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• The US Senate majority leader has attacked President Donald Trump's policy in Syria.


• In a Washington Post opinion piece, Mitch McConnell says fellow Republican Mr. Trump's troop withdrawal order combined with Turkey's Syria assault was a "strategic nightmare".


• The president called the Turkey-Syria border situation "strategically brilliant" for the US.

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• Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard slammed Hillary Clinton as "queen of warmongers" after the former US Secretary of State alleged that the Democratic election hopeful was being "groomed" by the Russians as the third-party candidate for the 2020 presidential elections.


• Tulsi Gabbard, 38, who declared her presidential bid last year, is a favorite of the Indian-Americans mainly because of her being a Hindu.


• The unprecedented war of words between the two US politicians erupted when Hillary Clinton during an interview appeared to be floating a conspiracy theory that the Russians are "grooming" Tulsi Gabbard to be the third-party candidate in the presidential elections.

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• The British parliament may end up forcing Prime Minister Boris Johnson to request another Brexit delay and give only provisional support to his divorce deal with the EU.


• An amendment penned by former government minister Oliver Letwin forces Johnson to write a letter to Brussels requesting an extension of the Brexit deadline until January 31 of next year.


• Johnson is currently required to ask for an extension if parliament votes down the revised withdrawal agreement he signed with EU leaders in Brussels this week.

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• The deadly Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains an "urgent" global health emergency, The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday at its Emergency Committee meeting.


• DRC's latest Ebola epidemic, which began in August 2018, has killed 2,144 people, making it the second deadliest outbreak of the virus, after the West Africa pandemic of 2014-2016.


• "The public health emergency will be maintained for an additional three months", WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

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• The United Nations Headquarters in New York will remain closed in the forthcoming weekend due to the ongoing cash crisis.


• "The UNHQ buildings in NYC will be closed on weekends (Saturday-Sunday) due to the ongoing cash crisis," the organization said.


• "Has your country made its contribution to this year's regular UN budget yet?" the thread added.

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• Chinese Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong has said that relations between New Delhi and Beijing "go beyond the bilateral scope, and have important and far-reaching strategic significance."


• Speaking to news agency ANI over the recently concluded two-day informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in south India, Mr. Sun said, "The visit marked the 17th meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi in the past five years.


• The two leaders took their time in a stroll while discussing world affairs, and had in-depth communication on the development of bilateral relations as well as overall strategic issues with international and regional significance."

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• The International Monetary Fund supported India's recent decision to reduce corporate income tax, saying it has a positive impact on investment.


• It, however, said India should address continued fiscal consolidation and secure long-term stability of the fiscal conditions.


• "We believe India still has limited fiscal space so they have to be careful. We support their corporate income tax cut because it has a positive impact on investment," Changyong Rhee, Director, Asia, and Pacific Department, IMF, told reporters at a news conference in Washington.

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• Ahead of the ninth India-US Defence Technologies and Trade Initiative or DTTI group meeting in New Delhi next week, the Pentagon said that the bilateral defence trade between the two countries is expected to reach USD 18 billion by the year end.


• Undersecretary Of Defense For Acquisition And Sustainment Ellen M Lord said the US is committed to strengthening its partnership with India while furthering military-to-military relationships and cooperation.


• "Bilateral defence trade, essentially zero in 2008, will reach an estimated USD 18 billion later this year," she told reporters at the Pentagon.

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• Expressing grave concerns over parts of the Bihar capital being inundated for over a fortnight now and reports of people suffering from dengue, the Patna High Court on Friday directed the state government to take urgent steps.


• A division bench of Justice Shivaji Pandey and Justice Partha Sarathi passed the order while hearing a bunch of writ petitions filed by various parties drawing the court's attention to the destruction caused in the city following three days of torrential rainfall last month.

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• India has called on the member states of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) for taking steps to promote fair and ethical recruitment of migrants as well as safe and legal migration.


• In his address at the Ministerial Consultation of ADD held on October 16-17 in Dubai, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan spoke about the ongoing efforts between India and the UAE with respect to integration of India's e-Migrate system with online system of Ministry of Human Resource and Emiratisation (MOHRE), UAE, according to a press release issued by the Indian Embassy in the UAE.

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• Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved a proposal for admission of girl children in Sainik schools from 2021-22 academic session in a phased manner, according to an official statement.


• The decision has been taken following the success of the pilot project started by the Ministry of Defence for admission of girl children in Sainik School Chhingchhip in Mizoram two years ago.


• The Defence Minister has directed concerned authorities to ensure the availability of necessary infrastructure and sufficient female staff in Sainik schools for smooth implementation of the directive.

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• The School of Open Learning (SOL) of Delhi University (DU) has released SOL result 2019 for BA Programme today.


• According to an official, DU SOL result for the first year students of Bachelor of Arts (BA) Programme today.


• The official also confirmed that the SOL results for BA third year students have also been released this week. Candidates who had appeared for the exam can check the result from the official website.


• With this, all the results have been uploaded on the official website, according the official. The SOL results are available on the official portal, sol.du.ac.in.

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• Tamil Nadu Teacher Recruitment Board (TNTRB) has released marks scored by candidates who appeared for the recruitment exam conducted for the posts of Post Graduate Assistant, and Physical Education Director.


• The Board had released the tentative answer key for the exam on October 3, 2019 and had invited objection from applicants. Before releasing the answer key, the board had released question paper and candidate response sheets as well.


• After going through all the objections received, the board prepared a final answer key and based on the final answer key computer-based test answer have been evaluated and the provisional mark list of the examination has been prepared.

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• State Bank of India (SBI)'s apprentice recruitment exam will be held on October 23. The admit cards have been released.


• SBI would induct 700 apprentices in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh through this recruitment.

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• For the multi-tasking staff (MTS) recruitment in the commercial department of Northern Railway, railway recruitment cells (RRC) will announce the exam dates after October 31.


• "Candidate should be in readiness to appear for the written test at short notice after the last date for submission is over," the job notification released by RRC reads.


• Meanwhile registration process has concluded for the recruitment drive for which class 10th pass and ITI certified candidates are eligible.

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• Uttar Pradesh Board has decided to release high school and intermediate results on its website for past years going as far back as 2003.


• Apart from the exam result, the board has also released compartment exam result, improvement exam result, and other certificates.


• In a notice, which is available on the Board's website, the board has said that all central government offices, state government offices, private organizations, universities, colleges, and deemed universities can verify the result of students who appeared and qualified in the 10th and/or 12th board examination from UP board between the years 2003 and 2019.

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• HDFC Bank has started stamping the passbooks of its account holders with information about the deposit insurance cover.


• The stamp text by HDFC Bank - India's largest private sector lender in terms of market capitalisation - reads: "As per the Reserve Bank of India's circular dated June 22, 2017 which requires all Scheduled Commercial Banks, all small Finance Banks and Payment Banks to incorporate information about 'deposit insurance cover' along with the limit of coverage upfront in the passbook."

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• Private sector ICICI Lombard General Insurance posted a 5 per cent increase in net profit at ₹307.91 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal.


• It had posted a net profit of ₹293.10 crore in the same period a year ago.

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• India vs South Africa third Test will begin with the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi playing host to the final encounter.


• India took an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series after thrashing the visitors by an innings and 137 runs in the second Test in Pune and many may see the final Test as a dead rubber.


• But the World Test Championship has ensured that is not the case. With 40 points at stake, both teams will be looking for a win. India lead the World Test Championship table with 200 points, 140 points ahead of second-placed New Zealand.

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• Rohit Sharma brought up his sixth Test century in the ongoing third Test between India vs South Africa in Ranchi.


• Rohit Sharma reached the magical three-figure mark by smashing Dane Piedt for a maximum. In the process, Rohit Sharma became only the second Indian opener after Sunil Gavaskar to hit three or more hundreds in one Test series.

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• Indian Women’s cricket team won the One Day International (ODI) Series 2019 against South Africa by 3-0.The South African women’s cricket team toured India to play against India women’s cricket team from September 20- October 14, 2019.


• The tournament consisted of 3 Women ODIs (WODIs) and 6 Women’s Twenty20 International (WT20) matches (India won the series).

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• NASA made history Friday morning when astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir stepped outside the International Space Station to replace a faulty battery charger.


• The all-female spacewalk - the first of its kind "in human history," the agency said - began at 7:38 a.m. Eastern time as the two American astronauts set their suits to battery power mode.


• Koch was first to venture out of the ISS with a red tether attached to her suit.


• Meir soon followed, carrying a tool bag as she made her way out of the hatch at 7:49 a.m. The spacewalk was originally scheduled for 5-and-a-half hours, but the crews successfully completed their main task and the mission was extended to more than seven hours so the astronauts could perform some additional jobs.

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• Japan space agency JAXA has partnered with NASA to work on its Artemis mission, which is aimed to send crewed missions to both Moon and Mars.


• JAXA will offer technical cooperation to build a space station near Moon, to be used by astronauts.


• However, Japan has reserved its decision on the station's construction over cost concerns, as per state media.

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• Sudhaker Shukla, a 1985 batch Indian Economic Service(IES) officer, was appointed as the whole-time member of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) for a period of 5 years, after the approval from Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).


• IBBI Board: With his appointment, IBBI now has 3 whole time members. Besides them and a chairman, IBBI board has 4 exofficio members representing Ministry of Corporate Affairs(MCA), the Reserve Bank of India(RBI), Department of Economic Affairs(DEA) and legal affairs and it also has 2-part time members, they are Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian and B Sriram, former Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of IDBI (Industrial Development Bank of India) bank.

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• The European Union (EU) leaders confirmed the appointment of former 1 women head of the Washington based body , International Monetary Fund(IMF) Christine Lagarde (63) as the new chief of the European Central Bank (ECB) for a non-renewable term of 8 years. She will be replacing Mario Draghi (Italy) from November 1, 2019.

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• Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has appointed former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) KV Chowdary as a non-executive additional director.


• A 1978-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Chowdary served as the CVC from June 2015 to June 2019. He had also served as the Chairperson of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy-making body of the Income Tax Department.

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• Chinese short-form video platform TikTok has appointed Nikhil Gandhi as the Head of TikTok India.


• Gandhi, who was previously the President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Times Network, will lead the development of TikTok's products and operations in India.


• His new role would also reportedly include communicating with the government on privacy, security and content concerns.

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• The book titled “The Daughter from a Wishing Tree: Unusual Tales About Women in Mythology” written by Indian writer Sudha Murty is set to release. It is published by Puffin Publishers. It is a mythology series depicting the untold stories of women in mythology (collection of myths).


• The previous 3 books in the series of the author are “The Serpent’s Revenge: Unusual Tales from the Mahabharata”, “The Man from the Egg: Unusual Tales about the Trinity”, and “The Upside-Down King: Unusual Tales about Rama and Krishna”.

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• Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd, who led two Silicon Valley giants, has died at 62. Oracle confirmed his death Friday, but gave no cause. Hurd was on medical leave, which Oracle announced in September.


• During his career, Hurd ran both Oracle and computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard. Hurd joined Oracle as co-president in 2010 a month after leaving HP.


• He resigned from HP following accusations of sexual harassment by a female contract worker.

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• Actor Bill Macy, who featured in 1972 American TV series 'Maude', passed away on Thursday at the age of 97 in Los Angeles, his friend Matt Beckoff said.


• "He was a rare comic actor. There was only one Bill Macy," Maude creator Norman Lear said. Macy is known for his role in series like, 'Seinfeld' and 'One Big Family', among others.