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Lok Sabha elections 2024 will see a contest on several high-profile seats, with many national leaders in the fray. After dipping in the first three phases of elections, the voting percentage jumped in the fourth phase, and the Election Commission of India (ECI) will try to keep up with this trend. A total of 695 candidates will contest elections in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections on 49 constituencies across eight states.

Aljazeera, DR Congo Army spokesman Brigadier General Sylvain Ekenge said they have thwarted an attempted coup and have arrested many people, including foreigners. 1) On Saturday, armed men attacked the Kinshasa residence of federal legislator and a candidate for speaker of the National Assembly of DR Congo – Vital Kamerhe. They were stopped by his guards, said his spokesman Michel Moto Muhima on X.

Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for questioning TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's loyalty to the INDIA bloc, several posters and hoardings of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge were defaced with ink in front of the party's state headquarters here on Sunday. Unidentified persons also wrote 'agent of Trinamool Congress' on Kharge's posters and hoardings. Sources in the Congress said that Chowdhury, who is in his hometown Baharampur, expressed displeasure over the incident and asked party workers to lodge a police complaint, which was registered, and the defaced posters were also removed. «The incident might have happened on Saturday night. This is the handiwork of the TMC which wants to create differences between senior Congress leaders and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,» a party leader alleged.

(Bloomberg) — Over the past few years, Vietnam’s anti-graft drive has taken down a slew of top Communist Party leaders, including presidents, deputy prime ministers and Politburo members. But that hasn’t stopped foreign investors from pouring in cash. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday abandoned a joint poll meeting in Phulpur area here without delivering speech as their supporters broke through barricades trying to reach the dais. According to police sources, scores of Congress and SP supporters had reached the venue to attend the rally. When Yadav arrived at the venue, the crowd standing in front of the stage broke through the barricades to reach it, creating a «stampede-like» situation, they said. In a video clip shared on the official social media handle of both the SP and the Congress, people on the stage can be heard asking the supporters to move back. The appeals made from the stage failed to have any effect on the crowd.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that the BJP is winning only one seat in Uttar Pradesh. «Have you heard (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi is winning only one BJP seat of Kyoto (Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh,» said Gandhi while addressing a joint poll meeting with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Prayagraj in support of INDIA bloc candidate Ujjawal Raman Singh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said that he will turn Varanasi into Kyoto, a picturesque town in Japan. «The fight is to save the Constitution. The BJP and the RSS are attacking it, and I want to tell them that no power can tear and throw the Constitution away,» Gandhi said while waiving a copy of the Indian Constitution.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday urged the Centre to order a probe into the twin terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir a day earlier and also asked Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism in the region. The former chief minister said if a probe is not ordered into the two gruesome incidents, his party would «invite an international committee» to conduct an investigation to find out the culprits behind such attacks. Terrorists struck at two places in Kashmir on Saturday night, killing Aijaz Sheikh, a former sarpanch affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in Shopian and injuring a tourist couple from Rajasthan in Anantnag. «I have been repeatedly saying that those sitting in Delhi are misleading the people by saying Article 370 was responsible for terrorism. How many years have passed since the abrogation of the Article? Has terrorism stopped?» Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of an election rally in the Mendhar area of Poonch district.

Wells Fargo CIO for Wealth & Investment Management Darrell Cronk says the April labor data was exactly what the Fed wanted to see on 'Making Money.'

Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director of ITC, has assumed office as the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry for 2024-25, the chamber said on Sunday. He takes over from R Dinesh, Chairman of TVS Supply Chain Solutions. Puri heads ITC Ltd, a conglomerate with businesses in FMCG, hotels, paperboards & packaging, agribusiness, and IT. He is also the Chairman of ITC Infotech India Ltd, its subsidiaries in the UK and US, and Surya Nepal Private Ltd.

WASHINGTON—As court adjourned for lunch Tuesday in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, the former president’s lawyers, family and friends poured into the court’s holding room for some of New York City’s finest pizza. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, among them, popped in and out to defend Trump in front of news cameras.

Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian and Anantnag on Saturday. The terrorist attacks in J&K were nearly two days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Baramulla. Terrorists began firing at an open tourist camp near Pahalgam, injuring couple Farha and Tabrez on Saturday.

Donald Trump pledged to unravel gun regulations put in place by Democratic President Joe Biden during a lengthy speech to the National Rifle Association on Saturday, during which he accepted the influential group's endorsement. The address to thousands of NRA members at the group's annual Leadership Forum in Dallas was light on new policy, but he used the platform to urge gun supporters to go to the polls in the November election. "We've got to get gun owners to vote," Trump said in his wide-ranging speech, which covered everything from his criminal trials to trade and immigration over more than 90 minutes.

Having delivered over 80 residential and commercial projects during the last 28 years of its existence, the Manglam Group — a prominent real estate player headquartered in Rajasthan – has ventured into the hospitality sector by joining hands with Marriott. The group is setting up a resort property near Jaipur, named Westin Jaipur.

