Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been listed as the world's most powerful, influential and contemporary Sikh, according to the first edition of the annual 'Sikh 100' published in London.

According to the list, the world's first comprehensive ranking of the most powerful, influential and contemporary Sikhs in the world brought out by the Sikh Directory, 81-year-old Manmohan Singh is "highly acclaimed as a thinker and a scholar".

"He is well regarded for his diligence and his academic approach to work, as well as his accessibility and his unassuming demeanour," a brief profile of Dr Singh read.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, 69, ranks as the second most powerful Sikh on the list, released last night.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz arrived in the national capital on Sunday to participate in the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Foreign Ministers meeting to be held here on November 11 and November 12.

Aziz would also meet External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on the sidelines of the ASEM Foreign Ministers meeting, to discuss the issue of frequent ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC).

The Foreign Advisor said that he hoped for peace along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

"We are also trying to maintain peace between the two countries," Aziz said.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin on Saturday said that for India and Pakistan to engage in talks, there should be peace and tranquility on the LoC.

BSF today foiled an infiltration bid along the International Border in Arnia sector of this district in Jammu and Kashmir and found heroin worth Rs 10 crore in the international market. 

Alert troops of Border Security Force noticed suspicious movement on the border at midnight, a BSF spokesman said. 

The troops saw two persons trying to throw something over the border fence from Pakistan side, he said, adding that they immediately alerted the adjoining nakas and fired on the suspicious persons.

The alleged intruders then fled towards Pakistan, taking advantage of thick growth of sarkanda and dense vegetation, he said.

At the first light, the whole area was thoroughly searched by the BSF troops, during which two packets, weighing approximately one kg each, were recovered, he said. 

After testing, the recovered substance was found to be heroin, he said.

Dismissing criticism of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Sunday defended the agency, saying it is a credible, independent organisation which should be respected.

"When people are not in power, they say such things. CBI is a credible, independent organisation. It should be respected," Shinde said at a function here after inaugurating RAF academy of Public Order, the country's first police academy for riot control and public order management.

The opposition BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi have alleged that CBI was being misused by the government to settle political scores. Adding to the string of controversies surrounding the CBI, the Gauhati high court has ruled the agency as unconstitutional, an order which has been stayed by the Supreme Court after the Centre challenged it.

Former Maldivian president Mohammed Nasheed today said it would be "unlawful" to take part in an election held under President Mohamed Waheed if he chooses to stay beyond his term which ends tonight. 

In yesterday's crucial re-vote, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) chief Nasheed emerged a winner but failed to clinch 50 per cent of the votes to avoid a run-off. 

The presidential run-off was due to take place today but the Indian Ocean island nation's top court delayed it until November 16 in a pre-dawn ruling. 

Speaking to the media for the first time after yesterday's presidential election, Nasheed said the constitution dictates that the presidency will expire at midnight tonight and that an election held with Waheed as president will not be legitimate.

"Dr Waheed, my vice president, will not continue as president. I believe that he stayed in power to maintain a government we formed together. Constitution clearly states the government will end. Partaking in an election with Waheed as president will be taking part in an unlawful election," Nasheed was quoted as saying by the Sun.

Narendra Modi does not have any compelling reason to visit the US but once he becomes India's Prime Minister and such a need arises, America will have to grant him visa, senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha said today. 

"Modi does not have any compelling reason to visit the US. It is not necessary that every decision by every government is always correct," Sinha told PTI when asked about the issue of the US denying visa to Modi. 

Modi was denied a US visa in 2005 on the ground of alleged human rights violations after the 2002 Gujarat riots and his existing tourist and business visa was revoked under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which makes a foreign government official responsible for severe violations of religious freedom ineligible for a travel document.

"America is the most powerful country in the world but with due respect we may or may not agree with all of its decisions," Sinha said, adding that given the technological advancements, Modi can address his American audience any time from India and does not need to visit the country personally.

Malayalam actress Shweta Menon, who had accused Congress MP N Peethambara Kurup of molesting her but later chose not to press the case, today rejected reports she had withdrawn the complaint under pressure from the film industry.

The 39-year-old artiste, who has essayed many memorable roles in a career spanning two decades, said she had acted the basis of the "public apology" from the politician and the advice of her father. 

