 soldiers have been deployed around the country after Thursday's terror attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) militant group, BBC reported.

Eleven aspirants are vying to be the country's next President, with leading candidates spanning the political spectrum from far-left to far-right.

The two with the most votes will go to run-off round in a fortnight's time.

Four candidates are currently seen as being within reach of the Elysee palace: the conservative Francois Fillon, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, liberal centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-left's Jean-Luc Melenchon.

The candidates have created plenty of debate in the country, all offering dramatically different visions of Europe, immigration, the economy and French identity.

National security had been one of the main talking points during the campaigns, but candidates have been accused of exploiting the Thursday attack for political gains.

The race between the leading contenders is considered too close to call.

However, none are expected to get the 50 per cent of votes required for an outright win.

A second round between the top two will be held on 7 May.

Fillon is the only one among the leading contenders from an established party of government.

Benoit Hamon, the socialist candidate from the same party as the current President, is seen as out of the running.

President Francois Hollande is not seeking a second term, and is the first French President in modern history not to do so.

As voters on Sunday walk into their bureau de vote, many will still be undecided, faced with paper slips for an unprecedented 11 nominees.

According to the Guardian, Benoit Hamon faces a crushing defeat in the first round, ending his leadership dreams and putting the future of the country's Socialist Party (PS) in question.

Since the French Revolution, the country has been governed by various manifestations of one of two camps: right or left.

The divide, known as the clivage gauche-droite, emerged from the turbulent summer of 1789, when the first national constituent assembly was formed.

An analyst believes this presidential election marks the end of "traditional" parties.

Pascal Perrineau, president of Sciences Po's respected political research institute, Cevipof, said: "The PS no longer has a structure, a goal or respect, and has become irreconcilable."