CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday flayed the Modi government and the Sangh Parivar over the death and rape threats to Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur for taking on the ABVP.

"Ministers are supposed to work under the constitutional oath to ensure the rule of law. The current lot, instead, jumps to the support of those who threaten, abuse and bully a 20-year-old lady," Yechury said on his Facebook page. 

"Sangh Parivar has no strength of conviction in its reasoning, the threat of violence is its only weapon against ideas.

"It is about an individual's freedom, guaranteed under our Constitution to each one of us.

"They want to impose all their regressive ideas on what you wear, eat, see, do, or the way you live," added the Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary. 

Besides facing criticism from some union ministers including Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Kaur got death and rape threats after she took on the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP). 

Daughter of an army officer who died in the Kargil war, Kaur spoke against the ABVP after its activists were blamed for the attacks on students, teachers and journalists in the campus.

Yechury also trashed Rijiju after the minister alleged that Leftists celebrate whenever Indian soldiers die.

"Who celebrated after (Mahatma) Gandhi was killed!" Yechury tweeted. He quoted then Home Minsiter Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as telling then RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar: "RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji's death."

Ace pistol shooter Jitu Rai settled for the Bronze medal in the mens 10M Air Pistol event in the shooting World Cup at the Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Tuesday.

Jitu finished behind reigning Olympic Champion Xuan Vinh Hoang of Vietnam, who won Silver and former World Champion Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan, who clinched Gold. 

This was India's third medal in the competition and their tally of one Silver and two Bronze medals thus far puts them in fifth place behind the Gold medal winning countries of China, Italy, Australia and Japan.

Jitu, who in the last three years has won a medal in every global and continental championship barring the Olympics, qualified for the eight-man final in sixth place shooting a score of 577 in the allotted 60 shots.

He had a poor start to the final shooting a couple of 9s and an 8.8 in the first five shot series. 

In fact he was set to be the first to be eliminated but a brilliant fight back saw him gain places rapidly towards the end with five scores of 10s or high 10s between the 15th and the 20th shots. 

With the home crowd getting behind him, Jitu was in Silver medal position by the end of the 21st shot but an 8.6 in his 22nd shot meant he had to be content with the Bronze. 

In the final standings, Tomoyuki shot 240.1 in the Final, Xuan Vinh Hoang shot 236.6 and Jitu ended with a score of 216.7.

Commenting on the day, Jitu said: "The poor start was a blessing in disguise as that took away all the pressure of performing at home and I was able to fully focus on perfect execution. I am very happy with this medal as it came in front of people known to me. I dedicate this medal to the Army, because of whom I am here today."

India also had another finalist in the second event of the day, the men's 50M Rifle Prone. Chain Singh shot 618.8 in qualification to make it to the Final in seventh place ahead of his teammates Gagan Narang and Sushil Ghaley. 

Former Olympic medallist Gagan shot 617 to finish 15th while Sushil shot 617.9 to be placed 12th in the overall standings.

Chain could not improve on his position in the final and bowed out with a score of 141.9. The Gold in the event went to Japan's Toshikazu Yamashita who shot 249.8 in the finals while China's Yukun Liu shot 249.3 to bag the Silver.

Ace pistol shooter Jitu Rai settled for the Bronze medal in the mens 10M Air Pistol event in the shooting World Cup at the Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Tuesday.

Jitu finished behind reigning Olympic Champion Xuan Vinh Hoang of Vietnam, who won Silver and former World Champion Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan, who clinched Gold. 

This was India's third medal in the competition and their tally of one Silver and two Bronze medals thus far puts them in fifth place behind the Gold medal winning countries of China, Italy, Australia and Japan.

Jitu, who in the last three years has won a medal in every global and continental championship barring the Olympics, qualified for the eight-man final in sixth place shooting a score of 577 in the allotted 60 shots.

He had a poor start to the final shooting a couple of 9s and an 8.8 in the first five shot series. 

In fact he was set to be the first to be eliminated but a brilliant fight back saw him gain places rapidly towards the end with five scores of 10s or high 10s between the 15th and the 20th shots. 

With the home crowd getting behind him, Jitu was in Silver medal position by the end of the 21st shot but an 8.6 in his 22nd shot meant he had to be content with the Bronze. 

In the final standings, Tomoyuki shot 240.1 in the Final, Xuan Vinh Hoang shot 236.6 and Jitu ended with a score of 216.7.

