Dutch brewing giant Heineken on Wednesday cheered the fastest sales growth in its core brand in a decade, helped by the roll-out of a non-alcoholic beer.
Despite a fall in overall profits the world's second largest brewer recorded growing sales in major markets last year, although it warned that 2019 could be "volatile".
"In 2018 we delivered another year of superior top-line growth. The Heineken brand grew 7.7 per cent, its best performance in over a decade, with Heineken 0.0 now available in 38 countries," Heineken CEO Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said.
The Amsterdam-based brewer' posted profits of 1.9 billion euros for 2018, down 1.6 per cent on the year before, based on total sales of 26.8 billion, up by 3.7 per cent.
Heineken sales grew by double digits in Brazil, Britain, Germany, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa and Russia, while China returned to profit, the company said.
Among other brands, sales of Tiger, Desperados, Birra Moretti and Krusovice all grew by volume.
But the .

Heineken toasts fizziest beer growth in a decade

PTI Automatic

Martin Guptill returned to form with an unbeaten century as New Zealand powered to an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first one-day international here on Wednesday.
Bangladesh set New Zealand a modest run chase of 233 after suffering an early collapse and the Black Caps overhauled it in 44.3 overs, finishing at 233 for two.
It is Bangladesh's fifth tour to New Zealand and they are yet to win a match in any format, with their next chance coming in the second ODI in Christchurch on Saturday.
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza said his team were adjusting to New Zealand conditions and still hoped of a breakthrough victory.
"We bowled well but we were struggling batting. We just lost too many wickets early," he said.
Guptill and Henry Nicholls pressed their case to open the batting at the World Cup as New Zealand made light work of the target.  Guptill, returning from injury, put a poor run of scores behind him with a commanding 117 not out.
He had been averaging less than 10 ...

Ton-up Guptill hits form as Black Caps outclass Bangladesh

Director Indra Kumar says it is important to reinvent if one wants to survive in the film industry.
Kumar, who started his career with romantic dramas "Dil" and "Beta", switched his focus to comedies with "Masti" and "Dhamaal" franchises.
"Survival is essential. If you have to survive you have to change. You have to change after sometime. I have learnt from noted lyrics writer named Shyamalal Babu Rai, professionally as Indeevar, who told that one should change themselves  every five and ten years.
"I learnt from him that I should break away from my style of working. You may have ruled ten to 12 years by making same kind of films but then I started tumbling so I came back with 'Masti' and 'Dhamaal' franchise," Kumar told PTI.
Both the franchises have minted money at the box office but have not received favourable response from the critics. Kumar said negative critics review do not bother him.
"My films right from 'Beta' to 'Dil' to 'Ishq' and 'Masti' and 'Dhamaal' have not got good ...

For survival one has to keep changing their style of work, says Indra Kumar

Scientists are using humans' gait, body symmetry and foot placement to teach self-driving cars to recognise and predict pedestrian movements with greater precision than current technologies.
Data collected by vehicles through cameras, LiDAR and global positioning system (GPS) allowed the researchers at the University of Michigan in the US to capture video snippets of humans in motion and then recreate them in three-dimensional (3D) computer simulation.
With that, they have created a "biomechanically inspired recurrent neural network" that catalogs human movements.
The network can help predict poses and future locations for one or several pedestrians up to about 50 yards from the vehicle, at about the scale of a city intersection.
LiDAR is a surveying method that measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor.
"Prior work in this area has typically only looked at still images. It wasn't really concerned .

Self-driving cars 'learn' to predict pedestrian movement

Thousands of handheld devices needed to verify identities at Nigeria's election this weekend have been destroyed in a fire at an electoral commission office in the country's southeast.
The Independent National Electoral Commission said on Tuesday evening that the fire -- the third at INEC offices in the last 12 days -- broke out in Anambra state.
"There was no fatality or injury reported. Initial assessment, however, confirms that a total of 4,965 of the Smart Card Readers were destroyed in the inferno," it added.
The machines would have been used to read biometric identity cards containing personal details of voters at Saturday's presidential and parliamentary elections.
The head of INEC's information and voter education committee, Festus Okoye, said the loss of the machines was "a setback" but spare readers were being deployed from elsewhere.
"With the steps so far taken, the commission remains confident that the election in the state will proceed as scheduled," he added.
Previous ..

