A S Kashyap

Nico Rosberg edged out Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton to finish as the fastest driver in an incident-packed first practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The German was 0.308 seconds quicker than world champion Hamilton in cool conditions at the Red Bull Ring, the BBC reported.

While Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished third, Valtteri Bottas of Williams was fourth.

Meanwhile, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren suffered respective engine malfunctions before being forced to pull out of the race. (ANI)

‘Jurassic World’ has found itself embroiled in an unintentional controversy over a dinosaur’s name.

Pachycephalosaurus pronounced (pak-ee-sef-a-low-sor -us), and the lizard-like creature has a habit of escaping its enclosure, has created a major furore on social media sites as many are planning to boycott the movie over the racial slur, the Independent has reported.

Since the name of the dinosaur is rather long, one of the film’s characters refers to it by an abbreviated appellation, saying: “The Pachys are out of containment!”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday extended his greetings on the 350th Foundation Day of Anandpur Sahib.

Prime Minister Modi shared his thoughts via Twitter.

“Greetings on the 350th Foundation Day of Sri Anandpur Sahib. This is truly a special & historical occasion,” he tweeted.

“We remain inspired by the tenets of Sikhism & bow to the great Sikh Gurus, who have left a very deep impact on our culture & society,” he added.

High ranking officials from China and the United States are set to meet for a key dialogue on issues ranging from security to the economy and people-to-people exchanges, next week in Washington D.C.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that the two nations had decided that the seventh China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) and the sixth China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange (CPE) will take place on June 23 and 24, reported Xinhua.

The Congress on Friday said there was a need for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get off his ‘Lalitaasan’ as soon as possible and take steps to come clean on the move by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to facilitate travel documents for the former IPL czar.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “It is important for Rajasthan chief minster to resign. I hope when the Prime Minister is done with his ‘Lalitaasan’, he would investigate the matter and take some concrete action.”

Union Minister for IT and Communications Ravishankar Prasad on Friday said that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his NDA Government were committed to developing Bihar.

Interacting with media here, he said that Bihar was in dire need of development, and there was a need for a unified effort to achieve this goal.

“Bihar needs development. Everyone should unite to give Bihar pace of development. The Modi government is committed to develop the state,” he said.

Taylor Swift’s label Big Machine Records and technology giant Apple have confirmed that the singer’s upcoming album ‘ 1989’ won’t be available on Apple music.

The ‘Blank Space’ singer’s label also mentioned that the album will be available only on the singer’s back catalog, which is currently available on many streaming services that require users to pay for a subscription, including Rdio and Tidal or as a CD, the Verge has reported.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday said that the credibility of documents showing Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasudhara Raje’s written support for former IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s UK immigration plea is yet to be verified.

“Vasundhara [Raje] ji has never denied her close family relations with Lalit Modi. The validity of those documents which were produced is not yet verified,” BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said.

Australian model Ruby Rose was surely a skillful boxer and has stepped in the ring before becoming a star on Netflix’s comedy series ‘ Orange is the New Black’.

The 29-year-old newbie actress’s old video has been unveiled where the star was busting the face of a woman named Yi Sia in an amateur boxing match back in October 2012 in Australia, TMZ.com reported.

She was seen dominating the fight from start to finish and beating Sia so badly, that she turns her back to the model to avoid further punches.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Friday extended his support to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is embroiled in the Lalitgate row, calling her ‘Jhansi ki Rani’ and “capable of sailing through any controversy on her own”.

Bollywood filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar will be the special Guest of Honour for the First International Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations in New York on June 21.

The event will be held in the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj along with Spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravishankar. Ambassadors of 193 member countries of the UN are also likely to attend the function.

Air-conditioner manufacturer Blue Star Ltd has undertaken an exercise to consolidate manufacturing operations for which research firm KPMG has been appointed, top company official said here on Friday.

The process of consolidation of existing six manufacturing facilities began in March and would save the company about Rs 30 crore per annum on transportation and logistics, Blue Star Executive Director and President (Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Products Business) B Thiagarajan told reporters.

“We are consolidating our manufacturing (facilities).

As lakhs of commuters bore the brunt of monsoon woes today, opposition leader in Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde sought a probe by ACB into the alleged nullah cleaning scam.

The rains caused water-logging in almost all low-lying areas of Mumbai and its suburbs including Kurla, Chembur, Tilak Nagar, Andheri, Parel, Lower Parel, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Dombivili.

The 21-year-old gunman suspected of killing nine people at a historic African-American church in South Carolina’s Charleston region, is due to make his first appearance in court.

