LIVE news updates: Tejashwi appeals opposition leaders to boycott media debate

Former deputy Chief Minister of Bihar,and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday wrote a letter to Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of Opposition appealing them to boycott media and not participate in media debates.

Three Philippines priests said on Monday that they received death threats after criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte for his violent war on drugs.

The three Catholic priests -- Albert Alejo, Flavie Villanueva and Robert Reyes -- held a press conference in Manila to reveal the threats, two weeks after the Bishop of Caloocan Pablo Virgilio David, one of the Philippines clergymen most critical of Duterte, confirmed receiving similar threats.

For the Lok Sabha polls on May 6, 198 pink booths, exclusively for women, will be set up here, the Ranchi District Administration announced on Monday

"Not only voters, but staffs and security personnel at these booths will also be women," Rai Mahipat Rey, Ranchi Deputy Commissioner, said.

DMK President M.K. Stalin on Monday said investigations into the sexual assault of young girls in Pollachi by a gang should be done without affecting the future of the victims.

He also charged the ruling party officials of trying to influence the police probe so that the accused are let free.

Stalin said it also shows the lack of safety for women in Tamil Nadu for the past eight years under the AIADMK government.

A man has been detained on suspicion of espionage activities near the International Border between India and Pakistan in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district, a top official said Monday.

Acting on credible intelligence inputs, Nawab Khan, a resident of Sam area, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of being involved in espionage activities, the official said.

Khan works as a jeep driver, he added.

Sri Lanka's Meteorology Department on Monday issued an extreme heat advisory as temperatures in several districts across the island country were expected to rise further in the coming days.

The Department, in a statement, cautioned the public to take appropriate precautions to avoid any health-related issues caused by the severe heat condition.

Senior Madhya Pradesh Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP Sunderlal Tiwari on Monday died of cardiac arrest.

He was 65 and is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain a batch of pleas challenging re-promulgation of an ordinance which makes the practice of instant 'triple talaq' a punishable offence.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance was first notified on September 19 last year, hours after the Union Cabinet had cleared it.

In a first for Delhi, the poll body in the city has planned to have several booths staffed only by women during the Lok Sabha elections here to send out a message of women empowerment.

Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh on Monday told reporters that areas are being identified in the national capital for this purpose.

India opener Smriti Mandhana broke into the top three of the ICC Womens Twenty20 International batting rankings, released on Sunday.

Mandhana was India's highest scorer, with 72 runs in three matches, in what was a dismal series for the home team as they suffered a 3-0 sweep by England in Guwahati

Congress President Rahul Gandhi addresses booth workers meeting in Delhi.

Around 400 Tibetan activists staged a protest march on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of their National Uprising Day.

They marched from Khan Market to the office of United Nations India in Lodhi Road and submitted a memorandum, Madhur Verma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) said.

At least 10-12 new faces are likely to find a place in the Trinamool Congress candidate list for Lok Sabha polls, party sources said Monday.

The new faces will be fielded from the seats the party had won and also from those it had lost during the 2014 election, they said.

In addition, the party will also evaluate the performance of its sitting MPs, both inside Parliament and outside, before giving them a ticket, the sources said.

Over 2.17 crore people will be eligible to vote in the three-phase Lok Sabha election in Assam, including 7.06 lakh first time voters, a top election official said here Monday.

Assam, Chief Electoral Officer, Mukesh Chandra Sahu addressing a press conference here, said the number of voters are being updated on a daily basis and the final figure will be published just before the polling.

"As per the last summary revision published on January 1 this year, we have a total electorate of 2,17,60,604 across Assam. Out of this, 1,11,32,782 are male and 1,06,27,319 are female," he said.

Opposition parties in Bihar on Monday questioned the Election Commissions decision to spread Lok Sabha polls in the state over seven phases and alleged that voting has been staggered with a view to enabling extensive electioneering by the ruing NDAs main crowd-puller - Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The state has only 40 Lok Sabha seats and as per the schedule announced on Sunday, only four parliamentary constituencies each will go to polls in the first couple of phases followed by five each in the next three phases. Votes will be cast in the remaining 17 in the last two phases.

While Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar on Monday decided to opt out of the Lok Sabha polls, the party may nominate his grand-nephew Parth Pawar from Maval constituency

A B.Com graduate, Parth, 28, is the son of former state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Anantrao Pawar, a nephew of Pawar and a cousin of Supriya Pawar-Sule.

The decisions were announced by Pawar after a meeting of the party executive in Baramati to discuss and finalise the alliances and candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Investigators have recovered one of two black box recorders on the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed just outside Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew, Ethiopian state media reported.

Turkey's economy fell into its first recession in a decade, official data showed on Monday, just weeks before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government faces local elections where growth and inflation will be key issues for voters.

Economic output contracted by 2.45% in the final three months of the year compared to the third quarter on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) said.

That followed a revised 1.6% contraction in the third quarter. Two consecutive quarter-on-quarter contractions in economic output is widely considered to be the definition of a recession.

An Indian national, who mistakenly crossed into Pakistan nearly seven years ago, has been handed over to the Border Security Force, an official said on Monday.

Ghulam Qadir, crossed into the Pakistani territory from Jammu and Kashmir in 2012. He was arrested and handed over to the local police, the official from Pakistan Rangers said.

The RBI board, which included the present Governor Shaktikanta Das as a director, had warned of short-term negative impact of demonetisation on the country's economic growth and observed that the unprecedented move will not have any material impact on tackling the black money menace.

The board, according to minutes of the meeting revealed by the central bank in an RTI reply, had met just two-and-a-half hours before PM Modi in an address to the nation announced the demonetisation decision on November 8, 2016.

Curbing black money was one of the prime objectives of the shock move to junk old ₹ 500 and ₹1,000 notes, which saw 86% of high value currency going out of circulation.

The number of people eligible to vote in Lok Sabha polls beginning next month has increased by 8.4 crore as compared to 2014 general election, and these include 1.5 crore "young voters" who are in the 18-19 age group and would exercise their franchise first time, according to the Election Commission.

The total electorate in the country this year has increased to approximately 90 crore compared to 81.5 crore in 2014.

"This marks an increase of more than 8.4 crore electors," the Commission said.

A Students' Federation of India (SFI) leader was attacked allegedly by BJP workers at Parassala in the district, police said on Monday.

The SFI leader sustained serious injuries in the late Sunday night attack, they added.

Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists were arrested in connection with the incident on Monday, the police said.

On Monday 55 of the 112 Padma awards were presented, a Padma Vibhushan, eight Padma Bhushan and 46 Padma Shri - to distinguished personalities from different fields including a doctor pair.

The Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian honour, went to theatre personality and writer Balwant Moreshwar Purandare from Maharashtra.

Among the other prominent recipients in other categories were late journalist-writer Kuldip Nayar, Prabhu Deva, Shankar Mahadevan and the late Kader Khan from the film industry.

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a fresh charge sheet against PNB scam accused Nirav Modi under the anti-money laundering law, officials said Monday.

They said the charge sheet or the prosecution complaint has been filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting will be held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The meeting would be followed by a mega rally at Adalaj town in Gandhinagar where Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely to address her first public rally after entering politics.

CWC, the highest decision-making body of the Congress, will be meeting in Gujarat, for the first time since 1961, after a gap of 58 years

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Monday urged the Election Commission to hold elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly along with the Lok Sabha polls.

"It is perplexing how the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir is good for the conduct of the Lok Sabha elections and not for the Assembly elections which are also due," it said in a statement.

Prominent Muslim community leaders on Monday expressed dismay over the Election Commission of India's announcement to hold the Lok Sabha polls in seven phases, with the three final phases falling in the holy Ramadan month of fasting.

The Ramadan month starts on May 5 and will continue till June 4, and the last three phases of polling are scheduled on May 6, May 12 and May 19.

