Embarrassed by the serious drubbing in the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation polls, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday offered to resign from his post.

The Congress was leading in just 22 of the 227 wards at 2 pm as counting of votes cast in the elections to the country's biggest civic body was underway.

This is the party’s worst show in 20 years and in the previous polls in 2012, the Congress had won 52 wards.

The Shiv Sena notched early leads and was leading in 93 wards at 2 pm while the BJP was ahead in 68 wards.

Mumbai witnessed a record 55 per cent voter turnout in the civic elections as nearly five million people exercised their franchise.

Counting of ballot has also been taken up simultaneously in nine other major civic bodies, 26 zilla parishads and 283 panchayat samitis across Maharashtra, which voted in the two-phase elections on February 16 and February 21.

On the eve of the late J Jayalalithaa's 69th birthday, AIADMK chief V K Sasikala on Thursday said she was feeling "lonely" in the absence of her predecessor and long-time friend.

In a message to party workers, Sasikala, serving a jail term in connection with a Disproportionate Assets case, urged them to tirelessly serve the public and uphold Jayalalithaa's fame.

Sasikala said every year Jayalalithaa's birthday was celebrated with fervour, but "I never thought this year will turn out to be so challenging."

"That Amma is not with us makes me more sad. After having celebrated her birthday with her for the past 33 years, I feel lonely this year in her memories. My thoughts revolve around her," she said.

Jayalalithaa was a popular leader and anybody who had met her even once would remember her for life, she added.

Sasikala recalled that Jayalalithaa had united the party post the death of its founder M G Ramachandran in 1987, later tactfully steering it through various challenges and said the late leader was known for her "love, compassion and hardwork."

"Let the events held to mark Amma's 69th birth anniversary be done with the intention of upholding her fame and with the wish that Amma's government should deliver more pro-people initiatives and serve them," she said.

She exhorted party workers to distribute welfare to the poor, conduct mass feeding, install bedecked portraits of the late chief minister for public view and pay rich tributes to her.

"In the past, we had extended our birthday greetings to Amma. This year, with her memories in mind, we should vow to serve the people well through our government," Sasikala said.

She said Jayalalithaa was never cowed down by challenges and overcame them with grit and acumen and therefore had set herself as an example for party workers to face problems.

"Overcoming the present difficulties faced by the party with the same grit is the gratitude we can show her," Sasikala further said.

Hair is a vital part in enhancing one’s beauty, charisma and personality. Consider herbal or natural cleansing products by all means if you want to beautify your hair. The key ingredient that is home made coconut milk cleanses, energizes and condition the hair and the scalp, providing shine and lustre to the hair. With essential moisturising agents, it adds volume to the hair. Being rich in vitamin B1, B3, B5, B6 and C and E and enriched with selenium, iron, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, it works wonder on the hair. Make it a part of your weekly beauty routine to own that stunning look which will turn all heads as you step out or walk into the room.

How to make your own coconut milk hair cleanser:

Grate coconut. Put it into a blender. Blend few times adding one cup of hot water.

Strain milk through fine sieve or muslin cloth.

Put the squeezed coconut again in the blender.

Add one cup of warm water and blend three four times more.

Strain well, pressing it tight.

Fresh coconut milk is ready to use.

How to make shampoo with coconut milk as the key ingredient:

Add 2/3 cup coconut milk to 1/3 cup of organic baby shampoo.

Add one teaspoon of almond oil and 15 drops of lavender oil into it.

Shake well and store in a bottle.

Shake well before every use.

Coconut milk is a natural moisturiser that nourishes your hair from root to ends. It boosts hair nutrition and help to stimulate hair growth. If you want to get rid of dry, weak and damaged hair, split ends, tangles and hair loss, all these problems have one solution – coconut milk. It keeps your hair soft, shiny and healthy without making it oily or greasy.

This shampoo is not completely natural but a better option over market brands. It gives balanced texture, enhanced shine and overall perfection in the look and feel of hair.

Hair beautifying is not a quick trick. You have to put some effort regularly and wait for some time to see the result. So, make your own coconut shampoo, use it regularly, have healthy lustrous hair, and wear a glamourous look.

The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) on Thursday expressed anger and anguish over the attacks on journalists, teachers and students in Delhi University.