Fire hits Nigerian election office days before vote

Plans by Hong Kong to allow extraditions to Taiwan, Macau and mainland China following a high-profile murder case could become a "Trojan horse" for Beijing to pursue critics, pro-democracy lawmakers warned Wednesday.
The financial hub's Security Bureau has proposed changing the law in the wake of the murder of Poon Hui-wing, a pregnant 20-year-old Hong Konger allegedly strangled by her boyfriend during a Valentine's holiday in Taiwan a year ago.
Poon's body was found dumped on the outskirts of Taipei after her boyfriend Chan Tong-kai returned home to Hong Kong without her.
Chan is currently facing trial in Hong Kong for theft and money laundering linked to his alleged possession of Poon's bank card.  But there is currently no prospect of him being extradited to Taiwan where he is wanted for murder.
Despite being part of China since its 1997 handover, semi-autonomous Hong Kong still has no extradition agreement with Macau, Beijing or Taipei.  The city laws governing extraditions ...

Lawmakers warn Hong Kong's China extradition plans a 'Trojan horse'

Chinese telecom giant Huawei took a light-hearted dig Wednesday at New Zealand's decision to ban it from the rugby-mad nation's 5G infrastructure development, leaving officials in Wellington unimpressed.
"5G without Huawei is like rugby without New Zealand," the company said in full-page advertisements published in major newspapers.
The unusual move comes after New Zealand's intelligence services in November rejected a plan to use Huawei technology in a next-generation 5G network, citing "significant national security risks".
It was part of a wave of bans on Huawei in a growing number of countries over fears the company's equipment could act as an espionage backdoor for China, which Beijing labels "groundless".
Huawei New Zealand said there was no evidence the company had done anything wrong and the ban may prevent Kiwis using the best possible network.
"We see this as a quirky way of getting that message across," it told Radio New Zealand.
"New Zealanders wouldn't accept second or ...

NZ cries foul over Huawei rugby quip

Scientists say they have discovered a stellar flare 10 billion times more powerful than the solar flares, a discovery that could unlock decades-old mysteries of the origin and evolution of the Sun and its planets.
Using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii, the scientists study the birth of nearby stars as a means of understanding the history of the solar system.
The flare is thought to be caused by a disruption in an intense magnetic field actively funnelling material onto a young, growing star as it gains mass from its surroundings, researchers said.
The event occurred in one of the nearest star-forming regions to the Earth, the Orion Nebula, and lasted for only a few hours, they said.
"A discovery of this magnitude could have only happened in Hawaii," said Steve Mairs, astronomer and lead investigator of the team that discovered the stellar flare.
"Observing flares around the youngest stars is new territory and it is giving us key insights into the physical conditions 

Flare 10 billion times more powerful than solar flares discovered

Instagram has removed an account that published comic strips depicting the struggles of gay Muslims in Indonesia following a frenzy of moral outrage online in the world's biggest Muslim nation.
The Ministry of Communications said Wednesday the account under the username Alpatuni was pornographic, which violated the law on information and electronic transactions.
It was closed after the communications minister wrote a warning letter to Instagram, the ministry said.
The comics depicted gay characters facing discrimination and abuse, which has become increasingly common in Indonesia since late 2015 when conservative politicians and religious leaders began a campaign of portraying lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as a threat to the nation.
An account of the same name on Facebook, which owns Instagram, was also no longer accessible.
The ministry said it appreciated that members of the community reported the account, which "accelerated" its removal.
Indonesian netizens in turn .

Instagram removes gay Muslim comics after Indonesia warning

Thailand's election commission on Wednesday asked the constitutional court to dissolve a party that proposed a princess as candidate for prime minister, a potentially serious blow to the political aspirations of the kingdom's powerful Shinawatra clan.
Junta-ruled Thailand has sunk into political chaos since Friday, when Princess Ubolratana's name was submitted by Thai Raksa Chart, a party allied with the divisive billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Her unprecedented bid to enter frontline politics unravelled within hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn, the 67-year-old Ubolratana's younger brother, decried the entry of a royal into the political fray as "highly inappropriate".
Thailand's powerful and vastly wealthy monarchy is seen as above politics, although royals have intervened before during times of political crisis.
The commission brought a premature end to the princess's political career by disqualifying her as a candidate for premier.
On Wednesday the commission filed a .

Thai election commission moves to dissolve party linked to princess

Amy Schumer will be returning to Netflix on March 19 with a new comedy special titled "Amy Schumer Growing".
The special is her second for the streaming service, after 2017's "The Leather Special".
In "Amy Schumer Growing", she gives a refreshingly honest and hilarious take on marriage, pregnancy and personal growth, reported Deadline.
Filmed in front of a packed house in Chicago, the comedienne talks about the joys of womanhood and settling into marital bliss.

