Senior BJP leader L K Advani today said his party's relentless efforts have evolved into a "bi-polar polity" and no party can form the next government at the Centre without support from either his party or the Congress.        

Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today exhorted party worker sto translate the hopes reposed by people in the party into victory.        

In a repeat of the balloting in September, former President Mohammed Nasheed today failed to clinch an outright majority in the first round of the presidential re-vote in the Maldives, setting up a run-off with runner-up Abdulla Yameen.        

With the Centre announcing an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for relief in the wake of the destruction caused by cyclone Phailin,the Odisha government today said the assistance came "too late", even as Union Minister Srikant Jena thanked the Centre for the move.       

Aiming to reach out to the maximum number of people ahead of the Delhi assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal will start a 22-day Jhadu Chalao Yatra from Sunday, covering all 70 constituencies.        "

Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde today said he would not "mediate" between senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi and party president Uddhav Thackeray.        

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka next week.        

Campaigning for the first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly elections, scheduled to be held on November 11, came to an end today evening in the southern part of the state, which saw high-profile visits by national leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi.       

Union Minister for Science and Technology S Jaipal Reddy today asserted that Hyderabad would not become a Union Territory following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh .        

The Election Commission has banned the publication and dissemination of exit polls of any kind in the five poll bound states from November 11 till December 4, till the assembly elections are over.        

BJP President Rajnath Singh has said Bihar police officials had requested him and the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on October 27 not to address the rally in Patna, but they decided to go ahead as cancelling the programme would have led to riots in the state.     

A 12-year-old girl was burnt alive allegedly by two youths when she resisted their attempt to rape her in a village in Kotwali area in Lalitpur, UP.        

Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has alleged that  police are not providing him adequate security, and there is an increased threat to his and his family members' lives from the "right-wing fundamentalists and the supporters of (Narendra) Modi".     

After soaking in the pressure and being immersed in preparation for months, defending champion Viswanathan Anand today said he felt relieved that his World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen started today. but his rival was not too pleased with first day's proceedings.     

The Samajwadi Party today said the BJP's dreams of coming to power at the Centre after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections would prove to be a "mirage" and it would disappear soon.        

As protests continued in Tamil Nadu demanding India's boycott of the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka next week, MDMK leader Vaiko today urged traders to shut shops on November 12, demanding the expulsion of the island nation from the 53-member grouping.   

Five top BNP leaders were arrested in Bangladesh ahead of a nationwide shutdown to push for the restoration of a neutral caretaker set-up to oversee the next general elections, prompting the opposition to increase the duration of the strike from 72 to 84 hours.        

As winter sets in, China is once again witnessing a surge in cases of deadly H7N9 bird flu that has claimed 45 lives in the country in the past few months.        

The government should take steps to give the CBI a 'constitutional shape' in the wake of the Gauhati high court order, as it has serious implications for the "very important agency," Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said.    

A US court has reserved its decision on whether a Sikh rights group should be given more time to serve summons to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in a case accusing him of human rights violations.        

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who met Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro at an event in Bambolim, Goa, said it was a joy and honour to spend time with the Hollywood star.        

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said US investment bank Goldman Sachs should not be commenting on political matters.        

Counting of votes has started after balloting concluded peacefully in the controversy-ridden presidential polls in the Maldives today under the watchful eyes of the Elections Commission and security agencies.        

The Supreme Court has stayed Gauhati high court order which termed the CBI unconstitutional and illegal. The next hearing is on December 6. "The Gauhati high court order that declared CBI as illegal is invalid," it said.

The top court has also issued notices to the home ministry and the CBI seeking their response on the high court order.

The Centre had moved the Supreme Court this morning and sought a stay on it contending that the verdict will adversely impact thousands of criminal cases pending across the country.   

Congress MLA Rabindranath Chattopadhyay filed a written complaint at Katwa policestation today demanding immediate action as per law against Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal for threatening hisparty workers.       

Chattopadhyay told PTI Mondal's statement has created panic among the Congress workers and immediate action should betaken against him. He is the Congress MLA of Katwa.       

Mondal, Birbhum district president of TMC and the party's observer for Burdwan, had on November 6 during a party programme here threatened to chop off the hands of Congress workers if they tried to damage hoardings of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee or TMC or its flags.

The first game of the f the World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen has ended in a draw.

Hitting out at the Raman Singh government, the PM said, "The BJP does not deserve to come to power. They did not make good use of central funds allocated to Chhattisgrah. We need to be beware of communal forces like the BJP."

"The BJP only talks loudly from big states. This means nothing. The BJP is short on facts and big on rhetoric," he said. 

British royal couple, Prince Charles and wife Camilla who are on a nine-day visit to India, today paid tributes to victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Their Royal Highnesses laid a wreath to commemorate victims of the Mumbai terrorist attack, sources in the British Deputy High Commission said.

