Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting of Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of 13 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states on Sunday in the national capital.

With an eye to the 2019 General Elections as well as upcoming assembly polls in several states, Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will be discussing with the CMs and Deputy CMs key issues including "good governance" and implementation of the Centre's pro-poor schemes. 

Among the 13 states, Gujarat is slated to go to polls later this year.

The BJP top brass, including union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and other senior leaders, will also attend the meeting, which is to be held at the BJP headquarters here, said party's National General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav. 

"The meeting will see the leaders brainstorming on how to carry forward the momentum post the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarkhand assembly polls and expand the party's stronghold in other states," a party leader said. 

If you thought switching to diet soda can help you avoid the ill effects associated with sugary soft drinks, think again! Researchers have found that while drinking sugary beverages frequently may lead to poorer memory, daily intake of diet soda may increase the risk of stroke and dementia.

Both sugary and diet drinks correlated with accelerated brain ageing, according to the findings published in two separate studies.

People who drink sugary beverages frequently are more likely to have poorer memory, smaller overall brain volume, and a significantly smaller hippocampus — an area of the brain important for learning and memory, said the study published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia.

A follow-up study, published in the journal Stroke, found that people who drank diet soda daily were almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia when compared to those who did not.

Scientists have put forth various hypotheses about how artificial sweeteners may cause harm, from transforming gut bacteria to altering the brain's perception of "sweet," but "we need more work to figure out the underlying mechanisms", said Boston University's Matthew Pase, who is lead author on the two studies.

For the studies, researchers used data from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), a study that aims to identify common factors or characteristics that contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD).

"These studies are not the be-all and end-all, but it's strong data and a very strong suggestion," said Sudha Seshadri, Professor at Boston University School of Medicine (MED) in the US.

"It looks like there is not very much of an upside to having sugary drinks, and substituting the sugar with artificial sweeteners doesn't seem to help," Seshadri, who is senior author on both papers, said. 

Excess sugar has long been associated with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases like obesity, heart disease and Type-2 diabetes, but little is known about its long-term effects on the human brain. 

He chose to study sugary drinks as a way of examining overall sugar consumption. "It's difficult to measure overall sugar intake in the diet," he says, "so we used sugary beverages as a proxy."

For the first study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, researchers examined data, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and cognitive testing results, from about 4,000 people enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study's Offspring and Third-Generation cohorts. 

The researchers looked at people who consumed more than two sugary drinks a day of any type — soda, fruit juice and other soft drinks — or more than three per week of soda alone.

Among that "high intake" group, they found multiple signs of accelerated brain ageing, including smaller overall brain volume, poorer episodic memory, and a shrunken hippocampus, all risk factors for early-stage Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers also found that higher intake of diet soda–at least one per day–was associated with smaller brain volume.

In the second study, published in the journal Stroke, the researchers, using data only from the older Offspring cohort, looked specifically at whether participants had suffered a stroke or been diagnosed with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. 

They found that people who drank at least one diet soda per day were almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia.

US President Donald Trump is planning to order a review of key financial rules on Friday, according to a White House official.

Trump will sign two presidential memos in this regard, Politico news reported. 

One will direct Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to examine the government's so-called orderly liquidation authority to wind down failing megabanks outside of bankruptcy court, the official said on Thursday.

The second memo will examine the risks of placing "systemically important" non-bank financial firms under the oversight of the Federal Reserve, which subjects them to stricter regulation.

According to the official, both memos appear to be more specific extensions of the financial regulatory review that Trump on February 3 ordered Treasury to conduct, to determine how rules governing banks, insurers and other financial firms can be improved.

The President will also sign an executive order directing Mnuchin to examine if any significant tax rules impose an undue burden on US taxpayers, add unnecessary complexity or exceed statutory authority.

Over a hundred students of a private University in the periphery of Shimla were taken ill after suspected food poisoning.

The students of Jaypee University of Information and Technology, Waknaghat in Solan district, about 25 kms from Shimla, two hours after dinner on Thursday at around 11:00 p.m. started complaining of nausea and vomiting.

A student requesting anonymity said, “Initially at around 11:00 p.m. after dinner at the hostel mess, a few students including him, complained of vomiting and they were treated at the University dispensary. However, by 2:00 a.m. when the numbers swelled over 100 the dispensary unable to handle the crisis, rushed the students to neighbouring hospitals at Kandaghat and Shimla.”

“Four buses of the University shifted the students to the hospital in Shimla.” disclosed another student.

The students had consumed dinner prepared by the hostel mess that consisted of channa dal, pav-bhajji, fried rice and Gulab Jamun (sweet dessert), he added.

The students shifted to Shimla were admitted to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and hospital and were provided treatment for suspected food poisoning.

