BJP likely to shortlist three names for Parrikar's successor

BJP's legislative wing, which will be meeting Friday in Porvorim, will recommend names of Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza, state health minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Assembly Speaker Rajendra Arlekar as Parrikar's successor.

A senior party functionary while confirming the three names said a formal announcement would be made by BJP's Parliamentary Board after its meeting in Delhi Saturday. Meanwhile, hectic political discussions and meetings continued during the night in Goa's capital city of Panaji.

All the BJP MLAs were huddled in a hotel during the night. "It is a matter of pride that Parrikar is likely to be inducted as country's Defence Minister. But, we will surely miss him here in Goa," said party's state unit president Vinay Tendulkar after emerging from a closed-door meeting late last night.

He refused to divulge the names likely to be short listed as Parrikar's successor, but said, "Capable person would be given the post."

Breaking his silence over reports about his possible appointment as Defence Minister, Parrikar had Thursday said that BJP chief Amit Shah had asked him to take up an assignment at the Centre, if offered, and that he was willing to shoulder the responsibility.

The 58-year-old senior BJP leader, who rode the party to victory in the 2012 state Assembly elections, was emotional while announcing his departure from state politics. "I am disturbed at leaving the post. But the nation is bigger than state for me. I have a mixed feeling," he told reporters.

Later on Thursday, the Chief Minister was choked with tears when he met select party workers in Panaji. "I am going to Delhi because they have asked me to take up the assignment. I will always be available for Goa whenever required," he said in a brief speech as he was unable to control his emotions.

"I will be emotional if I speak more," he said summing up the meeting.

Talking to a news channel, Parrikar said he would miss the "fish curry-rice", if he is selected for an assignment in Delhi.

Source: MP News in Hindi and Chhattisgarh Hindi News

Navy vessel sinks off Visakhapatnam coast; one dead, four missing

23 people have been rescued and a search and rescue operation was launched for the missing. At the time of the incident which occurred at 8 PM, there were 28 personnel on board.

"The vessel was on a routine mission to recover torpedoes fired by fleet ships during a routine exercise, when it experienced flooding in one of its compartments," the Navy said.

"One sailor has lost his life during the rescue operation and four personnel are reported missing. 23 personnel have been rescued safely by the Search and Rescue (SAR) ships dispatched to the area," Navy said in a statement issued in Delhi.
Navy officials said the flooding happened when the vessel was on its way back after collecting the "dummy" torpedo that was used in the exercise.

"The incident happened within 10-15 kms off Vizag post," a Navy spokesperson said in Visakhapatnam.

The boat sunk because of "some flooding", he said. The Torpedo Recovery Vessel (TRV) is an auxiliary vessel which is used to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships and submarines.

The ship, which is 23 meters long and 6.5 meters at the beam, was built by Goa Shipyard in 1983 and has served the Indian Navy for the last 31 years.

The accident is one of the many that the Navy has witnessed over the last year. Navy chief Admiral R K Dhowan took over as the Chief of the Naval Staff on April 17 this year, after his predecessor D K Joshi quit following a series of accidents.

Admiral Joshi's resignation came immediately after a fire on the INS Sindhuratna, which left two sailors dead. On October 31, INS Kora suffered minor damage after it was scraped by a merchant vessel near Visakhapatnam.

Source: MP News in Hindi and Chhattisgarh Hindi News

Israel eager to share technology with India

Netanyahu conveyed this to Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh during their hour-long meeting here Thursday.

"Netanyahu briefed the home minister on technologies that had been developed by Israel in areas such as aviation security, border protection and water harvesting.

"He said Israel was ready and willing to discuss transfer and development of such technologies with India," a home ministry statement said.

The statement also said a delegation from the Israeli industry would be happy to visit India to explore manufacturing opportunities in different sectors.

In this context, Rajnath Singh also mentioned the possibility of exploring third country markets in Africa and Latin America, where Indian industry has a strong presence.

Rajnath Singh left for Monaco Nov 3 to attend an Interpol ministerial meeting and general assembly.

As a part of the tour, the minister is also visiting Israel and France to discuss security related bilateral issues.

Source: MP News in Hindi and Chhattisgarh Hindi News

President Pranab Mukherjee arrives in Bhutan, king receives him

Hundreds of school children were lined up along the way, holding Indian and Bhutanese flag.
  
During the visit, Mukherjee will hold meetings with Wangchuck and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay besides other leaders to take bilateral ties to a new level.
  
Some agreements in education sector are likely to be signed during the trip.
  
The President is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, Members of Parliament Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Anil Shirole, Mahendra Nath Pandey (all BJP) and Gaurav Gogoi (Congress), besides officials and representatives of a few educational and academic institutions..
  
Sources said as India is keen to revive the ancient Nalanda University, an agreement will be signed for seeking cooperation from Bhutan in this regard.
  
Mukherjee's visit to Bhutan comes nearly five months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to the country. It was Modi's first foreign visit as Prime Minister.
  
The meetings of the President with the King of Bhutan and the Bhutanese Prime Minister, who will call on him, will provide an opportunity to discuss all issues of mutual interest and ways of further strengthening close bilateral relations.
  
