Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday embarked on a four-day visit to India which will see signing of at least 25 bilateral agreements including in key areas of civil nuclear cooperation and defence.

During her visit, which comes after a gap of seven years, Hasina will hold wide-ranging talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi tomorrow during which India is also set to announce a line of credit of $500 million to Bangladesh for military supplies.

"The upcoming visit is expected to further expand the cordial and cooperative relationship between India and Bangladesh and build on the strong ties of friendship and trust between the two leaders," a joint statement issued by the two countries said earlier.

Hasina will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee and meet opposition leader Sonia Gandhi. She will visit Ajmer on Sunday and will meet Indian business leaders on Monday.

She will also join a function at Manekshaw Centre to honour Indian Armed Forces members who embraced martyrdom in Bangladesh's War of Liberation in 1971.

Diplomatic quarters of both sides expected that the reciprocal visit of the Bangladesh premier would take the Dhaka-New Delhi "historic relations" to a new height unveiling newer dimensions of cooperation in various sectors including trade and commerce, economy and connectivity.

It will be Hasina's first bilateral visit to India in her current term as prime minister.

Ramping up cooperation in defence and security will be a major focus area of the talks between Modi and Hasina and apart from an MoU to provide $500 million credit, another pact is likely to be inked to formalise regular defence engagements.

Issues like combating terrorism, containing radicalism and enhancing security cooperation between the two countries are likely to figure prominently besides stalemate over the Teesta pact during talks between Modi and Hasina.

Liberation War Affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Law Minister Anisul Haque, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, the Premier's Economic Affairs Advisor Moshiour Rahman and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam are accompanying Hasina for the visit.

The Agriculture Ministry on Thursday joined hands with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), a wing of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), to geo-tag agricultural assets.

Besides, ponds, crop area, warehouses, laboratories would also be geo-tagged for their real-time monitoring and effective utilisation.

The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) of the Agriculture Ministry and NRSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard here.

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told the media here the move would help bring transparency in governance due to real-time monitoring and utilisation of agricultural assets.

"At present, officials provide information on the assets manually, so there is no transparency. Geo-tagging will provide us realistic status of assets, which will not only help in monitoring and utilising but also be extremely useful in formulating schemes for development in the agricultural sector," Radha Mohan Singh said. 

"It will also help in avoiding duplication," he added.

The minister also said the actual details of water sources and availability would help preparing the contingency plan in a better manner.

Singh said the utilisation of space technology would help farmers get access to pesticide testing labs, storage infrastructure and market related information. 

"Space technology needs to be developed in the areas such as land resource mapping, pesticides management, soil health mapping, crop yield estimation as well as identification and assessment of flood-like calamities, inland fisheries, animal species identification and sheep rearing," Singh said.

Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Development, who was also present during the MoU signing, said geo-tagging would ensure effective disbursements of money to over one crore intended beneficiaries.
 

Host Jimmy Fallon and actor Dwayne The Rock Johnson went undercover at Universal Studios in Orlando.

The Tonight Show host opened his new ride Race Through New York this week. To commemorate the special occasion, Fallon and Johnson did a special Race Through Universal Studios segment. 

They dressed up like mascot versions of themselves and greeted fans at the theme park, reports etonline.com.

First they competed to see who could get the most high fives, selfies, and hugs, which Fallon won. Then they decided to surprise some park-goers.

Jumping out from behind the curtain as families took posed portraits, the two then took off their mascot heads to give the fans the shock. 

"Oh my goodness! You're the sexiest man alive," one woman gushed to The Rock. 

With the cost of clean technology continues to fall, the world added record levels of renewable energy capacity in 2016, at an investment level 23 per cent lower than the previous year, says an international research.

The newly commissioned included the Adani Group's 648-MW solar power plant, the world's largest solar voltaic project at a single location in Tamil Nadu in India.

Wind, solar, biomass and waste-to-energy, geothermal, small hydro and marine sources added 138.5 gigawatts to global power capacity in 2016, up eight per cent from the 127.5 gigawatts added the year before, said the research entitled 'Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2017'.

It was published jointly by the UN Environment, the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The research says investment in renewables capacity was roughly double that in fossil fuel generation; the corresponding new capacity from renewables was equivalent to 55 per cent of all new power, the highest to date.

The proportion of electricity coming from renewable, excluding large hydro, rose from 10.3 to 11.3 per cent. This prevented the emission of an estimated 1.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.

