Philippines beauty Megan Young was today crowned Miss World 2013 after beating 130 contestants across the globe. This is the first time Miss Philippines has been awarded the title in the 63rd Miss World grand final pageant on the resort island of Bali.

Megan, 23, who is a student of filmmaking, is excited to have taken over the crown from 2012's Miss World winner Wenxia Yu of China. "I have no words to express my feelings. Thank you so much to everyone for choosing me to be the next Miss World. It means a lot to me and I promise to be the best person. I am very very excited," she said after the crowning.

Our Delhi correspondent reports: President Pranab Mukherjee will be on six-day state visit to Belgium and Tureky from October 2 to October 8. Mukherjee will be keeping a tab on the Union Cabinet meet on Thursday to withdraw the ordinance on convicted lawmakers. 

In all probability, the President will agree to withdraw the ordinance only on October 8 after his return from Turkey.

Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth returned on Saturday morning from Philippines. There have been  informal instructions from New York to have a Union cabinet meeting on Thursday at 5.30 pm. 

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday (October 1) after his confabulations with Sonia Gandhi and he Congress core committee on the ordinance to protect convicted neatas. The PM is likely to brief the President about his foreign visit and indicate the government's decision to withdraw the ordinance, reports our Delhi correspondent.  

At the United Nations headquarters, the PM is surrounded by friends and admirers after his speech at the general assembly.

Dr Singh added, "Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that there can never, ever, be a compromise with the unity and territorial integrity of India. We need to renew our commitment, especially here at the UN, for concerted, cohesive and continuing global action against terrorism. The epicenter of terror is in our neighbourhood in Pakistan."

Ahead of the PM's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif tomorrow, he sent a though message. Speaking at the UNGA, Dr Singh said, "India is committed sincerely to resolving all issues with Pakistan, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of the Simla Agreement. It is imperative that the territory of Pakistan and the areas under its control are not utilised for aiding and abetting terrorism directed against India."

"It is equally important that the terrorist machinery that draws its sustenance from Pakistan be shut down."

Speaking on Syria, the PM said at the UNGA, "The conflict in Syria is not only a tragedy for the people of Syria, but also threatens stability and security in the region and beyond. India supports strongly the elimination of chemical weapons material and equipment in Syria. Must intensify efforts to end conflict in Syria and seek a political settlement." 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "India is proud of its partnerships with developing countries. India and Africa are engaging through the India-Africa Forum Summit process. We are committed to building 100 institutions in Africa."

Image: Paresh Gandhi/Rediff.com

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at UNGA, "Issues of peace, security, human rights and governance are important and need to be addressed. It is important that the UN set clear and concise goals and provide practical and well-defined means of implementation."

"The UN should take the views of developing countries into account, especially critical is women's equal access to economic opportunities. It is important that women do not become victims of violence or targets of prejudice." 

Here are the highlights of the PM's address at UNGA: 

Renewed attention on the role of the United Nations in advancing international peace, security and prosperity. Countries are now not only more interdependent, but also face new and increasingly complex challenges.

The UN Security Council must be reformed and restructured; more developing countries should be included. A lingering global economic slowdown and continuing volatility in financial markets have imposed disproportionately heavy costs on developing countries.

New collective trust is needed to fight global poverty. Poverty remains a major political and economic challenge and its eradication requires special attention and a new thrust.

Growth and inclusive development are naturally important for all our countries. Growth requires supportive international economic environment, enhanced investment flows.

Problems of over a billion people living in abject poverty around the world need to be attacked more directly.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh begins his address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. 

The Prime Minister's Office tweeted: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will be speaking shortly at the the general debate of the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Mohammed Siddique reports: Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj today poured cold water on the hopes of Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu that the party will soften its support to the Telangana state in exchange of his hand of friendship.

Addressing a mammoth rally of Telangana supporters in Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh on Saturday, Swaraj made it clear that whether the BJP enters into an alliance or not, there will not be any change in party's support to the cause of Telangana.

"Alliance or no alliance there will be no change in our stand on Telangana. The BJP was and will always be in support of the Telangana state. No alliance will be at the cost of Telagnana," she said.

India's Navneet Kaur Dhillon is out of Miss World contest being held in Bali today.

Union Cabinet likely to meet on Oct 3 or  4 to take a view on the ordinance on convicted lawmakers after PM returns from United State, said government sources.

Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit next month, a key Sino-Indian group on border affairs will hold its fourth meeting here tomorrow against the backdrop of several incursions by Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control.    

The two-day meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs is expected to discuss the proposed Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, aimed at more comprehensively dealing with tensions related to patrolling by both sides along the LAC.

The BDCA agreement is expected to be signed during Prime Minister Singh's visit here next month.

Top LeT bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda was today remanded in three-day police custody by a Delhi court in connection with a 1997 blast case, in which one woman was killed and several others were injured.

Tunda, who was in police custody till today in connection with a separate bomb blast case lodged against him here, was produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Bansal, and special cell of the Delhi police sought his three-day of custodial interrogation.

The police said a bomb had exploded at Bidan Pura here on October 26, 1997 resulting in death of a woman, and during the searches, a live bomb was recovered by the investigators and it was defused.

In a scathing letter written to Human Resource Development Minister M MPallam Raju, Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav has torn apart the HRD ministry's decision to fire him from the board of the UGC.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was greeted with a shoe missile and slogans of 'Death to America' on his return to Tehran after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today met a small group of industrialists, including RP-Sanjeev Goenka Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka and banker Shikha Sharma.     

Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh has been suspended from the party for anti-party activities, West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee has said.

The BJP today said the party's rally at Bhopal was a world record vis-a-vis the largest assembly of its kind, even as it expressed confidence about winning more allies before and after the Lok Sabha elections.     

A correspondent from Delhi reports: Thirty four newly elected Tamil legislators from the north-eastern province of Sri Lanka are likely to visit New Delhi in the middle of October to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. 

A correspondent from Delhi reports: "Peace has returned to Sri Lanka. Tamils have won the elections." 

A correspondent from Delhi reports: The external affairs ministry will extend warm welcome to 34 newly elected Tamil legislators from Sri Lanka. 

Kenyan security forces have claimed that al-Shahab, the militant group which led the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall over the weekend, hired a shop in the mall itself to stockpile weapons and ammunition weeks before the siege.   

The BJP today said the Congress ought to issue the ordinance on lawmakers in a hurry to"save" its ally Lalu Prasad, in case he is convicted in the fodder case on September 30.        

Six Members of Parliament representing the Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh have met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to seek the acceptance of their resignations over a central government and Congress Party proposal to go ahead with the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh for the creation of a new state of Telangana.   

Pakistan has raised objections to four new hydropower projects of India to be built on western rivers.   

Former Rajasthan minister Babulal Nagar, accused of raping and assaulting a 35-year-old woman, today appeared for medical tests in connection with the case, CID-Crime Branch sources said.        

A high alert was today sounded and search operations launched in Kathua and adjoining areas after some villagers claimed to have sighted terrorists in the region which witnessed twin suicide attacks on Thursday that left 10 people dead.       

After a written assurance from Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu today called off his scheduled fast-unto-death.        

Several cities of Pakistan's Sindh and Balochistan provinces were today hit by a massive aftershock measuring 6.8, three days after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the region and killed over 500 people.        

From a correspondent in Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath had approached BJP leader Sushma Swaraj to seek her help in getting the Parliament session extended, in order to debate and pass the bill to save convicted legislators.   

From a correspondent in Delhi: 'Baba-log', as junior Union ministers close to Rahul Gandhi are affectionately known, have spoken out openly against Law Minister Kapil Sibal.   

From a correspondent in Delhi: Law Minister Kapil Sibal may turn out to be the unlikely scapegoat of the 'nonsense' ordinance episode.

From a correspondent in Delhi: On Saturday morning, Rahul Gandhi on his iPad reportedly went through various dailies, all of which carried his photograph and his comments in large fonts on their front pages, and shared his happiness with sister Priyanka.    

A correspondent from Delhi reports: Aftershocks from Rahul Gandhi's shocking comments on the ordinance on tainted lawmakers continued to be felt by 20 to 30 Union ministers, who kept their mobile phones switched off on Saturday to evade incessant calls from party men and media personnel alike, seeking clarifications on the Congress vice president's statement.

The death toll in the devastating earthquake that struck Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province is likely to rise further as rescuers race against time to frantically search for survivors despite attacks from nationalist militants.        

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told President Barack Obama that certain aspects of the proposed changes in the American immigration laws will hit Indian IT professionals, eliciting a promise from the US that these concerns will be looked into.        

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu today said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign if he disagreed with what Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said on the controversial ordinance related to convicted lawmakers.        

Militants opened fire on a convoy of security forces in the outskirts of Srinagar today, leaving a civilian injured.        

"India is a poor country. Our basic task is to improve the standard of living of our people, to get rid of mass poverty, ignorance and disease which still afflict millions and millions of our people, and in that struggle we want America to stand by our side".

Mukhtar Ahmad reports from Srinagar: Panic spread among the residents of Hyderpora in Srinagar on Saturday morning when gunshots were heard from the locality.

Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi have reassured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the party's support for him and the government in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's criticism of a Union 

A day after Rahul Gandhi caused political tremors with his denunciation of the ordinance on lawmakers and attack on government, the Congress today got into damage control mode, hailing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for convincing the US on the issue of terror.        

In a strongly worded article, senior journalist Shekhar Gupta has implored Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to step down from his post after his return from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in the wake of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's tactless remarks about the ordinance on convicted legislators.

"I also want to say how glad I am to have Prime Minister Singh here today.  He has been a great friend and partner to the United States and to me personally during his tenure as Prime Minister of India.  And I think all of us recognize that as the world's two largest democracies, countries that have for a very long time been invested in the peace and prosperity of their own people, that there is a natural convergence between the United States and India."

In a move that may thaw the 34-year-old icy relationship between the US and Iran, Barack Obama on Friday called his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani and "exchanged pleasantries" in a 15-minute conversation. 

As part of their effort to enhance defence engagements, India and the US have agreed to identify areas of cooperative and collaborative projects in advance defence technologies and systems in the next one year.

A researcher has posted five copyrighted papers -- on the findings of NASA's Curiosity rover about the conditions on Mars -- on his personal website.

Narendra Modi has been paying glowing tributes to Sardar Vallabhbai Patel, the iron man of India, in his recent speeches. But what the Gujarat chief minister seems to have forgotten is that Patel had opposed and, in fact, banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the right-wing outfit Modi owes his political beginnings to.

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