Veteran Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, who was recently seen in the superhit movie ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, shook a leg with actress Vidya Balan on his quiz based reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ season 16.

On Wednesday, the makers of ‘KBC’ shared a clip from the show on Instagram. It shows Vidya Balan and Bollywood star Kartik Aaryan on hotseats. The clip opens with Big B holding Vidya in his arms as they break into a duet on the song ‘Dilbar Mere’ from the Big B-starrer ‘Satte Pe Satta’.

Both Vidya and Big B twinned in monochromatic outfits. While Vidya wore a black saree with grey geometric patterns, Big B opted for a black suit.

Israeli warplanes renewed on Wednesday their raids on Beirut's suburbs after days of cautious calm, launching three consecutive airstrikes on Haret Hreik.

The raids were preceded by an Israeli warning to evacuate several buildings in Haret Hreik in the Dahieh suburbs,

Israeli army spokesman claimed that the Israeli aircraft "raided weapons for Hezbollah stored underground in a warehouse in the southern suburb, with precise intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Service."

Beirut's southern suburbs have been spared from Israeli airstrikes in the past five days, while Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday that Lebanon had obtained "a kind of a guarantee" from the United States to reduce the Israeli escalation in Beirut and its southern suburbs.

IT major L&T Technology Services Ltd reported a net profit of Rs 320 crore in the July-September quarter of FY 2024-25 on Wednesday, up 2 per cent in comparison to Rs 314 crore in the previous quarter.

According to the exchange filing by L&T Technology Services (LTTS), revenue during the second quarter of the financial year (FY) 2024-25 rose 4.5 per cent to Rs 2,573 crore from Rs 2,462 crore in the April-July quarter of this fiscal.

The company reported USD revenue at $307 million up 6.5 per cent YoY. The earnings before interest and taxes rose 1 per cent to Rs 388 crore, whereas the EBITDA margin contracted to 15.1 per cent.

A team of US researchers on Wednesday said they have found a rare mutation that leaves its carriers much more likely to become ill with tuberculosis (TB) — but, curiously, not with other infectious diseases.

The research from The Rockefeller University in the US, published in the journal Nature, may upend long held assumptions about the immune system.

It has long been known that an acquired deficiency of a pro-inflammatory cytokine called TNF is linked to an increased risk of developing TB.

The current study, led by Rockefeller’s Stephanie Boisson-Dupuis and Jean-Laurent Casanova, revealed a genetic cause of TNF deficiency, as well as the underlying mechanism -- a lack of TNF incapacitates a specific immune process in the lungs, leading to severe — but surprisingly targeted — illness.

India saw cumulative overall exports at $393.22 billion in the April-September period, a growth of 4.86 per cent as compared to $375 billion in the same period last year, the government said on Wednesday.

The cumulative value of merchandise exports was $213.22 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal, as compared to $211.08 billion during April-September 2023, registering a positive growth of 1.02 per cent. Services exports are estimated to grow by 9.81 per cent during April-September 2024.

For the month of September, India’s total exports (merchandise and services) were estimated at $65.19 billion, registering a positive growth of 3.76 per cent (YoY), according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Major drivers of merchandise export growth in September included engineering goods, organic and inorganic chemicals, plastic and linoleum, drugs and pharmaceuticals and ready-made garments (RMG) of all textiles.

Six people, including the mayor, were killed, and 43 others wounded on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the buildings of the Nabatieh Municipality in Lebanon, according to Lebanese medical and military sources.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an Israeli warplane fired four air-to-ground missiles at the Nabatieh Municipality building and the building of the Union of Municipalities, killing the mayor, Ahmad Kahil, and several municipality members, injuring several others, and destroying the infrastructure, news agency reported.

The Civil Defence teams, the Lebanese Red Cross, and the Islamic Health Authority are working to remove the rubble of the two buildings and search for missing persons, the sources said.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying it deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council discussing the city's service and relief situation.

The Zambian government said that it is stepping up efforts to combat the increasing number of online scams in the country.

Jack Mwiimbu, minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security on Tuesday said that the ministry is working with the Technology and Science Ministry to track, arrest and prosecute online scammers.

"We are collaborating with financial institutions, mobile network operators, and other stakeholders to implement stronger security measures and raise public awareness," he said in a statement in the parliament, news agency reported.

Mwiimbu said that the country has seen an increase in online scams, with the police recording 1,124 cases between 2023 and the first half of 2024, adding that investigations into 560 cases have been concluded with convictions secured in 117 cases.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the murder of a minor in Gurugram, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Amit Kumar (28) and Tarun alias Johnny (29), both residents of village Khalilpur in Gurugram, were arrested from Chilla in Rewari district on Tuesday.

During interrogation, the duo confessed to the crime, police said.

The police said that during the investigation, Amit revealed that he suspected that victim Tushar, 15, had an illicit relationship with his wife.

A new poll in the US showed on Wednesday that 74 per cent of people above age 50 would have very little or no trust in health information if it were generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

Meanwhile, 20 per cent of older adults have little or no confidence that they could spot misinformation about a health topic if they came across it, according to data from the University of Michigan (U-M) and AARP’s ‘National Poll on Healthy Aging’.

That percentage was even higher among older adults who say their mental health, physical health or memory is fair or poor, and among those who report having a disability that limits their activities.

According to the poll, those who might need trustworthy health information, the most were more likely to say they had little or no confidence they could spot false information.

Australia's fertility rate fell to a new record low in 2023, according to official figures.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday that there were 286,998 registered births in Australia in 2023, resulting in a total fertility rate of 1.50 babies per woman.

It marked a decline from a rate of 1.63 babies per woman in 2022 and the lowest figure since records began in 1935. Australia's fertility rate peaked at 3.54 babies per woman in 1961, news agency reported.

"The record low total fertility rate is because there were fewer births in most states and territories," Beidar Cho, head of demography statistics at the agency, said in a media release.