A woman was allegedly molested while her husband was beaten up severely trying to save her at a posh restro-bar in Kolkata, police said.

The couple lodged an FIR at Shakespeare Sarani police station against three men allegedly involved in the incident, a senior officer from Kolkata police said on Monday.

According to the victim, a group of three drunk men attacked them for allegedly entering a reserved party zone at Central Kolkata based 'M Bar and Kitchen' in Park Street on the late hours of Saturday.

"We went to M Bar as one of our friends invited us. But a group of men said we can't be there as that place was previously reserved. All of them were heavily drunk. They hit me on the chest and pushed me to the ground. Some of them even touched me inappropriately," the woman alleged.

The accused gang also allegedly beat up the husband when he tried to save his wife.

"They pulled my husband by the hair and tried to choke him. His specs were dropped in the impact," the woman said.

"The club authority and the security guard came to our rescue. They prevented the boys from beating us up and formed a human chain around us. We have lodged a police complaint. Strict action should be taken against the offenders so that no woman faces such harrasment again," she added.

Tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said that Lamanis, members of a nomadic tribe mostly hailing from Karnataka, should be banned from Goa because they besmirch the reputation of Goa and don't fit in the coastal state's culture.

Speaking to IANS on Monday, Ajgaonkar also said that police inspectors in whose jurisdiction drugs are sold, should be suspended immediately, because they are complicit in drug trade.

"Outsiders who can uphold 'Goenkarponn' (Goanness) should be allowed to stay, the rest should be chased away. Goa's culture and 'Goenkarponn' should be retained. These Lamani's should be stopped (from coming to Goa). A wrong message is sent because of them and the reputation of Goans is spoilt. This has to be done," Ajgaonkar said, adding that his ministry would take action against Lamanis involved in illegal businesses.

Lamanis, known for their colourful costumes are involved in the seasonal tourism trade, selling trinkets and handmade clothes along the coastline to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who frequent the coastal state.

After taking over as Chief Minister last month, Manohar Parrikar said that 'Goenkarponn' would be the cornerstone of his government's policies and governance.

Ajgaonkar also said that drugs cannot be sold in Goa, if the police decide to crackdown on it and alleged complicity of the police personnel in the trade.

"Our officers know how the drugs are coming in or there cannot be a drugs business. Everyone who deals with this is connected. I am telling the CM that wherever drugs are found, the concerned officer should be suspended. Only this way we can find a way out of this," he said.

The ongoing strike by the truck owners is set to further intensify, resulting in rise in prices of essential items, following failure of the talks with the insurance regulator at Hyderabad on Monday, a motor transport union official.

"There was no commitment on the part of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to reduce the hike in third party premium rates for trucks," All India Motor Transport Congress' Vice President, South Zone, P.V. Subramani, said.

"The IRDAI said they would form a committee to consider reduction. We felt this would consume lot of time and hence decided to intensify our strike," he added.

Subramani is also the Chairman and Managing Director of Cargo Wings Logistics Ltd.

The third party premium for automobiles is decided by the IRDAI, while all other premium rates are decided by the insurers — private and government-owned.

He said from Tuesday onwards, even the trucks that were now plying to south India, would stop midway.

According to him, around 650,000 trucks are off the roads in the southern states and the business loss per day is around Rs.4 crore.

Actor Vin Diesel has revealed he used a "student credit card" to finance his first films script.

The 49-year-old, who is now among the A-list stars of Hollywood, says at the beginning of his career, he desperately needed finance to give shape to his ideas.

"To write my first script, I went to an early electronics store called the Wiz that was on 14th Street (in New York). They had a policy where you could return anything within 30 days, no questions asked," Diesel told nytimes.com.

"So I went to the Wiz and bought this $600 word processor on my student credit card. I stayed up all night, every night. And at the end of the 30 days, I returned it.

"Then I went out and rented a 16-mm camera on a Friday, because I didn't have to return it until Monday, so I was able to shoot for three days. Cut to my mom watching me roll an old 16 mm Steenbeck into my little room. I was cutting and splicing 'Multi-Facial' old-school style. This was before computers, really," he added.
 

US President Donald Trump donated the first quarter of his presidential salary — a total of $78,333 — to the National Park Service, the White House announced.

At his daily press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer displayed the cheque with Trump's donation and handed it to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Efe news reported.

The National Park Service, which celebrated its centennial last year, is tasked with protecting and maintaining the country's national parks and monuments, including US battlefields and Trump is "proud" to contribute part of his yearly salary to that "important mission", Spicer said.

