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BBC: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that all sides have agreed to steps to "de-escalate" the crisis in Ukraine at talks in Geneva. He was speaking at the end of the talks between Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US in the Swiss city.
Ukraine has been in crisis since the toppling of its pro-Moscow president in February. This was followed by the seizing of government buildings in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists.
Mr Lavrov said there was agreement that all illegal military formations in Ukraine must be dissolved, and that everyone occupying buildings must be disarmed and leave them.
He added that there would be an amnesty for all protesters under the agreement. Mr Lavrov said the crisis must be settled by Ukrainians themselves and there must be long-term constitutional reforms.
Defending his decision to part ways with the NDA, senior JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said he had no regrets.
"Our alliance worked smoothly so long as the BJP put aside contentious issues, but the moment we realised the party intended to raise controversial issues to attain power at the Centre, we broke away," he told an election rally at Katihar.
Kumar said he had no regrets for parting ways with the BJP as he believed it was better than being with a party which professed communal and divisive politics.
The Chief Minister, who is spearheading JD(U)'s campaign in Bihar, claimed the minority community was wary of the BJP due to its communal agenda, a concern also shared by his party.
Vicky Nanjappa reports: The Bharatiya Janata Party-Telugu Desam Party alliance in Seema-Andhra has officially broken. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu announced on Thursday evening at a rally that there will be no alliance with the BJP in Seema-Andhra. He was addressing a gathering at Parvathipuram.
Although the TDP chief has made it official, the BJP says talks are still on. The alliance would not be impacted in Telangana, sources added. Both the parties have fielded candidates based on the seat sharing arrangement they entered into. Now the seats will be filled up by the respective parties.
TV reports suggest that Naidu will have talks with BJP president Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi later in the evening.
Addressing an election rally in the city's Rail Bazaar in Kanpur this afternoon for her party's candidates from the city, Akbarpur and Misrikh seats, the Dalit leader took on BJP and its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi headlong.
"Do not waste your votes by dividing it between Congress and Samjwadi Party, because it will directly benefit the BJP. And, if that happens, BJP and Modi will come into power and "the country would stand ruined with communal riots" akin to the one in Gujarat in 2002, Maywati alleged.
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The controversy erupted after a photo of the letter found its way to the social media. "BJP people are so afraid of losing Varanasi that they are spreading fake pics of AAP thanking M Ansari for support," AAP posted on its official Twitter account in reaction to the letter being circulated.
72 per cent turnout in Bengal till 4 pm
45 per cent turnout in Karnataka till 3 pm
43 per cent turnout in Bangalore south till 5 pm
37 per cent turnout in Bangalore north
42 per cent turnout in Bangalore central
The incident happened at a polling booth at Shamrao Kalmadi School in the city when voters found that whichever button was pressed on the EVM, only the Congress light blinked.
Some of the alert voters brought this to the notice of the election officials who stopped voting immediately.
"The Election Commission authorities have ordered a new machine for this particular polling booth which is expected to come soon," said local BJP activist Madhur Sahasrabuddhe.
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In the clipping, Uma is heard saying that Modi was not 'Vikas Purush' (man who brought in development) but 'Vinash Purush' (man who destroys).
Sources say that Uma reportedly said this at a time when she did not have close relations with the BJP and had floated her own party, Bharatiya Janshakti Party. She is also allegedly heard calling Modi dictatorial in the video. Read
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He was at ease, never through the interview did he pause to think, to contemplate before answering questions in what is being seen as one of his most candid interviews in recent times.
As somebody who has had a chance to work in Gujarat in 2002, and cover politics of the state since 2005, and investigate some of the most crucial criminal cases, Narendra Modi left me with more questions than answers.
Read
"Usually, the person who says this expands on the theme and usually what he or she tells me, with a conspiratorial smile, is that the Congress still has a trump card up its sleeve and this trump card is Priyanka Gandhi."
Read Tavleen Singh's column.
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Narendra Modi in an interview to India TV a few days ago, had said on his refusal to wear a skull cap in 2011 during the Sadbhavna fast, "If a cap is a symbol of unity then why did Mahatma Gandhi not wear one?"
The Gujarat chief minister added that his vision of a Muslim is that he may be wearing a cap and have a Quran in one hand but there should be a computer in his other hand.
