Singer Katy Perry has gone for another haircut – a shorter pixie cut – after recently chopping off her long locks barely a month ago.
The 32-year-old songstress has posted a selfie on Instagram, which show her debuting an even shorter platinum-
blond pixie style.
Dressed in a hoodie, Katy's new hairdo is partially visible in the photograph that she captioned as, Fifth
element flow.
The Chained to the Rhythm singer cut off her bangs shortly after she split with boyfriend Orlando Bloom in
February, after being in a relationship for almost a year.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Thursday won the Delhi assembly by-election from the Rajouri Garden constituency with a margin of over 14,000 votes.

He defeated his nearest rival Meenakshi Chandela of the Congress, pushing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) candidate to a distant third position, according to the Election Commission.

After the final 17th round of counting, the Election Commission said that Sirsa polled 40,602 votes, Chandela 25,950 and the AAP's Harjeet Singh 10,243 out of a total 78,091 votes cast during election on April 9. Nearly 1,300 votes were divided among the other contestants.

The seat had fallen vacant after AAP's legislator Jarnail Singh resigned to contest the Punjab assembly polls on February 4 this year.

Sirsa had won this seat in 2013 assembly polls, too, but had lost to Jarnail Singh in the 2015 elections.

Elated by its victory in Rajouri Garden assembly by-polls, the BJP said that people had given the AAP a "fitting gift" by defeating it and that the party was on the verge of extinction.

"Earlier they…lost Punjab and Goa assembly polls and today's (Thursday's) result of the Rajouri Garden assembly by-poll is like the last nail in the coffin for AAP. It is on the verge of extinction," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.

He added that people had lost faith in the AAP and its National Convener Arvind Kejriwal.

The BJP leader also tweeted: "AAP and Kejriwal have not just lost their deposit, they have (also) lost their credibility." 

Patra said that Chief Minister Kejriwal never thought about welfare of Delhi's people.

"Neglecting Delhi people, Kejriwal went to Punjab and Goa for assembly elections. Now the residents of Delhi have neglected him," Patra told reporters. 

Reacting to AAP's performance, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that Rajouri Garden constituency voters were angry over AAP lawmaker Jarnail Singh's resignation to contest the Punjab assembly elections, which led to the party's poor show in the by-poll.

"People in the Rajouri Garden assembly constituency were angry after Jarnail Singh resigned… We tried to make them understand, but it seems they are still angry with the AAP," Sisodia told reporters outside his official residence.

However, he said it was just a by-poll and that "we will keep preparing for the coming elections".

The Rajouri Garden assembly by-poll on Sunday witnessed a poor turnout as only 47 per cent people turned out to vote. In the 2015 assembly elections, when the AAP had swept to power, the constituency had seen 72 per cent ballotting.

Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken termed the Rajouri Garden by-poll result a "referendum" on the Kejriwal government in Delhi.

The by-poll results showed revival of the Congress in the constituency, he added.

Maken said that the AAP's vote percentage had gone four times down to its earlier vote share, while the Congress' vote share increased three times to its earlier figure in the constituency. 

"We have jumped from 12 per cent vote share for the constituency to 36 per cent in just two years," Maken said.
 

The ruling Congress in Karnataka is leading over the rival BJP in the twin by-elections to the state assembly from Nanjangud (SC) and Gundlupet segments where the counting of votes was in progress on Thursday, said an official.

"Congress candidate K.N. Keshavamurthy was leading by 17,416 votes over BJP's Srinivasa Prasad in the Nanjungud (SC) constituency after 11 rounds of counting till 11.30 a.m.," said an official of the Election Commission.

In the adjacent Gundlupet constituency, M.C. Mohan Kumari alias Geetha of the Congress was ahead by 4,650 votes of the BJP's C.S. Niranjankumar after nine rounds of counting.

The by-election from the two assembly constituencies in the old Mysuru region was held on April 9. A record turnout of 78 per cent voters was registered in Nanjangud and about 80 per cent in Gundlupet.

Oops, the blazing sun! Chill and relax. How about some summery cool refreshing drinks that are healthy? Perfect to quench your thirst, here are 10 healthy traditional Indian beverages that are easy to make and unique in taste and flavour. They are also popular for their many health benefits.

Pan gulkand drink: This drink is made of sweet preserve of rose petals and pan leaves. It is an ayurvedic summer drink. Good for skin, constipation, gastritis, indigestion, dysmenorrhea, acne, foul body odour, palpitation, nose bleeding, it fights sun stroke. Mukta pishti can be added to it to boost its action in hot season.