The polling in these three phases shall be conducted for 51, 59 and 59 constituencies, respectively, as per the EC schedule unveiled on Sunday

Jodhpur HC issues a notice to Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Neelam Kothari, Tabu and Dushyant Singh on an appeal by state government challenging their acquittal in the case by a local court

TTV Dhinakaran has moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s decision to allot the AIADMK’s Two Leaves party symbol to the faction led by EK Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam.

The Delhi High Court had passed the ruling last month while upholding the 2017 verdict of the Election Commission of India (ECI)

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will consider on March 28 whether petitions challenging the 10% reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically weaker sections of unreserved categories should be referred to a larger bench.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said that it would consider the plea on referring the issue to a larger bench after senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan said the limit of 50% was part of the Constitution's basic structure.

An open database in China contains the personal information of more than 1.8 million women, including their phone numbers, addresses and a "BreedReady" status which could describe whether a woman has children or was of child-bearing age, according to a researcher.

Victor Gevers, a Dutch Internet expert from the non-profit group GDI.Foundation, found the insecure data cache while searching for open databases in China, the Guardian reported on Monday.

Over 7,000 new marine species have been discovered from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, shedding new light on understanding of microbial biodiversity in the seas.

The team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), discovered over 7,000 new biofilm-forming species and 10 new bacterial phyla, breaking the existing belief that the world has only 35,000 marine microbial species and 80 bacterial phyla, Xinhua news agency reported.

PMK founder S Ramadoss Monday appealed to his party workers to strive for victory of the AIADMK-led alliance in all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the April 18 elections, and also ensure the success of ruling party candidates in the Assembly by-polls.

People will face many hardships if the DMK-led alliance was voted in good numbers, Ramadoss said in a statement.

The number of voters in Maharashtra has gone up by over 65 lakh in the last five years, according to official figures.

From 8,07,98,823 voters in the state at the time of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the number has now gone up to 8,73,30,484, as per the electoral office data.

This is a sharp rise of 65,31,661 voters.

A US-based young physician from Andhra Pradesh was among the 157 killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.

Nukavarapu Manisha, hailing from Guntur district, was on her way to Nairobi to see her sister who had delivered three baby boys a few days ago.

With the model code of conduct coming into effect after the announcements of Lok Sabha poll schedule, the district authorities have started to remove hoardings advertising central and state government schemes, officials said Monday.

The Election Commission of India Sunday announced the schedule for the general elections according to which eight districts in western Uttar Pradesh including Muzaffarnagar will go to polls in first phase on April 11.

City Magistrate Atul Kumar said that teams led by sub divisional magistrates removed several hoardings in the district including those put up by the central and state governments.

A fire broke out on the sixth floor of Vikas Bhawan near ITO in central Delhi on Monday, Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said.

The DFS received a call about the fire at around 12.10 PM. Five fire tenders were rushed to spot and the blaze was brought under control, Atul Garg, Chief Fire Officer said.

A technical snag in one of the air conditioners led to the fire, he said adding no injury or casualty has been reported.

The Delhi Police on Monday told a court that authorities were yet to give requisite sanctions to prosecute former JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a 2016 sedition case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat told the police that they could have filed the charge sheet after procuring the sanctions.

"You (police) could have filed after procuring sanction only. What was the hurry? I can go ahead with the case," the judge said Police told the court that it would take two to three months to procure the sanctions.

The court also sought a report from the deputy commissioner of police assigned to the case.

It posted the matter for further hearing on March 29.

Telugu actor and comedian Ali joins YSRCP in the presence of party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy.

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chairman Farooq Abdullah said, “All parties are in favour of holding simultaneous (LS and state assembly) polls. Environment is conducive for Lok Sabha polls but not state polls in Jammu and Kashmir? Local body polls were held peacefully, there are enough forces present, then why can't state elections be held?”