Dylann Roof, who is being held at a detention centre in the Charleston area, will appear in court through video link for a bail hearing on Friday, reports the BBC.

Acting on a tip-off, the police detained Roof on Thursday at a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina. The killing is being treated as a hate crime.

Prayer vigils were held in Charleston and across the U.S. for the victims.

Scientists have discovered the first direct experimental evidence showing the “key ingredient” at the dawn of life on Earth.

Scientists from the UNC School of Medicine provide the first direct experimental evidence for how primordial proteins developed the ability to accelerate the central chemical reaction necessary to synthesize proteins and thus allow life to arise not long after Earth was created.

This finding provides another insight into the dramatic inventions nature made as prebiotic chemistry evolved into life billions of years ago.

Rear Admiral Jack Steer, Chief of Navy, New Zealand (CNNZ) is on a visit to Kochi from 17 to 20 June.

The visit of the Admiral coincides with the goodwill visit of Her Majesty’s New-Zealand Ship Te Kaha which is at Kochi from 18 to 22 June.

During the visit, CNNZ interacted with Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command and other senior officers of the Western Naval Command.

A 50 men Guard of Honour was presented to the visiting dignitary.

The External Affairs Ministry’s spokesman Vikas Swarup on Friday termed the reports of the transfer of the joint secretaries as baseless and misleading.

In a statement, he said, “The reports of the transfer of the Joint Secretaries in the Ministry are baseless and misleading. Additional Secretary heading the Europe West Division was posted as High Commissioner to South Africa in June 2014 and assumed office in October, 2014.”

Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Babu Bajrangi, undergoing life imprisonment in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, on Friday withdrew his plea seeking regular bail after the Gujarat High Court observed the application should be rejected as bail cannot be granted only on medical grounds.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading International Yoga Day event in Delhi, several of his cabinet colleagues will be in various states on Sunday to spread awareness about the traditional artform.

While External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will lead the mega event at the United Nations headquarters, Home Minister Rajnath Singh will participate at a yoga event in Lucknow.

Over 8,000 children are working in garment factories in different parts of the national capital, an NGO report has revealed. The report, titled ‘The Hidden Workforce’, by NGO Save the Children, was today released by Delhi Minister for Women and Child Development Sandeep Kumar.

According to the report, over 8,000 children are engaged in the booming garment industry and up to 70% of them could be girls. The highest number of children (1,922) is estimated to be working in garment-related activities in Okhala of South-East District, while the least was found in Tuglaqabad ward (241).

A woman in Michigan believed to be the world’s oldest person has died peacefully in her sleep, almost a month after celebrating her 116th birthday.

Jeralean Talley passed away at her home in Inkster on June 17.

Talley had been in the hospital for a week and was treated for fluid in her lungs.

Her family confirmed with FOX 2 that Talley died in her sleep.

“She went away peacefully,” said Talley’s daughter Thelma Holloway, 77.

The Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group considered Talley to be the world’s oldest person after she turned 116 on May 23.

US hedge fund Elliott urged a South Korean court on Friday to approve an injunction against the proposed merger of two Samsung units, insisting it is aimed at facilitating a generational power transfer rather than acting in the interest of shareholders.

Samsung said the planned merger is legitimate and would not hurt the value of shareholders, accusing the US fund of filing a lawsuit aimed at taking away high dividends.

Two NGOs run by social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband have been served notice by Home Ministry for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and asked to reply within 15 days.

Sabarang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), run by Teesta and her husband Javed Anand, were served the notice two days ago following an on-site inspection of records and books of accounts carried out by Home Ministry officials in April this year.

Logging its first weekly rise in four weeks, the benchmark BSE Sensex today zoomed over 200 points and Nifty rallied past 8,200-mark on continued value-buying amid steady progress in monsoon.

Furthermore, strengthening rupee, which appreciated by 18 paise to 63.55 (intra-session) against the dollar supported the rally.

The Sensex opened higher and gathered momentum on continued buying to touch high of 27,404.60 but profit-taking at the fag-end trimmed gains.

Rising for the sixth straight session, it finally settled 200.34 points or 0.74% higher at 27,316.17.

Indian cricket skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been fined 75 percent of his match fees for allegedly elbowing debutant Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman during the first ODI of the three-match series in Mirpur on Thursday.

The 33-year-old captain was charged with Level 2 offence under ICC Code of Conduct for colliding with Mustafizur in the 25th over while trying to eke out a single during India’s chase.