The trust vote for the BJP led minority government in Maharashtra slated in a while has been reduced to a mere academic excercise with the Nationalist Congress Party declaring that it will vote for Devendra Fadnavis' government. The BJP has the strength of 122 seats. 41 members of NCP will take its total tally to 163, which will be 19 votes more than the majority figure of 144.

After BJP's Haribhau Bagde got elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly some time ago, the congratulatory speeches of various prominent leaders have begun. Former Home Minister R R Patil reportedly said in his speech that the political situation in the State is very peculiar. Everyone is showing willingness to support the new government without any conditions, Mr Patil said, adding that the peculiar political conditions are confounding for the political scientists too. The NCP had earlier said that it was likely to abstain from voting the confidence motion. It then came out in support of the government and decided to support it.

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Trust vote an academic exercise after NCP's favourable vote for BJP

ACT News

The thought of a terrorist event in Canberra is terrifying but one ACT emergency services personnel are ready for.

As Canberra gears up for a number of high-profile sporting events early next year the ACT Government has held an emergency preparedness exercise at GIO Stadium in Bruce.

Firefighters, paramedics, SES workers, police and school volunteers participated in the mock Asian Cup game explosion.

The mass casualty scenario enabled various government sites to practise co-ordinating and managing a major emergency.

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The training session is part of a wider exercise program aimed at observing how the territory responds to an incident at a place of mass gathering. The program will continue until December.

Canberra will host seven AFC Asian Cup 2015 football matches and three ICC Cricket World Cup matches between January and March, 2015.

Minister for Police and Emergency Services Simon Corbell said the government decided to conduct a series of exercises to practise and evaluate the whole-of-government response to an emergency incident ahead of the events.

"The ACT Government has recognised the need to be well co-ordinated and practiced ahead of the major world sporting events that will come to the nation's capital in 2015," he said.

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Services test mass sporting ground emergency

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VietNamNet Analysts and economists, siding with domestic businesses, have voiced great concern over the generous incentives given to foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) and the undervalued role of Vietnamese businesses in the national economy.

Do Duy Thai, general director of Viet Steel Corporation, said he would like to have some of the incentives the government offers to Formosa, the Taiwanese steel manufacturer in Ha Tinh province.

If Vietnamese manufacturers were also offered such incentives, they would also be able to make all kinds of steel products the market needs, he commented.

However, it seems that the special treatment is only given to FIEs.

Like Thai, many Vietnamese businessmen said they are envious of the preferential treatment FIEs can enjoy tax incentives, preferential land-use right fees and priority in working with state management agencies.

Foreign investors tend to be more and more demanding, while the government tends to overindulge them, commented Pham Chi Lan, a renowned independent economist.

Lan said that by competing with each other to lure foreign investors and offering such investment incentives, provincial authorities have been tripping each other up and killing Vietnamese enterprises.

When Vietnam offers big incentives to Samsung, it also offers incentives in land and tax to Samsungs satellite businesses.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises in the same business fields cannot enjoy such preferences. They still have to lease land at normal prices and pay the normal corporate income tax rate of 22 percent.

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Vietnam offers foreign-invested enterprises special favors

11/11/2014 at 02:17 PM ET

Though he might be the only one, Stephen Colbert is praising the creators ofDewitos, the new Doritos-flavored Mountain Dew.

Tonight, I come to you with news that there is a scientific breakthrough giving millions of Americas hope for a better tomorrow, he said during Mondays episode of Colbert Report. I sit here as eyewitness to history, privileged to say the following words: Mountain Dew now tastes like Doritos.

The new flavor, which is being tested on college campuses, has been described as if you shoved a handful of Doritos in your mouth and chugged some [Mountain] Dew at the same time.

But Colbert, 50, suggests he may know one group of people thankful for the unique flavor.

Thanks to PepsiCo innovators, those who want to drink their nacho no longer have to find the AMC concession stand where no one is watching the cheese pump, he says.

The satirical TV host even gets a bit philosophical about it all.

Dewitos bring us to the very intersection of science and spirituality and opens the taste buds to an infinite food court of the mind, he says. So I salute the snackologists who pioneered this Dewitos breakthrough.

Ana Calderone

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WATCH: Stephen Colbert 'Salutes' the Creators of Doritos-Flavored Mountain Dew