Amy Schumer's comedy special to premiere on Netflix in March

Daniel Radcliffe has predicted that there will be future adaptations of JK Rowlings famous "Harry Potter" book series.
The 29-year-old actor, who was catapulted to fame after playing the title character in the film series based on Rowling's books, told IGN in an interview that he is certain someone else will definitely play the role in the future.
"I'm sure there will be some other version of it; I know I'm not the last Harry Potter I'm gonna see in my lifetime - we've already got a few more," he said while referring to the "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" play.
"It will be interesting to see how long those films stay... It feels like there's a sacredness around them at the moment, but that'll go, the shine will wear off at some point. It'll be interesting if they reboot them and just do the films again or do a series; I'm fascinated to watch," he added.
The actor was promoting his new TBS comedy series "Miracle Workers", where he is playing the lead.

Daniel Radcliffe is sure JK Rowling's 'Harry Potter' series will be adapted in future

Insulin derived from the venom of marine cone snails may pave the way for a faster-acting drug to treat diabetes, scientists say.
Although moderately mobile, marine cone snails have perfected several strategies to capture prey. Some fish-hunting species release venom into the surrounding water.
Within the plume of toxic venom, the fish succumbs to fast-acting insulin that renders it immobile. As the fish flounders, the snail emerges from its shell to swallow the pacified victim whole.
Researchers at University of Utah in the US detailed the function of cone snail insulins, bringing them one step closer to developing a faster-acting insulin to treat diabetes.
"These snails have developed a strategy to hit and subdue their prey with up to 200 different compounds, one of which is insulin," said Helena Safavi-Hemami, assistant professor at University of Utah.
"Every now and then, we learn something unique from nature and millions of years of evolution," said Safavi-Hemami.
Insulin, a ...

Marine snail venom may improve insulin for diabetics

Actor Seth Rogen and comedy group The Lonely Island's parody film based on infamous Fyre Festival is on track.
The music extravaganza, organised by Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, had made headlines in 2017 over it being poorly executed and the subsequent lawsuits which were filed by the angered audiences.
Last year, Rogen and the Lonely Island, formed Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, had announced that they were planning a film that follows a storyline similar to that of the Fyre Festival.
In a recent interview, Taccone told Daily Beast that the proposed film is currently in development.
"Oh yeah. I don't want to divulge all the details but we're figuring it out right now. You've seen the docs, right? It's crazy. This is something that Akiva and Seth cooked up, and we're figuring it all out right now," he said.
Fyre Festival was recently a subject of two documentaries -- Hulu's "Fyre Fraud" and Netflix's "Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened".

Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island talks about film on Fyre Festival

Scoreboard of the first one-day international between Bangladesh and New Zealand here on Wednesday.
Bangladesh:
T Iqbal c Latham b Boult 5
L Das b Henry 1
S Sarkar c and b Henry 30
M Rahim b Boult 5
M Mithun b Ferguson 62
Mahmudullah c Taylor b Ferguson 13
S Rahman st Latham b Santner 13
M Hasan c Neesham b Santner 26
M Saifuddin c Guptill b Santner 41
M Mortaza not out 9
M Rahman b Boult 0
Extras: (LB-5, W-16, NB-1, PEN 5) 27
Total: (all out in 48.5 overs) 232
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-19, 3-42, 4-42, 5-71, 6-94, 7-131, 8-215, 2-229, 10-232
Bowling: Henry 9-1-48-2, Boult 9.5-0-40-3, De Grandhomme 5-0-19-0, Ferguson 10-1-44-2, Santner 8-0-45-3, Neesham 7-0-26-0.

Napier (New Zealand), Feb 13 (AFP) Scoreboard of the first one-day international between Bangladesh and New Zealand here on Wednesday.

Pop star Miley Cyrus has joined "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 11 premiere as a guest judge.
The singer will be joining host RuPaul and judges Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley and Ross Mathews on February 28 premiere.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Cyrus will go undercover in the Werk Room to spy on the cast as they prepare for their first challenge: creating signature looks from materials that once belonged to former Drag Race girls.
In the past, the former Disney star has attended the show in 2015 for season seven.
Season 11's cast features 15 queens competing for the title of America's Drag Superstar, including returning season 10 contestant (and breakout internet star) Vanessa Vanjie Mateo.

