Former US president George H.W. Bush dead at 94

New Delhi, Feb 8: Arvind Kejriwal is set to return as Delhi chief minister and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will virtually sweep the assembly elections, exit polls predicted Saturday.

As polling came to a close at 6 pm, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) projecting a voter turnout at 60.24% (as of 9:50 pm), a poll of polls covering 10 exit polls gave 52 seats to AAP, 17 to the Bharatiya Janata Party and one to the Indian National Congress.

The polls, which are sample surveys conducted among voters exiting polling booths, signalled that the Delhi voter responded to AAP’s campaign that focused on “kaam”, or getting work done.

Kejriwal, a former civil servant and activist who stormed into electoral politics with an anti-corruption campaign in 2013, led a campaign focusing on the development work his government did in Delhi, especially in education and healthcare, as well as sops such as lower electricity bills and free bus rides for women.

The exit polls gave AAP between 47 and 68 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

They predicted an absolute rout for Congress, which ruled Delhi for three terms between 1998 and 2013. The maximum seats to AAP were given by India Today TV-Axis exit poll, which predicted 59-68 seats for the party, while giving 2-11 for the BJP and none to the Congress.

If these figures hold, the results will come as a disappointment for the BJP, which had hoped its sweep in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 would reflect in the assembly polls.

Delhi’s voter turnout saw a sharp fall over the 2015 elections. According to the Election Commission of India, voter turnout till 9 pm was projected at 60.24% — lower than 67.12% in 2015.

Traditionally, a lower voter turnout is read as a vote for the incumbent.

The voter turnout in Delhi has been similar during the Congress regime under Sheila Dikshit, when she won consecutive terms. In 2003, when Delhi voted a second time for the Dikshit government, the voter turnout was 53.42%, and a comparable 57.58% was the turnout in 2008.

Later, in two consecutive elections — 2013 and 2015 — voters turned out in big numbers to vote Dikshit out of power. In 2013, 65.63% of Delhi turned out and the percentage increased further to 67.12% in 2015.

Across constituencies, Matia Mahal in Central Delhi registered the highest voter turnout of 68.36%, whereas Bawana assembly constituency in North district saw the lowest turnout at 41.95%. Among districts, North East district registered the highest (62.75%) voter turnout, while the lowest turnout was recorded in South East district (54.15%), according to the ECI app.

New Delhi, Mar 3: A day after two new cases of novel coronavirus that included one from Delhi were reported, the Health Ministry on Tuesday said six cases with "high-viral load" were detected during sample testing in Agra and these people have been kept in isolation. The six people had come in contact with a 45-year-old patient from Delhi, whose case came to light on Monday, and they include his family members.

According to government sources, the man, who is a resident of Mayur Vihar, had visited them in Agra.

The six have been kept in isolation at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi and their samples are being sent to NIV, Pune for confirmation.

Contact tracing of the people who came in contact with the six is simultaneously being done through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) network, the ministry said in a statement.

Sources said the patient from Mayur Vihar was shifted to a quarantine ward at Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday night.

His other family members have been asked to stay alert and look out for symptoms. One accountant, who came in contact with the man and some of his family members, was also quarantined, they said.

India on Monday reported two new cases of the novel coronavirus, one from Delhi and another one from Hyderabad. The government has stepped up its efforts to detect and check the infection which has killed 2,912 people in China.

On Monday, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma had said that an Italian tourist tested positive for coronavirus in Jaipur.

The first sample collected from him on February 29 tested negative but his condition deteriorated, so a second sample was collected which tested positive on Monday, the minister said, adding, "Since there is a variation in the reports, the samples have been sent to the NIV, Pune for testing".

India had earlier reported three cases from Kerala, including two medical students from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the deadly novel coronavirus. They had self-reported on their return to the country and tested positive for the infection. They were discharged from hospitals last month following recovery.

The infected person from Delhi had travelled to Italy, while the other patient who tested positive for the COVID-19 infection is from Telangana and had recently travelled to Dubai.

Both the patients had self-reported after they developed symptoms.

"They tested positive. They are stable and being closely monitored," ministry said on Monday.

The government has asked people to avoid non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, South Korea and Singapore and said India was in discussions with authorities in Iran and Italy, two countries badly affected by the infection, to evacuate Indians there.

The novel coronavirus or COVID-19, which originated in China, has spread to over 60 countries.

Huawei will be completely removed from the UK's 5G networks by the end of 2027, the UK government announced on Tuesday after a review by the country's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on the impact of US sanctions against the Chinese telecommunications giant.

In the lead up to this complete removal of all Huawei kit from UK networks, there will be a total ban on the purchase of any new 5G kit after December 31, 2020.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the UK's National Security Council (NSC) chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in response to new US sanctions against the telecom major imposed in May which removed the firm's access to products which have been built based on US semiconductor technology.

5G will be transformative for our country, but only if we have confidence in the security and resilience of the infrastructure it is built upon, said Oliver Dowden, UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Following US sanctions against Huawei and updated technical advice from our cyber experts, the government has decided it necessary to ban Huawei from our 5G networks. No new kit is to be added from January 2021, and UK 5G networks will be Huawei free by the end of 2027. This decisive move provides the industry with the clarity and certainty it needs to get on with delivering 5G across the UK, he said.

The minister, who laid out the details of the UK's ban on Huawei in the House of Commons, said the government will now seek to legislate with a new Telecoms Security Bill to put in place the powers necessary to implement the tough new telecoms security framework.

By the time of the next election (2024) we will have implemented in law an irreversible path for the complete removal of Huawei equipment from our 5G networks, said Dowden.

The new law will give the government the national security powers to impose these new controls on high risk vendors and create extensive security duties on network operators to drive up standards, DCMS said.

Technical experts at the NCSC reviewed the consequences of the US sanctions and concluded that Huawei will need to do a major reconfiguration of its supply chain as it will no longer have access to the technology on which it currently relies and there are no alternatives which we have sufficient confidence in.

They found the new restrictions make it impossible to continue to guarantee the security of Huawei equipment in the future.

After a ban on the purchase of new Huawei kit for 5G from next year, the aim is to completely remove the Chinese vendor's influence on 5G networks across the UK by the end of 2027.

The DCMS said Tuesday's decision takes into account the UK's specific national circumstances and how the risks from these sanctions are manifested in the country.

The existing restrictions on Huawei in sensitive and critical parts of the network remain in place, it highlighted.

The DCMS said the US action also affects Huawei products used in the UK's full fibre broadband networks. However, the UK has managed Huawei's presence in the UK's fixed access networks since 2005 and we also need to avoid a situation where broadband operators are reliant on a single supplier for their equipment.

As a result, following security advice from experts, DCMS is advising full fibre operators to transition away from purchasing new Huawei equipment. A technical consultation will determine the transition timetable, but it is expect this period to last no longer than two years.

The government said its new approach strikes the right balance by recognising full fibre's established presence and supporting the connections that the public relies on, while fully addressing the security concerns.

It stressed that its new policy in relation to high risk vendors has not been designed around one company, one country or one threat but as an enduring and flexible policy that will enable the UK to manage the risks to the network, now and in the future.