Commenting on the day, Jitu said: "The poor start was a blessing in disguise as that took away all the pressure of performing at home and I was able to fully focus on perfect execution. I am very happy with this medal as it came in front of people known to me. I dedicate this medal to the Army, because of whom I am here today."

India also had another finalist in the second event of the day, the men's 50M Rifle Prone. Chain Singh shot 618.8 in qualification to make it to the Final in seventh place ahead of his teammates Gagan Narang and Sushil Ghaley. 

Former Olympic medallist Gagan shot 617 to finish 15th while Sushil shot 617.9 to be placed 12th in the overall standings.

Chain could not improve on his position in the final and bowed out with a score of 141.9. The Gold in the event went to Japan's Toshikazu Yamashita who shot 249.8 in the finals while China's Yukun Liu shot 249.3 to bag the Silver.

 Actress-singer Selena Gomez and her alleged boyfriend The Weeknd stepped out together in Paris mere blocks away from where the "Starboy" hitmaker ex Bella Hadid was partying.

The duo was all smiles as they were spotted enjoying a romantic night at La Reserve, reported HollywoodLife.

The 24-year-old "Hands to Myself" singer looked elegant in a sleeveless black turtleneck dress, with her hair tied back in a tight ponytail, while the Weeknd, 27, dressed a bit more casually in a tan jacket and a black ball cap.

The pair, who have been spotted on several dates here and Italy over the last two months, touched down in the famously romantic city just ahead of the start of Paris Fashion Week, which kicks off today.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan and veteran actor Jackie Shroff look fierce and intense in the poster of filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma's upcoming film Sarkar 3.

The poster features the angry faces of the lead actors Amitabh, Yami Gautam, Jackie, Manoj Bajpayee and Amit Sadh.

"Mujhe jo sahi lagta hai main karta hoon… Ye poster 'sahi' hai (I do what I think is right. This poster is right). Sarkar 3. It takes a lot to last three times over," Amitabh captioned the poster.

Presented by Eros International and produced by Allumbra Entertainment, Wave Cinemas and AB Corp, Sarkar 3 is the third film in Varma's Sarkar series.

Sarkar, which released in 2005, is set in the world of Indian politics. Its sequel Sarkar Raj hit the screens in 2008.

Sarkar 3 will see Amitabh reprising his role as Subhash Nagre. The film will also feature Rohini Hattangadi, Ronit Roy and Bharat Dabholkar. It is slated to hit the screens on April 7.
 

Young striker Andrea Belotti continued his rich vein of form as he inspired Torino with a second-half brace to register a come-from-behind 2-2 draw against Fiorentina in a Serie A football league match here.

The 23-year-old Italian international on Monday struck in the 65th and 85th minutes after hitting a penalty to the bar in the 61st minute as Torino rescued a point at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

Belotti, with 19 goals, is now Serie A 2016-17's joint top-scorer as he shares the spot with Edin Dzeko of Roma and Gonzalo Higuain of Juventus.

Fiorentina, who were coming into the match after a horrific show in the Europa League Round-of-32 loss to Burussia Monchengladbach, once again wasted a brilliant start.

Riccardo Saponara's right foot shot from the centre of the box off a rebound save from goalkeeper Joe Hart gave the hosts the lead in the eighth minute.

Croatia striker Nikola Kalinic doubled Fiorentina's advantage when he headed a Borja Valero cross to the bottom left corner following a corner in the 38th minute.

After the change of ends, Torino pressed for the equaliser and got a golden opportunity to pull one back as Carlos Salcedo tripped Lucas Boye, resulting in a penalty. But Belotti was denied by the cross-bar.

However, the Torino hitman made amends four minutes later with a close-range header at the left post with a cross from the right by Emiliano Moretti following a corner.

Belotti struck the equaliser five minutes from time as he tapped home a diagonal pass from Daniele Baselli at the right post.

Following the draw, Fiorentina (41 points) and Torino (36 points) remained at the eighth and ninth spots respectively.

After the match, Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic was pleased with his side's fighting spirit, even if he rued the poor start. He said that his team didn't play the way they prepared in the first 60 minutes.

"On the positives there are the comeback and the reaction we had," he said.

South Korean technology conglomerate Samsung announced on Tuesday that it will restructure its board of directors, after prosecutors decided to indict the firm's heir Lee Jae-yong in connection with an influence-peddling scandal.

The country's largest business group announced the move in a statement issued shortly after it was reported that Lee will be tried along with four other senior company executives for bribery, as part of the influence-peddling scandal that has rocked the country, Efe news reported.