The total investment was $241.6 billion, excluding large hydro, the lowest since 2013. This was in large part a result of falling costs: the average dollar capital expenditure per megawatt for solar photovoltaics and wind dropped by over 10 per cent.

"Ever-cheaper clean tech provides a real opportunity for investors to get more for less," said an official statement quoting UN Environment Executive Director Erik Solheim.

"This is exactly the kind of situation, where the needs of profit and people meet, that will drive the shift to a better world for all," he added.

New investment in solar totalled $113.7 billion, down 34 per cent from the record high in 2015. Solar capacity additions, however, rose to an all-time high of 75 gigawatts. Wind made up $112.5 billion of investment globally, down nine per cent; wind capacity additions fell to 54 gigawatts from the previous year's high of 63 gigawatts.

"The investor hunger for existing wind and solar farms is a strong signal for the world to move to renewables," Frankfurt School of Finance and Management President Udo Steffens said, commenting on record acquisition activity in the clean power sector, which rose 17 per cent to $110.2 billion.

While much of the drop in financing was due to reduced technology costs, the report documented a slowdown in China, Japan and some emerging markets, for a variety of reasons.

Renewable energy investment in developing countries fell 30 per cent to $117 billion, while in developed economies dropped 14 per cent to $125 billion. China saw investment drop 32 per cent to $78.3 billion, breaking an 11-year rising trend.

Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, South Africa and Morocco all saw falls of 60 per cent or more, due to slower than expected growth in electricity demand, and delays to auctions and financings.

Jordan was one of the few new markets to buck the trend, investment there rising 148 per cent to $1.2 billion.

The US saw commitments slip 10 per cent to $46.4 billion, as developers took their time to build out projects to benefit from the five-year extension of the tax credit system. Japan slumped 56 per cent to $14.4 billion.

Actor Manoj Bajpayee, who is enjoying the success of his latest film Naam Shabana aspires to have a film institute in Patna and Bihar.

“I aspire to have a big film institute in Patna and Bihar. There are many kids who are not able to go out of the city as its not affordable for them. So if they get such an institute in the state, they won’t have do other courses and straggle their mind,” Manoj said on Thursday at Whistling Wood International.

“Being an actor is as difficult as being an engineer, a businessman or anything else in this world,” the two-time National Award winner said.

Manoj’s recent release Naam Shabana, which also stars Tapsee Pannu and Akshay Kumar, has opened to much critical acclaim. He praised Tapsee for her performance and is very happy with the success of the film.

The Satya actor added that because of such films producers won’t be afraid to do women centric films.

Asked about his upcoming projects, Manoj said that he is working on a film with Neeraj Pandey known as “Aiyaari” which also stars Siddharth Malhotra.

He said the Neeraj Pandey directorial will go on floors from next month.

Twitter has filed suit against the US government, asking a court to back its refusal to hand over the identities of users claiming to be dissenting federal employees.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday, revealed that the Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection had sought the unmasking of the @ALT_USCIS account holder who has been criticizing President Donald Trump's administration.

The suit could portend a contentious battle between the social network and the US administration over efforts to crack down on government leaks.

The account in question is purportedly run by one or more current employees of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a unit within Homeland Security.

It is one of several “alternative” handles apparently created by government workers after Trump's inauguration in January that have sometimes revealed data the new administration sought to suppress or remove from official websites.

“The rights of free speech afforded Twitter's users and Twitter itself under the First Amendment of the US Constitution include a right to disseminate such anonymous or pseudonymous political speech,” the lawsuit says.

It was filed in a California federal court.

The government “may not compel Twitter to disclose information regarding the real identities of these users without first demonstrating that some criminal or civil offense has been committed,” it said.

The so-called social media resistance movement began after the deletion of tweets and data from official US accounts and websites that proved embarrassing to the new president, including government reports about climate change.

After some took to Twitter with “alternative” handles — claiming to be federal employees exercising their free-speech rights — the resistance mushroomed into a movement.

Twitter said it received a summons on March 14 to produce the name or names of the account holder, saying the document asked the company “not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time.”

The company said it contacted the agent who delivered the summons, who “stated vaguely that he is conducting an investigation” but “did not identify any law or laws that he believed had been broken.” (

A proxy battle with Russia in Syria and multiple Russia-related investigations in the US will follow Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow next week on a trip designed to test the Trump administration's hopes for closer ties to the former Cold War foe.