"There were several assaults (on Wednesday) on journalists covering the disturbances, by protesters as well as police who did not wear nametags," a DUJ statement said. 

"Phones were snatched, cameras grabbed and photographic evidence of the violence was destroyed," it said.

The DUJ said Times of India correspondent Somreet Bhattacharya and photographer Anindya Chattopadhyay were beaten up during the clashes between student groups at Ramjas College.

"Quint reporter Taruni Kumar has given a video statement of how ABVP women hit her, grabbed her phone, pulled her hair and broke her phone and mike," it said. 

"Quint cameraperson Shiv Kumar Maurya suffered injuries on his head and reporter Anant Prakash was also attacked.

"Hindustan Times reporter Ananya Bhardwaj was hit. TimesNow reporter Priyank and cameraperson Mazhar Khan were beaten. Photographer Anand Sharma too was beaten.

"These attacks indicate a deliberate attempt to browbeat and muzzle the press whenever it tries to report violence by supporters and vigilante groups of the ruling party," the DUJ said.

"An attack on the media is an assault on democracy. We demand an inquiry and punishment for the guilty. There is ample videographic evidence on the social media of the violence".

"Delhi Police is usually only too ready to lathi-charge, tear gas, detain or arrest those organising any form of protest in the city."

"In this case it did not use any such tactics to restrain the ABVP students who attacked those holding a peaceful seminar at Ramjas College" DUJ added.

A British journalist with the BBC faces up to five years in a Thai jail after a lawyer brought a criminal defamation case against him over an investigation into fraud on a popular tourist island.

Rights groups say the case is the latest example of how Thailand's broad defamation and computer crime laws shut down investigative journalism and make it difficult to expose wrongdoing in a country where corruption is endemic.

The prosecution was sparked by a September 2015 report by Jonathan Head, the BBC's Southeast Asia correspondent, looking at how two foreign retirees were scammed out of their properties in Phuket.

Head is due to appear in a Phuket court today alongside one of the retirees, British national Ian Rance who is a joint defendant in the prosecution, to enter their plea.

The man bringing the prosecution is Pratuan Thanarak, a Phuket lawyer who featured in the BBC's report looking at how Rance lost lucrative properties.

Rance retired to Phuket in 2001, married a local woman with whom he had three children and bought what he said were some 1.2 million worth of properties.

Under Thai law foreigners cannot own land. But many get around that provision by placing properties in the name of a company they own or with locals they trust.

In 2010 Rance discovered his wife had forged his signature to remove him as director and sell the properties with the help of a network of money lenders and property agents on the island.

She was jailed for four years over the scam.

The BBC's Head reported that Pratuan, the lawyer, admitted to notarising Rance's signature without him being present.

Pratuan filed a defamation case alleging the reports caused him to be "defamed, insulted or hated", according to a copy of the complaint seen by AFP.

Rance and Head face one charge of criminal defamation, which carries up to two years in jail. Head faces an additional charge under Thailand's Computer Crimes Act, which has a five year maximum jail penalty.

Head has had to surrender his passport to the court leaving him unable to work across Asia as he fights what is likely to be a two year court battle.

In a statement the BBC said it "stands by its journalism" and that they "intend to clear the name of our correspondent".

Italian football giants Juventus took a step toward the Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-0 away triumph against Porto, who played with 10 men for more than two-thirds of the match.

Despite the disadvantage, the hosts kept the Italian side off the scoreboard until the last 20 minutes, largely thanks to the solid goalkeeping of Iker Casillas on Wednesday, reports Efe.

Porto were the better team for the opening 10 minutes in front of nearly 50,000 at Estadio do Dragão, but the visiting squad gradually asserted their dominance.

The decisive sequence of the night took place in a span of 45 seconds, the time it took Porto's Alex Telles to pick up successive yellow cards for a pair of flagrant and unnecessary fouls and get himself sent off in the 27th minute.

Juventus created two chances in the closing minutes of the first half when Casillas made the stop against former Real Madrid teammate Higuain, before a hard shot from Dybala bounced off the post.

The visitors thought they had broken the ice when a strike by Dybala found the back of the Porto net early in the second half, but the goal was disallowed on a questionable offside call.

Juve, with all the possession, remained unable to crack the Porto defence as the game clock passed 70 minutes and coach Massimiliano Allegri decided to turn to his bench, introducing Dani Alves and Marko Pjaca, which worked in their favour.