The statement added it will dismantle its future strategy office, the hub of the group's operations, and that each of its affiliate firms will act according to orders by their respective boards.

The office was led by Samsung Group Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and President Chang Choong-ki, who resigned from their positions in the working group that also included 200 other high-ranking executives from Samsung subsidiaries.

The tech giant also expects a personnel reshuffle of top executives for each affiliate's board of directors, company officials told Yonhap news agency.

Samsung's future strategy office was considered to be at the heart of the operations of the group, which besides Samsung Electronics – the world's leading smartphone maker – comprises subsidiaries across real estate, finance, sanitary services, power and electronic accessories sectors.

Prosecutors suspect that Lee, 48, gave or promised some 43 billion won ($36 million) worth of bribes to President Park Geun-hye's jailed friend Choi Soon-sil in return for the government's backing of a merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015.

The business merger was seen as critical for the smooth management succession of the group from ailing Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee to his only son Lee.

The investigation team, led by Park Young-soo, was given 70 days with 20 more days for preparation to look into the allegations President Park let Choi meddle in state affairs and amass profits using her ties to the president.

Lee was formally arrested by the investigators earlier this month, marking the first time that the chief of the country's largest family-run business group has been detained.

Inclusive growth and tax reforms remain key challenges to India's growth, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Tuesday, emphasising that revenue from income taxes needs to be increased.

"Firstly, India needs to finance access to quality public services for all, to reduce poverty and promote inclusive growth. Increasing tax revenues will help expand access to services. India raises only about 15 per cent of GDP in tax revenue, roughly a third of the levels in advanced European countries," OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said here.

She was speaking after jointly launching the OECD Economic Survey of India with Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

"More revenue could be raised from property and personal income taxes, which are paid by too few people. Less than 6 per cent of the population pay personal income tax," Gurria said.

"These taxes could also be fairer, with fewer exemptions and more progressive rates. Statutory rates are relatively low and kick in at high income levels. Employing more skilled tax officers will be vital to strengthen tax administration and make the system fairer and more effective.

"But it's not just about raising revenues, it's about spending," she added.

"Spending needs on physical and social infrastructure are not being fully met, which is holding back private investment, contributing to sluggish job creation in the organised sector and undermining well-being," Gurria said. 

Das, who was also present at the event, said that the government is working to address the challenges. 

"Within the government there is lot of pressure for higher and better quality of delivery. There is no complacency in the government. The report talks about challenges of rural infrastructure, balance sheet of banks. Most of these challenges are noted and are very much on the table," he added.

OECD estimated India's GDP growth at 7 per cent for 2016-17 calling India a star performer in times of a slowdown in world economy.

"We all recognise that India has been a star performer in gloomy times for the world economy. We launch about 25 OECD Economic Surveys every year, and it is not often that I get to announce growth figures of 7 per cent. This is more than double the current global growth figure," Gurria said.

"The acceleration of structural reforms, the move towards a rule-based policy framework and low commodity prices have provided a strong growth impetus. At the same time, inflation, the current account deficit, and the central government deficit have all been brought down in the past few years," she added.

The Paris-based OECD, which has 35 member nations, promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being. India is not a member nation but one of its five key partners with Brazil, China, Indonesia and South Africa.

Researchers have developed a computer method called ZeitZeiger that uses a sample of human blood to accurately predict circadian time — the time of day according to a person's body clock.

"Our study demonstrates a method for predicting a person's 'internal' time of day that could eventually be used to help diagnose and monitor circadian and sleep-related disorders, and also to personalise treatments," said lead author Jake Hughey from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, US.

In addition, ZeitZeiger can also be used to show how disruptions to sleep-wake and light-dark cycles — by modern environments, for example due to shift work or reduced exposure to sunlight — affect the circadian clock. 

Circadian dysfunction is linked to conditions such as cancer, depressive disorder and obesity.

Developing treatments that improve the function of or that account for the circadian system has the potential to improve multiple areas of human health, the researchers stated in the paper published in the journal Genome Medicine. 

For the study, the team used 498 publicly available samples from 60 individuals who had blood drawn either throughout the day on a normal sleep-wake and light-dark cycle (controls), or following disruptions to their sleep-wake and light-dark cycle (condition). 

Using their machine learning algorithm to analyse the RNA in the blood samples the researchers were able to identify a set 15 of genes capable of accurately predicting a person's circadian time. 

Out of these 13 genes were not 'core' genes — necessary for the generation and regulation of circadian rhythms — of the human circadian clock. 

