100 HRS.

9^th November, 2013

THE HEADLINES

• External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid likely to head the Indian delegation to CHOGM   in Sri Lanka; Prime Minister  may skip the summit. 
• Supreme Court stays Gauhati High court verdict holding setting up of CBI unconstitutional.
• Election Commission  bans exit polls till all  five assembly elections are over .
• Mohamed Nasheed takes early lead in  Madives presidential election.
• Over 1,200 people killed in Haiyan typhoon in the Philippines.
• In Sports:Indian women's hockey team bags silver in Asian Champions Trophy tournament at Kakamigahara, Japan. 
• Viswanathan Anand, draws with Magnus Carlsen in the opening match of the world chess championship in Chennai.

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External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is most likely to head the Indian delegation at the CHOGM Summit to be held in Sri Lanka next week. The Prime Minister is likely skip the summit. He is expected to write to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa by tomorrow about his decision. The decision comes in the backdrop of  the opposition by parties in Tamil Nadu as well as a section within the Congress alleging that the Sri Lankan government had committed gross violation of human rights and had no plans to devolve powers to the ethnic Tamils.

However, there is no official announcement over Singh's decision to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit to be held on the 15th and 16th of this month.

The MEA spokesperson had earlier said, in 10 summit level meetings since 1993, the Prime Minister represented India five times while on four occasions, ministers had headed the Indian delegation. There was one instance of the Vice President representing India. He said New Delhi  focused on what is required for India's national interest, its  foreign policy priorities and  international obligations.

              

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The Supreme court has stayed the Gauhati High court verdict holding the setting up of the CBI as unconstitutional. The Apex court stayed the operation of the High Court's Wednesday order after it was challenged by the centre today. The two Judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjana Desai observed that the judgement of the High court has to be stayed as the accused in two sensational cases have sought stay of the trial. They said they are also concerned with all other CBI cases.

The Apex court rejected the preliminary objection that the Department of Personnel and Training is not authorised to file an appeal in the matter. The bench said they will consider and go through the appeal filed by the Centre. The court also issued notice to the petitioner on whose plea the High Court had passed the judgement and  posted the matter for hearing on the 6th of next month.

Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati earlier told the court that the High Court's reasoning that the DSPE Act not being applicable to the CBI is twisted logic.

The High court  in its verdict had  said that the formation of Central Bureau of Investigation is invalid as it was constituted through a government resolution.

The Apex court heard the appeal at an extraordinary sitting at the residence of the Chief Justice of India.

   

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In Chhattisgarh, campaigning for the 18 assembly segments going to the polls in the first phase on November the 11th came to an end this evening. These include all the 12 constituencies of Bastar division and six constituencies of  Rajnandgaon division. Majority of these segments face a Maoist problem.

Tight security arrangements are in place in all these areas. More than 70,000 security forces have been deployed in entire Bastar division to ensure free and fair elections. Eight helicopters have been deployed to airlift polling staff in 192 polling stations across the division in the inaccessible areas. Besides, 167 polling stations have been shifted to safer locations. An air ambulance has also been kept ready in Raipur to meet any exigency. Meanwhile, security forces have recovered one bomb in Maoist affected Kanker district during a search operation. Vikalp Shukla, AIR News,Raipur.
   

The Prime Minister and senior congress leader Dr.Manmohan Singh has slammed BJP leaders for using bad language against political rivals. He was  addressing party workers in Raipur today. His remarks come in the back drop of BJP leader Narendra Modi's unrelenting attack against congress leaders. Dr. Singh said this does not  bring any dignity to the opposition party. He said no party should follow the route of cheap publicity.

Dr Manmohan Singh also crticised the BJ P government in Chhattisgarh for the deteriorating security situation in the state.

Security situation has worsened in Chhattisgarh in BJP rule.  Providing security to Aam Admi is a basic responsibility of any government, but Chhattisgarh BJP government has failed to discharge the responsibility.

BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani  said in election meetings in Bilaspur and Bhatapara  that his party is seeking peoples’ support for development.

The government of Chhattisgarh under the leadership of Dr. Raman Singh deserves applause for the PDS system.  Chhattisgarh PDS model should be adopted by all states of the country for better distribution.

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In Madhya Pradesh too, the scrutiny of nominations papers for the state legislative assembly took place today. At least 430 nominations were found invalid due to technical reasons.

During the scrutiny, Congress candidate Kamal Parmar’s nomination was found invalid from Aalot constituency of Ratlam district. Mr. Parmar had not furnished all the required information in his nomination papers. Ajeet Borasi, son of Member of Parliament Premchand Guddu, who had filed nomination from Aalot as dummy candidate of Congress has been declared as Congress candidate by the returning officer. On the other hand Congress has registered a complaint of violation of the model code of conduct in the Election Commission against an advertisement of BJP that used a picture of army. Shariq Noor, AIR News,Bhopal.

               

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In Rajasthan, 302 candidates filed their nomination papers today for the Assembly Elections so far in the state. 539 candidates have filed their nominations for the 200 Assembly seats.  Our correspondent reports that many prominent candidates filed their nomination papers today from various constituencies.

Today Ministers and parliamentary secretaries Aimamuddin Ahmed Khan,Vinod Kumar,Amin Khan,Dilip Chaudhary and Vinod Kumar filed their nomination papers from Congress while prominent candidates of BJP who filed nominations today are Digambar Singh,Narpat Singh Rajvi,Siddhi Kumari and Sri Chand Kriplani.State BSP President Doongar Ram Gaidar filed nomination from Suratgarh Constituency. some rebels of BJP also filed nominations ,BJP MLA Anil Jain filed his nomination as National Peoples Party candidate from Khanpur..Anurag Vajpeyi, AIR News,Jaipur.

