0815 HRS
18th February, 2013

THE HEADLINES:

• Prime Minister offers talks and appeals to trade unions to withdraw their proposed two-day strike.
• Repolling underway at one booth in Kakrabon-salgora Assembly constituency in Tripura.
• Uttar Pradesh government orders judicial probe into February 10 stampede at Allahabad Railway Station.
• Rajasthan government announces relief package for farmers affected by recent hailstorm.
• Sixty more people tested positive for swine flu in Delhi.
• British Prime Minister arrives on a 3-day state visit to India today; Says relations between the two countries will be one of the great partnerships of the 21st century.
• Australia clinch Women's World Cup Cricket title, beating West Indies by 114 runs.
• And Victoria Azarenka wins Qatar Open Tennis, beating Serena Williams in Doha.

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The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has offered talks and appealed to the trade unions to withdraw their proposed two-day countrywide strike from the 20th of this month. Dr. Singh said the strike will cause loss to the economy and inconvenience to the public. The Prime Minister said, he has asked senior ministers AK Antony, Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge and P Chidambaram to hold discussions with the trade unions. He expressed the confidence that the discussions will result in the course of action that is acceptable to both the trade unions and the government. The Prime Minister said, some of the issues raised by the trade unions are already being acted upon and others are at various stages of consideration.

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Repolling is underway in Kakrabon H S School polling booth under Kakrabon-Salgora Assembly constituency of Tripura. State Election Department said, adequate security arrangement has been made for smooth conduct of polling. The Election Commission had ordered repolling following the malfunctioning of EVM during the voting on Thursday. The counting of votes will be held on the 28^{th this month.}

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The Uttar Pradesh government last night ordered a judicial probe into the stampede at Allahabad railway station on 10th February in which 37 Kumbh pilgrims were killed. State Principal Secretary (Home) R M Srivastava said in Lucknow that retired judge Justice Onkeshwar Bhatt will head the probe and will submit his report within two months.

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The Rajasthan government has announced a relief package for the families affected by the recent hailstorm. Small, marginal and other farmers, who have suffered 50 per cent crop damage, will be provided agricultural input-grant. More from our correspondent:

Rabi crop in more than 10 districts was badly affected due to hailstorm. Crop of onion, isabgol, garlic and other spices was also almost ruined in western and southern districts. Now the Government has decided to stop land recovery in affected villages and waved 4 months agriculture electricity bills also in these areas. Contract farmers will also be included in the relief package. The recovery of the short term loan will also be postponed and it will be converted into medium term loans. The state government has directed concerned district officials to present online demand for budget to provide compensation to the farmers. Anurag Vajpeyi, AIR News, Jaipur.

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Sixty more people tested positive for the H1N1 virus yesterday, taking the total number of swine flu cases in the capital to 420 this year. With the death of two more people on Saturday, the number of people succumbing to the virus has reached nine. The Delhi government has designated 23 hospitals in the city for treatment of swine flu patients.

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The budget session of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assemblies begins today. While the Madhya Pradesh assembly will have 24 sittings, the Chhattisgarh assembly will have 25 sittings. The budget session of both the assemblies will end on the 22nd of next month. The 45 day long Budget session of Bihar legislature also begins today.

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President Pranab Mukherjee will present the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2011 to noted social activist Ela Ramesh Bhatt at Rashtrapati Bhavan today. She is the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India, SEWA. 79 year old Bhatt has been a part of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements. An international jury, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, selected Ela Bhatt for the award, set up by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

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Goa is on the verge of an Internet revolution with the infrastructure for total e governance ready. Goa broadband Network is available in every village panchayat and government office. The state has laid 1500 kilometre optic fibre line with a speed of up to 10 GB available. Nilesh Phal-desai, Director, Information technology said more than 2,000 government offices are connected to the internet and the state is now poised to run services throughout the Internet. Our correspondent has filed this report:

Beginning from 2009 the state government has brought all 189 village panchayats, mamlatdar offices, district collect orates, courts, all government schools, tourism offices, fire and police stations and hospitals in the ambit of digital connect. All citizens in villages today can get their birth and death certificates and copies of the land records at the village panchayat’s internet connected office itself. For this work the state established the Goa broadband network in the PPP mode with a private R&D company. As government departments usher their own service content on the net most citizens will be able to benefit from the government schemes and services. Gopal Chippalkatti,for AIR News from Panaji Goa.

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News updates on SMS will now be available on a new short Code. SMS AIRNEWS and send it to 56060.

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A CBI team comprising a senior investigating officer and a law officer is set to leave for Italy to investigate the 3,600 crore rupee VVIP chopper deal. It will also investigate whether firms were floated in India just to route kickbacks in the deal with Italian defence company Agusta Westland. Official sources said the departure of the team was delayed due to some last-minute formalities required to be fulfilled before traveling abroad for the purpose of investigation. The CBI team is also expected to meet the Italian prosecutors to ascertain the details of the case. The Defence Ministry has also deputed senior Joint Secretary A K Bal to visit Italy to gather evidence related to the allegations of corruption in the case.