IGMC, Senior Medical Superintendent Ramesh Chand said, “Around 60 students were brought to the hospital emergency department for treatment after they were taken ill at around 3:00 a.m.

They complained of restlessness, abdominal pain and vomiting. By morning, while few recovered after sometime, however 47 students including 14 girls were admitted to the hospital.

Currently under observation the students are stable and will be discharged by the evening.”

The samples of the students have been taken and will be tested by the Microbiology department for analysis to ascertain the cause of the illness and the report will be available by Monday, he added.

Meanwhile, the Jaypee University, Vice Chancellor Prof Vinod Kumar despite repeated attempts was not available for comments.

Traditional clinical hearing tests often fail to detect patients with a common form of inner ear damage that might otherwise be detected by more challenging behavioural tests, new research has found.

Such tests may not be able to diagnose those facing problems in certain situations, like hearing speech in a noisy room, said the study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.

This type of "hidden hearing loss" presents itself as essentially normal hearing in the clinic, where audiograms — the gold-standard for measuring hearing thresholds-are typically conducted in a quiet room.

The reason some forms of hearing loss may go unrecognised in the clinic is that hearing involves a complex partnership between the ear and the brain. 

It turns out that the central auditory system can compensate for significant damage to the inner ear by turning up its volume control, partially overcoming the deficiency, said the study's lead author Richard Salvi, Director, Centre for Hearing and Deafness at University at Buffalo, New York.

"You can have tremendous damage to inner hair cells in the ear that transmit information to the brain and still have a normal audiogram," he said. 

"But people with this type of damage have difficulty hearing in certain situations, like hearing speech in a noisy room. Their thresholds appear normal. So they're sent home," Salvi said.

Ear damage reduces the signal that goes the brain. That results in trouble hearing, but that's not what's happening here, because the brain "has a central gain control, like a radio, the listener can turn up the volume control to better hear a distant station", Salvi added.

Rap star and music executive Jay Z is reportedly seeking new investors for his recorded-music business at Roc Nation.

The 47-year-old star signed a 10-year deal with Live Nation in 2008 for $150 million, but with that agreement close to expiring, the music mogul has now started sounding out other industry figures about taking a stake in the business.

Under the terms of their agreement, Jay Z and Live Nation can either sell their stake in Roc Nation to the other party or buy the company outright.

Live Nation, for its part, hopes to continue its touring deal with Jay Z, but is withdrawing its backing for the recorded-music side of the business, reported New York Post.

“Jay's 360 deal with Live Nation is not being extended. Live Nation had bought into the artists' rights and recorded music, but they are not extending any of those relationships. Live Nation is not in the business of buying recorded music any more,” a source said.

Roc Nation boasts a star-studded list of recording artists, including Jay, Rihanna, Meek Mill, and Shakira. But Live Nation is only keen to extend its touring agreement.

Bagging contracts for mine-protected and bullet-proof vehicles from security agencies, Ashok Leyland is targeting three-fold business increase from its defence vertical, a top company official has said.

The company will be investing around Rs.600 crore towards capital expenditure in setting up plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India and Ivory Coast in West Africa.

Ashok Leyland also showcased its range of vehicles based on Intelligent Exhaust Gas Recirculation (iEGR) technology for Bharat Stage IV (BS IV) emission norms-compliant engines at its Global Conference 2017 held here.

"We have recently won the tenders for the supply of mine-protected vehicles and bullet-proof vehicles. Currently, the revenue from defence business is around Rs.500 crore. We will grow our defence business three times," said Vinod K. Dasari, Managing Director.

Dasari said work on the company's plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was expected to begin in a couple of months after the land was acquired.

Speaking about the company's international focus, Dasari said the plan is to sell one vehicle overseas for every two vehicles sold in India and towards that new assembly plants were being set up in Ivory Coast and Kenya and expanding the facility at Ras Al Khaimah, in Dubai.

Dasari said the company is also developing a new platform/architecture for building modular vehicles.

Speaking about the iEGR technology, Dasari said it is simple and innovative solution were being sought to meet the BS IV emission norms.

He said iEGR technology is more suited for Indian conditions than the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) and provides better mileage — up to 10 per cent — as compared to BS III engine.

Interestingly, Daimler India Commercial Vehicle (DICV) recently launched its trucks with SCR technology.

Dasari said the SCR technology adds at least 100 kg to the vehicle weight whereas iEGR technology does not impose any additional weight.

He said Ashok Leyland was left with 10,664 BS III vehicles and the company has started replacing the old engine in those vehicles with the iEGR technology-based engines.

When pointed out that Daimler has not revised upwards the rpice of its BS IV compliant trucks, whereas Ashok Leyland had said there would be a price hike of around 10 per cent, Dasari said for a company cost is real whereas the selling price is a strategy.

