Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday began an indefinite fast in the capital against the Congress government's proposal to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and create a Telangana state.

The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister termed the centre's move "political match fixing".

"The Congress party did not follow any procedure. It took this decision for political gains. The Congress party is responsible for what is happening in Andhra Pradesh," Naidu told reporters.

Earlier Sunday, in coastal Andhra and the Rayalaseema regions of the state, several towns and hundreds of villages plunged into darkness, and several trains were cancelled as electricity employees launched an indefinite strike to protest against the decision to carve out the separate state.

Kim Kardashian took a trip to France for Paris Fashion Week for a few days, leaving her 3-month-old daughter, North West, at home for the first time.

There's nothing like the bond between a mother and child, and not surprisingly, the 32-year-old reality star missed her baby. On Friday, Kardashian shared the second known photo of North with the public via Instagram and wrote, "I missed waking up with my little angel."

North is just too cute with those humongous eyes, and we can't wait to see her in all those adorable designer outfits her parents were gifted last week.

The first photo of Nori, as she's been nicknamed, was shared by Kanye West when he appeared on Kris Jenner's talk show in August.

Madonna penned an essay in Harper's Bazaar's "Daring Issue" for November, and in it, she recounts a horrifying story about her early years in New York.

In the essay, Madonna conjures up her early years as a daring nonconformist, attests to her "strangeness" and says she didn't have very many friends. She then explains she moved to New York to become a "REAL artist ... To be able to express myself in a city of nonconformists. To revel and shimmy and shake in a world and be surrounded by daring people."

What followed was something more horrible than she had ever expected:

    New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don't know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time.

Though she admits nothing in her Rochester, Mich., upbringing had prepared her for her experiences at the time, Madonna says that in New York she "felt like I had plugged into another universe. I felt like a warrior plunging my way through the crowds to survive. Blood pumping through my veins, I was poised for survival. I felt alive."

She recaps her essay by coming full circle with the Big Apple. "[H]ere I am, divorced and living in New York," Madonna writes. "I have been blessed with four amazing children. I try to teach them to think outside the box. To be daring. To choose to do things because they are the right thing to do, not because everybody else is doing them."

Surprisingly, this isn't the first time Madonna has chosen to relive that difficult story. In a 1995 interview with New Musical Express, Madonna revealed for the first time that she was raped at the beginning of her music career, according to the Chicago Tribune. "Although it was devastating at the time, I know that it made me a much stronger person in retrospect. It forced me to be a survivor," she told the British magazine.

Katy Perry has said that she will “turn into more of a Joni Mitchell” as her career progresses.

The singer is set to release her new album ‘Prism’ on October 28 but, in an interview with Billboard, she claimed she was planning on swapping her trademark pop sound for a folkier direction in the future.

“I love Madonna to death, but she’s never going to give me that damn baton,” she said. “I’ll probably turn into more of a Joni Mitchell. As I inch towards my 30s, I think my fourth record will be more of an acoustic guitar album. That’s where I started when I was first discovered by Glen Ballard and got my first record deal.”

She added: ‘We’ll see ‘I can’t get ahead of myself. I’m still doing the work: I’m a good balance of left and right brain, and to be an artist with a long career, you’ve got to have both. One thing John [Mayer] said to me was, ‘It’s harder maintaining success than finding it.’ I’ve got a few records under my belt, and I still feel like a brand new artist. People still want that truth to cut through.”

Perry is expected to debut new material from ‘Prism’ this evening, as she plays the closing night of this year’s iTunes Festival at London’s Roundhouse. Previously, she has unveiled the lead single from the LP, ‘Roar’, which spent a fortnight at Number One on the UK’s Official Singles Chart, and she recently previewed another track from the album called ‘Dark Horse’

Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse are often hailed as music legends whose lives were taken from us far too soon. Gene Simmons begs to differ.

The Kiss frontman says just because Cobain and Winehouse were acclaimed musicians who died young does not mean they're icons. His remarks, made during an interview with UK's Team Rock Radio, were part of a larger tirade bemoaning the state of rock music.

"Let me see -- Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and just on and on," Simmons said, listing name he feels qualify as legends. "And through the '70s, Aerosmith, Kiss, Led Zeppelin. Now from 1984 until today, name one superstar that's bigger than their music, and not just somebody that's recorded one or two records, but another Queen or another AC/DC? None, you can't name one.

"Kurt Cobain -- no, that's one or two records. That's not enough. Amy Winehouse -- that's one or two records. That's not enough. What, just 'cause you died, that makes you an icon?

Warner Bros.’ $80 million thriller Gravity demonstrated some major pull on its opening day at the box office. The film, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as stranded astronauts, scored a tremendous $17.5 million on its first day, which puts the film on pace for a weekend in the $50 million range.

Gravity will almost certainly become the best opening weekend ever for both of its stars, surprassing Bullock’s $39 million start for The Heat earlier this year and Clooney’s $42.9 million debut for Batman & Robin in 1997. It looks like Warner Bros.’ bold, stylish ad campaign has paid off.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 held up alright in second place, dipping 49 percent from its first Friday. The former box office champion grossed $4.7 million, which puts it on pace for a $20 million sophomore frame and a $59 million total by Sunday night.

Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake’s crime drama Runner Runner didn’t inspire many crowds to run to the theater. Fox’s $30 million film grossed an awful $2.8 million from 3,026 theaters, yielding a sad $909 location average. The poorly reviewed title will finish the weekend with about $7.5 million.

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Prisoners and Don Jon rounded out the Top 5, grossing $1.7 million and $1.4 million respectively. Prisoners may add another $5.5 million to it’s cume, while Don Jon may have to settle for an underwhelming $4.2 million.

1. Gravity – $17.5 million
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 – $4.7 million
3. Runner Runner – $2.8 million
4. Prisoners – $1.7 million
5. Don Jon – $1.4 million

Sony seems to be geared up to officially launch another mid-range smartphone, the Xperia C for the Indian market. The device is currently available online for Rs. 20,490 on Saholic, while it is up for pre-order on Flipkart with the same pricing. Both the ecommerce sites have mentioned that the device will be available from second week of October. The Xperia C was officially unveiled earlier this year at the Mobile Asia Expo.

The Sony Xperia C is the first smartphone from the Japanese handset giant to be based on quad-core MediaTek MTK6589 processor; clocked at 1.2GHz. It comes with 5-inch TFT LCD qHD (540x960 pixel) display and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It includes 1GB of RAM and 4GB of inbuilt storage, which can be further expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. The Sony Xperia C is a dual-SIM smartphone (GSM+GSM) with dual standby.

The Xperia C sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with Exmor R sensor. The rear camera comes with features like face detection and Sweep Panorama, and is also capable of shooting videos in full-HD (1080p) mode. There is a 0.3-megapixel front camera onboard also. Connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. The smartphone will be available in White, Black and Purple colour options.

Other features on the Sony Xperia C include motion-gaming, FM radio with RDS, Walkman app and 'screen mirroring'. The device is backed by a 2330mAh battery, which the company claims can deliver up to 10 hours of talktime and up to 588 hours of standby time.

The 81-year-old icon, who rose to fame as the host of the "American Top 40" countdown, has not had contact with family and friends in ages, according to TMZ. Kasem's children, Kerri, Mike and Julie, have purportedly tried to get in touch with him for three months, but to no avail. His wife, Jean, is reportedly behind the issue.

On Tuesday, Oct. 1, Kasem's kids staged a protest outside his Holmby Hills, Los Angeles estate with his brother, friends and former business associates, KABC reported. Kerri told the network Jean refuses to answer their calls and tells them to go away when they try to visit the home, despite the fact that their father's condition is "deteriorating."

"I've got a feeling I might not see him again, and that's why I'm here," Kasem's brother, Mouner, who hasn't seen the star in a year, told KABC.

Kerri told the New York Daily News that she and her siblings aren't interested in money, although they are not named as beneficiaries in their dad's will. They have good jobs and personal trust funds, and are only concerned about Kasem's well-being.

"My dad is very sick, and we have been completely shut off from him for the last three months," the 41-year-old told the Daily News. "There is no money issue here, we just want to see our dad. We love him, and everyone knows his kids and grandkids are a source of joy for him."

Jean allegedly called police on Tuesday in an attempt to get the protesters away from the house, TMZ reported.

Perhaps no other beach in the world plays host to so much worldwide hotness as Miami Beach. I remain committed to getting my lazy, but avariciously ogling self down to the South of Florida quite soon to take in these international sights through my eye owns. Feast the peeps upon the likes of Brazilian model Danielly Silva preening about in her bikini on Miami Beach.

She is just so wicked fine, a prime example of the Brazilian hot model factory works that seems to push out greater and greater looking women, year after year.

Lorde took the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for her song "Royals" this week, making her the youngest artist to do so in 26 years.

The 16-year-old singer, who was born in New Zealand, rose to the top of the chart from holding the No. 2 spot last week. She topped Katy Perry, whose "Roar" took the No. 2 spot this week, and Miley Cyrus, who came in third with her latest, "Wrecking Ball."

According to Billboard, Lorde is the youngest singer to take the top spot on the Hot 100 since 1987 when 16-year-old Tiffany did so with her earworm "I Think We're Alone Now."

Industry veteran Stevie Wonder holds the honor of the youngest artist ever to hit No. 1, taking the title at the age of 13 for 1963's "Fingertips - Part 2." Lorde comes in behind the youngest female singer to reach this success, 15-year-old Little Peggy March who hit No. 1 in 1963 with "I Will Follow Him."

This isn't the first honor that Lorde has earned with the release of her hit single "Royals." Earlier this year, she became the first woman to top Billboard's Alternative Songs Chart in 17 years.

After signing a record deal with Universal Music Group at the age of 13, Lorde released her debut studio album, "Pure Heroine," in September.

"I've seen people compare me to just about every female slightly alt[ernative] female musician because people feel the need to put females with other females, which I guess I understand, but I think I'm different because my music is accessible, but it's also smart and those are two things that don't often go together musically," Lorde told HuffPost in July. "I think it's probably because I'm an Internet kid. I'm watching 'Adventure Time' but I'm also reading Allen Ginsberg. I'm a mesh of references -- fun and smart? I don't know where I'd put myself. I'd like to think I'm doing something different."