Miley Cyrus to appear as guest judge on 'RuPaul's Drag Race'

A gritty half-century from Mohammad Mithun gave Bangladesh some hope as the tourists set New Zealand a modest target of 233 after suffering an early collapse in the first one-day international here on Wednesday.
Mithun top scored with 62 after coming to the crease with Bangladesh reeling at 42 for four as their decision to bat first after winning the toss backfired.
He survived 90 balls, grinding out his third ODI fifty, after Bangladesh's top order fell to a combination of rash shots and accurate bowling.
Mohammad Saifuddin provided support with a hard-fought 41 as Bangladesh were bowled out for 232 with seven balls of their allotted 50 overs remaining.
Bangladesh batting coach Neil McKenzie admitted 300 was probably a par score on the McLean Park pitch in good scoring conditions, although the tourists will hope their total is defendable against a New Zealand side coming off a 4-1 ODI series loss to India.
Spinner Mitchell Santner and paceman Trent Boult took three wickets apiece for 

Mithun stands tall as Bangladesh struggle

Ethnic Uighurs have launched a global campaign to press China for video proof that their missing relatives are alive, turning the tables on Beijing's use of video to counter claims that a renowned Uighur had died in custody.
The social media campaign was launched Tuesday under the hashtag #MeTooUyghur after China released a video of a man who identified himself as Uighur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit saying he was alive and well.
The video was made public after Turkey claimed that Heyit had died in a Chinese prison in a statement in which Ankara condemned China for herding vast numbers of Muslim minority Uighurs into "re-education" camps in the country's remote northwestern Xinjiang region.
"Chinese authorities showed video as proof Mr Heyit is still alive. Now, we want to know, where are millions of Uyghurs?" said Halmurat Harri, an activist in Finland, who created the hashtag.
He told AFP that his own parents had been previously detained, but were released last year.
The hashtag 

Missing Uighurs' kin demand 'proof of life' videos from China

Two lawyers defending former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn on charges of financial misconduct submitted their resignations on Wednesday, their law firm said in a statement.
There was no immediate explanation as to why the attorneys, who include lead lawyer Motonari Otsuru, were quitting Ghosn's defence team.  Contacted by AFP, the firm declined to comment on the decision.
A brief statement said only that "today Otsuru and (Masato) Oshikubo submitted letters of resignation to the court as the defence lawyers for the case of Mr Ghosn".
The former Nissan executive has been in detention since November 19 and faces three charges including under-reporting his compensation and attempting to shift losses to his employer's books.
Despite having taken on some of Japan's high-publicity cases, Otsuru is known for maintaining a low media profile and spoke publicly only once about the Ghosn case at a press conference.
He cut an owlish and cautious figure, admitting that his client was unlikely to make .

Carlos Ghosn's lead defence lawyer resigns

Meghan Markle is being 'vilified and chased' by the tabloid press in the same way the late princess Diana was, Hollywood superstar George Clooney has told an Australian magazine.
Clooney, a close friend of Markle and husband Prince Harry, warned of "history repeating" itself with the increasingly feverish media attention on the expectant royal couple.
"I do want to say, they're just chasing Meghan Markle everywhere," Clooney told WHO magazine during an interview in Los Angeles.
"She's a woman who is seven months pregnant and she has been pursued and vilified and chased in the same way that Diana was and it's history repeating itself," he added.
"We've seen how that ends." Diana died in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi on motorcycles.
Britain's famously aggressive press at first welcomed Markle into the royal fold when she and Harry tied the knot at a lavish Windsor Castle wedding last May, in a ceremony attended by Clooney and his human rights ...

Meghan 'vilified' by press like Diana: Clooney

Three Indian-Americans are among six people convicted for their role in a two-year multi-million dollar money-laundering scheme, the US Justice Department has said.
Ravinder Reddy Gudipati, 61; Harsh Jaggi, 54 and Neeru Jaggi, 51, all from Laredo, Texas, were convicted of a money laundering conspiracy following a five-week jury trial.
Along with the Indian-American trio, Adrian Arciniega-Hernandez, 36, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; Adriana Alejandra Galvan-Constantini, 36 and Luis Montes-Patino, 57, both from Irving, Texas, were convicted, said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
Harsh and Adrian were also convicted on two counts of money laundering and Neeru Jaggi was convicted on one count of money laundering. Gudipati was convicted on two counts of money laundering in addition to other counts.
Adrain, Galvan-Constantini, Montes-Patino, Gudipati, Harsh and Neeru were part of a complex money laundering scheme whereby money derived ...

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