Tarbuj juice: Water melon juice flavoured with mint, lemon juice and black salt is great for summer months. It is naturally sweet and delicious – perfect for a hot day.

Khus sherbet: The poppy seed green colour drink is a cool, sweet, refreshing and soothing drink. Prepared from the root extracts of khus plant, it cures burning sensation, excessive thirst, fever, redness and burning of eyes due to heat.

Jaljeera: Packed with flavours and nutrition, it is a famous Indian summer drink. It helps to cool the body, reduces excess of heat produced in the body and prevents dehydration. Good for digestion and weight loss, it is rich in iron. The mint leaves, lemon juice and black salt help fight and treat nausea and giddiness.

Bel juice: It is the pulp of bel fruit that is made into juice by adding water and processing in food processor. It is healthy and cool for body during summer season. Being naturally sweet in taste, you can easily avoid adding extra sugar. Black salt and roasted cumin powder give a good flavour to the juice.

Sattu drink: It is a very healthy summer drink made with roasted black chick peas and roasted gram flour. You can either add sugar or salt to this drink according to your taste and body requirement.

Thandai: This cool milk drink is the royal traditional drink of India. Popular mostly in northern parts of the country, it is made by adding dry fruits, seeds, saffron threads, sugar, few spices and herbs to the milk.

Buttermilk – Commonly known as chaas, it is the favourite summer drink. Made with yogurt, it is flavoured with black salt, roasted cumin powder, mint leaves and black pepper powder. Sometimes it is tempered with oil adding few herbs, spices and curry leaves.

Aam panna – Made with raw mangoes, it helps in preventing heat strokes. It is rich in iron and vitamin C. It keeps the body cool and energetic during summer.

Indian lemonade: The cheapest Indian drink of summer is also known as nimboo pani or shikanji. You can add flavours to it by adding mint juice, black salt and roasted cumin powder. It is sweet in taste and quite refreshing.

Have them chilled. These are the unforgettable drinks that are cool and refreshing treat for summer time fun with health. Not only delicious, they help boost immunity and energy level in hot weather. They are perfect for coming four months.

Rocker Brendon Urie is venturing into acting this year with a Broadway debut in the award- winning 'drag' musical Kinky Boots coming this summer.

He'll play the lead character in the Jerry Mitchell directed show starting in May.

The Panic At The Disco frontman will be playing Charlie Price on Broadway this summer; a character that was originally played by Stark Sands, though most recently by Killian Donnelly in London.

He's a man who reluctantly takes over his father's failing shoe factory after his death and finds a way of getting back in business by targeting a niche market: drag queens! ”I'm thrilled to be making my Broadway debut with this fantastic company. I'm a huge fan of Kinky Boots and musical theatre, and am honored to be joining the cast,” Urie says.

J Harrison Ghee will be playing drag queen Lola, while Taylor Louderman plays factory worker Lauren.

Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell is back as director and choreographer on the show, with a score by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein.

Kinky Boots will open on May 26 and will continue until August 6th at The Hirschfeld Theatre.

Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education (BIEAP) has declared the AP senior Inter 2nd year result 2017, AP Intermediate 1st Year result 2017 on the official website www.bieap.gov.in, results.cgg.gov.in and manabadi.com.

Candidates wanted to check their AP Intermediate results 2017 have to visit the official website and fill the blank space with the required information including roll number, registration number, date of birth to check AP Intermediate results 2017 for MPC, BiPC, MEC, CEC, HEC and other groups.

Andhra Pradesh Intermediate 2017 examination took place across the state from March 01 to March 18 and  Andhra Pradesh Intermediate 2nd year Exams took place from March 02 to March 18.

As, huge number of candidates are trying to get their exam results so the candidates may face technical issue in getting their results. AP intermediate candidates are advised to stay calm and refresh the AP result webpage in a short interval of time. Along with this candidates are advised to take a print out of the exam result for future purpose.

TV actor Shravan Reddy, who is currently enjoying the success of his TV show Krishnadasi and will also be seen in Ramman Handas short film Karma, says that he also aspires to be part of Bollywood and wants to step into every kind of genre.

"The last few shows which I got, I never expected that. I would like to be open and make sure that I take as different a role as possible from the given options. I don't really fancy anything in particular, but I would like to maintain doing a variety of stuff," Reddy told.

