A US state governor has resigned after fighting for over a year against allegations that he used public resources to carry out and conceal an affair with his former top aide, the media reported.

Pressure built on Alabama Governor Robert Bentley to step down over the sex scandal as state lawmakers opened impeachment hearings against him this week and state Republican officials called for him to leave the governor's mansion, the Washington Post reported.

Bentley also pleaded guilty on Monday to two misdemeanour charges related to covering up the alleged affair — one for failing to file a major contribution report, and the other for knowingly using campaign contributions for personal use, according to the state's attorney general office.

"I love the people of this state with all my heart," he told the media as he announced his resignation inside the Alabama State Capitol.

On his way to officially resign, Bentley showed up to the Montgomery County Jail and posed for a mug shot.

The events leading to the end of Bentley's career were spelt out in the 3,000 pages of a report released by the House Judiciary Committee attorney on April 7. It detailed various indiscretions the Governor allegedly tried to keep secret as he carried out an affair with his married aide, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

The report said Bentley texted heart-eyed emojis to Mason — texts that were linked up to his now former wife's iPad — and made threats to the first lady's staff to keep the affair secret. 

The report also detailed what allegedly went on behind closed doors when Mason, according to the report, left the office "with her hair tousled and her clothing in disarray", reports The Washington Post.

Under the plea deal, Bentley will face up to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service, which he is expected to perform in his capacity as a licensed dermatologist. 

He must turn over some $37,000 in campaign funds to the state. 

Actor Don Cheadle will produce and star in upcoming biopic Prince of Darkness, which will focus on the life of 19th Century millionaire Jeremiah G Hamilton.

The script of the film has been adapted from Shane White's book Prince of Darkness: The Story of Jeremiah G Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire, reports variety.com.

White's book portrays Hamilton as a larger-than-life character who defied convention during the period and amassed a $2 million fortune by the time of his death in 1875. He dealt extensively in the white business world, married a white woman, bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, and owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride.

When Hamilton died, he was often referred to as the richest black man in the US.

Cheadle has previously appeared in films like Devil in a Blue Dress, Boogie Nights, Out of Sight, Traffic.

Besides that, he also plays the character of James Rhodes aka War Machine in the Iron Man and Captain America movies.

Woody Allens manager has been accused of secretly pocketing commissions from the veteran filmmaker's movies when those should have gone to his management partners.

Late film producer Larry Brezner's wife Dominique Cohen-Brezner filed a lawsuit on March 30 in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Allen's manager Stephen Tenenbaum of withholding money from her late husband, it has emerged now, reports variety.com.

Brezner, who died in 2015, was a partner with Tenenbaum and David Steinberg in MBST Entertainment.

According to the suit, Tenenbaum had an obligation to share the revenues from Allen's films with his partners. However, Cohen-Brezner has alleged that Tenenbaum "secretly arranged to defer income from Woody Allen's projects while at the same time planning to leave MBST and pocket the commissions for himself after forming his new management company."

The three were partners in MBST for 20 years, and shared commissions from all of their clients. In addition to Allen, the company represented Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Bette Midler.

The chiefs of the IMF, WTO and OECD vowed on April 10 in a joint statement to defend free trade against creeping protectionist trends, amid growing global alarm over US President Donald Trump's “America First” call.

“Disappointing trade growth figures and the danger of increasing protectionist tendencies give us a clear incentive to support the international trading system even more,” said the statement, also signed by the heads of the World Bank and the ILO, as well as host of the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The World Trade Organisation has forecasted that global trade would likely grow only within a range of 1.8 per cent to 3.1 per cent this year.

But of greater concern is the Trump administration's attitude towards global commerce.

During his campaign, Trump described the WTO as a “disaster” and promised a more aggressive approach to open up foreign markets to US companies, including threatening to unilaterally imposing tariffs.

The US also refused at a G20 meeting in March to renew a long-standing anti-protectionist pledge, to the dismay of the group of top developed and developing nations.

At the meeting in Berlin, the leaders of the international organisations and Merkel also stressed the role of the WTO in creating “new growth, employment and development opportunities”.

In addition, they underlined their commitment to combating climate change — another key issue that was dropped at the G20 meeting because of US opposition. IBA seeks applications from auditors to conduct forensic audit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday will release a book authored by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, officials said on Monday.

