BERLIN: A top leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party said her website had been hit by thousands of cyber attacks- many from Russian IP addresses- before Sunday's televised election debate. German intelligence and government officials have often voiced concerns that Moscow could seek to interfere in the Sept. 24 national election, in which Merkel is widely expected to win a fourth term. Russia has repeatedly denied trying to influence foreign elections.

With ‘Haseen Parkar’, ‘Saaho’ and the Saina Nehwal biopic, Shraddha Kapoor is currently on a roll. After reports stated that the release of her upcoming film ‘Haseena Parkar’ was delayed, the actress went on with her the preparations of her next film on the badminton star. As she finally gears up for the release of ‘Haseena Parkar’ on September 22, the actress got in to promotional mode for the movie. Dressed in a blue long shirt, a denim skirt and matching sandals, the actress is all smiles. She looks all fresh and pumped up and ready to beat the blues of her hectic schedule.

Much has been written to feed into the speculation surrounding Salman Khan’s next film with choreographer-director Remo D’Souza. Earlier it was reported that the superstar will be acting in a dance-based film, and later it was rumoured that Salman would like to work first on ‘Race 3’, which would also be helmed by Remo.

Bengal politics is taking a bipolar course with BJP fast occupying the space of the Left and Congress across the state. The defining trend is evident from the results of the recently held seven civic polls in which Narendra Modi's party secured a 41.7% vote share in Jalpaiguri's Dhupguri municipality for the first time, a spectacular jump from the 8.6% share in 2012. Dhupguri has a sizeable scheduled caste (Rajbanshi) and scheduled tribe population. It is 95km from Naxalbari, where BJP chief Amit Shah in April visited an adivasi family whose members were later forced to join Trinamool. Despite this, BJP has made inroads among Rajbanshis and SC/ST across the seven municipalities.

Robert Lewandowski converted a second-half penalty, awarded by a video assistant referee intervention, as champions Bayern Munich opened the 2017-18 Bundesliga season with a 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Friday. The video assistant referee is being trialled in the Bundesliga this season and came into play for the first time to spot that Lewandowski was fouled in the area in the second-half. The Polish striker dutifully slotted home the penalty to put Bayern 3-0 up after new signings Germany defender Niklas Suele and France midfielder Corentin Tolisso scored with first-half headers.

Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza bowed out of the Cincinnati Masters after losing their quarterfinal and semifinal with respective partners in the men's and women's doubles. Bopanna and his Croatian partner Ivan Dodig lost 1-6 7-6 7-10 to second seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo in an enthralling three-setter quarterfinal that lasted one hour and 36 minutes. In the WTA event, being run simultaneously, Sania Mirza and Shuai Peng lost to Hsie Su-Wei of Taiwan and Moncia Niculescu of Romania 4-6 6-7 in the women's doubles semifinal lasting one hour and 33 minutes.

Argentinian footballing legend Maradona said Monday that he preferred compatriot Lionel Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo all the while dubbing the Portugal captain an "incredible" player. "I can't remember having seen Lionel Messi play badly," Maradona told TyCSports. "I prefer Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo but I acknowledge that the latter is an animal. He's incredible," said the 1986 World Cup winner. Speaking from Dubai, where he now lives, Maradona added that he'd wished Ronaldo, who is Portuguese, was Argentinian. "He makes me think of Gabriel Batistuta," the Argentina striker who starred at three World Cup finals. "As soon as he touched the ball, it was a goal."