Tata Group Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata and Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry were present at the event held at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

Earlier, the royal couple visited a mobile crche here and toured the classrooms. They met children, parents and staff. The Prince of Wales also met senior business leaders for a round table discussion about corporate social responsibility. Those present included Anand Mahindra, Swati Piramal and Chanda Kochar.

Talking about the attack on Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh, the PM said, "I condole the deaths of Congressmen. It was an attack on democracy." 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses a rally in poll-bound Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Here are the highlights of his speech:

The BJP has failed to develop the state of Chhattisgarh. There is law and order problem in the state

Congress will not bow down to the threat posed by Naxals.

Taking a pot shot at Modi, he said that the Congress will not use bad language. It will never resort to cheap politics.

There was maximum development in the state in the last nine years of the UPA rule.         

BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi spent three hours at dinner meeting at the residence of Piyush Goyal, the BJP national treasurer recently. These two leaders discussed the funding and other related issues keeping in mind the 2014 polls, reports our Delhi correspondent. 

President Pranab Mukherjee will deliver a lecture to the top Intelligence Bureau officials in Delhi on December 18, on the occasion of Raising Day. This is the first time a president is delivering an address to IB officials, reports our Delhi correspondent. 

There has been a flurry of activities in central government offices in Delhi after it received a circular from the cabinet secretariat. Cabinet Secretariat has circulated a note to the Union ministries to avoid submitting files of their foreign tours from mid December. This strict instruction has been issued  before the implementation of the model code of conduct ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, according to our Delhi correspondent.

Our Delhi correspondent reports: The BJP has created three special cells for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. One unit will monitor speeches, movements and meetings of four former CBI directors who held office during UPA tenure, the second will keep an eye on the kin of Congress ministers who are now becoming extra constitutional authorities, while the third cell will focus on roles of IAS, IFS officers of the UPA regime. These three cells will function under a senior BJP leader in a posh bungalow in Delhi.

Reports our correspondent from New Delhi: A Delhi police inspector rejected a request by an Union minister to reopen a 2008 case so that a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader is implicated. The said Union minister ran from pillar to post, even approached senior law officers to get a legal opinion after the policeman turned down his request. "It is not in good taste that we reopen this closed case," was the law officer's legal opinion submitted to the minister. 

CNN-IBN reports: The Centre has decided that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won't go to Colombo to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet, say government sources.

Sources in the government say that the decision will be formally communicate to Sri Lanka in the next 24 hours through a letter. An announcement of the decision is likely after the PM calls the cabinet committee for political affairs meet on Sunday or Monday.

Sources in the government has confirmed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet in Colombo. External Affairs Minister Salman Khursid is likely to represent India at the meet, reports CNN-IBN.

The Bahujan Samaj Party will go it alone in the Lok Sabha elections, said Mayawati today. "The people don't prefer either the Congress or the BJP."

Mayawati's statement comes after reports of the Congress trying to woo her by allotting three sprawling bungalows in the heart of Delhi.    

The Centre has moved the Supreme Court against the Gauhati high court ruling which declared it unconstitutional. The Centre has sought a stay against the order and an urgent hearing on its petition.   

Three Nigerians, who were on a hunger strike in a jail here demanding their statements be recorded by Goa human rights panel, have ended their fast.

The strike was withdrawn last night after Goa Human Rights Commission members met them at Aguada Central Jail and recorded their statements, prison sources said today. However, it was not clear in what regard they gave their statements.

Anane Innocent, Olcoro Ndidi and Sunday Onye, who were amongst the 52 Nigerians arrested by police for blocking a highway in Goa and creating ruckus last week over a murder, were not eating food since Thursday, the sources said.

The Centre is all set to move the Supreme Court today against the Gauhati high court order declaring the Central Bureau of Investigation unconstitutional.

The move comes after Minister of State for PMO V Narayanaswamy met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal to discuss the issue yesterday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation  has questioned Deputy National Security Advisor and former Intelligence Bureau Chief Nehchal Sandhu in connection with Sadiq Jamal encounter in 2003 by the Gujarat crime branch.   

The CBI sources said Sandhu was questioned in New Delhi this week in connection with the encounter which allegedly occurred following a tip-off received from Intelligence Bureau officials.   

The sources said their probe has indicated that senior officials of the security agency might have been in loop aboutthe tip-off on the encounter making it necessary to question them.

US President Barack Obama reached out to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and updated him about the ongoing negotiations between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program while underscoring his strong commitment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Obama's telephone call to Netanyahu came as the Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced trip to Geneva to hold talks with the Iranian leadership and possibly give a final shape to the agreement on Tehran's nuclear weapons program.

The White House said, "The President provided the prime minister with an update on negotiations in Geneva and underscored his strong commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which is the aim of the ongoing negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran."

The top Republican leadership in the United States has congratulated Narendra Modi on being nominated as the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition (Bharatiya Janata Party), and has extended an invitation to address Congressional leaders and Indian Americans via satellite at the Capitol Hill.