He said Ashok Leyland had 32 per cent market share in the commercial vehicles segment at the end of the last fiscal and is not chasing market share.

Dasari said the company was looking at profitable growth and has been turning away several state transport corporation (STC) business proposals as the returns were not good.

The Centre on Friday denounced the decision of a petroleum dealers' association to keep fuel outlets shut on Sundays starting May 14.

"The Petroleum Ministry does not approve or endorse the move by a section of petrol pump dealers to close down fuel stations on Sundays," Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Parliamentary Consultative Committee at a meeting in Srinagar according to an official statement here. 

Earlier this week, the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers informed the media of their decision to shut fuel bunks every Sunday starting May 14 to protest the public sector oil companies' failure to hike dealer margins.

The decision will cover Haryana, Maharashtra and the entire southern region — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala as well as Puducherry.

Dealers' body representatives told the media on Tuesday that their decision was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent call to save petrol and diesel.

"Major dealers' federations have clarified that they don't endorse any closure of petrol pumps on any day," the Petroleum Ministry tweeted.

"The Prime Minister in #MannKiBaat appealed to People of India not to use fuel once a week and not to dealers to close their pumps on Sundays," it said in a separate tweet.

All India Petroleum Dealers Association president Ajay Bansal told reporters that the association, which has nearly 46,000 petrol pump owners as members, is not participating in the Sunday closure.

Petroleum Ministry sources have said that the threat to shut down pumps on Sundays will be dealt with according to measures necessary to maintain supplies of essential commodities as petroleum products come under this category. 

After tapping actors like Kurt Russell, Cate Blanchett, Sylvester Stallone, Robert Redford and Glenn Close to join Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio head Kevin Feige says he would add more iconic actors in future.

Speaking to Fandango, Feige explained that there were several Hollywood's best names which came to his mind, reported Ace Showbiz.

“There are a few names that are coming up, actually. I'll keep this spoiler-free, but be assured that there are more surprises of that caliber heading into our universe in the next few films,” says Feige.

The Marvel chief confirmed that he once had a meeting with The Godfather legend Al Pacino, but when asked whether Pacino would be one of the veteran actors added in MCU, Feige says, “No… not in this case. Someday, someday, but there are others that I'm thinking of right now.”

Marvel has continuously handed over big roles to Hollywood iconic actors in the past few years. Russell, for instance, is playing Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) father in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, while Blanchett will portray Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) new enemy Hela in Thor: Ragnarok.

Filmmaker Saket Chaudhary says while directing Irrfan Khan in Hindi Medium he realised that the actor has no pretence of being a 'know-it-all'.

“He is never over confident about his craft. He is not the kind of actor who pretends that he knows it all. His process is very personal and he constantly prepares for his role, discussing it and figuring out how to play it better,” Saket told.

“As a director when you're working with him, you're explaining the scene to him, you don't direct the actor. You direct the scene in which the actor does his part. I have the humility to say, 'I am no one to teach him how to act.' He is way beyond that,” he adds.

Hindi Medium revolves around the stereotype of English over Hindi and the class divide which it ends up creating.

In the film, Irrfan plays a father to a young girl who he wants to enroll in a top notch school.

“From the time we came up with a scene where he owns a shop in Chandni Chowk (in Delhi) which sells designer lehenga, we knew only Irrfan can play this character. He has a certain every-man appeal,” Saket says.

The director says the idea came about while he was researching along with his co-writer Zeenat Lakhani for his last film, Shaadi Ke Side Effects.

The duo realised it was too big an idea to incorporate in the Farhan Akhtar-Vidya Balan starrer, so after the release of the film in 2014, they started developing the idea further and finally pitched it to producer Dinesh Vijan.

“The subject is so relevant. We realised that today irrespective of the background of the parent, they still want to have the best education for the children. This is across the board, from someone who lives in a posh apartment to a lady who comes and cleans it.

“Even a maid today wants to send their children in the same school as that of the people she works for. That aspiration is across class. It was a very important subject and we have tried to show exactly this in the film.”

Hindi Medium is scheduled to release on May 12.

The 29-year-old actress and Matthew are said to have ended their relationship back in March due to their busy work
schedules, but Hilary and the singer have since remained on good terms, according to E! News.
Hilary and Matthew, 29, made their red carpet debut as a couple at a pre-SAG Awards party earlier this year.
However, the blonde beauty has remained tight-lipped about her romance with Matthew, except for one social media
post about their vacation in Costa Rica in February. Alongside a holiday snap, Hilary wrote at the time: "Take
me back to Costa with him."

"Whoa… wow" was the first reaction of American actor Chris Pratt after seeing the Hindi version of his forthcoming Hollywood film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 with music of Bappi Lahiri's popular song "Jhoom jhoom jhoom baba".

