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A report by CNN's Clarissa Ward about a freed Syrian prisoner provided some dramatic scenes, but the network has since found that it apparently wasn't all that it appeared

The hip-hop mogul is currently detained at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn which is often described as 'hell on earth'. According to reports, Combs altered appearance during a court appearance on Wednesday for a pretrial hearing left attendees stunned. The once-glamorous hip-hop icon said to look visibly thinner, with dramatically grayer hair, prompting speculation that months behind bars have taken their toll.

Mutual funds were busy launching new fund offerings or NFOs in 2024. Fund houses launched a record number of 205 mutual fund schemes in the said period. This includes active and passive, open- and close-ended mutual funds in both equity and debt segments. The number does not include the schemes launched in December. (Source: AMFI) Around 205 mutual fund NFOs were floated in the market in 2024 which together collected Rs 1.04 lakh crore. Around 198 open-ended funds collected Rs 1.03 lakh crore whereas seven fixed term plans which are close-ended funds collected Rs 954 crore in the said period. Also Read | Year-ender 2024: Top 10 equity mutual funds of the year. Do you have any?

Wednesday night was the coldest of the season so far in the city, and the night temperature was 4 degrees below the normal for this part of the season. They said the intense cold conditions led to the freezing of the fringes of several water bodies, including the famous Dal Lake here, while water supply lines in many areas of the city here and elsewhere in the valley were also frozen due to the biting cold.

Ashwin, who retired from international cricket on Wednesday, said he will try and play cricket for as long as he can. The statement came while he was interacting with the media upon returning to Chennai on Thursday. The off-spinner was picked up by Chennai Super Kings for Rs 9.75 crore in the IPL 2025 mega auction. He also captains Dindigul Dragons in the Tamil Nadu Premier League and won the title this year. «I am going to play for CSK and don't be surprised if I try and aspire to play for as long as I can. I don't think Ashwin the cricketer is done, I think Ashwin the Indian cricketer has probably called it time. That's it,» said the Indian great.

Australia will try to rein in a spike in international student arrivals by imposing different speeds of visa processing, in the latest effort by the center-left government to cut migration numbers ahead of an expected tight election. Education Minister Jason Clare on Thursday announced the new ministerial direction, which he said would prioritize the processing of visa applications for those universities and colleges “that are operating sustainably.” Under the changes, there will be two categories of visa processing: high priority and standard. Education providers will receive quick approvals up until they hit 80% of their international student allotment, which was previously flagged under legislation to cap arrivals. After that, visas will be processed at a slower pace.

Goa Liberation Day is celebrated every year on December 19 mark Goa's freedom from Portuguese rule in 1961. The liberation ended the struggle of freedom fighters against the 451 years of colonial rule. Goa became an integral part of India. The day celebrates the struggle, resilience, and fight of all freedom fighters who fought to achieve the freedom. On this day, various activities are organised in different schools and colleges such as speech competitions, drawing, poster making etc. to commemorate the day.

While some of Baba Vanga's forecasts are considered eerily accurate, others are vague and open to interpretation. Her insights attracted believers who view her as a prophetic figure and skeptics who see her predictions as coincidental or the result of post-event reinterpretation. Despite passing away in 1996, her legacy endures, with enthusiasts continuing to analyze her prophecies for clues about the future.

CBI court in Bhubaneswar granted conditional bail to three persons arrested in connection with a bribery case in Odisha. The court on Wednesday granted bail to Chanchal Mukherjee, group general manager of the CPSU Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, and contractors Santosh Moharana and Debadutta Mohapatra. The bail was granted by the court on the production of a bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties each, said advocate Subham Satpathy, one of the lawyers engaged by the accused persons. While granting bail, the court put a condition that the accused persons cannot leave Bhubaneswar without its permission. They will also not attempt to tamper with evidence and will cooperate with the investigation.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Honda put nostalgia to the fore on December 18th when it announced that the Prelude, a nameplate last produced some 25 years ago, now being relaunched as a hybrid-electric, would come with the option of a system that simulates gear changes and combustion-engine noises. The message, however, was quickly drowned out by news with far more bearing on the Japanese carmaker’s future.

Real Madrid beat Mexican team Pachuca 3-0 in the Intercontinental Cup final Wednesday, making Carlo Ancelotti the most decorated coach in the club's history. Ancelotti lifted his 15th title with the Spanish powerhouse, surpassing the 14 trophies that he and Miguel Munoz had won. Munoz coached the team in the 1960s and 70s. «Very happy, it's a triumph,» said the 65-year-old Ancelotti, who on Tuesday was named men's coach of the year at the FIFA's «The Best» awards. «We didn't get off to a good start but finished well, showing great attitude.» Kylian Mbappe, Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior scored a goal each as Madrid became the most successful club in the competition with four titles. It also won in 1960, 1998 and 2002.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If every cloud has a silver lining, the glow around India’s data that shows November’s trade deficit at a record high of $37.9 billion is the remarkable performance of service exports. According to provisional numbers released by the government, service exports are projected to overtake merchandise exports in November 2024.