"If by wearing a cap one
becomes a symbol of unity then nobody has ever seen Mahatma Gandhi,
Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru wearing this kind of a cap," he said and added he will never wear a skull cap as a symbol of appeasement and asked if Sonia Gandhi had ever worn one.
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"In Tamil Nadu, there is a Congress leader -- recounting Minister -- he is so afraid that he ran away from elections,' Modi said, without taking Chidambaram's name while addressing an election rally in this town, bordering the union minister's native Sivaganga district.
On a whirlwind two-day electioneering in Tamil Nadu to canvass for NDA candidates, the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate continued to describe Chidambaram as "recounting minister', a reference to his controversial win from Sivaganga constituency in 2009.
Some people on this dais showed me a watch. It has the recounting ministers photo and his symbol. I was told that these watches are being given to every household. EC should take it very seriously. There should be a probe against the recounting minister and Congress, he said.
According to political pundits, Pratibha, who will seek to retain her seat for the third time, will sail through with a comfortable victory margin. Her rival Ram Swaroop Sharma of BJP is reaching out to voters positioning himself as a common man.
Two murder accused, four accused of stoning, and seven others were arrested yesterday from Bahawdi, Basikala, Shahpur and Kotwali areas of the district, they said.
A drive has been launched to arrest the riot accused after the direction of the apex court to expedite the process.
According to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the riot cases, nearly 800 hundred people were found to be involved in rioting, gang rape, and murder, and many of them are still absconding.
Of the 50 accused in Kutba killing case, only three have been arrested, police said, adding, eight persons including a woman were killed and several others injured by rioters in the village.
44 per cent in Odisha till noon
57.22 per cent in Darjeeling till 1 pm
21 per cent in Bangalore till till noon
Phase V of the nine phase elections today. The fate of 121 seats spread across 12 states will be decided today.
Polling was brisk at many polling stations in Thoubal district, the home district of Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh, reports from the district said adding that at a polling station in Thoubal 82 per cent of the votes were cast by 1.30 pm.
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A mini-submarine searching for the missing Malaysian plane has completed a full mission at its third attempt.
Two previous missions to scour the floor of the Indian Ocean for wreckage were cut short by technical problems.
The data from the sub's latest mission is being analysed. Previous forays have not shown anything significant. Read more
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Jaitley, who is facing a tough contest in Amritsar, said Rahul must accept that people are "angry" with the Congress.
"With 121 Parliamentary constituencies going to poll today, almost half of India would have voted in 2014 general elections. What are the trends? The Third Front or the Federal Front is the non-starter. The Congress lags far behind," he said.
"Rahul Gandhi must accept that people are angry with the Congress. They are not 'ullus' when they vote against the Congress. The prospects of defeat should not make a leader lose his graciousness. Those who vote against the Congress may have good reasons to do so. The angry voter is not a four letter word that Rahul Gandhi has chosen to describe them", Jailtey said.
At an election meeting in Bihar yesterday, Rahul had said, "Modiji, Hindustan ko ullu banana band karo (Modiji, stop fooling the people of Hindustan)".
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Karpal Singh, 73, was killed along with a longtime assistant when his vehicle struck a slower-moving lorry on a highway in the northern state of Perak, state police chief Acryl Sani Abdullah said.
Anwar wrote on his Facebook page: "We've lost a colleague. An indefatigable fighter for justice. The legendary Karpal Singh. Our sincere condolences to the family. RIP.' -- South China Morning Post
Rahul Gandhi on the defensive in an interview with Vijay Karnataka. Read
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But people are wary of Narendra Modi, for they feel that if elected, he might leave Varanasi and retain the Vadodara seat in Gujarat, which would mean additional expenses and poll-time problems for this city.
Neither the BJP nor Modi has said anything so far about which seat would be retained if the Gujarat Chief Minister wins both.
BJP leader Nalin Kohli, who is camping in Varanasi for the polls, said, "These elections are being fought on 10-year misrule of the Congress-led UPA government and the issues of price rise, corruption, unemployment, economic decline, women's security and farmers' plight. "Modi and BJP are constantly talking about development and the agenda of development. Our manifesto clearly says that our aim is 'ek Bharat shreshtha Bharat' and our manifesto, as Modi himself says, is not a document but an agenda for development."
"About 28.79 per cent polling was recorded on an average in first three hours of polling in four Lok Sabha constituencies of Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in North Bengal," state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sunil Gupta said here today.
Also read: 'My mom is no delicate darling'
Among early voters were Union Home Minister and Congress candidate in Solapur Sushilkumar Shinde and NCP nominee in Pune district's Baramati constituency Supriya Sule, daughter of party chief Sharad Pawar.
Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who had to quit three years ago over the alleged involvement in the Adarsh Housing scam, cast his vote around 8.30 am at a booth in Shivaji Nagar are of Nanded city. He was accompanied by his wife and other family members.
In the initial two hours, the voting percentage across the state hovered around 10 per cent, officials said, adding, polling had been peaceful so far.
The three constituencies in Bangalore-- South, Central and North-- saw enthusiastic voters queue up in good numbers in the initial hours.
Former Prime Minister and JDS chief H D Deve Gowda (Hassan), former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa (Shimoga) and Union Minister M Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapur) were among the early voters, as the exercise began with about 4.62 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 435 candidates.
Nearly 85,000 security personnel drawn from the state and central forces are keeping a watch to ensure peaceful conduct of the polls, with armed police force from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra also on duty.
Among early voters were Union Home Minister and Congress candidate in neighbouring Solapur Sushil Kumar Shinde and NCP nominee in Pune district's Baramati constituency Supriya Sule, daughter of party chief Sharad Pawar.
Young voters as well as senior citizens were seen lining up enthusiastically since early morning in the city which experienced a drizzle in the wee hours.
In Pune, much depends on whether sitting Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi remains true to his word not to harm the electoral prospects of party candidate Vishwajit Kadam. Kadam is pitted against his BJP rival Anil Shirole, who had lost the 2009 election to Kalmadi with a narrow margin of around 25,000 votes.
Also in the fray are Deepak Paigude of MNS and Subhash Ware fielded by Aam Aadmi Party.
A 19-year-old Canadian became the first person to be arrested in relation to the Heartbleed security breach. Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes from London, Ontario was accused of hacking into the Canadian Revenue Agency's website last Friday by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Police say Mr Solis-Reyes then stole 900 social insurance numbers. The Heartbleed security scare, which also struck the UK social network Mumsnet, erupted last week.
"It is believed that [Mr] Solis-Reyes was able to extract private information held by CRA by exploiting the vulnerability known as the Heartbleed bug," the RCMP said in a statement.
Stepping up his attack on BJP's Prime Ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said never before he had seen a person in the race for the country's top job seeking votes for himself or herself.
"We have seen Prime Ministers like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Dr Manmohan Singh. But they never asked people to vote for themselves but for the country. But here is a person who is seeking votes for himself," Pawar said, addressing an election rally for NCP candidate from North-East Mumbai, Sanjay Dina Patil.
Patil, the sitting MP, is pitted against BJP's Kirit Somaiya and AAP's Medha Patkar, among others.
BBC: Pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine have seized six Ukrainian armoured vehicles, the defence ministry in Kiev says. Reports say the occupants were disarmed after the vehicles were blockaded by locals in the city of Kramatorsk.
The incident comes a day after the military began an operation to remove pro-Russian protesters from public buildings across eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Nato is increasing activity in member states bordering Russia. After Ukrainian forces recaptured an airfield outside Kramatorsk on Tuesday, armoured vehicles appeared in the centre of the town early on Wednesday. BBC journalists witnessed civilians, at least some of whom appeared to be local people, challenging soldiers, who were also blocked by a crowd a few kilometres outside the town.
Saradha scam: ED arrests Sudipta Sen's absconding wife, son
After ban on campaign, EC censures Shah, Azam for remarks
Modi was an adult during marriage: Nagma
Pak Taliban refuses to extend ceasefire, will continue talks
B'desh SC wraps up death penalty review for war crimes suspect
Overwhelming support puts BJP in driver's seat in Rajasthan
Political parties bet big on mobile campaigns to woo voters
Muslim community frightened hearing Modi's name: Nitish
I was not silent on Gujarat riots, says Modi
Vote for BJP and your land will be given to Adanis, says Kejriwal in Varanasi
Sonia in Tamil Nadu: The BJP is a one-man party
CBI to quiz P C Parakh in Talabira-II coal block allocation
For Jaswant, technology, music and family fill the gap left by BJP
PHOTOS: Hopes drown with South Korean ferry for hundreds
FBI warns students abroad: Beware of becoming spies
BJP denies NTR's daughter Visakhapatnam ticket
Stop 'fooling' the people of the country: Rahul to Modi