The results showed that ZeitZeiger could achieve state-of-the-art accuracy and also detected when the circadian clock was phase-shifted or dysfunctional. 

Banking operations were hit on Tuesday by the day-long, nation-wide strike called by employees of public sector banks, with ATMs running dry at various places across the country.

The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) claimed success, saying all the branches kept their shutters down.

"People could not go to banks to transact anything, deposit money, withdraw money or do any other transaction.

Government treasury transactions could not be done, import and export transactions were hit, money market operations were not possible," AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam told PTI.

Money transfer and cash remittances were also hit.

Venkatachalam said clearing operations have been paralysed in a big way despite the Reserve Bank keeping its operations open because employees were not available.

Some private sector banks are also part of the strike called under the aegis of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) to press their demands including fixing accountability of top officers over increasing bad loans, opposing labour reforms as well as outsourcing of permanent jobs.

Karur Vysya Bank and Federal Bank said Staff Union and Officers Association of the Bank under the banner of UFBU are participating in the strike.

"Regular functioning of the branches of the Bank might be affected on that day. However the Bank's ATMs and digital channels will function to meet customer needs," Federal Bank said.

Private sector banks including ICICI, HDFC, Axis were not part of the strike.

ATMs have gone dry in various places, Venkatachalam said, adding that some banks had limited cash to keep the machines going.

UFBU is an umbrella body of 9 unions. However two of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh affiliates — the National Organisation of Bank Workers and the National Organisation of Bank Officers — are not part of the strike.

The demands include compensation to employees and officers for extra hours they have put in following demonetisation in November and early initiation of next wage revision.

They have also demanded adequate recruitment in all cadres, stringent measures to recover bad loans and accountability of top executives. Besides, they have pitched for criminal action against wilful defaulters.

The UFBU, which claims membership of nearly 10 lakh across banks, also requested the government for cost reimbursement of demonetisation to banks.

As many as 27 public sector banks control 75 per cent of the total business.

American genome expert Mary-Claire King, whose work resulted in the identification of the breast cancer gene BRCA1 and transformed the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, on Tuesday expressed faith in Indian scientists to make technology cheaper for breast cancer detection.

"We need to tackle this problem with modern 21st century tools. The actual cost of sequencing patients dropped from about $4,000 to $250 (around Rs.16,000) in the US in the last few years. Indians are incredibly good at making technology better, faster and cheaper," she said.

King was addressing a packed audience of researchers, students and faculty at a lecture here on 'Understanding Inherited Breast and Ovarian Cancer: From Gene Discovery to Precision Medicine and Public Health' for The Cell Press-TNQ India distinguished Lectureship Series, 2017. It was supported by National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani.

For India, the US National Medal of Science awardee proposed that every breast and ovarian cancer patient be tested genetically for mutations BRCA1 and BRCA2 as well as other known breast and ovarian cancer genes.

Specific inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 increase the risk of female breast and ovarian cancers, and they have been associated with increased risks of several additional types of cancer.

"My proposition for India is every breast and ovarian cancer patient should be sequenced for mutations to BRCA1 and BRCA2 and all other known breast and ovarian cancer genes. I am not suggesting that in the resource limited context here that all women above the age of 30 be screened, just begin with patients," said the University of Washington professor.

Testing could help women predisposed to mutations to make an informed choice on whether to opt for risk-reducing surgery, chemoprevention and also encourage follow-ups of sisters and daughters of patients (there's a 50 per cent chance of passing it along).

The 71-year-old active researcher dubbed cervical cancer a "disease of poor women" while breast cancer is one of those "rare conditions that is a disease of prosperity".

"The reason that breast cancer incidences are going up is because we are the most successful mammals that have ever lived, by this we mean we are fabulous. We are fertile longer, we are able and we are fit, we retain cognitive functions longer," she added.

In addition to her work on identifying breast cancer genes, King is recognised worldwide for demonstrating that humans and chimpanzees are 99 per cent genetically identical and applying genomic sequencing to identify victims of human rights abuses (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina wanted King to find their kidnapped grandchildren).

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday sought the arrest of ABVP activists blamed for violence in Delhi University and said Lt Governor Anil Baijal had promised "strict action".

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader tweeted that he met Baijal and demanded the arrest of "those who caused violence in DU, shouted anti-India slogans and who threatened (student) Gurmehar (Kaur). 

"He (Baijal) assured strict action," Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal's meeting followed the February 22 attacks on students, lecturers and journalists in the Delhi University campus for which the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has been blamed.

