Malegaon (Maha), Jan 18 (PTI) Three farmers allegedly committed suicide in separate incidents here apparently due to crop failure and mounting loan burden, police said Friday.

The cultivators hailed from Malegaon taluka of Nashik district in North Maharashtra.

One of them, Dnyaneshwar Shivnakar, consumed poison while sitting on a heap of his perished onions at around 9.30 am Friday, they said.

United Nations, Jan 19 (PTI) United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday hoped that India and Pakistan will engage in a "meaningful dialogue" to resolve their issues.

The UN chief, speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, also said he has been offering his "good offices in relation to the dialogue between the two countries that, until now, had no conditions of success."

India has made it clear to Pakistan that cross-border terrorism and talks cannot go hand-in-hand.

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) RSS executive head Bhaiyyaji Joshi has expressed confidence that the Ram temple will be constructed in Ayodhya by the time of next 'Kumbh' in 2025, the Sangh said in a statement on Friday.

In a bid to "contextualise" the comments, the RSS in a statement issued by spokesperson Arun Kumar said Joshi had made these remarks on Thursday at the ongoing Kumbh in Praygraj in Uttar Pradesh.

Banda (UP), Jan 18 (PTI) A train ran over 25 cows near Ragaol railway station in neighbouring Hamirpur district on Friday, officials said.

"The cows were found dead on the track. They were buried in a nearby field," Superintendent of Police (SP), rural, Hamirpur Hemraj Meena said.

Police personnel have been deployed in the area after some persons alleged the cows were deliberately kept on the track.

Police are investigating the matter.

Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Friday said the nation is waiting for a new prime minister and a message of change would go out loud and clear from the the mega opposition rally of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress on Saturday here.

Yadav alleged the incumbent government at the Centre was responsible for causing distress to people from all walks of life across the country, including farmers, youth, poor and traders, and everyone was looking for a change.

19 Jan 2019; AFP: In a vault under the streets of Dublin a pot of gold owned by anxious investors is growing every day Britain edges closer to leaving the EU without a deal.

"They're worried about a significant devaluation in sterling if there's a hard Brexit," said Seamus Fahy.

Fahy is co-founder of Merrion Vaults, a gold brokerage and safe deposit facility in the centre of the Irish capital.

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal government employees affected by the government shutdown can get some free entertainment in New York.

The Metropolitan Opera says it is offering free tickets to people with government IDs from Saturday through the end of the month. A pair of tickets per performance can be reserved in advance by telephone or in person at the Met box office.

Kolkata, Jan 19 (PTI) Zoram Nationalist Party leader Lalduhawma on Saturday said the entire north east was "burning" because of the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

"If the bill was enacted ... , India will no longer be the place that it used to be ... so we want a secular government at the Centre, so that this bill was withdrawn or exemption must be given to the north east," he said at the opposition rally at the Brigade Parade ground here.

Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda Friday said the entire nation was united to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre.

He praised West Bengal chief minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee and termed her efforts to make way for a secular government in the country as "historic".

"Mamata is a great leader. She is hard working and such people are required in politics," Gowda said on his arrival here ahead of Saturday's mega opposition rally.

18 Jan 2019; DW: Temperatures are set to climb next week as heatwave conditions persist in parts of the country. The searing heat has had a particular impact on the Australian Open tennis tournament and a cycling event.

Australians have been offered a little reprieve this weekend before sweltering conditions to return to the southeast.

This week temperatures soared to as much as 15 degrees Celsius above the average, with 14 temperature records broken in the populous state of New South Wales (NSW) alone.

New Delhi, Jan 18 : The dates for the Lok Sabha elections are likely to be announced in the first week of March, sources indicated on Friday.

The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 3.

The Election Commission is in the process of deciding the number of phases and the months in which polling would be held, they said.

The charting of the phases would also depend on the availability of security forces and other requirements, the sources said, adding the announcement of the mega exercise is likely to be made in first week of March.

TOKYO (AP) — Representatives from a Pacific Rim trade bloc geared up to roll out and expand the market-opening initiative as they met Saturday in Tokyo, reaffirming their commitment to open and free trade and inviting new membership.

The Pacific Rim free trade agreement, rejected by President Donald Trump after he took office in 2017, took effect at the end of last year after Australia became the sixth nation to ratify it. So far, seven of the 11 member countries have done so, and the others are expected to follow through soon.