Daily bulletin: Counting for Karnataka ULBs today, $300 million funds cut for Pakistan; fuel prices at all-time high: day's top stories

Counting of votes for Karnataka urban local body elections today: The counting of votes will be taken up on Monday for the Karnataka Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) elections that were held on 31 August. Most of the results are expected by Monday night or early on Tuesday. Polling was held for 102 Urban Local on Friday. Voting was held in 2,529 wards spread over 29 city municipalities, 53 town municipalities and 23 town panchayats and in 135 wards of the three city corporations. In all, 8,340 candidates, including 2,306 from the Congress, 2,203 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 1,397 from the Janata Dal (Secular) are in the fray for the ULBs, while 814 are contesting in the city corporations, including 135 from Congress, 130 from BJP and 129 from JD(S). [caption id=“attachment_5098951” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  People wait at the TRS rally venue. C Sanjay/101Reporters[/caption] Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao hints at early Assembly polls: Telangana appears headed for an early Assembly election with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao saying on Sunday that he has been authorised by the party to take the final call on the issue. Addressing a public meeting titled ‘Pragati Nivedana Sabha’ (report card of over four-year-old TRS government) on the outskirts of Hyderabad, he also said a committee headed by party’s Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao will be formed soon to work out the election manifesto with new schemes and programmes. He also said the people of the state should not become a slave to Delhi parties. Pune Police gets 90 more days to file charge sheet against five persons arrested in June for Bhima-Koregaon clashes: A special court on Sunday granted the Pune police a 90-day extension for filing charge sheet against the five activists arrested on 6 June for their alleged links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Bhima-Koregaon clashes of 1 January. The accused — Dalit activist-publisher Sudhir Dhawale, prominent human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling, tribal activist Mahesh Raut, Nagpur University English Professor Shoma Sen and activist Rona Wilson — were produced before the court amid tight security on Sunday morning. US finalises $300 million funding cut for Pakistan: The Pentagon has sought Congressional determination to reprogramme $300 million of its Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for Pakistan because of the latter’s “lack of” decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy. With this, the Department of Defence (DoD) has reprogrammed $800 million CSF destined for Pakistan. This is because US defence secretary James Mattis has refused to give the necessary certification to the Congress that Pakistan has taken strong steps against terrorist groups like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba. 16 die, 12 injured in Uttar Pradesh rains: At least 16 people died and 12 were injured in rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh, where authorities had to take IAF help to airlift marooned villagers on Sunday, even as the Met office predicted more rains throughout the state over the next two days. Shahjahanpur bore the maximum brunt of the weather onslaught on Saturday as six people died after being struck by lightning, while seven were injured. Fuel prices at all-time high: Fuel rates continue to soar across the country. On Sunday, petrol was selling at a price of Rs 78. 84 per litre in Delhi while in Mumbai it was retailing at Rs 86.25 per litre. The surge in fuel prices is largely attributed to the weakening rupee. The Indian currency fell to an all-time, historic low of 71 to the US dollar, before settling around 70.88 to the dollar at the time of equity markets coming to a close on Friday. Dharmendra Pradhan, union minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, blamed the ‘isolated’ policies of the US for the ‘abnormally’ rising fuel prices in the international markets. On Friday, he said, “Due to the isolated policies of America, the value of currencies across the world has fallen in comparison to the US dollar. India’s currency has also been affected and the price of fuel has increased abnormally”. Film adaptation of renowned musical Cats gets December release: Universal Pictures and Working Title will release Cats, the big-screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s0 musical, on 20 December. The story of a tribe of cats who meet each year to decide which among them will ascend to the Heaviside Layer in order to be reincarnated is being directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper. The cast boasts stars like Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden and Taylor Swift.