Reversing its 4-day climb, the Rupee fell 24 paise to 65.65 against the Dollar on Friday as the American currency got some of its lure back among banks and importers.

The Dollar's strength overseas weighed, but a higher opening in domestic equities cushioned the impact.

The Rupee had gained 28 paise to close at a fresh 16-month high of 65.41 on Thursday after the US Fed stuck to its stance of a gradual approach on future rate hikes.

The Sensex rallied 238.77 points, or 0.80 per cent, to 29,824.62 in early part of the session.

The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered the CBI to conduct a preliminary probe into the Narada sting operation.

A Division Bench of acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice T Chakraborty asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to complete its preliminary inquiry in 72 hours.

The US on Friday said the premium processing of H-1B visas, which are popular among Indian IT firms and professionals, has been suspended temporarily to handle the huge rush of applications for the work visas in the first week of April.

"The (H-1) program is not suspended. We suspend premium processing, which means we would have to process the application in 15 days," Lori Scialabba, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) acting director, told members of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management efficiency.

The US will start accepting applications for H-1B work visas from April 3 for the fiscal 2018.

Responding to questions from lawmakers, Scialabba said in the first week of April USCIS receives 200,000 or more H-1B applications.

"We're unable to process those premium processing, we can't process cases in 15 days when we get 200,000 in a week.

It's only suspended temporarily," she said.

"Once we lift the suspension, people are able to file for premium processing and we will process their application within 15 days," she said.

"I think the other thing to keep in mind is that these visas that they're applying for in April are not available until October. So what we do is we take them in, we process them, we organise them and then when we're ready, we let people file for the premium processing if they think that that's what they need.

"But the visas aren't available until October in any event, so it's really not delaying anybody from getting their visa when they're ready to pick up the visa," she said.

Suspension of the premium processing was being done in previous years too.

"What happens in April is that we open a window, where people file — and usually it's only for a week, because we get so many applications in that time period. We usually get in between 200,000, 240,000 applications in one weeks time," Scialabba said.

"Just getting the data entered into our systems and getting those processed so that they're ready for adjudication takes some time. That's why when we are unable…the only thing we're suspending is the premium processing. We're not promising to do anybody's visa, anybody's petition, in 15 days," she noted.

"Once we get all that data into the system, once we're ready to turn it back on, we put premium processing back in play and people can then file if they want, to have their adjudication done within 15 days, as opposed to 30, 60, 90, whatever our processing time is at the time," the USCOS official said.

 Iconic film director of the magnum opus of the year Baahubali: The Conclusion S.S. Rajamouli has presented the famous Katappa's sword to filmmaker Karan Johar as a token of his association with the Baahubali franchise.

The makers of the film put together an extravagant experience for the audience as they showcased the trailer at a multiplex here. The film director also put on display the sword that was used to kill Baahubali.

The trailer launch was graced by lead actor Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, producers Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni along with Rajamouli and Karan Johar.

Directed by S.S. Rajamauli, starring Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Rana Daggubati, the film Baahubali: The Conclusion will be releasing on April 28.

Facebook videos continue to dominate the social media, driving growth, engagement and media consumption, a new report has said.

Social media analytics platform Quintly examined 167,000 profiles during the last six months of 2016 and found that 47 per cent of those profiles used video of some sort in their Facebook campaigns, including video from any source and Facebook Live video. 

"Of those profiles, 90 per cent use Facebook's native video tools, 30 per cent preferred YouTube and 9 per cent used Vimeo or other sources such as proprietary players," the study noted.

According to a report in Adweek on Thursday, Facebook's video dominance becomes even clearer when looking at individual posts as nearly 85 per cent of posts on Facebook use the social network's native video, while YouTube represented just over 10 per cent of posts and Vimeo and other sources accounted for less than 5 per cent.

In terms of average interaction rate between Facebook and YouTube, Facebook showed a lead of almost 110 per cent during the last six months of 2016. 

Some of the videos on Facebook were shared 4.5 times more than YouTube videos.

During the period of study, Facebook native videos had on average a 477.76 per cent higher share rate compared to Youtube videos and the number of shares increased in December 2016 to over 1055.41 per cent.

"Through Facebook Live videos, Facebook users — consisting of private accounts and businesses — have the ability to directly engage with their audience by discussing topics in real-time," the study noted.

Film: Trapped

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane; Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Geetanjali Thapa and Khushboo Upadhay

Director Vikramaditya Motwane's film Trapped is a minimalist survival film. It is the compelling tale of a man trapped and stranded on the 35th floor of a newly constructed, unoccupied building, in the heart of Mumbai.