Disney India on Thursday released a promotional video of the Hollywood film with Hindi retro twist with "Jhoom jhoom jhoom baba". And in a special video — released on Friday — the actor is seen wondering whether the music can be added to the final cut of the film. 

"Whoa… wow… I wonder if its too late to put that music in… instead of the music we've played… whoa… people are going to flip out," Chris said. 

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2" is written and directed by James Gunn, and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista. It also features the voices of actors like Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper. It is releasing on May 5 in India, in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

With the backdrop 'Awesome Mixtape #2', the second part of the 2014 film "Guardians of the Galaxy" will take further the team's adventures as they traverse different cosmos to protect their world. 

This time, the storyline will explore family values and also unravel many family truths and mysteries.

Describing the political situation in the country as "terrible", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday reinforced her message to all the regional parties to come together to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"I am giving the message to all the regional parties, be together, be united. My party will stand by all of you. Because this is the right time that the parties unite for the people," Banerjee said at the end of a party programme.

"A terrible thing is going on in the country in the name of politics. The situation in the country is such now that this is an opportunity for all the regional parties to get together and fight united," she said while addressing the party workers after the organisational election of the party for the national council members.

Taking a swipe at the BJP-run central government, the Trinamool Congress chief said she would travel all over the country to convince people for building an allied front if the BJP tries to capture Bengal.

"If they take up the strategy to capture Bengal, my strategy is to go from place to place in the country and unite everyone," she said.

Banerjee also asked her party workers present at the meeting to consolidate the party in the state and help the neighbouring states when needed.

She urged everyone to take the next two years as a challenge to fight day and night until the "wrongdoers" are toppled at the Centre.

India and South Korea signed an agreement today to firm up bilateral cooperation in defence shipbuilding.

Under the MoU, conceived under the umbrella of the special strategic partnership, the two sides will nominate one shipyard each for this purpose.

India has already picked Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) while Korea will make the nomination soon, Secretary (Defence Production) Ashok Kumar Gupta said.

Gupta and Korea's Minister of Defence Acquisition and Programme Administration Chang Myong Jin signed the agreement here.

"It will enable HSL to upgrade and modernise its facilities so as to enable it to execute naval projects in a timely manner," Gupta said, adding the whole initiative was part of the Centre's 'Make in India' initiative.

Jin said the agreement will form the basis of defence cooperation between the two countries in shipbuilding.

Gupta also said that the agreement will be useful for the development of vendors for supply of material.

"That will generate huge employment and will also increase the turnover of HSL," he said.

The leaders of Jammu and Kashmir's ruling PDP-BJP coalition on Friday discussed the prevailing situation in the valley which has been on the boil since the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-poll earlier this month.

The meeting was held at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) headquarters in Jammu.

BJP's National General Secretary Ram Madhav and senior leaders of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, attended the meeting.

BJP leader Avinash Rai Khanna and state BJP chief Sat Sharma were also present in the meeting where a discussion was held on the way forward to bring peace to the troubled Valley.

Divergent voices have emerged from the two ruling coalition partners about handling of the situation in Kashmir ever since the April 9 Srinagar by-poll violence and the killing of eight persons in security forces firing. A re-poll on April 13 for 38 seats also saw violence and the killing of another youth in Srinagar. Protests have also rocked colleges in the valley, leading their closure.

The BJP also sought feedback about the law and order situation from top officials and on dealing with the tense situation on the ground, sources said.

An Army personnel was killed while setting up a detonator at a firing range in the Cantonment area here on Friday, police said.

The incident occurred at Mahar Regiment Centre's Long Range in Kapuria Sagar area at around 8.30 am.

Havildar Vakul Kumar Patelia (40) was setting up a detonator which suddenly exploded, killing him on the spot, Cantonment police station's in-charge B M Trivedi told PTI.

Further investigation is on, he added.

Golfer Tiger Woods has said he underwent a fourth surgery to relieve his ongoing back pain.

The golfer confirmed on his official website on Thursday that he had undergone the operation at the Texas Back Institute here, reports Efe.

The recovery period for this type of surgery is normally six months, so Woods is likely not to play again this season.

"The surgery went well, and I'm optimistic this will relieve my back spasms and pain," said Woods.

"When healed, I look forward to getting back to a normal life, playing with my kids, competing in professional golf and living without the pain I have been battling so long," he added.

Woods, 41, first underwent back surgery before the 2014 Masters unsuccessfully, and needed further treatment.

He had two more surgeries following the 2015 PGA season and did not play for 15 months.

His last tournament was on February 3 in Dubai, where he fired a birdie-free 77 in the first round, but had to withdraw due to back pain.

Woods decided to go under the knife again after seeking extensive medical advice on the best treatment to overcome his condition.