Merkel's party ahead in local votes in northern German state
The Hindu
The CDU has been the strongest party in local council elections for about 40 years, although the state government has often been led by the Social Democrats
Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right party has maintained its position as the strongest party following local elections in a northern German state, two weeks before a national election, in which it is struggling in polls, results showed on Monday. Sunday's elections for local councils in Lower Saxony state, in Germany's northwest, may offer the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) some cheer even though such votes are of very limited significance for the national picture, where polls currently show the CDU slightly behind the centre-left Social Democrats. The CDU has been the strongest party in local council elections in Lower Saxony for about 40 years, although the state government has often been led by the Social Democrats, and is, at present. In Sunday's elections, it took 31.7% of the vote, down from 34.3% five years ago, results showed.A crowd comprising farmers, researchers, professors, students, and horticulture enthusiasts thronged the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, on Friday for the inaugural ceremony of the Triphal Diversity Show which showcased 300 mango, 100 jackfruit, and 100 banana genotypes in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.