Tillerson will make the first visit to Russia by a Trump administration official just days after the US launched cruise missiles against an air base in Syria, where Russia's military is on the ground propping up its ally, President Bashar Assad.

Until yesterday, the US had avoided striking Assad's forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia.
Tillerson, speaking just after the strikes were announced, said Russia had “failed in its responsibility” to deliver on a 2013 deal it helped broker to destroy Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

“So either Russia has been complicit, or Russia has been simply incompetent on its ability to deliver,” Tillerson said. Growing disagreements about Syria are just the latest obstacle to any plans President Donald Trump had to closer align the US and Russia on the world stage.

Trump and his associates are embroiled in mushrooming investigations into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin's government, accused by America's spy agencies of interfering in the election to help elect Trump.

Despite Trump's much-hyped campaign talk about a Russia reset, there's no appetite for that from either political party in the US Skepticism about Russia's intentions was only compounded by its defense of Assad after a deadly chemical attack that the US says was no doubt carried out by Assad's forces.

Even minor concessions to Russia would trigger immediate accusations from Trump's opponents that the president who has praised Putin generously and repeatedly is beholden to Putin, a former KBG agent. Add to that Trump's anger at Russia for violating a nuclear arms treaty and continued global outrage over Putin's actions in Ukraine, and it's difficult to see realistic chances for near-term rapprochement.

“I think the Russians have adjusted their expectations down as to the possibilities of a breakthrough, and what happened in Syria is going to add to that,” said Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama. Still, he said the Russians would likely treat Tillerson warmly in hopes his trip could smooth the path toward a Trump-Putin meeting.

Tillerson arrives in Moscow on Tuesday after a brief visit to Lucca, Italy, to meet with counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialized economies. While in Russia, Tillerson plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Actor Tiger Shroff has been signed on to endorse Spny YAY!, a new children's entertainment channel by Sony Pictures Network.

This is Tiger's debut association on television, and he shot for the brand film and theme song with children a few days ago.

"I am very excited to be part of this channel," the Heropanti and Baaghi actor said in a statement.

Tiger is the right fit for the channel, says Leena Lele Dutta, Business Head, Sony Pictures Network Kids Genre.

"Kids across the country relate to him and consider Tiger as their icon. Given his affinity with kids, we could not have found a better representative for our channel," Dutta added.

The actor has shown his dance moves in the ad film, choreographed by Paresh. During the shoot, the actor was enjoying his time with the children who, in between the breaks, were trying to impress Tiger with their moves and asking for his feedback.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and offered all possible support in dealing with the flood situation in the valley.

"Spoke to J&K CM @MehboobaMufti on the flood situation in the state. Offered all possible support from Centre in dealing with the situation," he tweeted.

Modi reached out to Mehbooba at a time when the Kashmir valley is facing a flood threat, with Jhelum being in spate.

Kashmir had witnessed unprecedented floods in 2014 when most of the residential areas, including in Srinagar, were inundated by waters up to the level of several feet.

Australian Test star Stephen O'Keefe has been fined Aus 20,000 ($15,000) for making "highly inappropriate" comments while drunk during a cricket function and ordered to undergo counselling, authorities said on Friday.

The spinner, one of the best bowlers during Australia's recent four-Test series in India, was also banned from playing in the Australian one-day domestic competition in 2017.

It is the second time the 32-year-old has been in alcohol-fuelled trouble, after being fined last year for offensive conduct at a Sydney hotel.

"There is no time or place for unacceptable behaviour from any of our players in Australian cricket, and we continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to this," said Cricket Australia team performance general manager Pat Howard.

"We're extremely disappointed this situation occurred, particularly on the back of a previous incident, and it now overshadows Stephen's on field performance on the recent tour of India."

O'Keefe said he accepted the fine and would undergo "specialist counselling" as demanded.

"At an official Cricket NSW function I became intoxicated and made highly inappropriate comments. There is no excuse for this and I take full responsibility and offer an unconditional apology," he said.

"I have a big challenge ahead and I am determined to meet it with actions, not just words."

Left-armer O'Keefe has played eight Tests since making his debut in 2014, taking 33 wickets at an average of 27.30.

The chemical agent allegedly used in a recent attack in Syria could have been Sarin, said the Turkish health ministry in a statement on Thursday.