Titled ‘Matoshree', the book covers the life of Holkar Empire Queen Ahilyabai Holkar, according to a release. 

The release of the book in Parliament Library Building would be followed by a play based on ‘Matoshree'. 

Directed by Rajan Deshmukh, the 105-minute play is a blend of all the elements of theatre, which not only makes the play a visual delight for the viewers but also inspires the artists and performers with its intrinsic message, the release said. 

The play is divided in fifteen scenes depicting the struggles, predicaments and qualities of Ahilyabai Holkar who ruled the Holkar Empire spread over the Malwa region from 1767 to 1795.

The powerful and evocative poems on nature by William Wordsworth, the well-known and much loved poet of the Romantic age have inspired in my friends and me a deep affinity for all aspects of nature and an undying love for nature poems. This is the power of poems.

Our obsession with electronic gadgets lead to monotony, our precocious strive to grow up only results in increasing frustration but when we find refuge in the heart of poems on nature, it makes us glad and keeps us in the ambit of our childhood.

William Wordsworth is a poet to whom “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. In The Daffodils he writes:

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”

Oh! What a way to delineate such a beautiful thought in such a simple way. Even today the
enjoyable sight of ‘Palash’(a flower with vibrant orange-red hue) during the season of Basanta (January-February), ‘Kaash’ (another type of flower) at the advent of Autumn and the vibrant yellow mustard fields, resonate with the same feeling.

Again in The Solitary Reaper when the poet gets enchanted with a rustic melody although unable to decipher the lyrics, he says:

“Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.”

Wordsworth found abundance of beauty in this mundane world and to him nothing was ugly. Our exasperation with city life and monotonous drudge is explicitly brought forth in Wordsworth’s ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’. He could feel the omnipresence and omnipotence of nature and so paid the highest encomium to Nature through his poems. He was rightly termed by Mathew Arnold as the ‘Highest priest of nature’.  

The greatest poet of the Romantic age, William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland in England on 7 April 1770. His father, John Wordsworth was a lawyer and his mother Ann Cookson exerted an everlasting influence on his life.

Wordsworth, the second of five children in the  family, lost his mother at an early age of eight and later his father when he was only 13. He started his schooling at Hawkshead Grammar School near Lake Windermere.

His repository of knowledge was  invigorated from hills, flowers and stars than from books or the imposed discipline from school.

We find this reflection in his poem Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower where Mother Nature, the best teacher in the universe teaches Lucy the qualities of a human being.

How the mellow rays of the rising sun, the floating clouds amidst the midnight stars or the gurgling rivers imbue her with calmness, gracefulness, freshness, tenderness, sublimity and dignity. In the year 1787, he began his university education at Cambridge.

He was an ordinary scholar who was intrigued with the mystery of nature more than the lessons taught.

Wordsworth travelled widely during his student life particularly to places like Cumberland, France, Yorkshire and Switzerland.  He graduated in 1791. His revolutionary zeal attracted him towards The French Revolution, the motto of which was ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.’

However an excessive indulgence in this movement disillusioned him and he returned to England. A few years later in 1802 he married Hutchinson and settled in Grasmere and later at Rydal mount with his wife and sister Dorothy.

Some of his famous poems include Lyrical Ballads, Lucy Poems, The Green Linnet, Ode on Intimations of Immortality, Ode on Duty and The Prelude. On 23 April 1850, the greatest precursor of Romanticism breathed his last and was buried in the church yard at Grasmere.

Coordinator, Class IX, St Vincent’s High & Technical School, Asansol

Filmmaker Ron Howard will direct and produce the contemporary economic drama film Hillbilly Elegy, based on author JD Vances bestselling memoir.

Vance's book recaps growing up in the Rust Belt and the everyday struggles of the US' white working class as they navigate through drug addiction, and social and economic challenges, reports variety.com.

Supported by his grandmother, Vance developed a deep appreciation for education that laid the foundation for him to rise out of poverty and its cultural restraints.

"Hillbilly Elegy is a powerful, true coming-of-age memoir by JD Vance," said Erica Huggins, President of Imagine Entertainment.