The film begins on an unassuming note with Shaurya, a shy and timid guy, falling in love with his colleague, Noorie. In his bid to start a new life with her, he shifts from a shared accommodation to a flat in one of the unoccupied skyscrapers. That he is an illegal tenant, is a separate issue.

Designed to cater to an intelligent audience, the film has all the trappings of this genre. It is well made and engaging, but nevertheless, seems contrived simply because the entire setting is far from subtle. What starts of like a realistic film ends up like a fabricated drama — on the face, breathlessly rushed and manufactured.

This is evident, as the director has taken enough measures to ensure the mise-en-scene is perfect. In one of the earlier scenes when Shaurya is leaving his shared accommodation, the television set is on in the background and the host of a television programme states, "a… and the great survive". This predictably lays the foundation for the events to follow.

Also, what makes Trapped seem utterly fabricated is that the story takes place sometime in Mumbai and the time in the film universe seems timeless. So the sudden downpour that enables Shaurya to fill his refrigerator with water seems like deus ex-machina for the plot.

Also, the thrilling factors are trimmed, especially when Shaurya escapes from the flat by scaling down the grills.

The film drags. There are moments of pure agony that make you squirm, waiting for the torturous moments to tide-away. Interestingly, these moments along with the scenes when the tables are turned with Shaurya being a timid guy to a hunter, are probably the best flashes of the film.

As Shaurya, this is Rajkummar Rao's canvas and yet it is not one of his best performances. An excellent actor, he is stifled with the limitation of the script. He appears dim-witted and portrays a gamut of emotions that are blatantly cheerless, gloomy and far from being intelligent. He excels in being frantic, anxiety driven and desperate. But the desperation comes across as a half-hearted attempt, probably because of the script.

Geetanjali Thapa as Noorie is natural and sincere.

On the production front too, with a simplistic approach, the apartment is not congruent to a flat in a newly constructed apartment. And the background score fluctuates from being realistic to over-the-top.

Overall, the film makes you feel trapped in the auditorium.
 

Continuing their bullish trend, domestic equity markets traded higher in the first half of trade on Friday after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) council set the stage for implementing GST by July 1 by clearing two supporting bills. US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise the interest rates gradually also strengthened the sentiments.

At 11.20 am, the broader Nifty crossed 9,200 mark for the first-time ever and traded at 9,167, up 15 points while the Sensex was trading at 29,706, up 116 points.

In the broader markets, BSE Midcap index declined 0.3 per cent while Smallcap index increased 0.1 per cent.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, FMCG index registered the biggest gain with a jump of 3.5 per cent while Telecom index became the top loser with a dip of 1.8 per cent.

On Thursday, the Sensex had closed 69 points higher at 29,586 and the Nifty had closed 69 points lower at 9,122.

Top gainers in the Sensex-30 pack: ITC (up 7.3 per cent), Lupin (up 0.8 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (up 0.8 per cent), Wipro (up 0.4 per cent) and Axis Bank (up 0.4 per cent).

Top losers in the Sensex-30 pack: Bharti Airtel (down 1.9 per cent), Bajaj Auto (down 1.2 per cent), ICICI Bank (down 1.1 per cent), SBI (down 1.1 per cent) and Gail (down 1.1 per cent).

In the global markets, Asian stocks were trading with mixed moves. China’s Shanghai Composite Index and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index declined around 0.3 per cent each while Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose around 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Korea’s KOSPI rose around 0.3 per cent each.

Back home, the Rupee was trading 19 paise down at 65.66 against the US Dollar.

Actress Kristen Stewart is "sneaker obsessed", but she still feels she doesn't have "that much stuff".

"I have a lot of sneakers. I'm really sneaker-obsessed," Stewart said of her favourite wardrobe staple to Metro newspaper.

Although the star is "really open" to the outfits her stylist pitches to her, she enjoys having more involvement in the decision process because she doesn't like to be "remotely dressed" by someone else, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I have a really open and involved collaboration with my stylist. I'm not remotely dressed by someone. But she's known me for so many years. I've been working with her since I was 13, so she can highlight who I am, rather than make me something else," she said.

The "Twilight" star says she tries to keep "little pieces" or products on film sets or fashion shoots lent to her if she thinks she will wear them again.

"All this stuff we wear is being lent to us. I try to keep little pieces that feel like mine but I don't have that much stuff," she said.