Pjaca scored within seconds of coming on the pitch, putting away a loose ball after Dybala's cross deflected off a defender. Barely a minute later, it was the turn of Alves, who chested down a cross from Alex Sandro and delivered a left-footed blast.

Trailing 0-2, it was all Porto could do to reach the final whistle without conceding a third away goal to the Italian side.

R&B superstar Rihanna has been named the recipient of Harvard University's Humanitarian of the Year Award.

The 29-year-old singer will accept the Peter J Gomes honour at the Boston, Massachusetts university next week, reported Billboard.

The Harvard Foundation's director S Allen Counter has revealed Rihanna will be feted for her charitable work with the Clara and Lionel Foundation Scholarship Program, named after her grandmother and grandfather, and her efforts in promoting education.

"Rihanna has charitably built a state-of- the-art centre for oncology and nuclear medicine to diagnose and treat breast cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados," he said.

She will be presented with the award at a Sanders Theatre ceremony on Tuesday.

The news of her latest accolade comes a day after Rihanna made chart history in the US with her 30th top 10 single. "Love on the Brain" breaks a tie with Michael Jackson for the third-most top 10 songs.

She now has appeared on 30 tracks that have hit the top 10. Only Madonna and the Beatles have more, with 38 and 34, 

The seven newly discovered Earth-sized planets in the ultra cool dwarf star system may only face one way towards their sun, similar to the Earth's moon, and orbit very close to it, scientists have found.

Astronomers, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, announced the discovery of the first known system of seven Earth-sized planets around a single star – located a mere 40 light years away – that could have liquid water, and possibly host alien life.

Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water, NASA said.

In contrast to our Sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star – classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system.

All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun. The planets also are very close to each other.

If a person was standing on one of the planet's surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighbouring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky, said NASA.

The planets may also be tidally locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night.

This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on the Earth, such as strong winds blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.

The discovery of the planets sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system.

All of these seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.

"This is the most exciting result I have seen in the 14 years of Spitzer operations," said Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Centre at Caltech/IPAC in California.

"Spitzer will follow up in the fall to further refine our understanding of these planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope can follow up. More observations of the system are sure to reveal more secrets," said Carey.

Following up on the Spitzer discovery, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has initiated the screening of four of the planets, including the three inside the habitable zone.

These observations aim at assessing the presence of puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres, typical for gaseous worlds like Neptune, around these planets, researchers said.

Nagaland Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu has appointed 24 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries and six legislators as advisors.

Liezietsu who took oathon Wednesday as the new chief minister of Nagaland heading a 12-member Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) ministry appointed the six advisors and 24 Parliamentary Secretaries on Wednesday evening.

He administered the oath of Parliamentary Secretary to the 24 MLAs on Wednesday evening.

TR Zeliang government also had 24 Parliamentary Secretaries.

Two Parliamentary Secretaries from T R Zeliang ministry Neiba Kronu and Imtiwapang Aier were dropped and T Torechu and Tovihoto Ayemi were inducted in their place by Liezietsu.

The new chief minister also appointed six MLAs as advisor with the rank of a minister.

A video of Harrison Ford's incident when he mistakenly attempted to land on a taxiway at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California while piloting his private plane, has been released.

The footage shows Ford flying his Aviat Husky near a passenger plane, before landing on the taxiway.

Ford was allegedly heard on an air traffic control recording at the time saying, "Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?" 

Ford's representative has declined to comment on the situation when it was originally reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident and issued the following statement on Tuesday after the event took place.

"Air traffic controllers cleared the pilot of a single-engine Aviat Husky to land on Runway 20L at John Wayne Airport Monday afternoon. The pilot correctly read back the clearance. The pilot then landed on a taxiway that runs parallel to the runway, overflying a Boeing 737 that was holding short of the runway." 

Ford has had decades of flying experience but has also had a series of crashes and close calls.

In March 2015, he made an emergency landing in a World War II-era aeroplane on a Santa Monica golf course after its engine failed.

Ford suffered a broken arm and minor head injuries but has since made a full recovery.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted a family dinner here in honour of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan and Begum Kalsoom Nawaz also joined the Wednesday dinner at the residence of the Turkish President, Geo TV reported on Thursday. 