"Through the lens of a colourful, chaotic family, and with remarkable compassion and self-awareness, JD has been able to look back on his own upbringing as a ‘hillbilly' to illuminate the plight of America's white working class, speaking directly to the turmoil of our current political climate," Huggins added.

There were 142 incidents of attacks on journalists in different parts of the country during 2014-15, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said in 2014, there were 114 incidents of attacks on journalists in which 32 people were arrested.

In 2015, there were 28 incidents of attacks on scribes in which 41 people were arrested, he said during Question Hour.

The minister said the existing laws are adequate for protection of citizens, including journalists. The Press Council of India takes prompt action on receipt of specific complaints from affected persons.

Representations on providing security are received from or on behalf of individuals, including journalists, and all such representations are examined. Based on inputs received regarding threat assessment, necessary action is taken, he said.

Ahir said since police and public order is a state subject, it is the responsibility of the state governments to provide security to journalists.

He said as of now, there was no provision for providing compensation by state or central governments to journalists or their family members in cases of attacks.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it would hear after summer vacation a batch of pleas seeking a grace period for exchanging demonetised currency notes.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul said let these matters be fixed for hearing after the summer vacation as counsel for the petitioner sought time to respond to the recent reply of the Centre on the issue.

The Centre had recently informed the apex court that it has taken a “conscious decision” not to extend the period beyond December 30 last year for exchanging the demonetised currency notes.

It had said it was not legally bound to come out with a fresh notification to grant grace period or window for depositing scrapped currency notes.

The Centre had filed an affidavit in response to petitions by private individuals and a firm seeking a window like those given to NRIs and people who were abroad during the period of demonetisation to deposit the scrapped currency notes with the Reserve Bank of India.

Superstar Salman Khan believes that today's actresses need to learn from the Bollywood divas of yesteryears on how to be friends with their contemporaries.
“Waheeda (Rehman) aunty and we live in the same compound, Helen aunty they all have been so close. Today's girls should also learn from them.
“From Saira (Bano) aunty, Asha aunty to Shammi (Sharmila Tagore) aunty and Sadhana aunty, They all have been really close, it's something you don't see anymore. I think it was the best quality their generation would have. We lack that quality today,” Salman said.
He was speaking at the launch of Asha Parekh's biography The Hit Girl' in Bandra last night.
Talking about his bond with Parekh, Salman, who was also a special guest for the event, said the veteran actress is very dear to him as he has known her since he was a child.
“I am really pleased that I am here at the book launch. You must buy the book because this generation has lived the cleanest life possible professionally and personally. It will be a book of values and principles.
“It will have its highs and lows and fun moments. I think you all should read this book as it will only elevate you as a person,” he said.

The Congress on Tuesday slammed Pakistan for a "hurried trial and pre-meditated judgment" on Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in securing his release.

"A hurried trial and pre-meditated judgment on Kulbhushan Jadhav without notice to India is symptomatic of Pakistan's kangaroo court justice," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.

"The death sentence is a deliberate provocation to India. The BJP government needs to travel beyond advisories. The Prime Minister must intervene to secure his release," he said.

"India needs to immediately mount an international diplomatic offensive to free Kulbhushan Jadhav," he added.

New Delhi on Monday warned Islamabad regarding Jadhav's "premeditated murder" after Pakistan sentenced to death the alleged Indian 'spy' arrested in March 2016 on the charges of "espionage and waging war against Islamabad".

The Indian External Affairs Ministry said Jadhav, whose family lives in Mumbai, was sentenced "without observing basic norms of law and justice" and if he was hanged, it would be a "premeditated murder".