The actress, who stars in the Gabrielle Chanel handbag campaign for the luxury French fashion house alongside Cara Delevingne and Pharrell Williams, believes people who are drawn to the industry because of the "attention" and the "potential popularity contest" is "selfish".

 Japan launched a new spy satellite on Friday, the country's space agency said, as the region grows increasingly uneasy over North Korea's quickening missile programme.

The Radar 5 unit was carried into space on Japan's mainstay H-2A rocket from a launch site in the country's southwest.

It is meant to replace an existing satellite that is coming to the end of its mission.

Japan started putting spy satellites into orbit in 2003 after North Korea fired a mid-range ballistic missile over the Japanese mainland and into the western Pacific in 1998.

The threat has steadily accelerated and just last week Pyongyang fired four ballistic missiles, with three landing provocatively close to Japan.

Tokyo currently maintains three optical satellites for daytime surveillance and three radar satellites for nighttime monitoring. Two of those are backups.

The new satellite will succeed one of the three radar satellites that was launched in 2011.

The satellites are officially for "information-gathering" — a euphemism for spying — but are also used to monitor damage in the wake of natural disasters.

Due to bad road conditions, only one-way traffic was allowed on the strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway on Friday.

"No vehicle will be allowed to move in the opposite direction due to narrowing of the road at many places in the Ramban district," traffic department officials said here.

The highway has mostly remained closed this month due to heavy landslides due to rains.

The closure has caused acute shortages of vegetables, meat, poultry and dairy products in the landlocked valley.

Even far flung rural areas of Kashmir which once thrived at their own production of rice, vegetables, dairy products, poultry and sheep are now completely dependent on supplies brought from outside the valley.

Recovering from a shoulder injury, India skipper Virat Kohli on Friday missed the start of day two proceedings on the field as his deputy Ajinkya Rahane led the team against Australia in the third cricket Test here.

Kohli, however, was seen joining his teammates at the warm-up before the start of play and had a long discussion with coach Anil Kumble and selector Devang Gandhi.

The 28-year-old also had a light warm-up session but was mostly seen in conversation with the coach.

With Australia 132/3 in 39.1 overs, a grimacing Kohli had departed the field clutching his right shoulder on Thursday after he landed awkwardly near the mid-on boundary rope while diving to save a Peter Handscomb boundary.

A scan later in the evening revealed a "strain" but a BCCI statement said there was "no serious concern" and "he will continue to receive treatment, which will assist him to participate in the rest of the match".

His absence from the field, however, would not affect his number four batting position as this was an external injury.

According to the ICC's playing conditions, if a player is absent from the field for longer than eight minutes, the player, "shall not be permitted to bat unless or until, in the aggregate, he has returned to the field and/or his side's innings has been in progress for at least that length of playing time for which he has been absent or, if earlier, when his side has lost five wickets."

However, the clause does not apply if the player has suffered "an external blow (as opposed to an internal injury such as a pulled muscle) whilst participating earlier in the match and consequently been forced to leave the field.

Nor shall it apply if the player has been absent for very exceptional and wholly acceptable reasons (other than injury or illness)." 

Nearly 5,000 nurses at the AIIMS went on mass casual leave on Friday, alleging the hospital administration of discrimination in the roll out of the Seventh Central Pay Commission.

The nurses, who held meetings with the outgoing Deputy Director, Administration, V. Srinivas, have demanded that they be given revision in their pay scales and a hike in allowances. 

The emergency services at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences would be affected.

However, the out patient departments and other medical services will continue as usual.

"We have clearly told the administration that if our entire pay grade is not enhanced from Rs.4,600 to Rs.5,400 then we will go on indefinite strike from March 27 onwards," said a senior nurse at the hospital.

They have also sought enhancement in their nursing allowances by Rs.7,800. 

According to the AIIMS authorities, the proposal of the nurses has been sent to the Health Ministry for consideration. 

Expressing deep concern over two Indian Sufi clerics who went missing in Pakistan on Thursday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday said that she has spoken to the Pakistani authorities about the matter.

"We have taken up this matter with government of Pakistan and requested them for an update on both the Indian nationals in Pakistan," the Union minister said in a series of tweets.

"Indian nationals Syed Asif li Nizami aged 80 years and his nephew Nazim Ali Nizami had gone to Pakistan on March 8, 2017," she said.

"Syed Asif Ali Nizami is the head priest (Sajjadanashin) of Hazrat Nizammuddin Aulia dargah," she said, adding, both are missing after they landed at Karachi airport.