India shares a unique and special relationship with Bhutan nurtured by successive Kings of Bhutan and Indian leaders.

Source: MP News in Hindi and Chhattisgarh Hindi News

Rajnath Singh meets Netanyahu to bolster Indo-Israel

Welcoming Singh, Netanyahu said, "Indians and Israelis share the combination of ingenuity and continuity."

The Home Minister sought closer ties with the country saying, "Israel plays a major role in world politics". Singh, who is here for his first bilateral visit, earlier tweeted, "India and Israel share very warm & cordial bilateral relations. We look forward to strengthen it further."

Singh, who arrived here last night, was scheduled to arrive yesterday morning but had to reschedule his plans after his flight from Monaco was cancelled due to bad weather. The Minister was in Monaco to attend Interpol's General Assembly. Despite the unexpected change in Singh's plans, the Israeli government rolled out a red carpet in welcoming him with Netanyahu, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich re-adjusting their tight schedules to meet him.

Singh started his Israel visit by visiting Holy sites in the old city of Jerusalem.     The Home Minister then left for a helicopter tour of the Jordan Valley and Israel's northern and southern region with National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen to get a sense of the security situation in the country.

Cohen had recently met Singh in New Delhi and discussed "common challenges" faced by the two countries and their solutions, emphasising his country's "willingness to expand cooperation in all fields and in any level."

"India is a very important ally for us and we view the Home Minister's visit as very significant. We are looking forward to fruitful discussions that will strengthen cooperation between the two countries," a senior Israeli official said.

It is the first visit of an Indian Home Minister to Israel since June 2000 when L K Advani visited Jerusalem, marking an upsurge in bilateral cooperation. Singh's visit comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Netanyahu on the sidelines of the
UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Source: MP News in Hindi and Chhattisgarh Hindi News

Obama has written to Khamenei for cooperation in fight against IS

Iran, a Shiite Muslim state, and the United States have not had diplomatic ties since the 1979 storming of the American embassy in Tehran and the 444-day hostage crisis.
  
But there has been a growing recognition that Iran still dubbed by Washington a state sponsor of terrorism could play a role in helping to restore stability in countries such as Iraq and Syria.
  
Refusing to deny or confirm the report, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said "I'm not in a position to discuss private correspondence between the president and any world leader."
  
Iran and the United States are currently negotiating a complex deal to rein in Iranian nuclear ambitions in exchange for an easing of crippling international sanctions against the Islamic republic.
  
Earnest repeated that on the sidelines of those talks, being led by a group of powers known as the P5+1, Iran and US had discussed the threat of the militants.
  
But he reiterated US stand that "the United States will not cooperate militarily with Iran in that effort, we won't share intelligence with them."
  
In his letter, Obama reportedly stressed to Khamenei that any cooperation in fighting IS militants would depend on reaching a comprehensive nuclear deal, as a November 24 deadline looms.
  
The Journal said it was believed to be the fourth letter from Obama to Khamenei since the American leader took office in 2009. US officials told the paper that the Iranian leader has never responded personally to the overtures.
  
Many of Washington's regional allies, including Israel as well as Saudi Arabia, have been wary of US administration bid to engage Iran diplomatically, and the Journal's sources said the White House did not tell those countries in advance of Obama's letter.
  
US Secretary of State John Kerry will on Sunday meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as well as EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton in Oman, for a fresh round of nuclear talks.
  
They will meet in Muscat, which hosted secret Iran-US talks in 2012, widely credited for bringing Tehran back to the nuclear negotiations.

Source: MP News in Hindi and Chhattisgarh Hindi News

'Thousands' of Ebola deaths likely unreported: WHO expert

"There are lots of missing deaths in this epidemic," Christopher Dye, WHO's strategy chief, told AFP, estimating that around 5,000 fatalities could be missing from the count.

This assessment, he said, was based on the knowledge that the fatality rate in the epidemic centred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone stands at about 70 per cent. But with total reported cases of infections reaching 13,042, that suggests that many of the deaths were going unrecorded.

Dye said the likely explanation was that many people were burying the dead in secret, possibly to avoid having authorities interfere with burial customs like washing and touching the deceased widely blamed for much of the transmission.

The UN's health agency has created confusion with its latest figures of Ebola cases and deaths, which have shown shrinking numbers. The toll provided Wednesday night showed 4,818 deaths, down from 4,951 reported on October 31, while the number of reported cases fell to 13,042 from 13,567.

This does not mean that the epidemic is over or that people have stopped dying from the deadly virus, Dye said, explaining instead that the drop in numbers was linked to a shift in the way WHO uses different databases to calculate the overall numbers.

"Many, many people are still dying of Ebola," he said. Up until recently, WHO had used  several different databases from each of the affected countries to calculate the overall number of cases and deaths.

The different sources however meant that the numbers did not always progress in a consistent manner, fluctuating according to what data was available from the separate databases.

To avoid the fluctuations, the agency had shifted to only using data from each of the countries' situation reports, based on daily counts of patients and deaths district by district.

Source: MP News in Hindi and Chhattisgarh Hindi News