And he dreams of Bollywood too.

"Anybody who says that they don't aspire to be one of them is lying. I want to step into every genre of every production house and do their kind of cinema," he added.

Shravan has been named the first ambassador for Merino Wool in India by the Woolmark Company. 

His strong fan and digital following in conjunction with his youthful appeal led to his selection as the brand's Indian face and he is excited.

"It's the biggest responsibility to be associated with a brand that has such a long journey. It is also about being in public and connecting with them. It's totally a different ball game altogether," he said.
 

In a major development to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering issue, the Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission for not using EVMs with voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).

The top court issued the notice based on a plea filed by the BSP challenging the use of EVMs without paper trail and asked the Centre and the EC to respond to BSP's plea.

The top court will hear the matter on May 8.

Earlier, top leaders from the Opposition including Ghulam Nabi Azad, party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi met President Pranab Mukherjee and urged him to safeguard democracy.

"Recent allegations of EVM tampering have raised questions on electoral process," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after meeting President Mukherjee.

Post Assembly elections this year, many political parties and candidates have raised their voice against the use of EVMs.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is leading in the two assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh where by-election was held on April 9, early trends showed as counting of votes began at 8 am on Thursday.

The BJP was ahead of the Congress in both Ater constiuency in Bhind district and Bandhavgarh constituency in Umaria, the Election Commission said.

There were 21 candidates in the fray in Ater, while five contested from Bandhavgarh.

Around 60 per cent voter turnout was reported in Ater during the polling on Sunday while the voting percentage was 65 for Bandhavgarh.

The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail was used in both the by-polls, apart from the electronic voting machines (EVMs). 

The main contest in Ater was between the BJP's Arvind Singh Bhadoria and the Congress' Hemant Katare.

In Bandhavgarh, Congress candidate Savitri Singh was pitted against Shivnarayan Singh of the BJP.

In a nation where Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore wrote Where The Mind Is Without Fear — a stirring ode recited with immense pride by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru — filmmaker Vikram Bhatt believes the golden words now are "unfortunately not true".

The film fraternity in Hollywood has always been very vocal about its opinions — be it on Donald Trump becoming the US President or the "white vs black" controversy in showbiz.

Often, a question has been raised about why most celebrities in the Hindi film fraternity do not speak up on important issues of the country — and instead only tweet and write about the day-to-day events in their lives. 

When something unjust happens in the country, why do Bollywood stars disappear?

Bhatt says it would be unfair to draw that difference between Hollywood and Bollywood as in India, the "law and the government don't protect us".

"The mind is without fear — that is unfortunately not true. The mind is filled with fear. Anybody can throw a stone at our house and break it.

"Karan Johar (filmmaker) and Pakistani actor (in context of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil featuring Pakistani actor Fawad Khan)… What happened to him? Who stands by whom? Why would he tweet? Let's not compare Hollywood and Bollywood. They are granted freedom to make a film and have documentaries made on 9/11, (former US President George W.) Bush, Christ… It would be an unfair comparison," Bhatt told.

Bhatt also cited the instance of filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who was assaulted by Shri Rajput Karni Sena activists in Jaipur and whose Padmavati set was vandalised in Kolhapur because the group was concerned about the content of the period drama.

Voicing concern on this, Bhatt said: "When we say something, you (people) want to burn the theatres. You want to stop the film from releasing. You want to slap Sanjay Leela Bhansali and vandalise his set. Nothing happens, nobody wants to protect us, so why should we be martyred?

"Why should we come out and speak against some politician? For what? We are the entertainment industry, not the Red Cross. I didn't see anybody coming out in favour of Sanjay Leela Bhansali… No government person."

The filmmaker — who is the grandson of filmmaker Vijay Bhatt, one of the pioneers of the Hindi film industry, and son of Pravin Bhatt, an acclaimed director of photography — says it is imperative to "make an atmosphere of safety and freedom". 

"First make an atmosphere of freedom, of safety, of fearlessness — and then point fingers at people and ask why are they not giving their opinions. You cannot police people and then expect them to say something," said Bhatt, who has spent 25 years in the industry directing films and writing screenplays.

His recent projects are two new web series Spotlight and Gehraiyaan on Viu app, the video on demand service of Vuclip.