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With the issue of notification for Assembly Polls in Delhi today, as many as 7 candidates  filed their nominations on the first day of nomination process. It will  continue till  16th of this month.  Our correspondent reports that the polling for 70 member Assembly is scheduled to  be held  on the 4th of next month.

 Nomination centers have been set up at  all districts headquarters in the national capital to deal with the rush of nomination filing. The Chief Electoral Office has deployed General observers in all  constituencies besides  18 expenditure Observers to  keep a close watch on the violators of Model Code of Conduct to  ensure free and fair elections. Besides, the election office is also conducting awareness campaign in various parts of the city to ensure maximum participation of voters during elections. The political parties are now busy finalisng the list of their candiates with the begining of nomination process.  Sant Bahadur AIR News Delhi

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In Mizoram, with all the 142 candidates having been cleared in the Scrutiny  today, the battle lines are drawn for the assembly election in the state.

Key contestants of the ruling congress  include the Chief Minister Lalthanhawla , Finance Minister H.Liansailova, and Home Minister R.Lalzirliana amongst others.  The rulling party is relying on strategies te cater to" generation next' by projecting younger leaders.The opposition alliance is spear-heading by the former Chief Minister and MNF  party President Zoramthanga and other party leaders. The main agenda for the opposition is promising the poor for more  financial package in the state.Jonathan L Hnamte, AIR News,Aizawl.

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The Election Commission has banned the publication and dissemination of exit polls of any kind in the five poll bound states from  11th November to  4th December. The Commission sent the orders to Chief Electoral Officers of the   poll-bound states of
Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Delhi.
   

The exit polls will be banned from 7 A.M on November 11 when polling in the first phase of Chhattisgarh starts till 5:30 PM on December 4 when the Delhi Assembly polls end.

Channels are also prohibited from telecasting interviews of voters after they cast their votes.

The Commission has also banned the publication of results of any opinion polls 48 hours before polling in a state.

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Early trends from counting of votes in the Madives presidential election show that Mohamed Nasheed of Maldivian Democratic Party is leading. But, he may fall short of outright victory. Counting of votes is on and the preliminary results are  expected by midnight tonight. 

In a three cornered contest, former President Nasheed faces Abdulla Yameen and Gasim Ibrahim. In case none of the three candidates get over 50 percent of the total votes cast today, a runoff will be held tomorrow between the winner and the runner-up.

Voting started on a sluggish note, and rains across the island nation also dampened the spirit of the voters. But by afternoon, long queues were seen across most of the polling stations. Maldivian Democratic Party has congratulated the Election Commission for conducting the election and appealed to all political parties to respect the will of the people. Transparency Maldives, an independent group of election observers have certified that the polling was free, fair and smooth across the country.Abhishek Dayal, AIR News.      

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The Red Cross says more than 1,200 people are confirmed dead as Haiyan, one of the most powerful-ever tropical typhoons, blows through the Philippines. The local authorities initially underestimated casualties by at least ten times. The Philippines Red Cross has announced that at least 1,000 could have been killed by Haiyan in central Tacluban city and the region around it alone. In the neighboring Samar province 200 are declared dead said the Red Cross.

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An Air India flight from New Delhi  to New York with 253 people on board was diverted to Tashkent today due to a medical emergency. The plane was diverted after a purser fell ill seriously.
 

An airline spokesperson said in New Delhi that while landing at the Uzbekistan capital, the  Boeing 777 aircraft suffered a tyre burst  and was grounded. But, no one was injured.  On landing, the purser was immediately taken to hospital. Air India has rushed a relief plane from Mumbai.            

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The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has announced an interim assistance of  one thousand  crore rupees  each for Andhra Pradesh and Odisha for relief and rehabilitation work in the  cyclone Phailin affected areas.  However, the total quantum of assistance to the states will be finalized after on-the spot assessment report of the Inter-Ministerial Central Team.

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Finance Minister P.Chidambaram has warned of stern action against service tax offenders. He said in Chennai   that the government has enough information on economic wrongdoers and warned the offenders of tough action, including arrest. He said the government has to send a stern message, that such violations cannot go unpunished. Chidambaram said the government will also 'very closely' focus on sectors prone to chronic service tax evasion like consultancy, IT and real estate.

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The Indian women's hockey team bagged silver in the Asian Champions Trophy tournament at Kakamigahara, Japan today.  The team lost to hosts Japan by a solitary goal in the summit clash of the event .

India conceded an early goal when Otsuka Shiho converted  a penalty corner for Japan in the second minute of the match. The Indians had a chance to equalise in the eighth minute when they earned their first penalty corner, only to waste it.
 

The Indian defence led by goalkeeper Savita played a superb game. Japan earned three more penalty corners in the next 10 minutes but the Indian defence stood tall to deny the home team any further opening in the first half.

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Defending champion Viswanathan Anand, playing with Black pieces, drew with Magnus Carlsen in the opening match of the world chess championship in Chennai today. Game one  went on for one hour and twenty-two minutes and both competitors played 16 moves each before a draw was declared.

With every match worth a single point, both players take half point each. Both players Anand and the 22-year-old Carlsen will play 12 matches over 20 days to decide the winner. Head-to-head ahead of today's clash, Anand leads the Norwegian 6-3.

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In Uttarakhand, the mercury plummeted sharply following snowfall in the higher reaches and rain  in the Garhwal and Kumaon hills in the last 3 days. This has resulted in cold wave conditions in most parts of the hill areas.