Shweta said she met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy yesterday and narrated the harassment she had suffered during the President's Trophy boat race at Kollam on November 1. 

"Nobody either in the film field or outside had forced me withdraw the complaint (against Kurup). Oganisations like AMMA and FEFKA had offered me complete support during the time of controversy," Shweta told reporters at the Press Club here. 

Sticking to her justification for backing out from legal action, she said Kurup's "public apology" for hurting her sentiments was the only reason that forced her in the matter. 

A big one ton European satellite is about to fall out of orbit and is expected to hit the earth on Sunday night or early Monday, it has been revealed.

Jeffrey Kluger, editor-at-large for Time magazine told CBS News that people should be "a little bit worried, but not unduly so."

He said that whenever you have one ton of hardware coming down, no one knows where, that's not a good thing.

Kluger said that experts knew this was going to happen as it was flying low.

He said it only has a small, putt-putt ion engine on it that's good for fine maneuvers, but it's not good for getting it out of harm's way, so this one was definitely going to come down at some point or other.

The journalist said that the experts predict that this satellite could drop "at any arbitrary point on the surface of the world," but there is little worry of being hit because 70 percent of the world is water and of the 30 percent of the Earth that is land only a small percentage of that is inhabited. 

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has approved a proposal to assemble upgraded version of a military and civil helicopter in collaboration with Augusta Westland, a firm which is facing corruption inquiry in India. 

The FIPB in its meeting on September 19 approved the proposal of Indian Rotorcraft, which is a joint venture between Tata Sons (74 per cent) and Augusta Westland (26 per cent). 

As per the proposal the Indian Rotorcraft will assemble AW119Kx helicopters, an upgraded version of AW119Ke chopper. 

The company expects to commence production from March 2014. 

The issue of corruption charges on Augusta Westland's parent company Finmeccanica came up during the FIPB meeting and it was observed that "the issue which was being investigated related to helicopter model AW101 and not this proposal", sources said.

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.

The Commission sent the orders to Chief Electoral Officers of the poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Delhi.

According to reports, the exit polls will be banned from 7 am on Monday when polling for the first phase in Chhattisgarh starts till 5:30 pm on December 4 when the Delhi Assembly polls end.

The Congress Party had earlier written to the Election Commission to restrict opinion polls ahead of the elections. The legal department of the Congress Party stated that opinion polls can be misused, and they are not scientific or credible.

Cold wave in Kashmir including Ladakh region has intensified with Leh town registering season's lowest temperature at minus 9 degree Celsius, MeT Department said today.

"Leh town was the coldest recorded place in the state as last night as the mercury dipped from minus 5.2 degree Celsius to minus 9 degree Celsius," a MeT Department official said. 

Nearby  Kargil town recorded a low of minus 6 degree Celsius, a drop of 2 degree compared to previous night. 

In Gulmarg ski resort of north Kashmir, the mercury recorded a 1.7-degree drop to settle at a minimum of minus 5.5 degree Celsius, he said. 

The official said Pahalgam in south Kashmir also recorded a sub-zero temperature of minus 4.6 degree Celsius. 

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded a low of zero degree Celsius.

Ahead of Delhi assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party has collected around Rs 19 crore as donations from cross section of people, most of them are the first-time donors to a political party.

"We have collected around Rs 19 crore from donations from around 63,000 individuals belonging to cross section of society," said Pankaj Gupta, Party's National Secretary and in charge of Funding and donations.  

The party claimed to have received donations ranging from Rs 10 to several lakhs, from rickshaw-pullers to traders to industrialists to NRIs to help it fight the Delhi assembly polls and bring a "corruption-free" administration.

Our aim was to collect Rs 20 crore for Delhi assembly elections, and we would soon be achieving that target. Till the last week of September, we had collected around Rs 10 crore but within a span of a month, we have received Rs 9 crore as donations, he added.

The party has received Rs 13.18 crore from donors in India, while rest around Rs six crore from NRIs based in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, UAE and even Saudi Arabia.

Miss Venezuela Gabriela Isler was crowned Miss Universe 2013 in Moscow on Saturday night. The second place went to Miss Spain Patricia Yurena Rodriguez and third to Miss Ecuador Constanza Baez.