The violence came a day after the ABVP forced Ramjas College in the campus to cancel a seminar.

Later, when student Gurmehar Kaur of Lady Shri Ram College launched a social media campaign against the RSS-affiliated ABVP, she received death and rape threats, triggering widespread condemnation. 

Family members, relatives, friends and people from different walks of life bid a tearful adieu to Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was shot dead in the US on February 22 in a suspected hate crime.

His last rites were performed at the cremation ground in Jubilee Hills here on Tuesday.

K Madhusudhana Sastry performed the last rites of his son as some of the mourners including the techie's friends were seen carrying placards with slogans like "down with racism".

Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Muralidhar Rao, other leaders from the BJP, TRS and other parties, and actor couple Jeevitha and Rajasekhar paid their last respects.

The body was brought from Kuchibhotla's house in Bachupally, on the city's outskirts.

As his final journey began, the engineer's parents were inconsolable while his wife Sunayana Dumala, who arrived with the mortal remains on Monday night, broke down as she had his last glimpse.

The body was brought by a cargo flight while Sunayana, her brother, sister-in-law and another relative reached by a passenger flight.

Mourners poured in at his residence through the night and Tuesday morning to pay their last respects.

Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and Alok Madasani was injured when Adam W. Purinton, a white man who earlier served in the US Navy, shot them at the Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas state, on February 22.

Purinton got into an argument with the two and hurled racial slurs. He yelled "get out of my country", "terrorist" before shooting them.

Kuchibhotla of Hyderabad and his colleague Madasani from Warangal district in Telangana were working as aviation programme managers at Garmin, an MNC.

Does your name resemble your face? Yes, say researchers who found out that owing to the cultural stereotypes that people associate with names, they can accurately match a stranger's name to his or her face.

"We are familiar with such a process from other stereotypes, like ethnicity and gender where sometimes the stereotypical expectations of others affect who we become," said lead author Yonat Zwebner, doctoral student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. 

"For instance, people are more likely to imagine a person named Bob to have a rounder face, than a person named Tim. 

"These stereotypes can, over time, affect people's facial appearance," Zwebner added.

Further, this might also be due to people subconsciously altering their appearance to conform to cultural norms and cues associated with their names — like changing the areas of the face, such as hairstyle.

"Facial appearance represents social expectations of how a person with a particular name should look. In this way, a social tag may influence one's facial appearance," explained Ruth Mayo from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

For the study, participants were shown a photograph and asked to select the given name that corresponded to the face from a list of four or five names. 

The participants were significantly better — 25 to 40 per cent accurate — at matching the name to the face.

In another experiment, the researchers trained a computer, using a learning algorithm, to match names to faces. In this experiment, which included over 94,000 facial images, the computer was also 54 to 64 per cent accurate.

Three persons were killed and two injured when a small plane crashed into a residential neighbourhood in California, authorities said.

The passengers were returning to San Jose city after a weekend cheerleading competition at Disneyland when the plane crashed in Riverside neighbourhood on Monday, setting two homes ablaze, Fire Chief Michael Moore said in a news conference. 

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Moore initially said that four people had died in the crash, but later corrected the number to three, reported the Washington Post. 

Two adult women in their late 30s were transported from the site of the crash to area hospitals for medical treatment. Authorities said that none of the residents of the damaged homes were injured in the crash.

The plane, a Cessna 310, crashed about a half-mile northeast of the Riverside Municipal Airport and had just taken off, airport manager Kim Ellis told the Orange County Register. 

A witness saw the plane make a turn, then nosedive, the Orange County Register reported. 

Neighbours said the crash felt like an earthquake that was followed by a "big orange ball of fire".

The plane split as it rammed into the residential neighbourhood. The crash completely destroyed two homes, scorched a car, and scattered debris till at least a half mile away, according to the report.

The entire block – an estimated 20 houses on each side of the street – was evacuated for an investigation into the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane suffered an injury while demonstrating a crucial scene in his latest 'Trapped'. 
 
Motwane was demonstrating a scene which required Rajkummar to try opening the door by hitting the lock of the door from inside with an iron plier, sources close to him said.

While demonstrating the scene to Rao, he suddenly hit his finger really hard with the plier, the sources added.

The scene was shot on the fourth day of shoot and Motwane's finger was black and blue until the 25th day of the shoot. 

The scene features in the trailer where Rajkummar is fiercely hitting the door lock hard with an iron plier and in turn hurts his hand. 

The scene depicts a crucial point in the film where the protagonist tries his best to set himself free.