Varanasi, Apr 26 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat on Friday, accompanied by a galaxy of top BJP and NDA leaders in what was a massive show of strength for the country's ruling alliance.

Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar, Union minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray and Shiromani Akali Dal patron Parkash Singh Badal were with Modi at the Collectorate as Modi filed his papers, seeking a second term in the Lok Sabha from the temple town.

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Researchers found that eating high-calorie diet under stress could result in more weight gain than eating the same diet in a stress-free condition.

The study published on Thursday in the journal Cell Metabolism revealed a molecular pathway in the brain, controlled by insulin, which drives the additional weight gain under stress.

New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) India's working age population or those above the age of 15 is seen to be expanding by 1.3 million a month and therefore, the country needs to create millions of jobs a year but the number depends on the estimates of the employment rate, says a new book.

"Jobonomics: India's Employment Crisis and What the Future Holds" by Goutam Das goes beyond the data or the lack of it to analyse the story of India's job and income scenario through real life stories.

26 Apr 2019; DW: President Emmanuel Macron sought to put his 2017 election reform agenda back on track Thursday after months of sometimes violent "yellow vest" encounters with police — paralleled by town hall debates he personally attended — saying "essential" transformations should not be stopped.

"Did we take the wrong turn? I believe quite the opposite," said the 41-year-old former investment banker, whose popularity rating has fallen from above 60% when he was elected to around 30% now.

STOCKHOLM, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Pilots at the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in Sweden, Denmark and Norway went on strike Friday as talks on wages and other issues broke down, leading to many cancelled flights, SAS said.

The strike, called by the Scandinavian pilot unions, came after the pilot group and the airline failed to find common ground on a collective bargaining agreement on salary increases and other issues related to working hours and schedules.

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un on Thursday said that they had substantial discussions on bilateral ties and the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue during their first-ever meeting.

The four-hour talks started with a one-on-one conversation between the two leaders and they were later joined by members of national delegations.

25 Apr 2019; DW: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday at the 26th annual EU-Japan summit.

The leaders agreed to closer cooperation on security, the environment and trade and pledged to pursue long-awaited reforms to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

LHASA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The world's highest highway tunnel was open to traffic on Friday at an altitude of over 4,750 meters above sea level in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

The two-way tunnel is over 5.7 km long, which is a part of the 400-km highway linking the regional capital of Lhasa with Nyingchi in the southeast of Tibet.

Construction of the tunnel started in 2015 on the 5,018-meter-high Mila Mountain, and it was completed on Monday, helping shorten the 18-km distance over the mountain to 5.7 km.

26 Apr 2019; DW: The powerful cyclone Kenneth claimed its first casualty in Mozambique when a woman was killed by a falling tree in the city of Pemba on Friday. Previously, the storm had killed at least three people in the Comoros, the island nation off the coast of Africa.

Pemba was struggling with power outages and power lines were also reportedly down in other communities in the north of the country.

HAVANA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Thursday slammed Washington's newly adopted measures against the island, saying they will "suffocate" the country's economy.

On April 17, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that a 22-year suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act will be lifted on May 2, which allows U.S. citizens to file suits against foreign firms operating property in Cuba since 1959.

New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) The Congress blamed AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday for "botching up" the possibility of an alliance of the two parties for the Lok Sabha polls, with the two sides trading barbs on the issue that hogged the headlines for weeks prior to the nomination of candidates in Delhi.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Delhi PC Chacko told PTI that there is no possibility of an alliance between his party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) anymore as the last date for withdrawal of nominations in Delhi is Friday.

New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) Aviation regulator DGCA has initiated a probe into the incident of the plane carrying Congress President Rahul Gandhi suffering engine trouble, a senior official said.

The plane on way to Patna was forced to return to Delhi on Friday after experiencing "engine trouble".

The senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said the Hawker 850 XP aircraft VT-KNB returned back to Delhi after take-off due to a technical snag.