Press Trust of India

Press Trust of India (PTI) is India’s premier news agency, having a reach as vast as the Indian Railways. It employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.

PM has a busy first Sunday in office

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Sunday in office was a busy one with a packed schedule which included both official and party meetings.

The prime minister, however, did not attend his South Block office and worked from his 7 RCR official residence, a senior PMO official told IANS.

After working through the morning, the prime minister began his appointments by meeting the Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who called on him.

Following this, Modi visited Vice President Hamid Ansari at the latter’s residence.

Michelle Williams likely to move back to Los Angeles

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Actress Michelle Williams is reportedly planning to move back here from New York later this year because of her acting career.

The “My Week With Marilyn” fame actress has reportedly decided to leave with her eight-year-old daughter Matilda because she wants to take advantage of more acting opportunities in Hollywood, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“Michelle’s business team sees this as an absolute necessity to ratchet up her box office bona fides,” said a source.

‘Ek Villain’ made Mohit Suri meet Karan Johar midnight

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A token of appreciation made director Mohit Suri pay a midnight visit to fellow filmmaker Karan Johar.

It all happened at a quiet dinner organised by Karan for a handful of friends at his Khar apartment. Ekta Kapoor, Shabina Khan, Manish Malhotra and Ayan Mukerji were among those invited, said a source.

At the dinner, Ekta showed Karan the new official two-minute-18-second trailer of “Ek Villain” and the guests were completely blown away. So much so that past midnight they made congratulatory calls to director Mohit Suri.

Singer Pink proud of her husband

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Singer Pink is “so damn proud” of her husband and freestyle motocross star Carey Hart for being inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame here.

The ceremony took place May 30, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

The 34-year-old gushed about her spouse on Twitter before the ceremony, writing: “I’m so damn proud of my husband. He is being inducted into the Sports Hall Of Fame – and I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more.”

Mexico’s Montes to miss World Cup due to leg injury

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Luis Montes will not compete for Mexico at the World Cup in Brazil after suffering a serious leg fracture during a 3-1 victory over Ecuador in a friendly match.

Midfielder Montes had just scored the goal that put Mexico in front two minutes earlier Saturday when he collided with Ecuador’s Segundo Castillo while vying for a loose ball, reports Xinhua.

It is a big blow for Mexico who are tuning up to the upcoming 2014 World Cup.

Mexico’s next friendly match is against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Chicago Tuesday.
(IANS)

Lindsay Lohan to shift to London

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Actress Lindsay Lohan is reportedly house hunting here as she wants to make a fresh start outside the US.

The “Mean Girls” star, who recently documented her struggle to get her life and career back on track on her self-titled OWN series after her six stints in rehab, thinks it will be good for her career, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“Lindsay’s really enjoying being in the UK and has told her pals that she’s staying here for good,” The Sun newspaper quoted a source as saying.

“Lindsay has also started investigating getting acting work in London,” added the source.

Modi to thank activists at BJP HQ

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet BJP activists employed at the party headquarters here Sunday evening to thank them for helping the BJP to win the Lok Sabha election.

“Some people in the the party work from behind the scenes. The PM will be meeting them to make sure that no one feels he forgot them after the victory,” Arun Kumar Jain, the national office secretary of the BJP, told IANS.

He said 300-350 activists were expected to take part in the interaction with Modi. It is expected to last around one and a half hours.

Sudarsan Pattnaik to attend sand sculpting world cup

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Noted sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik Sunday said he has been invited to participate in the sand sculpting world cup to be held later this month in the United States.

Pattnaik, 37, is the lone participant from India at the competition which would be attended by 19 other artists.

Besides host country US, artists from Russia, Belgium, Canada, Singapore, the Netherlands, Ireland and Italy will take part in the event.

Patttnaik told IANS that the competition would be held at Atlantic city June 15-29.

Boy attacks classmate after proposal rejected

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A 20-year-old boy in Delhi has attacked his female classmate after she refused to accept his friendship proposal, police said Sunday.

The boy attacked the girl Saturday in the parking area of Karkardooma Metro Station in east Delhi, a police official said.

Police said both were known to each other and residents of east Delhi’s Shahdara area.
(IANS)

Young Indian Everesters feted in Nepal

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Two Indian Everesters from Andhra Pradesh, were feted here Sunday for scaling the world’s tallest mountain from the Tibetan side.

Jagaran Media Centre (JMC), a non-governmental organisation established in 2000 by journalists from the Dalit community, and Nepal Dalit Civil Society (NDCS), jointly organised a felicitation programme in Kathmandu where 16-year-old Sadhana Palli Anand and 13-year-old Malavath Poorna were felicitated. Poorna has set the world record as the youngest female to scale the world’s tallest peak.

Celebrities’ moment of trouble with Indian flag

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Actress Mallika Sherawat is no stranger to controversy. And she has once again kicked up a storm by appearing in a tricolour in the poster of her new film “Dirty Politics”. There are more stars who have had a controversial brush with the Indian flag.

In the poster, Mallika is seen wrapped in the tricolour and sitting atop a car with a beacon, and it hasn’t gone down well with a political party from Rajasthan.

But she is not the first one to get into trouble.

Modi meets party workers, thanks them

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Narendra Modi Sunday met BJP workers for the first time after becoming the prime minister and thanked them for their efforts in helping the party win the Lok Sabha election.

Addressing a gathering of 300-350 workers at the party headquarters here, Modi said the workers were supreme and he (Modi) has become the prime minister because of their hard work.

Modi said: “If we pass the test of commitment to public welfare, people will hail us.”