The White House had announced in March that Trump was going to fulfill his promise to donate his salary as President, which amounts to a gross of $400,000 per year.

During the election campaign, the mogul promised that if he won last November's presidential balloting, he would either donate his salary or return it to the Department of the Treasury.

Trump's fortune amounts to as much at $3.7 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that slow productivity growth since the 2008 financial crisis would threaten financial and social stability in some countries.

"Another decade of weak productivity growth would seriously undermine the rise in global living standards," said IMF's Managing Director Christine Lagarde at an event held by the American Enterprise Institute on Monday.

"Slower growth could also jeopardize the financial and social stability of some countries by making it more difficult to reduce excessive inequality and sustain private debt and public obligations," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

IMF on Monday published a research on reasons which led to the slower productivity growth after the 2008 global financial crisis. It found that the financial crisis had bigger impact on the slowdown of productivity growth than previously expected.

Lagarde said that aging population, slower global trade and unresolved legacy of the global financial crisis are the three major headwinds for productivity growth, of which the legacy issue is a crucial factor.

The research found that interrelated factors have resulted in persistent loss in total factor productivity: weak corporate balance sheets have constrained investment; an adverse feedback loop of weak aggregate demand, investment and capital-embodied technological change seems to have afflicted the advanced economies; increased economic and policy uncertainty may have further weakened productivity growth.

It warned that these factors remained a significant drag on productivity growth, especially in continental Europe.

To address the crisis legacies, the IMF called for actions to address weak corporate and bank balance sheets, reduce policy uncertainty and boost investment on high-return infrastructure projects, in order to simulate demand and then induce greater private investment and productivity growth.

Lagarde also called for more education and training to raise productivity growth and reduce inequality.
 

Singer-actress Demi Lovato says it is cool to be the only girl in a gang of boys, but she also knows what its like to be a part of something that has more women involved.

"I remember being 15 and being on tour with my band that was made up of all guys, while touring with The Jonas Brothers," Lovato said in a statement. 

The actress, who has voiced the character Smurfette in forthcoming film Smurfs-The Lost Village, added: "I now have a lot of women on my team. From my day-to-day manager to my hair and make-up artist, I have a lot of women around me. So, yes, I know what it's like to feel like the only girl. But I also know what it's like to be a part of something that has more women involved."

Directed by Kelly Asbury, the film — being brought to India by Sony Pictures Entertainment India — will release in India on April 21.
 

India's Income Tax Department has specified a list of equity share sale transactions that will have to comply with the latest Budget provision and pay long-term capital gains tax if Securities Transaction Tax has not been paid.

"It is proposed to notify that the condition of chargeability to STT (Securities Transaction Tax) shall not apply to all transactions of acquisitions of equity shares entered into on or after the first day of October, 2004 other than the specified transactions," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a draft notification on Monday, seeking stakeholder comments by April 11 to finalise the proposal.

These include purchase of shares of a listed company that are not frequently traded through preferential issue, transaction for purchase of listed equity share in a company not entered through a recognised stock exchange, and acquisition of shares of a company during the period it was delisted from recognised stock exchanges.

"Frequently traded shares means shares of a company, in which the traded turnover on a recognised stock exchange during the 12 calendar months preceding the calendar month in which the transfer is made, is at least 10 per cent of the total number of shares of such class of the company," the CBDT said.

The proposal comes after the Budget 2017-18 announcement to exempt from long-term capital gains tax only if STT had been levied on purchase of shares and other genuine cases such as public offers.

Indian stock market transactions attract STT in the range of 0.017 per cent to 0.125 per cent.

The death toll from the landslides that destroyed part of Colombia's Mocoa city has risen to 273, according to the Colombian President.

"We have counted the number of people who have unfortunately died. The latest figure is 273 people dead and 262 injured," Juan Manuel Santos told the media on Monday.

He added that 193 autopsies have been performed and 100 bodies have been delivered to relatives, Efe news reported.

Santos also inspected all activities that his government has been carrying out to assist the residents of Mocoa, a city home to more than 45,000 people.

He said the next phase of the government's efforts will be focusing on "prevention and public health", with a vaccination campaign against tetanus, hepatitis A, chickenpox, whooping cough and rabies.

Santos said there are five places being prepared as shelters, which will be equipped with water, electricity and food.