Having started his career with director Mukul Anand's Kanoon Kya Karega, Bhatt also worked as chief assistant on the sets of cult classic Agneepath. In the past few years, his filmography is dotted by horror movies and thrillers like Raaz, 1920 and Haunted – 3D.

He has also turned novelist with A Handful of Sunshine, which explores the world of intense romance.
 

India's GDP growth is likely to decelerate to 6.7 per cent in March quarter but it will gradually recover to around 7.7 per cent in 2018 supported by higher consumption and public spending, says a report.

According to the Japanese financial services major Nomura, the country's GDP growth is expected to dip to 6.7 per cent in the January- March quarter from 7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016.

“However, we expect GDP to average 7.3 per cent in the second half of 2017 and 7.7 per cent in 2018 supported by higher consumption (state pay hikes, remonetisation, lower lending rates) and public spending,” Nomura said in a research note.

Regrading the “soft” industrial activity in February, Nomura said demonetisation has severely hurt industrial activity. However, this impact is expected to be 'transitory'.

India's industrial output slipped to a 4-month low, contracting by 1.2 per cent in February.

“In our view, the recovery in industrial production should gather momentum through 2017 supported by ongoing remonetisation, release of pent-up consumption demand, lower lending rates, higher public capex and impending pay hikes for state government employees,” Nomura added.

On RBI's monetary policy stance, the report said given its view of a growth recovery along with a pick-up in inflation in the second half of this year, the RBI is likely to stay on hold throughout 2017 with risks skewed towards a hike in early 2018.

The Reserve Bank in its monetary policy review meet on April 6, kept the repurchase or repo rate-at which it lends to banks-unchanged at 6.25 per cent but increased reverse repo rate to 6 per cent from 5.75 per cent.

The Marginal Standing Facility, on the other hand, has been revised downwards by 0.25 per cent to 6.5 per cent. MSF is RBI's overnight lending rate for banks against government securities.

Admitting that the manufacturing sector is not growing as expected, India's premier skill development platform, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), is focusing more on the services sector — like tourism, hospitality and healthcare — to train millions of the country's unemployed youth, its CEO Manish Kumar says.

To ensure employability of trained men and women, Kumar said in a wide-ranging interview that it was also laying stress on quality training of youth as the feedback received last year was that "the quality was a little low".

"Therefore, we have ensured high-quality training" in NSDC's future programmes, Kumar said.

"The ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) focus on the manufacturing sector which, of late, is not growing well. The services sector is growing fast. Short-term skilling is focused on the services sector which is undergoing explosive growth," Kumar said.

NSDC is a public-private partnership under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, its job being to interface with industry on the one hand and with the government on the other to ensure that the policies of the government connect with the industry.

"We try to become a facilitator for skill development in such a way that whatever government policy is being made, it is perfectly grounded and is according to the needs of the industry," Kumar said.

Elaborating on future projects, Kumar added that NSDC's priorities were aligned to the government's priorities and initially, the ongoing Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) would be scaled up for better and quality skill training, depending upon the demand.

He said 1,800 centres were currently running under PMKVY across India, but the numbers needed to be scaled up. The second phase of PMKVY, which was launched on October 2 last year, is an improvement on its predecessor. It has been designed to focus more on quality training.
Around 2.3 million people have been trained under PMKVY and 400,000 under PMKVY-II.

He said that skilling 10 million people by 2020 was not a tough task, but the real challenge was the quality of the training.

"The Skill Development Ministry and NSDC have been focusing entirely on quality. We have to ensure quality trained people so that employability could be guaranteed," Kumar said.

He said that NSDC was also aiming to push for Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs) — state-of-the-art model training centres — and open one in every district of the country. 

At present, 122 such centres are up and running of the 460 that are to be established. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated two of the 31 new PMKKs in Jharkhand on April 2 and six others in Bihar.

Speaking about the employability of the skilled workforce, Kumar said NSDC, along with other concerned agencies, was keeping an eye by facilitating their meeting the demands of the market.

Talking about new ways to improve skill development, Kumar said NSDC was aiming at futuristic jobs by training people for cutting-edge technology like 3D printing and automation.

He said that automation is taking place everywhere and NSDC was in touch with the Adani group — which is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said that Adani is keen on training manpower for back-end automation.

"This is the way we prepare ourselves keeping demand and supply in view," he said.

He said that job avenues have increased over the years as new players have emerged in the market. Employment of skilled people is dynamic and varies from one state to another.