A senior BJP functionary quoted the prime minister as saying he had also been a party worker and arranged chairs for similar meetings.

AAP a pack of cards: Badal

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Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Sunday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was a “pack of cards” and would disintegrate soon.

Interacting with the media on the sidelines of a function in Bathinda district in south-west Punjab, Badal said: “Due to lack of any ideological commitment and concrete programme, the AAP is on the verge of disintegration.”

The AAP won four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab out of 13 seats. The party drew a blank in the rest of the country.

Don’t show us spectre of Delhi: Trinamool warns BJP

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A day after a BJP central team warned West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee regime to take action against those attacking its party activists or face consequences, the ruling Trinamool Congress Sunday hit back saying that the opposition should not try to show the “spectre” of Delhi, as the people of the state were not afraid of such threats.

“They are trying to show us the spectre of Delhi. They came here, visited some areas, met the chief secretary. And now they are trying to threaten us by saying they would give a report.

Protests in Maharashtra over insulting Facebook posts

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Shiv Sena activists protested in Maharashtra over alleged derogatory Facebook posts pertaining to Chhatrapati Shivaji and the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, officials said here Sunday.

Scores of public buses, private vehicles, shops and establishments were pelted with stones and damaged in Pune, Kolhapur, Solapur and other parts of western Maharashtra.

Angry Shiv Sainiks demanded that the objectionable posts be removed from the social networking site even as Mumbai police registered a case against unidentified persons for posting the matter.

Heatstroke kills three in Japan

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At least three people were killed and several hundreds admitted to hospitals after a heatwave swept Japan over the weekend, officials said Sunday.

A 94-year-old woman was pronounced dead at a hospital in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, after she collapsed while working in a greenhouse near her home at around 4 p.m., Xinhua reported.

The temperature reached 33 degrees Celsius (91F) in central Tokyo Sunday by noon.

Forget gold, even poop can glitter!

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This may read bizarre but gold is not the only thing that glitters; even poop can sparkle!

Bats who eat a lot of insects deliver a ‘sparkling’ effect in their faeces, and the effect is visible because of their diet.

Insects’ exoskeletons, or hard outer coverings, are made of chitin.

Chitin – like plant cellulose – is difficult to digest and passes through a gut relatively unchanged.

Scientists discovered the “sparkle” by collecting and dissecting bat ordure.

So what actually are bats eating?

Dams on Brahmaputra in China an aggression: Sangma tells Modi

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The reported building of dams on the Brahmaputra in China was a “matter of serious concern” and any attempt to interfere with the river’s flow should be considered as an “act of aggression”, NPP leader P.A. Sangma has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The Brahmaputra is the lifeline of the northeast region and any attempt to interfere with the natural flow of the river should be considered as an act of aggression,” the National People’s Party leader and former Lok Sabha speaker said in a letter to Modi Saturday copies of which were made available to the media Sunday.

RBI governor calls on Narendra Modi

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Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan Sunday made a courtesy call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the PMO said here.

The visit comes ahead of the RBI’s review of its monetary policy Tuesday, its first exercise after the installation of the new union government.

The country’s central bank is expected to continue on its inflation-control exercise and keep interest rates unchanged. It is likely to keep its repo rate (at which it lends money to commercial banks) unchanged at 8 percent.

Knight Riders put Kings XI in to bat

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Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and put Kings XI Punjab in to bat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) final at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here Sunday.

The Knight Riders won the tournament in 2012 while this is Kings XI’s first final appearance.

The squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Suryakumar Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav.

Dhondutai Kulkarni, Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana music exponent dead

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Dhondutai Kulkarni, one of the last living exponents of the famed ‘Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana’ music and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award laureate, died here Sunday morning.

She was 86 and the end came due to old age complications at her home in north Mumbai suburb of Borivli, family sources said.

The iconic musician Alladiya Khan, who founded the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana, made it unique by its full-throated singing, complicated taans and a large repertoire of ragas.

Two hearts racing: SRK tweets before IPL finale

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Shah Rukh Khan’s Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the title in 2012 and they have again reached the finals of the seventh edition being played here Sunday. The superstar admits to being nervous, but says he has nothing to lose and tweeted a picture with AbRam written on it.

“As long as I will do justice to that moment in which I exist, I have nothing to fear. The rest does not matter,” tweeted SRK before the match.

But he is nervous about the result.

Fans build up excitement for IPL final

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Thousands of frenzied fans swarmed into the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here hours before the Indian Premier League (IPL) final began Sunday evening between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders amid tight security.

Even before the stadium gates were opened at 5 p.m., hundreds of fans stood in serpentine queues on a hot day to enter the stands after a quick frisking by cops and security guards.

Raveena wants new government to focus on northeast India

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Actress Raveena Tandon, who is here for a store launch, says she loves the region and hopes the new government works for its development.

“Just landed in Guwahati! Store opening. Just love northeast of our country. Lovely people. Has so much potential. Hope new government focuses on development,” she posted on Twitter Sunday.

“Guwahati art deco on the walls! Welcoming you, at the airport,” she further posted along with a photograph.

According to reports, she is in the Assamese city for the showroom launch of PC Jewellers.

Delhi Police Facebook page for northeast a hit

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Delhi Police’s Facebook page, that seeks to reach out to people from the northeastern states in the capital, particularly the young, has logged 5,500 complaints and suggestions from across India in the three weeks since its launch.

The page, Delhi Police for North East Folks – — www.dpfne.com (delhipolicefornortheast.com) – was launched May 9 this year. It has become a popular tool made available by Delhi Police for the northeast people to help them in need.