"There are 2,700 people in shelters and the idea is to evacuate schools as soon as possible so that children can return to class," he said.

The mudslides in the southern Colombian city were caused by the overflow of three rivers as a result of a heavy downpour on Friday night, which subsequently swept away several neighbourhoods.

Santos also declared on Monday a state of economic, social and ecological emergency to deal with the tragedy, and appointed Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas as manager of the reconstruction work.

"There has been a full process of identifying the victims. There are already 255 people registered and we hope to finalise that number by the end of the week," Santos added.

The President also noted that thousands of toilet kits, blankets, mats and masks have been distributed so far, as well as 31 tank trucks for water distribution and five drinking-water plants. 

India on Monday termed as "unfortunate" the African Heads of Mission's statement describing last week's attack on Nigerians in Greater Noida as "xenophobic and racial in nature" even as it stressed its commitment to ensuring all foreign nationals remain safe.

In a reaction following the statement by the African Heads of Mission, the External Affairs Ministry said that the government is "committed to ensuring safety and security of all foreign nationals in India, including African nationals, who remain our valued partners". 

"It is unfortunate that a criminal act triggered following the untimely death of a young Indian student under suspicious circumstances has been termed as xenophobic and racial. Investigations on the death of Indian teenager and the subsequent incident by local authorities are ongoing," the MEA statement said.

"Strong Indian institutions are adequate to deal with aberrations that represent act of a few criminals," it added.

The African Heads of Mission had strongly condemned last week's attack on Nigerian nationals in Greater Noida, and kept open the possibility of taking the matter to international human rights bodies for an independent investigation if the government failed to take legal action against the perpetrators or took "sufficient or visible deterring measures" to avoid repeat of such incidents.

A statement issued after a meeting of the envoys — representing 54 countries of the African continent — following the incident and dated March 31 said: "As regards the recent unfortunate incident in Greater Noida, the African Heads of Mission strongly condemn the incident and express their deep concern and also take note that these reprehensible events, both outstanding and unresolved cases against Africans, were not sufficiently condemned by the Indian authorities. The meeting unanimously agreed that those reaccumulated attacks against Africans are xenophobic and racial in nature."

The attack on four Nigerian students took place on March 27 night in Greater Noida, some 40 km from the Indian capital, following protests over the death of a Class 12 student of a residential colony there due to drug overdose. Some people who were holding a candle-light vigil for the student attacked the Nigerians, suspecting them of drug-running.

The man suspected of killing 11 people in a metro train in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Monday, is in his early 20s and from Central Asia, media reports said.

At least 45 people were injured in the explosion between two underground stations on Monday afternoon. Another explosive device was found and made safe at a station nearby, the BBC reported.

The Interfax and Tass news agencies said the suspect had been identified, but there were conflicting reports as to whether he was a suicide bomber.

Russian investigators have described it as a suspected "act of terror" but they have given few details. No group has said it was responsible.

Authorities in Saint Petersburg have declared three days of mourning for the victims.

President Vladimir Putin, who was in the city when the blast occurred, visited the scene on Monday evening and laid flowers at a makeshift shrine.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a Facebook post that the explosion was a "terrorist attack".

World leaders rallied behind Russia in condemning the blast. US President Donald Trump described it as "a terrible thing" while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was a "barbaric act", the BBC report said.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said Europe's thoughts were with the Russian people.

First images from the scene showed a train at Tekhnologichesky Institut station with a hole blown in its side and wounded passengers on the platform.

Initial reports suggested there had been two explosions, one each at Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut stations.

But the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee later confirmed there were only one explosion, between the two stations, at about 2.30 p.m.

Swiss great Roger Federer has jumped to fourth place in the mens' Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world singles rankings released on Monday after winning the Miami Open.

Federer defeated Spanish Rafael Nadal in the final of the tennis tournament on Sunday, reports Efe.

British tennis player Andy Murray remained at the top of the ATP world singles rankings with 11,960 points.

The 29-year-old Scot led the rankings for the first time in his career on November 7 and has kept the lead since.

Serbian Novak Djokovic came in second with 7,915 points.

The current ATP rankings and point scores are as follows:

1. Andy Murray (UK) 11,960 points

2. Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 7,915

3. Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) 5,785

4. Roger Federer (Switzerland) 5,305

5. Rafael Nadal (Spain) 4,735

6. Milos Raonic (Canada) 4,345

7. Kei Nishikori (Japan) 4,310

8. Marin Cilic (Croatia) 3,385

9. Dominic Thiem (Austria) 3,385

10. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 3,265.