At least 72 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in an alleged chemical attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun in the northern Idlib region.

"According to the results of the first analysis, there were findings suggesting that patients were exposed to a chemical substance (Sarin)," Efe news agency cited a ministry statement.

The report said that the findings suggested the symptoms were caused by chemical weapons such as sarin, a nerve agent that causes organophosphate poisoning.

Analyses on victims of the attack conducted in Turkish hospitals found many suffered from pulmonary edemas — caused by excessive fluid in the lungs — as well as excessive bleeding and increased lung weight.

Further samples and patients are to be analyzed by then Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the World Health Organization.

According to WHO report released Wednesday, this could be the worst chemical attack in Syria since the rebel-held Ghouta was hit by rockets containing Sarin on August 21, 2013.

That attack left between 281 and 1,729 people dead and was believed to be the deadliest chemical attack since the Iran-Iraq War.

Jemima Sumgong, the first Kenyan woman to win Olympic marathon gold when she triumphed at Rio in 2016, has failed an out-of-competition dope test, reports claimed on Friday.

The 32-year-old, who is also the reigning London Marathon champion, tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO in a test by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in her native Kenya, the BBC reported.

"We can confirm that an anti-doping rule violation case concerning Jemima Sumgong has commenced this week," www.bbc.com quoted the IAAF as saying in a statement.

"The athlete tested positive for EPO following a no-notice test in Kenya."

The IAAF did not respond when asked by AFP for confirmation of the report early Friday.

Sumgong starred at the 2016 London Marathon, defying the odds to win despite suffering a bruising fall.

Steeled by her success in London, she then became the first Kenyan woman to win Olympic marathon gold in Rio.

Sumgong defeated Ethiopia's world champion Mare Dibaba to confirm her status as the world's number one marathon runner of the year.

Before claims of a positive drugs test emerged, Sumgong said she was looking forward to returning to London to defend her title on April 23.

"London is the marathon every runner wants to win," she said. "I can't wait to return to defend my title."

Tim Hadzima, general manager at Abbott World Marathon Majors, organiser of the world's largest marathons including London, said the organisation was "distressed" by the reports, but said that "if true, they indicate that we are gaining ground in our long-standing fight against doping".

At the Rio Olympics, Sumgong defied temperatures of 28 degrees Celsius (82F) to claim an historic gold medal in a race which finished at the city's famed Sambodromo.

"It was very hot but everybody had to get through the heat. I had to control my body and listen to my body very carefully," said Sumgong, who added that victory made up for her disappointing showing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"I was in Beijing but I was pretty disappointed that I wasn't able to win a medal or make it on the podium, but I knew one time, one day, I'd be somewhere," she said.

"I was never worried that I'd lose this. At the 40km I knew the gold was mine."

Earlier this year, Sumgong was one of a number of top Kenyan athletes who welcomed a new initiative to stop doping, which has tarnished their image, in which they agreed to be monitored by doctors appointed by the IAAF and Athletics Kenya.

"It will be easy for us now to communicate with these doctors before we take any medicine when the need arises," said Sumgong.

In July last year, an investigation by German television channel ARD and Britain's Sunday Times newspaper alleged that doping is rife at the elite training centre in Iten.

Sumgong's former training partner, the 2014 Chicago and Boston Marathon champion Rita Jeptoo, is serving a four-year ban after also testing positive for EPO.

Athletics Kenya chief Jackson Tuwei warned that any athlete who failed to comply would not be selected to represent Kenya in international competitions.

"Forty-nine athletes have been found to have violated the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) code in the past five years but were cautioned according to the laws of the land and WADA code," said Tuwei.

News of Sumgong's test was welcomed by other athletes. US distance runner Emma Coburn, a bronze medallist in the 3,000m steeplechase at last year's Olympics, applauded the IAAF's out-of-competition testing.

"Out of competition testing is so important!! Well done, IAAF. I hope to see more productive results from no-notice out of competition tests," Coburn wrote on Twitter. 

Veteran Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna, who was hospitalised last week due to severe dehydration, has responded positively to treatment and is stable, doctors treating him said on Thursday.

The actor "was admitted to Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital on Friday with severe dehydration. He is under the care of our doctors and has responded positively to the treatment and is now stable," the hospital spokesperson said.

"His family thanks his well-wishers for the good wishes and requests to respect their privacy," he added.

