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• Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam was forced to suspend her annual address after being heckled in the city's parliament.


• Opposition lawmakers disrupted the session from the start by shouting and projecting slogans.


• After a first interruption, the session briefly resumed to only be interrupted again. It was then adjourned a second time - with the address delivered by pre-recorded video instead.

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• US lawmakers have supported Hong Kong protesters by passing a bill aimed at upholding human rights in the city.


• The bill - which still needs to pass the upper house, the Senate - would mandate an annual review, to see whether Hong Kong had sufficient autonomy from the rest of China to justify its special trading status.


• The lower chamber also approved stopping tear gas exports to Hong Kong.


• Hong Kong protesters took to the streets to support the US bill.

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• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected a US call for an immediate ceasefire in northern Syria, saying Turkey's offensive will continue.


• His comments come as US Vice-President Mike Pence and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepare to fly to Turkey to try to broker a truce.


• Russia warned that it would not allow clashes to take place between Turkish and Syrian forces.

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• EU and UK officials will resume Brexit talks this morning in the hopes of reaching a deal that can be agreed by leaders at a key summit.


• Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to update the cabinet on the progress of the negotiations, which continued through the night.


• There were reports a deal was imminent amid claims the UK had made concessions over the Irish border.

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• Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict in Syria in a phone call with Recep Tayyip Erdogan and invited the Turkish leader to visit Russia soon, the Kremlin said.


• Putin invited Erdogan "for a working visit in the coming days". "The invitation was accepted," Putin's office said in a statement late.


• It said the two leaders emphasized "the need to prevent confrontations between units of the Turkish army and Syrian armed forces".

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• Thousands of people in Catalonia have rallied in support of the region's independence from Spain for a second day, leading to clashes with police.


• Fires were started and protesters attempted to storm government offices in Barcelona, the regional capital.


• It follows the sentencing of nine Catalan separatist leaders.


• A spokesperson for Catalonia's regional government, Meritxell Budó, said they sympathized and understood the anger of the protesters.

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• It is important for India to keep fiscal deficit in check, even though its revenue projections look optimistic, Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund or IMF Gita Gopinath has said.


• As against India's real growth rate of 6.8 percent in 2018, the IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook, released, projected the country's growth rate at 6.1 percent in 2019 and noted that the Indian economy is expected to pick up at 7 percent in 2020.

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, targeting the Congress over its stand on Article 370 and the Rafale deal while campaigning for the October 21 Haryana election, accused its leaders of bad-mouthing India and showing "negativity" on everything that brings joy to the people of the country.


• He also appeared to take a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's recent trip abroad.

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• Daily hearings in the politically sensitive Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya are likely to end today after 40 days, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said.


• The court is expected to announce a verdict in the 134-year-old title suit before the Chief Justice leaves office on November 17.


• Senior advocate K Parasaran, appearing for Ram Lalla Virajman or the "infant Lord Ram", one of the parties to the dispute, said Hindus had been fighting for centuries for the place believed to be the birthplace of Ram and argued that Muslims could pray at any mosque they wanted.

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• Headwinds from the US-China trade war sting business deals of Indian software major Wipro, its Chief Executive Abidali Neemuchwala said.


• "Some of our customers and their supply chains are impacted in certain sectors by the overhang of macro-uncertainty arising out of the trade war between the US and China," he told reporters.


• Noting that the demand environment, however, remained unchanged for IT spends, Mr. Neemuchwala said the company's business in the US market grew 9.4 percent year-on-year while Europe was weak.

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• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir denied the women from the state inheritance rights and this was a "serious human rights violation" that no one spoke about but human rights has become a "global buzzword" following the revocation of the temporary constitutional provision.


• She said that Article 370 denied fundamental rights to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.


• Delivering a lecture on the "Indian Economy: Challenges and Prospects" organized by the Deepak and Neera Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, she was asked about the economic loss in Jammu and Kashmir following the lockdown put in place after Article 370 was revoked.

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• The Bharatiya Janata Party unit in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh will celebrate "Accession Day" of Jammu & Kashmir with the Union of India on October 26, the party's state general secretary Ashok Kaul said.
Mr. Kaul, after discussing preparations for a successful program, told reporters that it will be celebrated across the state at every level in the organization.

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• Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will recruit 327 scientists/engineers. The vacancies are available in Level 10 of Pay Matrix at constituent ISRO Centres (Group 'A' Gazetted posts) and in Autonomous Body (Group 'A' Non-Gazetted posts).


• The online application has begun and the last date to apply online on the ISRO website is November 4, 2019. Candidates would be selected for these posts on the basis of a written exam and interview.

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• India Post has released notification for recruitment of Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh circles.


• The following posts are to be filled through this recruitment process: Branch Postmaster (BPM), Assistant Branch Postmaster (ABPM) and Dak Sevak.


• A total of 2707 vacancies will be filled in Andhra Pradesh circle, 1799 in Chhattisgarh circle and 970 in Telangana circle. The process of registration and fee payment started October 15 and will continue till November 14. The submission of the online application will begin on October 22 and end on November 21.

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• Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Assistant exam admit card is now available for download on the official website.


• LIC Assistant admit card was scheduled to release on October 15 but after the prelim exam date was postponed, the corporation had notified that admit card will be released at a later date.


• To download LIC Assistant exam admit card, applicants would need their registration number or roll number, and password or date of birth.


• The last date to download the LIC assistant prelim exam admit card is October 31, 2019. The prelim exam will be held on October 30 and 31.

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• Bihar legislative council has released the admit card for the recruitment of Assistant, Driver, LDC and Security Guard post, October 14, 2019.


• Candidates who are appearing in the recruitment examination can download their admit cards online at biharvidhanparishad.gov.in on or before October 21, 2019.


• The registration process for the Bihar Sachivalaya Group D recruitment examination started on September 20, 2019.

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• SBI Life Insurance reported a 48.17 per cent drop in its net profit for the second quarter of the fiscal year at Rs 129.84 crore.


• The private sector life insurer had a net profit of Rs 250.53 crore in the same period a year ago.

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• Karnataka Bank has registered a net profit of ₹105.91 crore in the second quarter of 2019-20, against a profit of ₹111.86 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, recording a decline of 5.32 per cent.


• Speaking to BusinessLine after a meeting of the board of directors of the bank to approve the financial results for Q2 of 2019-20, in Mangaluru, Mahabaleshwara MS, Managing Director and CEO of the bank, said the decline in net profit during the quarter was mainly on account of increased provisioning.

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• India beat Bangladesh 5-3 via penalty shoot-out to win SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship title after the summit clash ended goalless in the regulation time in Thimphu.


• This is the second straight time that India have won the Championship. In 2018, India had defeated Bangladesh 1-0 to clinch the title. Bangladesh had won the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2017.

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• Indian nun Mariam Thresia of Kerala and four others (English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini) declared Saints by Pope Francis (head of the Catholic Church) at a grand ceremony at the Vatican City, a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy.


• The title was conferred on Thresia 93 years after her death.

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• Independent candidate Kais Saied won the 2019 presidential election and thus became the 6th President of Tunisia. He succeeds Mohamed Ennaceur(5th president).


• Kais Saied, the former law professor secured 73% votes in the election.

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• As per the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA), Government of India (GoI), Shri Kishan Dan Dewal (Indian Foreign Service –IFS officer of 2003 batch), has been concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to Georgia, with residence in Yerevan.


• He succeeds Shri Yogeshwar Sangwan. Dewal is presently serving as Ambassador of India to the Republic of Armenia.