The two priests had gone to Pakistan as part of annual exchanges between Hazrat Nizamuddin and Garib Nawaz who is venerated at Data Darbar Sufi shrine in Lahore.

According to reports, the two priests were last seen together at Data Darbar.

 Singer Alesha Dixon says she is to write two children's books about a female superhero.

She has told BBC that she wanted to create a character who children "can hopefully be inspired by and look up to". 

Dixon's first book is set to be released later this year, when she will join an ever-growing list of celebrities who have penned children's stories, including Ricky Gervais, Madonna and Geri Horner, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Her first foray into writing comes after she said that she wants to branch out into acting and has been taking classes.

She said: "I have been doing the acting lessons for a few months. It's good. I do them when I can. I work one-on-one with an acting coach."

The Lipstick singer said she was inspired by actress Margot Robbie's appearance in the Suicide Squad movie, in which the Australian actress played the role of Harley Quinn.

"I love the idea of being in an action movie, something like Margot Robbie in 'Suicide Squad'. A kick-ass role.
I also love the idea of being in a musical and also dramas, TV dramas, gritty dramas. I am very open-minded, really," Dixon said.

However, one thing she insisted she definitely won't be doing in 2017 was having another child.

Asked if she plans to have another baby this year, the singer, who already has a three-year-old daughter called Azura with her partner Azuka Ononye, said: "No, definitely not. There aren't enough days in the week for a baby. I'm struggling with my schedule as it is."

The second semi-final of the Vijay Hazare ODI tournament between Jharkhand and Bengal was postponed for a day after a fire broke out in the Jharkhand team hotel here on Friday morning.

Former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is currently leading his state team, was also reportedly present at the hotel when the incident occurred.

All the players were evacuated in time and are safe, according to reports.

A call was made to the Delhi Fire Service at around 6.30 am following which nearly 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

No casualties were reported.

Actress Vaani Kapoor walked the ramp for designer Rina Dhaka and the newly launched mobile brand Honor, at Amazon India Fashion Week Autumn Winter (AIFW A/W 2017), here.

Clad in a jet black faux fur, body-hugging, floor-touching dress, Vaani walked the ramp with confidence in smokey eyed makeup.

The "Befikre" actress told on Thursday: "I feel very honoured to be able to wear a creation by Rina Dhaka. It's for the Honor mobiles. In January, I was a part of the launch for the Honor mobiles. So this follows."

Ready to wear her ensemble for a cocktail party, Vaani says her idea of fashion is very basic.

"My idea of fashion is very basic. I don't have a very strong notion about anything when it comes to fashion. I am okay experimenting but I know that I don't experiment. I still stuck to my comfort zone. Anything that is soothing and nice to my eyes I pick that up, I don't follow a particular trend," the 28-year-old said.

"I follow being effortless and not make a statement," she added.

The collection by Dhaka consisted of off-shoulder sheath, crochet mesh, sequins, velvet lapels, layered dresses, plaid jackets, chiffon plisse dress, knitted jackets, long gowns and tartan frill dress.

"This collection is about dark romanticism. Elements of flowers against a very distressed background whether it is for leaves or dried twigs," Dhaka said.

"Faux furs, washed effect on the ensembles has been used to make them look vintage and I have dabbled with stripes and flowers in hues of grey, charcoal, brown mouse and a hint of red," she added.

Organised by Fashion Design Council of India, the fashion week will end on March 18.

The US intelligence community and defence officials are anticipating that North Korea will soon carry out a new round of testing of its missile and nuclear programme, a media report said on Friday.

The officials are closely monitoring the regime's programmes and there are growing intelligence indicators of fresh and concerning activity inside North Korea, CNN said in the report. 

The major source of that intelligence for the US is spy satellites that survey the regime from overhead, so there is little ability to fully understand what leader Kim Jong-un may decide to do, according to the officials.

The satellites have watched a test site for several weeks and seen fresh signs of digging and activity at tunnel entrances. 

The commercial website 38 North recently posted satellite imagery showing continuing activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site indicating the area was ready for an underground test as soon as one is ordered by leader Kim Jong-un.

However, North Korea is taking fresh steps to disguise its activities, knowing overhead satellites are watching. 

The latest indicators, the US officials told CNN, is that North Korea has moved some launch equipment that is associated with an intercontinental ballistic missile launch, believing that Washington cannot track them there. 

The equipment has been observed near parade grounds, but the concern is it could quickly become part of an actual launch.