Vinod Khanna's son Rahul told on Tuesday: "Dad was hospitalised on Friday (March 31) for severe dehydration. The situation was quickly brought under control, he's doing much better and the doctors are looking to discharge him soon."

Rahul, who is also an actor, added that the family is "touched by all the good wishes pouring in".

The actor, who is a sitting Bharatiya Janata Party member of the Lok Sabha from the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab, was admitted to Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre in Girgaon, Mumbai.

The 70-year-old actor has featured in films like Mere Apne, Insaaf and Amar, Akbar, Anthony.

Amid mixed Asian markets and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decision to keep key lending rates unchanged at 6.25 per cent, domestic benchmark indices started last trading session of the week on a lower note. 

In its bi-monthly monetary policy review on Thursday, the RBI kept key repo rate or lending rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent but hiked reverse repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 6 per cent.

The Reserve Bank also narrowed policy rate corridor, by increasing marginal standing facility rate and bank rate to 6.50 per cent.

At 9.35 am on Friday, the Sensex was trading 28 points or 0.29 per cent down at 29,840 while the Nifty50 was trading 28 points or 0.30 per cent lower at 9,234.

However, broader markets extended previous gains. BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices surged 0.1 per cent 0.2 per cent respectively.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, Telecom index registered the biggest gain with a jump of 0.9 per cent. Healthcare index slipped 0.5 per cent. All the BSE sectoral indices were trading with small to medium moves.

On Thursday, the BSE Sensex closed 47 points or 0.16 per cent down at 29,927 while the NSE Nifty ended three points lower at 9,262.

Top gainers in the Sensex-30 pack: Bharti Airtel (up 1.7 per cent), Gail (up 1.1 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (up 0.7 per cent), TCS (up 0.7 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.5 per cent).

Top losers in the Sensex-30 pack: Adani Ports (down 2.4 per cent), Sun Pharma (down 1.9 per cent), Coal India (down 1.3 per cent), Power Grid (down 1.2 per cent) and Tata Motors (down 1.1 per cent).

Asian markets were trading with mixed moves. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index jumped 0.4 per cent, Singapore’s Straits Times Index slipped 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.6 per cent, Korea’s KOSPI index fell 0.1 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.3 per cent.

Back home, the Rupee was trading 13 paise higher at 64.39 against the US Dollar.

Global prices for all basic foods dropped globally in March, except meat, which rose slightly, said a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation report.

The FAO's price index for cereal, vegetable oil, sugar, milk and meat markets was at 171 points, a 2.8 per cent fall from the previous month and 13.4 per cent lower year-on-year, Efe news reported.

The organisation's report published on Thursday, said that the monthly decrease was due to the wide availability of provisions and the expectation that harvests would be plentiful, with cereal inventories at almost historic levels.

The largest price change was seen in sugar, which was 10.9 per cent lower than in February due to the low importation demand and the abundant supply in Brazil, where there was less internal consumption for the production of bio-fuels and harvests were good.

Vegetable oil prices fell 6.2 per cent as forecasts for palm and soy oil production improved and other types are expected to have a greater availability.

Milk and cereal prices saw a less significant price change, falling by 2.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.

The only rise was registered in meat prices, which went up 0.7 per cent.

The FAO said it was due to a stronger demand from Asia for pork and beef imports.

Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan on Thursday said he was quite shocked seeing Vinod Khanna's latest photograph that has been circulated on social media and wished a speedy recovery to the veteran who was hospitalised last week.

Irfaan, who was present at the trailer launch of his upcoming film Hindi Medium, told media: "I am very upset to know that Vinod Khannaji is not well. I wish him a speedy recovery. 

"For me, he and Dharmendra sahaab are who most handsome actors of Hindi film industry. Today, when I saw his picture, I was so shocked! I was very shocked to see his latest picture. If I can help in any way, I will do that, I am ready to donate my organ if needed. I want to pray to almightily so that he can get well soon.

Khanna, who was said to be suffering from dehydration, was admitted in HN Reliance Foundation Hospital on Friday.

A hospital spokesperson said: "Vinod Khanna was admitted to Sir HN Reliance Foundation hospital on Friday with severe dehydration. He is under the care of our doctors and has responded positively to the treatment and is now stable. His family thanks his well wishers for the good wishes and requests to respect their privacy."