A statement from the Pakistan Army described Jadhav, who allegedly used the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel, as an Indian Naval officer attached to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Hackers can steal your PINs and passwords just from the motion of your phone when you type in the information, warn experts who have unveiled how easy it is for malicious websites and installed apps to spy on you.
Cyber experts at Newcastle University in the UK have shown it is possible to crack four-digit PINs with a 70 per cent accuracy on the first guess – 100 per cent by the fifth guess – using just the data collected via the phone's numerous internal sensors.
Despite the threat, the research shows that people are unaware of the risks and most of us have little idea what the majority of the twenty five different sensors available on current smart phones do.
While all the major players in the industry are aware of the problem, no-one has yet been able to find a solution.
“Most smart phones, tablets, and other wearables are now equipped with a multitude of sensors, from the well-known GPS, camera and microphone to instruments such as the gyroscope, proximity, NFC, and rotation sensors and accelerometer,” said Maryam Mehrnezhad, research fellow at Newcastle University.
“But because mobile apps and websites don't need to ask permission to access most of them, malicious programmes can covertly 'listen in' on your sensor data and use it to discover a wide range of sensitive information about you such as phone call timing, physical activities and even your touch actions, PINs and passwords,” said Mehrnezhad.
“More worrying, on some browsers, we found that if you open a page on your phone or tablet which hosts one of these malicious code and then open, for example, your online banking account without closing the previous tab, then they can spy on every personal detail you enter,” she said.
“And worse still, in some cases, unless you close them down completely, they can even spy on you when your phone is locked,” she added.
“Despite the very real risks, when we asked people which sensors they were most concerned about we found a direct correlation between perceived risk and understanding,” said Mehrnezhad.
“So people were far more concerned about the camera and GPS than they were about the silent sensors,” she said.
Sensors are now commonplace in smart devices and are largely responsible for the boom in mobile gaming and health and fitness apps, and soon in all devices in the Internet of Things (IoT), researchers said.
The data provided by them combined with the growing computational ability of mobile phones and tablets has transformed the way we use them.
In total, the team identified 25 different sensors which now come as standard on most smart devices and are used to give different information about the device and its user.
Only a small number of these – such as the camera and GPS – ask the user's permission to access the device.
The research was published in the International Journal of Information Security.

Star custodian PR Sreejesh will lead an 18-member Indian hockey team at the 26th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia, starting April 29.

Manpreet Singh will be Sreejesh's deputy in the squad that also has members from the junior World Cup winning squad.

Defender Gurinder Singh, midfielders Sumit and Manpreet were a part of the Junior World Cup winning squad and are slated to make their debut at the tournament.

The 21-year-old goalkeeper from Mumbai Suraj Karkera who was part of the junior squad that toured England in 2016 and participated in the EurAsia Cup in Russia and the Four-Nations Tournament last year, too finds his name in the team.

Ahead of the national camp for the senior men's core probable group, chief coach Roelant Oltmans had emphasized on giving juniors the right exposure with a vision of building a team that would bring laurels in the 2018 World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

As a first step towards that goal, the Chief Coach has inducted these youngsters from the junior men's team.
The team also features drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh, Junior World Cup winning skipper Harjeet Singh and forward Mandeep Singh.

The trio, who were instrumental in the Indian team's success at the Junior World Cup, have played at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in the previous edition where India won a Silver after losing to Australia in the Final.

“The idea was to try out new combinations ahead of the three important tournaments this year, which are the World League Semi Final, Asia Cup and the Odisha Mens Hockey League Final Bhubaneswar 2017,” explained Oltmans.

“We have a few tournaments before these big events like we play Belgium and Germany before we play the World League Semi Final and we play Belgium and Holland in August. These are good opponents against whom we can test ourselves to access whether the players are achieving what we expect out of them, he said.
Experienced Sardar Singh, Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, Harjeet Singh, Sumit and Manpreet will be manning the midfield.

The defence includes Rupinder Pal Singh, Pardeep Mor, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh and Gurinder Singh while the forwardline is formidable with S.V Sunil, Talwinder Singh, Affan Yousuf, Akashdeep Singh and Mandeep Singh.

“We will bring a team to Malaysia which is a mixture of experienced and young players some of whom have played in the senior squad earlier. It is a challenge for us to see where we stand with the new team combination compared to other teams like Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand,” said Oltmans.

The coach feels that some of the opposition teams will not ring in too many changes.

“They also will bring new players. I dont expect Malaysia and Japan to have too many changes in their teams and I think they play the same players as they did at the Asian Champions Trophy last October,” said Oltmans.

The tournament will give an idea of how things are progressing.

“It will be interesting to see how these teams are developing and also access our own progress. We need to pay attention to the structure we are looking for and it takes time to make everyone aware of what the demands of the structure are specially when new players are coming in.

“Though most of them are responding very well, I believe there will be some ups and downs in the tournament but the aim is to have the best possible result,” Oltmans concluded.