New Zealand all-rounder, Colin de Grandhomme, has replaced Andre Russell in the Kolkata Knight Riders’ squad ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017, an official press release said.
 
De Grandhomme has featured in six Tests, nine One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and eight T20 Internationals for New Zealand thus far. He made his Test debut for New Zealand in late 2016 and marked the occasion with a six-wicket haul.

The 30-year-old right-handed player is a batsman primarily, but is known to be a disciplined medium-pace bowler as well. Born on the 22nd of July, 1986 in Harare, Zimbabwe, he switched his residence to Auckland in 2006 and has remained there ever since. He had already represented Zimbabwe at the u-19 level but felt that his cricketing career was better served in New Zealand and after joining the Black Caps, hasn't looked back since.

De Grandhomme averages 18.75 (Highest score is 41*) in eight T20Is and has picked up three wickets at a strike rate of 20.

The Kolkata Knight Riders commence their IPL 2017 campaign on Friday 7th April, 2017 at the SCA Stadium, Rajkot where they will face the Gujarat Lions at 8pm.
 

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make his first visit to the United Nations later this month to chair a UN Security Council meeting on North Korea, the US envoy has said.

The April 28 meeting on non-proliferation and North Korea will be "timely" following a US-China summit this week, US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters on Sunday.

The United States holds the presidency of the Security Council in April, giving President Donald Trump's administration an opportunity to showcase its foreign policy priorities.

Trump will hold his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida this week, with North Korea expected to be a major topic of discussion.

Tillerson's recent Asia tour focused on addressing the threat from North Korea's nuclear and ballistic programs.

The US administration has complained that China is not taking action to rein in North Korea, which last year carried out two nuclear tests and more than 20 ballistic missile tests.

While at the United Nations, Tillerson may meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has been concerned about US moves to cut funding to the world body.

A UN spokesman said there were discussions on arranging the first face-to-face talks between the UN chief and Tillerson, but that nothing had been scheduled yet. (AFP)

The Election Commission on Monday asked the AIADMK-Amma faction to explain, by April 6, the use of 'two leaves' party symbol of AIADMK, which has been frozen by the poll panel.

The EC, in its order, noted that the AIADMK-Anna, a faction of AIADMK, "which is now a party known with the name and the symbol 'Cap' reserved for it, has still been using the party symbol of the original party in its website, Facebook, and Twitter".

Asking the party to stop the use of the "two leaves" in print, electronic, or digital media or any social media sites to be stopped, the order addressed to its leader TTV Dhinakaran sought a reply by Thursday.

Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK is split into two factions — one led by the jailed party General Secretary VK Sasikala and the other led by former Chief Minister Panneerselvam.

Both the factions have fielded their candidates for the April 12 by-election from the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency, a seat held by late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. 

The Election Commission has frozen the AIADMK's two-leaves symbol and the party name for the by-election.

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck the southern African nation of Botswana on Monday US seismologists said, with the tremor felt in several neighbouring countries.

The epicentre of the quake, which hit at 7:40 pm (1740 GMT), was 238 kilometres (about 150 miles) northwest of Botswana's capital Gaborone, the US Geological Survey said.

It struck at a relatively shallow depth of 11 kilometres, and rumbled throughout the capital for about 30 seconds, an AFP correspondent said.

No reports on damages were immediately available.

The quake was also felt in several cities in South Africa as well as in Swaziland and Zimbabwe, several hundreds of kilometres from the epicentre, witnesses said.

"The bed started shaking, it was very scary, I didn't know what was going on," a resident of Durban, on the southeast coast of South Africa, told the News24 agency.

Earlier on the day, a smaller quake with a magnitude of 4.6 was recorded in northwestern South Africa.

Renowned classical singer Kishori Amonkar passed away shortly before midnight, family sources said here on Tuesday.

She was 84 and breathed her last at her Dadar west home. 

In her singing career spanning seven decades, she was revered as 'Gaan-Saraswati'. Belonging to the Jaipur Gharana, she was conferred the Padma Vibhushan and Sahitya Akademi Award among many others.

A widow, she is survived by two sons and grandchildren.

Veteran singer Lata Mangeshkar said she was depply pained to hear about Amonkar's demise. "She was a unique and extraordinary classical singer. Her demise spells a huge loss for the world of music." 

Her funeral will be held on Tuesday evening at Shivaji Park Crematorium.