Fidel Castro's eldest son commits suicide after battle with depression

The eldest son of the late Cuban president Fidel Castro committed suicide on Thursday, state media reported.

He was 68 years old.
"Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, who had been treated by a group of doctors for several months due to deep depression, took his life this morning," Cuba's official newspaper Granma reported.

"Fidelito" -- as he was known on island nation -- had initially been hospitalized for his condition and then continued with outpatient follow-ups.
Born on September 1, 1949, he was the son of the revolutionary Castro's first marriage to Mirta Diaz-Balart.

Airbnb loses CFO, gains COO in leadership shakeup; says no listing in 2018

Short-term home rental service Airbnb Inc will not go public this year, the company said on Thursday, and it also announced a change in executive leadership with the loss of its chief financial officer and appointment of its first chief operating officer.

San Francisco-based Airbnb, a service where homeowners and renters can post their house, room or apartment for rent, had been on a list of anticipated initial public offerings this year.
Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky refuted that timeline, and said in a statement that "we're working on getting ready to go public and we will make decisions about going public on our own timetable."

In line with a number of changes to help prepare the company for long-term growth, Airbnb promoted Belinda Johnson, who has been at the company since 2011, to COO, Chesky said. She was most recently its chief business affairs and legal officer.

Apple reports record $20 bn profit, iPhone X sales 'better than expected'

Apple today reported a $20 billion profit in a record-setting quarter and said sales of its newest iPhone X smartphone were better than expected.
Revenue in the final three months of last year increased 13 per cent to $88.3 billion, according to the California- based technology giant.

"We're thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple's history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup," said Apple chief executive Tim Cook.
"iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November."

However, Apple reported that overall iPhone sales in the quarter 77.3 million from were about a million fewer than the same period a year earlier.

Delhi kid beaten to death in school toilet; admin says he died of diarrhoea

A teenaged student was allegedly beaten to death inside a private school's toilet by a group of students in east Delhi, police said on Thursday.

The family members of the student, identified as Tushar, have, however, alleged foul play behind the death.

Police said the Tushar's body was found on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. by some students inside the toilet of Jeevan Jyoti Senior Secondary School in Karawal Nagar.

Tushar was a student of Class 9. "He was rushed to a nearby private hospital, where he was declared brought dead," a senior police officer said.

"During preliminary investigation, there were no visible injuries marks found on his body.

Cong beats BJP in Rajasthan by-polls; Padmaavat blamed: Top 10 developments

In a spectacular showing, the Congress on Thursday stole the show in Rajasthan by wresting the Mandalgarh Assembly as well as the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats from the ruling BJP by huge margins, triggering wild celebrations.
Congress activists burst firecrackers and danced to drum beats outside the party office here as Vivek Dhakar trounced Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Shakti Singh Hada by 12,976 votes in Mandalgarh. The stunned BJP came in for severe drubbing in Rajasthan where it is eyeing a second straight term

1. Who defeated who in Rajasthan bypoll
Karan Singh Yadav in Alwar defeated Jaswant Singh Yadav of the BJP by a whopping 196,496 votes while Raghu Sharma in Ajmer worsted the BJP's Ramswaroop Lamba by 84,414 votes. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress did not win a single seat in Rajasthan. Raghu Sharma secured 611,514 votes against the 527,100 of Lamba. Karan Singh Yadav notched 642,416 votes against 445,920 secured by the BJP's Jaswant Singh. Dhakar got 70,146 votes while Hada secured 57,170 in the by-election held on January 29, Election Commission officials said.

Alibaba shares tank after margins decline, market value dips $30 billion

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares fell the most in 18 months and cut its market valuation by about $30 billion after investments in brick-and-mortar assets and digital media squeezed profit margins in the December quarter.
The Chinese e-commerce giant reported revenue that topped analyst estimates and raised its growth forecast for the 12 months ending in March to 55 to 56 percent. But operating margin shrank to 31 percent in the last quarter from 39 percent a year earlier.

Shares fell 5.9 percent in New York trading, the sharpest decline since June 2016.
Alibaba will also buy 33 percent of Ant Financial, helping to clear the way for an initial public offering of the Chinese payments giant. While no cash is changing hands, Ant Financial will end royalty payments to Alibaba that were worth more than $300 million last fiscal year.

Pakistan cannot be America's friend while supporting terror: Donald Trump

Citing his recent decision to suspend security assistance to Pakistan, US President Donald Trump has said that countries cannot hope to be friends with America while supporting or condoning terror.
"President Trump is making clear to our allies that they cannot be America's friend while supporting or condoning terror," the White House has said in a detailed fact sheet on his foreign policy, which was issued after his first State of the Union Address.

"The President has suspended security assistance to Pakistan, sending a long overdue message to aid recipients that we expect them to fully join us in combating terrorism," the White House said.
Last month, the Trump administration had suspended nearly $2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan accusing the country of not doing enough in the fight against terrorism.