The 25-year-old defeated 86 contestants, including Miss India Manasi Moghe, who could only make her way to top ten, to clinch the crown.

The 62nd edition of the beauty pageant was judged by prominent faces like American singer -- songwriter Steven Tyler, Russian-born supermodel Anne Vyalitsyna, simply known as Anne V, American model and actress Carol Alt, chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, Farouk Shami- founder of the hair-care and spa products company, Farouk Systems and retired American figure skater Tara Lipinski. 

Isler started taking flamenco dancing lessons when she was a child, but says that her "real training" began when her niece was born. After finishing her thesis three years ago, Gabriela regularly helps her sister in taking care of her daughter, and even considers herself a second mother to the child. 

She currently works as a talent on the Venevision TV Network, but considers motherhood as the hardest profession in life. 

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has defended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision of not attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka. 

He has said that it won't affect the India-Sri Lanka relations, and such calls have been taken in the past as well taking national interest in mind. 

"It will not be right to think that there will be no more opportunity on India-Sri Lanka meet. There have been several occasions when the Prime Minister has not represented nations keeping in view the national interests," said Khurshid.

The Prime Minister's Project Monitoring Group, set up to track stalled large investment projects, has cleared 128 projects worth over Rs 4.30 lakh crore so far. 

Of this, PMG has given priority to troubled projects from the power sector and has resolved all issues on 94 projects, entailing an investment of over Rs 3.80 lakh crore, data available on its website showed.

Besides, issues in 34 projects of oil and gas, railways, steel, roads and highways, shipping, civil aviation and mines have also been resolved. They involve investments of over Rs 50,000 crore. 

In total, it has so far compiled a list of 378 stalled projects for want of various types of clearances, entailing investments over Rs 17.23 lakh crore. 

The PMG was set up in June, after a high level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, to facilitate and work for resolving specific issues of the projects and fast tracking them.

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the fiercest storms on record to ever have made landfall, ripped through the Philippine province of Leyte killing at least 10, 000 in the island alone, said a top police official. 

Armed with violent gusts reaching 275 Km/h and sustained winds of 235km/h, the deadly storm ruined about 70 to 80 percent of the area that came in its way as it rushed through Letye province's capital city of Tacloban, reports said. 

The whopping figure of death toll was declared by regional police chief Elmer Soria who said that Letye province's Governor had estimated the death toll at 10, 000 in the island alone, while Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim told another news agency that 10, 000 were dead i n the city alone. 

Earlier the government estimated had pegged the number of those killed by the storm at 1200. 

The Philippine govt is yet to confirm the high death toll figure of 10, 000. The monster typhoon Haiyna is a category 5 typhoon that brought along upto 400mml rains in places. 

The officials said that most of the deaths were either form drowning or building collapses that was in turn triggered by the mighty sea waves of upto 15 metre in height that many likened to tsunami. 

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal started his 22-day 'Jhadu Chalao Yatra' from Sunday covering all 70 constituencies in Delhi. 

With Assembly elections due in Delhi on December 4, the AAP will want to go all out in order to woo the masses and make an impact in the polls. 

AAP spokesperson, Manish Sisodiya told reporters that during the padyatra, Kejriwal will visit all the constituencies in Delhi and directly connect with the masses. 

He also said that the AAP leader will discuss solutions to the problems that the people are facing. 

 

For the yatra, AAP has given the slogan of 'Jhadu Chalao Beiman Bhagao'. 

Sisodiya had also said that the party would to seek support of people for cleansing of the country's political system. They would try to get rid of not just the corrupt but corruption too, he had added. 

"The Chhattisgarh government has the right to share in the central revenue, which is collected by Union government on behalf of state governments. It is the right of the people of Chhattisgarh and they deserve the central share. By making such a statement, the PM is harming the federal structure of the country," Swaraj told reporters, reacting to the prime minister's statement earlier in Raipur today -- that 90 per cent of the state's PDS subsidy comes from the Centre.

The list also includes the names PCC chief Chandrabhan, AICC secretary Sanjay Bapna and some senior ministers, including Bina Kak and Hemanram Choudhary.        

Meenakshi Chandrawat has been fielded from Jhalarpatan to contest against BJP's chief ministerial candidate Vasundhara Raje.