"I want to congratulate you on winning the nomination of the BJP for Prime Minister of India," Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in a congratulatory message to Modi, ahead of the November 19 event.

Being billed as 'Bharat (India) Day on Capitol Hill' the day-long event is being hosted by House Republican Conference in the US House of Representatives - of which Congresswoman Rodgers is the chair - in association with Shalabh Kumar, who is chair Indian American Advisory Council.

A leader from the Trinamool Congress has threatened to chop off the hands of Congress workers if they tried to damage hoardings of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"If you (Congress workers) beat up Trinamool supporters and tear flags and posters of our party and Mamata Banerjee, then our supporters will cut off your wrists," Anubrata Mandal, the Birbhum district president of the Trinamool Congress, said while addressing a party programme in Burdwan district's Katwa area in West Bengal.

India now enjoys a stronger strategic partnership with Japan, deeper bilateral trade and economic ties with South Korea, and a comprehensive upgrade of bilateral relations with the Philippines.

 

In addition to the growing popularity of cultural products including Bollywood movies and yoga, as the world's largest democracy, India has a natural advantage over autocratic China in the soft power realm among some audiences.

 

Read Council on Foreign Relations expert Robert D Blackwill's take here

The Palestinian National Authority and Yasser Arafat's widow paid for the Swiss medical investigations that claimed the late Palestinian leader could have been poisoned with polonium, contradicting claims from Al Jazeera that the tests were conducted "pro bono.'

 

Read the explosive report on The Washington Free Beacon

Maulana Fazlullah was always the wild card. As Hakimullah Mehsud's last rites were being read, and emergency conclaves were being summoned across six other tribal agencies to deliberate upon the militant organization's future leadership and policy direction, it was expected that operational control of the TTP would remain with the organization's natural custodians '" the Mehsuds.

 

But the Mehsuds have increasingly become a house divided. Internal cohesion in the militant outfit was frayed first by the death of Wali-ur-Rehman in May, and then the sacking of longstanding party spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan in June after he suggested that the TTP and Afghan Taliban were separate entities. The capture of Hakimullah's close aide Latifullah Mehsud in Afghanistan's Logar province this October was another unexpected blow to the TTP's central command. That Latifullah was picked up, and not eliminated like so many others by surgical drone strikes, has augmented the possibility that the once trusted deputy may have played a part in providing actionable intelligence to the US about the TTP chief's movements. If correct, this is undisputedly symptomatic of deeper fissures colouring the group's social fabric.

 

Read Fahd Humayun's piece here

The final toll is expected to climb much higher as so many affected areas were cut off, said Mathias Eick, of the European commission's humanitarian aid department (Echo) in Manila.

 

Read more on The Guardian

George Perkovich on Carneigie Endowment for International Peace: "Tonight I want to very briefly describe the cloud of insecurity and potential nuclear war that darkens the horizon between Pakistan and India. Then I will summarize what I think are the five unprecedented structural features that produce the risks of conflict and that seriously complicate efforts to mitigate them. These structural characteristics are important for scholars to analyze and necessary for policy-makers to understand in trying to redress them"

Read the full article here

A Royal Marines sergeant faces life imprisonment after being found guilty of the cold-blooded battlefield murder of a seriously wounded Afghan insurgent. Two other marines were cleared of murder by a court martial board '" the military equivalent of a jury '" and have been allowed to return to their unit.

 

The court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, was told that the three marines, who can be identified only as Marines A, B and C, were part of a patrol tasked to deal with an insurgent hit in a helicopter attack in Helmand in September 2011.

 

After dragging him to the side of a field, Marine A shot him in the chest while he was still clearly alive. B and C were also accused of murder by dint of helping and encouraging A, but were cleared. They insisted they were shocked when A opened fire.

Read more on The Guardian

PM unlikely to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka

Rahul justifies his remarks, denies poll code violation

Congress using Indian Mujahideen to stop me: Modi

INFOGRAPHIC: Chhattisgarh polls phase 1 in numbers

'Ruling on CBI a disaster; prison gates will be left open'

Govt to move SC against Gauhati HC order on CBI

Discord out in open in Rajasthan BJP over candidates' list

Campa Cola residents handed eviction notice

EC bans political bulk SMSes 48 hrs prior to polling

Ex-convict arrested in China over serial blasts

Gen Kayani's successor to be named on Nov 28: Minister

Maldives geared up for tomorrow's presidential polls

Fire and smoke at Chandy's programme venue creates tension

Prince Charles, wife enjoy Garhwali feast; BJP leaders stay away

The NASA hand in India's Mars mission

Taliban warn of revenge attacks, rule out talks with govt

Five Indian-Americans make their mark in local polls

How BJP built its base in Chhattisgarh

Nigerians misuse educational schemes: Goan MP Shantaram Naik

PMO bureaucrat orchestrated Tatra scandal: Gen V K Singh

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