Campaigning concluded on Saturday for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls covering 49 constituencies in six states and two UTs including the high-profile Rae Bareli and Amethi seats from where former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani are in the fray respectively. In Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla, former chief minister Omar Abdullah, who is among 22 candidates in the fray, held a roadshow in Soibugh — a central Kashmir village that was once a hotbed of militancy- on the last day of campaigning. While temperatures soared across the country, there was no let up in the campaign heat as the Lok Sabha election season entered the last fortnight. The Election Commission on Tuesday said it expects star campaigners, particularly of the national parties, to lead by example in the remaining three phases of the Lok Sabha polls and not vitiate the delicate fabric of society. With over 40 of these seats with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Prime Minister Narendra and other BJP leaders tried to fend off the challenge posed by the INDIA bloc parties by raising the pitch on issues of appeasement, dynastic politics, Ram temple, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), corruption and welfare initiatives taken by his government.

Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday alleged that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been displaying the Chinese constitution at his rallies, instead of the Indian one. The BJP leader claimed that the book shown by Gandhi is with a red cover like the original Chinese constitution, whereas the original Indian constitution has a blue cover. «Rahul is displaying a red Chinese constitution to the people attending his meetings,» Sarma wrote on X. In response, several social media users said that the red-bound Constitution is a coat pocket edition, which has been presented to top Indian leaders, including the President and the Union Home minister.

BJP) president JP Nadda has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been referring to "mangalsutra" in his election speeches to expose «thinking in Congress on wealth redistribution» and that the UPA government had said that Muslims have the first right over the country's wealth. In an interview with ANI, Nadda said the Modi government has lifted 25 crore people out of poverty, has worked for everyone and has taken steps for the empowerment of women, farmers, the poor, Dalits and other weaker sections. He accused Congress of following policies of divide and rule and not working for the integration of society. Nadda referred to remarks of former Congress Overseas Chairperson Sam Pitroda pertaining to «redistribution of wealth» and "inheritance tax" and said he was the guru of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Mohammad Hamid Ansari, former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former deputy prime minister LK Advani and former Union minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi have cast their votes using the home voting facility, the Delhi poll body said. The office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Delhi on Thursday kicked off the home voting facility for elderly voters and persons with disabilities (PwDs) and it will go on till May 24. According to the data shared by the office, 1409 voters cast their ballots from the comfort of their homes across all seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi on Friday, which was the second day of the facility being started. The West Delhi constituency reported the highest number of home votes, with 348 voters participating. Among them, 299 were elderly individuals.

Delhi BJP Saturday accused AAP leaders of circulating «edited» videos to tarnish the image of their own party MP Swati Maliwal, who has accused an aide of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of assaulting her. It is regrettable that «edited» videos are being circulated on social media groups since Friday in an attempt to «defame» Maliwal who is a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva claimed. Earlier in the day, the Delhi Police arrested Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar who has been accused by Maliwal of assaulting her at the CM's residence on Monday. A couple of videos from the chief minister's residence from the day of the incident have surfaced on social media, one showed Maliwal having an argument with security personnel, while the other showed her walking out of the CM's residence in the Civil Lines.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of inciting people and dividing society through his election speeches. Kharge was addressing a press conference of the INDIA bloc, where NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and other leaders were present. The opposition alliance held an election rally in the city on Friday. «No prime minister before Modi has ever indulged in inciting people like he has been doing. He speaks about democracy repeatedly but doesn't adhere to the tenets of democracy,» Kharge said. Responding to a question on PM Modi' statement that the Congress will bulldoze the Ram mandir in Ayodhya and also restore Article 370 if the INDIA bloc is voted to power, Kharge said, «We have never used a bulldozer on anyone. Modi has the habit of lying and inciting people about things which Congress will never do or the things that are impossible to be implemented.»

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in the national capital, the situation is a far cry from that in Kaiserganj, where the former Wrestling Federation of India president is still viewed as a diety. «Hamare maalik, hamare bhagwan, mananiya saansad Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh ko janmdin ki shubhkamnayein’ — Nivedak, ‘saansad bhakt’ Samrat Gupta. (Heartfelt birthday wishes to our master, our god, honourable MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh — from a devotee, Samrat Gupta),» reads a poster in the Paska Bazaar area, according to a Times of India report. Singh stronghold A six-time Member of Parliament, 67-year-old Singh has been accused of sexual harassment by wrestlers following a long period of protest against him. Earlier this month, a Delhi court ordered that charges be levied against him, marking a big moment in the wrestlers' fight to be heard.

New Delhi: India is looking to fortify its imports of LNG, a crucial ingredient in industrial applications and partly in transportation, through long-term contracts with overseas exporters. This week, state-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd signed a long-term contract with French energy giant TotalEnergies in France for supply of LNG (liquefied natural gas), two people aware of the development said. Under the contract, TotalEnergies would supply 1 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) of LNG to IOCL for a period of around 10 years.