Hyderabad: The Election Commission Wednesday barred Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President and former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao from campaigning for 48 hours for making derogatory and objectionable statements against Congress. While strongly condemning the BRS leader’s statements and reprimanding him for the misconduct, the poll panel barred him from holding any public meetings, processions, rallies,...

Mumbai: 'Pushpa Pushpa', the first song from the highly anticipated upcoming Allu Arjun-starrer Pushpa 2: The Rule, hit the airwaves Wednesday. The song, composed by National Award-winning composer Devi Sri Prasad, is a foot-tapping number. The Hindi version of the song has been crooned by Mika Singh and Nakash Aziz with lyrics furnished by Chandra Bose. It...

Male: India Wednesday said it looked forward to strengthening bilateral economic cooperation with the Maldives as its envoy held discussions with a senior minister of the archipelagic nation. Mohamed Saeed, Maldives' Minister of Economic Development and Trade, met with Munu Mahawar, Indian High Commissioner to the archipelago nation Tuesday. The meeting comes weeks after India allowed the...

Muscat: Batting all-rounder Aqib Ilyas has been named as Oman’s captain for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, beginning June 1. Ilyas was unveiled as skipper in the team’s squad announcement, with former captain Zeeshan Maqsood keeping his spot in the group. The 36-year-old deputised Sultan Ahmed in Oman’s T20 World Cup debut back in 2016,...

Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has delayed the announcement of its World Cup squad until late May due to fitness and performance issues with some players. A PCB source said Pakistan would announce its World T20 Cup squad either May 23 or 24 May -- which is the deadline set by the ICC for participating teams...

Chennai: Punjab Kings stand-in skipper Sam Curran elected to bowl against Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League match Wednesday. Curran, who has been leading the side in the absence of an injured Shikhar Dhawan, has retained the same playing XI for the contest against CSK, currently placed fourth on the table. The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led CSK...

Colombo: Ahead of ICC Men's T20 World Cup, Sri Lankan bowlers are to be trained by Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram. The former seamer arrived in Sri Lanka Wednesday to conduct a two-day training program for national players, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced. During his coaching session, starting from Thursday, Akram will also train SLC High Performance...

New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Wednesday forecast heatwave conditions in several states across the country during the first week of May. Heatwave to severe heatwave conditions are likely to continue over south Peninsular India till May 3 and east India till May 2, and gradually improve thereafter, the IMD said. Heatwave conditions are also likely...

Bhubaneswar: A flight from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi returned minutes after take-off and made an emergency landing after the aircraft was caught in a hailstorm and suffered damage Wednesday, an official said. The 169 passengers and crew on board are safe. The New Delhi-bound Vistara flight landed back at the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here barely...

Balasore: India Wednesday successfully flight tested the supersonic missile-assisted release of torpedo (SMART) system from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast, a defence official said. The system was launched around 8.30 am from the ground mobile launcher. Several state-of-the-art mechanisms such as symmetric separation, ejection and velocity control have been validated in this test,...