The Asia Badminton Championships will begin at Wuhan in China today. It will continue till the 28th of this month. India will be represented by Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma in men's singles and P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in women's singles. 

Meanwhile, two of the country's top shuttlers HS Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth have alleged that the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has denied them a chance to participate in the Championships due to some gaffe on the part of BAI. 

However, BAI issued a statement to the press yesterday evening denying the allegations. The statement said, based on the email received from Badminton Asia, they were asked to send names of two players each for men and women’s singles.

Actors Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and director James Wan have paid their respects to paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren, whose several ghost-hunting cases with her late husband, inspired the trio's The Conjuring film series.

On Friday, Lorraine's son-in-law, Tony Spera, shared the news of her death on the Facebook page for the New England Society for Psychic Research, which Lorraine co-founded with her husband Ed Warren in 1952.

"It is with deep sadness that I must announce that Lorraine Warren has passed away. She died peacefully in her sleep at home last night. The family requests that you respect their privacy at this time," Spera said in a statement.

Farmiga played Lorraine and Wilson essayed the role of Ed in Wan's 2013 horror movie The Conjuring. The film was a smash-hit success at the global box office, raking in over USD 310 million against a budget of USD 20 million. A follow-up, which released in 2016, was an equally big hit.

In a Facebook post, the director said he is "deeply saddened" after hearing about Lorraine's death.

Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy has won the second round of a presidential election against incumbent Petro Poroshenko by a landslide.

According to a national exit poll showed on Sunday, the political newcomer, who dominated the first round of voting three weeks ago, got more than 70% support.

Polls gave Poroshenko, who has been in power since 2014, 25% of the vote. 

If polls are correct, he will be elected for a five-year term. Official results are expected to come later today.

Zelensky challenged incumbent president Petro Poroshenko who has admitted defeat.

Grounded carrier Jet Airways on Monday said its non-executive and non-independent director Nasim Zaidi has quit the board, citing personal reasons and time constraints.

Zaidi, the former Chief Election Commissioner and ex- civil aviation secretary, joined the Jet Airways board in August last year.

"This is to inform you that Nasim Zaidi has submitted his resignation as a non-executive, non-independent director of the company with effect from April 21 due to personal reasons and constraints of time," Jet Airways said in an exchange filing.

The airline, which ceased all its operations temporarily last week, is under the management control of State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders following a debt-recast plan approved by its board last month.

The Indian Navy launched guided missile destroyer Imphal at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders in Mumbai yesterday. 

Imphal is the third ship to be launched under a project in which ships are built to carry and operate two multiple role helicopters.

In a statement, the Navy said, enhanced stealth features have been achieved through the shaping of hull and use of radar transparent deck fittings which make the ships difficult to detect. 

Speaking on the occasion, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said, he is satisfied with the force's fleet and more aircraft and submarines will be inducted in the days to come. 

He said, over the years, Navy has become a builder from a buyer and was slated to excel in coming years.

Indian athletes won five medals on the opening day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha. Javelin thrower Annu Rani and 3000-meter steeple chaser Avinash Sable won the silver medals yesterday.

Quartermiler M P Poovamma, 5000-meter runner Parul Choudhary and 10000-meter runner Gavit Murali Kumar bagged a bronze each on a day which saw sprint sensation Hima Das suffer a lower back spasm during her 400m heat. 

Sprinter Dutee Chand qualified for the semi-finals clocking 11.28 seconds to win the heat number four of the women's 100-meter race. She bettered her earlier national record of 11.29 seconds which she set last year in Guwahati. M R Poovamma finished second in her 400-meter heat, clocking 52.46 seconds to qualify for the final round. 

Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPB) Saturday said it has appointed entrepreneur Sairee Chahal to its board of directors.

Sairee Chahal is the founder and CEO of Sheroes — a community platform for women.

"We are delighted to have Sairee Chahal on our board. She has comprehensive experience of customer service ecosystem. We will benefit from her knowledge and expertise," PPB Managing Director and CEO Satish Gupta said in a statement.

PPB, which was incorporated in August 2016, formally began its operations in 2017.

Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma holds 51 per cent stake in PPB, while the rest is held by One97 Communications.

Gupta had recently stated that PPB has 4.4 crore savings bank accounts with deposits of over ₹400 crore as well as 26 crore wallet accounts.

NASA's first female astronaut candidate, pilot Jerrie Cobb, has died.

Cobb died in Florida at age 88 last month. News of her death came Thursday from journalist Miles O'Brien, serving as a family spokesman.

In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. Altogether, 13 women passed the arduous physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all test pilots and men. None of the Mercury 13 ever reached space.

Cobb served for decades as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle. She emerged in 1998 to make another pitch for space, as NASA prepared to launch John Glenn on shuttle Discovery at age 77. Cobb argued unsuccessfully that the research should include an older woman.

India's growth trajectory holds immense potential for global stakeholders to establish energy, infrastructure and technology collaboration with the country, a UN forum here has been told.

Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Ashish Sinha stressed on Wednesday at the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development Follow Up that India wanted to use growth as a mechanism to pull the maximum number of people out of poverty and improve quality of life in an inclusive manner.

"India has retained its position as the world's fastest growing major economy. Indian economy has been growing over 7 percent for several years and the forecast for the future is equally robust," he said.

Sinha noted that India improved its ranking by 23 positions in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings last year.

Former World Champion, Mirabai Chanu will spearhead India’s challenge at the Asian Weightlifting Championship, 2019 that begins at Ningbo, China today. Chanu will be competing in the 49kg category from 48kg following the International Weightlifting Federations’s rejig of weight categories. She has made a strong comeback after having suffered a lower-back injury that kept her out of action for nearly nine months.  She will have potent competitors. 

Among male weightlifters, India’s hopes will be on Jeremy Lalrinnunga, the gold medallist at the Youth Olympic Games. Commonwealth Games champion, Sathish Sivalingam has pulled out owing to performance troubles. Other Indians participating include Vikas Thakur, the silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games, and Ajay Singh, the bronze medallist at the Asian Youth Championship and the Junior Weightlifting Championship. Ajay had finished fifth in the 77kg category at the Asian Games in 2018. 

Nine days of competition will be played out at Ningbo Youngor Gymnasium from today onwards. Medals will be won across 20 categories, 10 for men and 10 for women.