Venture investors tracking this space mostly talk about the under penetration of the Indian equities market and the growth of the economy as the reasons for investing in new players, despite the known headwinds. Former Swiggy chief technology officer Dale Vaz and Kotak Securities senior executive Manish Jain launched Sahi earlier this month. The company secured $7 million in equity funding from Accel and Elevation Capital.

There is, however, a hesitation over trust and safety around the use of AI, industry leaders said, and called for light-touch regulation to strike a balance between innovation and ethics. “In 2014, we started on the first wave of AI, which was predictive AI,” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and chief executive for India at software firm Salesforce. “But it was not democratised. People who were experts or who

UPI One World service, which foreign travellers in India use for Unified Payments Interface-based transactions at merchant locations, may be opened up for interpersonal transactions early next year, said two people aware of the deliberations. International travellers in India are allowed to use this mode of payment only for merchant transactions, but once the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gives its nod for interpersonal transactions, they will be able to use this service to also pay small merchants, public transporters and tourist guides, among others. Currently, five players--Pine Labs, IDFC First Bank, Payworld, Transcorp and Cheq (operated by Trio Tech Solutions)--are enabled on UPI One World.

global capability centres (GCCs) reward leadership with handsome base salaries, bonuses and stock options, executive search and hiring firms like EMA Partners, Insist Consulting, Michael Page, Randstad, Teamlease and Avsar said. While US CXO salaries have grown by 15% between 2020 and 2024, Indian counterparts have seen a rise of nearly 40% in the same period, according to data from recruitment firms. Although the difference between leadership remuneration is vast in absolute terms, when adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) and factors such as cost of living and inflation, the difference has narrowed, experts said.

Speciale Invest. The deep tech startups, however, need to consider alternative funding such as venture debt, asset financing, and project financing during their initial stages to address the science risk, the firm's founding partner Vishesh Rajaram told ET. Speciale has been investing in seed-stage startups, and GalaxEye Space, Agnikul Cosmos, ePlane Company, Uravu Labs and CynLr are some of the investee startups. The VC firm’s report titled 'India's Deep Tech Revolution' on the sector, which is slated for release on Thursday and accessed by ET, highlights that the global market share of funding in Indian deep tech startups (1.30%) is significantly lower than the overall funding available to Indian tech startups (3.86%) which needs to be encouraged. It also added that back home, Indian corporations are still warming up to the idea of innovation through deep-tech startups and are yet to see an acquisition of a deep-tech startup.

Infosys, country's second largest IT services giant, on Wednesday announced investment of Rs 426 crore for its new 320,000 square feet development centre in Kolkata. “This state-of-the-art facility with an investment of over Rs 426 crore is designed to accommodate over 4,000 employees in a hybrid working model,” the Bengaluru based company said in a statement. The centre will generate employment opportunities in next-gen technologies such as cloud and artificial intelligence (AI). «The centre will provide employees greater flexibility and enable them to work on new-age technologies such as cloud, AI, and digital, across a diverse range of industries, including manufacturing, logistics, financial services, energy & utilities,» the statement added.

«On noticing the unusual surge, the DGCIS (Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics) has taken up a detailed examination of the gold import data. Reconciliation of the data will be done, hopefully within this month,» a commerce and industry ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Trade data for November 2024 may undergo revision following the reconciliation. A trade expert, who did not wish to be identified, said details of imports can be cross-verified with bills of entry, forex outgo and import duty payment-all of which are well documented on the Electronics Data Interchange system.

The sector should grow 12-13% in 2025, he told ET in an interview on the sidelines of the 18th annual CII Tourism Summit. The minister said the government is working on several projects to spruce up tourism hubs and to create new ones.

household budgets, potentially worsening stressed urban demand. Starting this month, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Godrej Consumer, Dabur, Tata Consumer, Parle Products, Wipro Consumer, Marico, Nestle and Adani Wilmar are rolling out price hikes to offset higher commodity costs and increased customs duty, said executives at companies and FMCG distributors. The entire basket — from tea and edible oil to soap and skin cream-will be 5-20% more expensive, marking the biggest price hike in 12 months. Companies' production costs have swelled due to 22% increase in import duty on edible oil this September, and up to 40% in calendar year 2024. In 2023 too, the cost of key commodities such as sugar, wheat flour and coffee had surged.