Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Pakistan skipped the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conference on military medicine here that concluded on Friday.

Some 27 international delegates attended the conference.

Raipur, Sep 14 (PTI) A naxal was killed on Saturday in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, police said.

The incident occurred around 8:30 am in a forest near Punnur village, around six kms from Awapalli police station, when a team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on a counter-insurgency operation, Deputy Inspector General (anti- naxal operations) Sundarraj P told PTI.

Guwahati, Sep 14 (PTI) The names of all NRC applicants have been published online on Saturday, the office of the NRC State Coordinator said here.

The names of all the 3.30 crore applicants as per draft NRC and supplementary list of inclusions and exclusions (final NRC) have been published, an official said.

The final National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was published on August 31, consisted only of supplementary lists.

New Delhi, Sep 14 (PTI) Union Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel on Saturday inaugurated an exhibition-cum-e-auction of gifts received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last one year to raise funds for the Centre's Namami Gange Project.

More than 2,700 mementos, including shawls, pagris and jackets, at the National Gallery of Modern Art here will be auctioned on www.pmmementos.gov.in from Saturday till October 3.

Jammu, Sep 14 (PTI) Pakistani troops engaged in heavy firing and mortar shelling on forward posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday in violation of the ceasefire, officials said.

The firing and mortar shelling from across the border started in Balakote and Mankote areas around 10 am, drawing a strong retaliation from the Indian Army, the officials said.

They said heavy exchange of fire between the two sides was going on when last reports were received.

MALE, Maldives, Sept 14 (NNN-PSM) – The Maldives government has condemned the statement made by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he plans to annex the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank, if he wins the re-election.

The foreign ministry in a statement, said that, any attempt to annex any part of the occupied Palestinian territories would be a grave violation of international law, including the Geneva Conventions, and would further push back any chance of meaningful dialogue between the parties, towards achieving a lasting peace in the Middle East.

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Bengaluru, Sep 12 (PTI) Union Minister D V Sadanada Gowda on Thursday said the current economic situation in the country was "challenging", but expressed the hope that the measures taken by the union government to address it would see India quickly progress ahead 'in a very short time.'

"In 2008-09 also we had seen global slowdown, but during the time of economic slowdown, the measures taken by the administrative machinery is important as it plays a crucial role.

Shahjahanpur (UP), Sep 13 (PTI) BJP leader and former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand has been quizzed by the SIT for around seven hours in connection with a law student's allegation that he raped her, his counsel said on Friday.

The special investigation team, formed on the orders of the Supreme Court, summoned Chinmayanad to the police lines on Thursday night, his counsel Om Singh said.

Later, he was brought back to his residence Divya Dham in Mumukshu Ashram under heavy security, he said.

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has complied with its direction and extended the tenure of the special judge, who is conducting trial in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case involving BJP veterans L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti.

A bench of justices R F Nariman and Surya Kant perused the affidavit and office memo placed before it by the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh.