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• It was only in April that Spain held a general election in which the Socialists (PSOE) of incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez won.


• And yet Spanish voters are returning to the polls for their fourth general election in four years.


• Lacking a majority, the Socialists needed the support of other parties to form a government.

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• Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been freed after more than 18 months in prison.


• The left-wing former leader, known as Lula, was greeted with rapturous applause from crowds of supporters as he walked out of the jail.


• He was held in a prison in the city of Curitiba on corruption charges.


• A judge ordered his release after a Supreme Court ruling that defendants should only be imprisoned if they have exhausted their appeal options.

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• New York business tycoon Michael Bloomberg has paved the way for a shot at the US presidency, registering as a candidate in the Alabama Democratic primary race before Friday's filing deadline.


• Although the 77-year-old billionaire has not publicly announced his run, his inclusion among a crowded field kept his options open for mounting a concerted bid to topple a fellow New Yorker, President Donald Trump.

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• The IMF praised Pakistan's economic performance and agreed on next steps, paving the way for release of another portion of a $6 billion, three-year loan package.


• Once the International Monetary Fund board gives the go-ahead, the Washington-based lender will provide $450 million to help right the South Asian nation's economy, on top of the $1 billion released in July.


• "Despite a difficult environment, program implementation has been good, and all performance criteria for end-September were met with comfortable margins," IMF mission chief Ernesto Ramirez Rigo said in a statement.

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• A French woman seeking permanent residency in Quebec was turned down on grounds on her French was not good enough.


• Emilie Dubois, 31, has lived in the mainly French-speaking province since 2012, completed her doctoral thesis at Laval University in Quebec City in French, started a small business in the province and even passed a language test.


• But all that wasn't enough to convince Quebec officials to give her an immigration suitability certificate that is a prerequisite to gaining permanent residency.

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• According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday, light to moderate rainfall is expected over north coastal districts of Odisha as the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm 'Bulbul' has moved towards the northwest and adjoining the west-central Bay of Bengal.


• The areas which fall under north coastal districts of Odisha are- Puri, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, and Jagatsinghpur districts.

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• In less than 100 days, approximately 1,500 delegates, including representatives of national governments, international organizations, scientists, conservation groups and other wildlife experts will gather in Gujarat's Gandhinagar for the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS COP13).


• COP13 will run from February 17 to 22, 2020, with a high-level event preceding it on February 16.

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• The Archaeological Survey of India said there was a structure underneath the mosque but did not specify what it was, the Supreme Court said today as it read out a "unanimous" verdict in the Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute, a religious and political flashpoint that has cast a shadow on the country for decades.


• A five-judge constitution bench is reading out its decision amid appeals for peace and heightened security across the country.

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• The Kartarpur Corridor, connecting the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur, Punjab to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan, will be inaugurated today, allowing Sikh pilgrims in India year round access to one of their holiest sites.


• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the inaugural procession of over 500 pilgrims on the Indian side while his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan will declare it open at the other end.


• The Kartarpur Corridor opening marks the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism.

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• Uttar Pradesh government transferred five IAS officers, with one of them being posted as Commissioner of Ayodhya.


• Infrastructure and Industrial Development Department Secretary Mahendra Prasad Agrawal has been posted as a special officer to Ayodhya circle.


• He will be the Ayodhya Circle Commissioner from November, according to the order.

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• Border Security Force (BSF) has declared the result and also released the answer key of written exam conducted for recruitment of head constable radio operator (HC RO) and HC radio mechanic (HC RM) . The exam was held on September 22.


• Candidates who had appeared in the written exam can check their result at bsf.nic.in.


• A total of 12262 candidates have qualified for the next phase physical standard test, physical endurance test, and document verification round. Shortlisted candidates will have to appear for the same on December 2, 2019.

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• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday increased the household income limits for borrowers of NBFC-MFIs from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.25 lakh for the rural areas with an aim to strengthen credit to those in the bottom of the economic pyramid.


• Similarly, the limit has been increased from Rs 1.6 lakh for urban or semi-urban areas to Rs 2 lakh, the RBI said in a circular.

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• A senior Reserve Bank official on Friday blamed the presence of multiple regulators with disparate priorities for the ills plaguing the corporate bond market saying multiple regulators are leading to poor coordination and long delays.


• The need for a robust bond market has increased, thanks to the stressed balance-sheets of banks, M Rajeshwar Rao, an executive director at the central bank, said.

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• India's top javelin throwers Sandeep Chaudhary and Sumit Antil secured the quota for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics by finishing at the top two spots in the men's Javelin F64 finals at the ongoing Dubai 2019 World Para Athletics Championships.


• The duo bettered their own world records in their categories en route to booking their qualifying spots for India at the Paralympics.

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• Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla was conferred with UAE (United Arab Emirates) govt.


• ABLF Global Asian Award at an event in Dubai. The award was given for ‘powerful individual whose business footprint and commitment to excellence have engaged international interest’

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• Sweden based company UBI Global has recognised the Kerala Startup Mission(KSUM) as the World’s top Public Business Accelerator.


• UBI Awards & Recognition Gala event 2019 released the top lists of business incubators and accelerators as per the assessment made in the World Benchmark Study 2019 -2020.


• The announcement in this regard was made at the World Incubation Summit for best programmes, hosted by Qatar Development Bank at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.

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• At the 9th edition of the Dhaka Literature festival, West Bengal-based writer Abhishek Sarkar and Bangladeshi poet Rofiquzzaman Rony were given the Gemcon Young Literature Award and Gemcon Young Poetry Award.


• Abhishek and Rofiquzzaman won the awards for their manuscripts, “Nishiddho” and “Dhoashar Tamate Rong,” respectively.

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• NASA, most prominent for its many Florida-launched exploits into space, showcased an early version of its first all-electric experimental aircraft, the X-57 "Maxwell," on Friday at its lesser-known aeronautics lab in the California desert.


• Adapted from a Italian-made Tecnam P2006T twin-engine propeller plane, the X-57 has been under development since 2015 and remains at least a year away from its first test flight in the skies over Edward Air Force Base.

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• Nabaneeta Dev Sen, a Bengali Writer passed away at her age of 81 in Kolkata due to cancer. She is a poet, a novelist, a columnist and a writer of short stories and travelogues. Dev Sen was well-known for her research on the Ramayana.


• .Nabaneeta Dev Sen was Born on January 13, 1938 on Kolkata. Dev Sen is the Vice President of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat. She is the founder and president of West Bengal Women Writers’ Association