The judge of the Italian court told the Indian embassy in Rome that his office would consider a fresh request for the details and documents of the probe from the Indian side once the secrecy obligations get over. Earlier, the court had rejected the Indian request.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron will arrive on a 3-day state visit to India today. Accompanied by a large official business delegation, he will hold comprehensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues. An official press release says, Mr Cameron will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee during his stay.

Before landing in New Delhi tomorrow, Cameron along with his delegation would be spending a night in Mumbai where he will attend a business meet and place a wreath at the police memorial.

Ahead of the visit, the UK Prime Minister said he wanted the relationship between Britain and India to be one of the great partnerships of the 21st century.

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The first meeting of the India-UAE High Level Task Force Meeting on Investment takes place in Abu Dhabi today. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will co-chair the meeting with UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, Sheikha Lubna Bin Khalid Al Qasimi. More from our correspondent:

The First India-UAE High Level Task force meeting on investment will explore the opportunities for private and public enterprises from the two countries to invest in each other’s economies. Indian team consists of leading Infrastructure financing institutions and banks in India such as IIFCL, ONGC-Videsh Ltd. , IL&FS, State Bank of India, HSBC, Bank of Baroda, Deutsch Bank along with a high level FICCI delegation of business leaders led by Rajan Bharati Mittal. The task force meeting is expected to give a further push to bilateral investment between India and UAE. Atul Tiwary, Air News, Dubai

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Australia clinched their sixth Women's World Cup title after they comfortably defeated the West Indies by a huge margin of 114 runs in the final at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai last evening. Needing 260 to win, the Caribbeans were bundled out for 145 runs in 43.1 overs, miserably failing to recover from Perry's early three-wicket burst. Batting first, Australia rode on Jessica Cameron's quick-fire 75 and a half-century by Rachael Haynes to post a challenging 259 for seven.

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Victoria Azarenka has won the Qatar Open Tennis title defeating Serena Williams. In a hard fought three setter in Doha, she edged past the World Number One Serena Williams 7-6, 2-6, 6-3 to win the title. The outcome of the victory will not have any bearing on the new World number One ranking for Serena Williams since she is way ahead in terms of points over Azarenka.

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The WTA Women’s Championship gets underway in Dubai today. The tournament features an array of nine out of world’s top 10 women’s tennis players sweating it out for the title. Billed as the greatest tennis show in the Middle East it will feature the new World number One, Serena Williams, number two Victoria Azarenka, number three Maria Sharapova as well as former Grand Slam winners Petra Kvitova, Li Na, Ana Ivanovic and Samantha Stosur, and defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska.

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The News Services Division of All India Radio in its weekly Public Speak programme will bring you a discussion tonight on Religious belief and scientific temperament. This can be heard on FM Gold Channel and additional frequencies at 9.30 p.m. Listeners can ask questions to the experts sitting in our studio on telephone number: 2331-4444. This programme will also be available on Doordarshan DTH.

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NEWSPAPER HEADLINES 

The controversial Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter deal continues to dominate the front pages of all the newspapers. Hindustan Times reports that Ex-minister Santosh Bagrodia's brother Satish Bagrodia is on the board of Directors of IDS Infotech Ltd., which Italian investigators allege was a key vehicle in routing the Agusta Westland deal bribe money to India in the garb of false software and engineering contracts. The Asian Age says that Defence Minister Antony had expressed concern in 2008-09 on going ahead with the deal.

"Katju and Jaitley in war of words over Modi" under that headline the statement reports BJP leader Arun Jaitley saying that Mr. Katju's attacks on non-Congress governments are more in the nature of "thanks-giving" to those who provided him with a post-retirement job.

The Pioneer reports that Maldives has summoned Indian High Commissioner in Male, DM Mulay and lodged a protest against former Maldivian President Nasheed's refuge in the Indian mission there.

Though not getting into the issue of Prime Ministership, the BJP is set to make Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi the head of its 2014 campaign committee, writes the Indian Express.

A lead story in The Financial Express says that the bulk diesel sales have declined a sharp 30% since prices were deregulated last month, with bulk consumers making a beeline to buy diesel in retail, threatening to mar the prospect of subsidy being reduced at the desired pace.

The Indian Express reports that undergraduate students of Delhi University's Kirorimal College and the Cluster Innovation Centre are building a robot which can undertake mining activities on the Moon.

Do you love junk food? if you do, you might want to give it a second thought. The Times of India writes that according to a new study, eating junk food is not just bad for your waistline, it can also damage your liver in a way similar to hepatitis.