Squad: Goalkeepers PR Sreejesh (C), Suraj Karkera; Defenders: Pardeep Mor, Surender Kumar, Rupinderpal Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Gurinder Singh; Midfielders: Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, Sumit, Sardar Singh, Manpreet Singh (VC), Harjeet Singh, Manpreet; Forwards: SV Sunil, Talwinder Singh, Mandeep Singh, Affan Yousuf, Akashdeep Singh.

Actor Mark Gatiss, who played the character of Tycho Nestoris in a few episodes of Game of Thrones earlier, has confirmed that he will appear in the seventh season of the fantasy drama series.

"Yes, I did it (shooting for the show) in Belfast last year. I can't tell you anything more obviously, mostly because I don't know anything," Gatiss said in a statement. 

Gatiss made his debut in Game of Thrones as the Braavosi banker Tycho Nestoris in season five. 

"It was lovely. What I love about it is that I don't have any stake in it," he added.

Further sharing insights about his part, Gatiss said: "I honestly don't know the ins and outs. People ask me this, that and the other, I haven't got a clue. I've done four episodes now and there's two more they think. It's a huge saga and I don't know and I rather like that." 

"But I've had a lovely time. The last scene I'm in with — I probably can't say because it would be a spoiler, wouldn't it? I made a pitch to be the last one alive because if anyone survives, it's the banker, isn't it? They smiled at me and then plotted my doom."

The seventh season of Game of Thrones will be aired in India on Star World starting from July.

Actor-filmmaker Dhanush on Tuesday said he has resumed the shoot of National Award winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran's upcoming Tamil gangster drama Vada Chennai.

"With two days to go for 'Power Paandi' release, resuming 'Vada Chennai' shoot from today. Blazing sun, sea, great people and typical Vetrimaaran locations," Dhanush tweeted.

The first schedule of Vada Chennai was wrapped up in November last year. It was predominantly shot in a prison set here.

"Vada Chennai", which will be made as a trilogy, will track 30 years in the life of a gangster from north Chennai.

The film also stars Amala Paul, apart from a host of supporting cast.

Meanwhile, Dhanush's directorial debut Power Paandi will release on Friday.

Dhanush is said to have set aside 200 days to shoot this project, which marks his third time collaboration with Vetrimaaran.

The Rupee slammed brakes on early losses against the Dollar on Tuesday and ruled steady at previous closing level of 64.56 as banks and exporters offloaded dollars, helped by a gradual recovery in domestic equities.

The Rupee resumed lower at 64.65 and dropped further to 64.69 following initial Dollar demand from banks. However, it bounced back to 64.56 at 1100 hours after stocks showed some traction.

The Rupee hovered in a range of 64.56 and 64.69 during the morning trade.

Overseas, the Dollar gave up some ground.

The benchmark Sensex recovered 164.49 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 29,740.23 at 1226 hours.

Panchkula has been chosen as the first district in the state where Registration Certificates (RC) for new vehicles and high security registration plates would be made available directly at the dealer point.

While giving this information on Monday, a spokesman of the Transport Department said that Regional Transport Authority, Panchkula would be the first such authority in the state to provide this facility.

He said that there would be standardised fees across the entire state and single window payment system would be adopted for registration for vehicles. This would include a Rs.10 for the file cover, the notified government fees as well as District Information Technology Society (DITS) service charge. Apart from this, fees for tests, smart cards and road taxes would be levied where applicable. He said that the applicants have been encouraged to apply well in time, so as to avoid any penalties for delayed applications.

The spokesman said that a standardized file cover for Rs.10 would be provided across all authorities in the State by May 1, 2017. He said that applicants have been encouraged to apply online for their learners and driving licenses through https://parivahan.gov.in. Online applications would have to be printed and brought to the e-disha centre for the completion of the application process by the applicant.

He said that all RCs and driving licenses would now be provided in a Smart Card format and all licenses would be delivered by the Department of Post. He said that no medical test would be required for learners’ licenses, for the applicants below the age of 50. Apart from this, dual screens would be placed to allow citizens to scrutinise their application forms at the e-disha centre, to ensure that no mistake is made.

He said that E-Disha Panchkula and Kalka are incorporating these aspects of the Standardised Operating Procedures. The Regional Transport Authority would also be covered through this, he  added.