Sharif, who arrived here on Wednesday on a three-day visit, will take part in the fifth meeting of the High Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) on Thursday. 

He will co-chair the meeting with his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim. A number of MoUs are expected to be signed.

"(Sharif's) visit to Turkey … would further deepen the time-tested, unparalleled and historic ties between the two brotherly countries and would impart a strong impetus to their flourishing cooperation in diverse fields," the Pakistan Foreign Office said.

Sharif's delegation to Turkey includes Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir and Sharif's Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi.

Sharif will also hold talks with Erdogan on bilateral, regional and international issues and visit the Turkish Parliament.

A militant and a civilian were killed during an encounter between suspected ultras and the army in Manipur's Tamenglong district on Thursday, police said.

The army was conducting a search operation at Khouphum Chingthak area in Tamenglong district when the suspected militants fired at them at around 3.30 am.

The army returned fire and in the ensuing encounter, a militant and a civilian were killed, a police officer said.

The civilian, identified as 50-year-old A Rongmei, was killed in the crossfire, the officer said.

Two days back, a security personnel was injured when suspected militants fired at a police party deployed for the visit of Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam in Tamenglong district.

Jaguar Land Rover India on Thursday launched its locally manufactured all-new Jaguar XF sedan at a starting price of Rs.47.50 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The all-new Jaguar XF will be available in two options — a 2-litre Ingenium diesel engine with a power output of 132 kW and a 2-litre petrol engine with a power output of 177 kW, the company said in a statement.Jaguar XF, 

"The introduction of the all-new Jaguar XF into our locally manufactured portfolio reiterates our commitment to the Indian market," Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd Managing Director and President Rohit Suri said.

Since its introduction in 2009, Jaguar XF has gained immense popularity and success in the country, he added.

The new sedan also comes with a slew of advanced technology features including InControl Touch Pro with the all-new 25.9 cm (10.2) touchscreen infotainment system and a Meridian Sound System, the statement added.

The Jaguar range in India also includes imported F TYPE starting at Rs.1.25 crore, locally manufactured XJ starting at Rs.99.99 lakh, all-new F-PACE price starting at Rs.68.40 lakh and the locally manufactured XE with price starting at Rs.39.90 lakh, (all prices ex showroom Delhi).

Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Thursday said he has become a "political football" between two major political parties in India.

Mallya, now in the UK, faces money laundering and loan default charges in India.

Mallya told business news channel BTVi: "It all started with the failure of Kingfisher Airlines, a public company. The government-owned banks are trying to hold me personally responsible for the failure of India's largest airline and to repay their debts. I have a counter-claim on them as well."

According to Mallya, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had converted a civil case into a criminal one and then charges of defrauding banks and money laundering had been added.

"I will and I am severely contesting all these legally. I firmly believe they have absolutely no case against me whatsoever," Mallya said.

"But India is India, and I have become a political football between the two major Indian political parties which is very evident by the rhetoric in the election speeches… I will follow the due process of law."

Kristen Stewart, who has been starring in indie films in the past few years, is now back with a big studio as she is in talks to play a lead role in Fox's adventure thriller Underwater.

Described as an underwater Armageddon, the film will follow an underwater scientific crew that, after facing an earthquake, are forced to go on a dangerous journey for survival. Stewart is expected to play a jaded and hardened crew member, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Will Eubank ("The Signal") is attached to serve behind the lens. Production is scheduled to begin in March in New Orleans.

Post Twilight, Kristen Stewart ditched big-budget movies in favour of small ones. In 2016 alone, she had at least five films like Anesthesia, Certain Women, Personal Shopper, Cafe Society and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.
 

Terrorist outfit Hizbul-Mujahideen is suspected to be involved in the Shopian ambush that left three soldiers, including two officers, killed and at least five others injured early on Thursday.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has expressed concern over the rising incidents of fatal attacks on army personnel. He expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.

The Army convoy was attacked while returning from Kungnoo, at Mulu Chitragam, at about 2 am.

Terrorist outfit Hizbul-Mujahideen is suspected to be involved in the Shopian ambush that left three soldiers, including two officers, killed and at least five others injured early on Thursday.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has expressed concern over the rising incidents of fatal attacks on army personnel. He expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.

The Army convoy was attacked while returning from Kungnoo, at Mulu Chitragam, at about 2 am.