"We mobilise our training partners according to the demand. We ensure adequate supply of skilled workforce."

He said that importance of the skill development was not only restricted to the conventional fields but it was also expanding to the other areas. 

"The economy is changing with players like Ola and Uber, which require skilled drivers, and not only the cab aggregators but the demand of trained drivers is also increasing in the heavy vehicle industry," he said.

The NSDC was focusing on opening around 100 Driver Training Institutes (DTIs) wherever needed in the country to provide skilled and professional drivers required in different sectors.

Kumar claimed that skilling people would make a huge difference in society as India was a very young country and has a lot of potential.

He said that in the life of every country there is a period of 40-50 years which is termed the window of demographic opportunity. This window opened in China in 1980 and is ending in 2020. In South Korea, it came in 1960 and lasted till 2000.

"In India it came in 2010; so we have time till 2050. If we get the things right then after 2050 India will be in a different trajectory altogether in terms of development," Kumar added.

Actor-producer Tom Cruise is seen swinging back and forth in the air using a harness and crashing his car into a tree in the videos shot during the filming of the upcoming movie Mission: Impossible 6.

In one of the videos, the 54-year-old actor is watched by a lot of excited onlookers on the filming set. 

He looks impressively relaxed when the crew sends him flying to the air. The crew lets him swinging back and forth on the harness before bringing him back to earth. 

Another video offers a brief look at Cruise who drives a car and pulls off a 180-degree turn before crashing it into a tree. 

Meanwhile, the set photos feature Cruise filming a motorcycle scene. He wears all-black suit in the photos, driving a motorcycle amid crowded street. 

A few days ago, photos of Cruise on Mission: Impossible 6 filming set in Paris also surfaced online.

Cruise will reprise his role as Ethan Hunt in the sixth instalment of the Mission: Impossible movie series. 

Mission: Impossible 6 is set to hit the US theatres on
 

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday greeted the nation on the occasion of Baisakhi, Vishu, Rongali Bihu, Viashkhadi, Puthandu Pirappu, Maha Vishuba Sankranti and Naba Barsha, and said that contribution of the farmers must be recognised for a rich harvest.

"These harvest festivals celebrated in different parts of country convey the message of unity and portray the rich cultural heritage of our country," the Congress President said in a statement.

Extending her good wishes for a rich harvest, she said: "We must recognise the contribution, the immeasurable hard work and dedication of our farmers to the progress of the nation."
 

The authorities on Thursday again suspended broadband internet facilities in the Kashmir Valley, fearing spread of rumours and instigations for violence on social media, as re-polling was being held in parts of the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

The broadband internet connections were restored two days ago but the ban on mobile internet continues since April 8. 

The ban on internet was imposed ahead of Sunday's by-poll in the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency. Eight civilians were killed in clashes with the security forces during the polling.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Anil Dhiman on Thursday won the Bhoraj assembly constituency by-poll in Himachal Pradesh, defeating the Congress' Parmila Devi by a margin of over 8,000 votes, according to the Election Commission.

The commission said on its website that Dhiman polled 24,434 votes out of a total 46,848 polled on Sunday. Devi got 16,144 votes.

North Korea is ready to launch a nuclear test at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, the 38 North monitoring group reported.

The 38 North analysis group described the test site as “primed and ready.”

“Commercial satellite imagery of North Korea's Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site from April 12 shows continued activity around the North Portal, new activity in the Main Administrative Area, and a few personnel around the site's Command Center,” the North Korea-related analysis website said.

A barrage of recent North Korean missile tests has stoked US fears that Pyongyang may soon develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.

There is speculation that the country could be preparing a missile launch, or even another nuclear test — this would be its sixth — to mark the 105th birthday anniversary of its founder Kim Il-Sung on Saturday.

The Voice of America said last night, quoting US government and other sources, that North Korea “has apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM Korea time.”

President Donald Trump's administration has been forceful in its warnings to Pyongyang that leave military options “on the table,” as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.

The threat carries extra weight after the US strike on a Syrian air base last week.
“We are sending an armada. Very powerful,” Trump said yesterday. “We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.”

He was referring to a strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson supercarrier that has been re-routed to the Korean peninsula in a show of force against Kim.

The strike group, which deployed with about 6,500 sailors, is still some way south, conducting exercises with the Australian navy.

The US Navy already has a massive regional presence, including another carrier strike group headquartered at Yokosuka in Japan.