“We always knew that there would be a fight or a skirmish with Pakistan. This surgical strike (airstrike) was done as elections are approaching. We lost an aircraft worth crores. Be thankful that the pilot (IAF) survived and returned from Pakistan with respect.”

Supreme Court posts for hearing on March 28, the pleas challenging the Constitution Amendment that gives 10% reservation in jobs and education to economically weaker section of the general category. SC not in favour of passing order at this stage to refer issue of 10 pc quota to general category poor to Constitution bench

Supreme Court posts for hearing on March 26, the petitions challenging central govt's decision to introduce electoral bonds scheme in elections.

The stage is set for Arunachal Pradesh to hold Lok Sabha and Assembly polls simultaneously on April 11, election officials said on Monday.

With the model code of conduct coming into force, the election authorities have issued do's and don’ts to all political parties and urged all government machinery to strictly follow it.

Prevention of Defacement of Public Property Act would be mandatorily imposed by all deputy commissioners, election office sources said.

A total of 7,94,162 voters, including 4,01,601 women, would exercise their franchise in the April 11 simultaneous polls in 2,202 polling stations across the state.

Family of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) commander Mudasir Khan has identified his body as one of the two militants killed in Tral encounter, police said as it awaited forensic reports.

"One of the two slain militants has been identified as Mudasir Khan, alias Mohammad Bhai, JeM commander believed to have masterminded the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed," an officer said.

The two were killed in the Sunday gunfight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pinglish village in Pulwama district.

Civil Aviation Security chief Rakesh Asthana, who hogged the headlines due to his bitter fight with former CBI chief Alok Verma, is among three IPS officers who have been given the top pay scale, according to a Personnel Ministry order.

Asthana, a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer, along with the head of National Investigation Agency (NIA) Y C Modi were given the top pay scale of ₹2.25 lakh, it said.

SS Deswal, Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), has also been given the apex pay scale.

The head of Venezuela's opposition-controlled Parliament, Juan Guaido, who has been recognised as the country's interim president by about 50 governments around the world, has announced that he will ask lawmakers to decree a "state of emergency" to deal with the "catastrophe" being experienced by the country as a result of a power blackout that now has lasted some 70 hours.

Guaido said at a press conference at the National Assembly in Caracas that the legislative body "will go into emergency session (on Monday) to evaluate a state of national emergency and take (appropriate) action."

The Taliban's elusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan, a new book has claimed.

Bette Dam's "The Secret Life of Mullah Omar" says the leader never hid in Pakistan as believed by the US, the BBC reported.

Instead, he lived in hiding just three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in his home province of Zabul.

The Election Commission (EC) has formed a committee comprising three "eminent" members to assess the situation on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir before it takes a decision about holding the Assembly elections in the troubled state.

Here are the three members of the committee who will work as special observers
Noor Mohammad: A former IAS officer of 1977 batch, he has worked in the area of election management for more than a decade and has been international consultant on election in Afghanistan for many years. He is currently working as senior consultant in the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM).

Vinod Zutshi: A former IAS officer of 1982 batch who has served as Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Rajasthan and Deputy Election Commissioner for many years, he has long experience in elections and has been contributing to the Commission as national and international trainer.

AS Gill: A retired IPS officer of 1972 batch from Rajasthan cadre, Gill has served as the Inspector General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jammu and Kashmir and later as its Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Ethiopian Airlines said on Monday it had grounded its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet after a crash that killed 149 passengers and eight crew.

"Following the tragic accident of ET 302... Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday, March 10, until further notice," the state-owned carrier said in a statement released on Twitter.

Amid mixed global cues Sensex surged close to 250 points as key equity indices opened in green on Monday, owing to gains in the banking and finance stocks.

Healthy buying was seen in all the sectors with BSE Oil and Gas index leading the pack, closely followed by banking and finance scrips.

Oil prices rose on Monday, said Anuj Gupta of Angel Broking, owing to comments from Saudi Oil Minister, indicating that the supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would continue till June.