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UP FRONT A3
                                                                                                         Tuesday 13 October 2015

India’s Bihar holding elections seen as Modi referendum 

INDRAJIT SINGH                  voting for the state’s legis-    The outcome in Bihar, one      because if the BJP wins         from Maoist rebels.
Associated Press                lative assembly. More than       of  India’s  poorest states,   the state it would have         Security was tight Monday,
PATNA,  India  (AP) — Hun-      55 percent of 13.5 million el-   is seen as a test for Modi,    more members in the up-         with thousands of paramili-
dreds of thousands of           igible voters had cast their     who, as his party’s chief      per house of  India’s  Parlia-  tary soldiers deployed to
people lined up at polling      votes at nearly 13,000 high-     campaigner, addressed          ment, which would ease          maintain order outside the
stations in the east Indian     ly guarded polling stations      several election rallies and   the passage of key eco-         polling stations. For the first
state of Bihar on Monday        across the state by 4 p.m.       political meetings across      nomic bills that the govern-    time, authorities used un-
for elections seen as a ref-    with an hour left for the first  the state. Analysts say a      ment is eager to push.          manned aerial vehicles, or
erendum on Prime Minister       phase of polling to end.         victory for Modi’s party       The last phase of voting is     drones, to monitor far-flung
Narendra Modi’s popular-        Modi’s Bharatiya Janata          would signal approval of its   Nov. 5. Results will be an-     polling stations.
ity.                            Party is facing a “grand co-     attempts to push its brand     nounced Nov. 8.                 Polling was peaceful, R.
The elections are being         alition” of two former chief     of Hindu right-wing politics.  Five of the 10 state districts  Lakshmanan, a state elec-
held in 49 constituencies       ministers, including the in-     The Bihar elections are        where the polling took          toral officer, said in Bihar’s
in the first of five phases of  cumbent, Nitish Kumar.           also important for Modi,       place were facing threats       capital, Patna.q

Russia arrests IS-linked suspects who plotted terror attack 

N. VASILYEVA                    around there now with Ka-        In this Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 photo provided on Monday, Oct. 12, 2015, Russian President Vladi-
V. ISACHENKOV                   lashnikovs would end up on       mir Putin gives an interview focused on Russia’s action in Syria, to Russian TV Rossya-1 channel in
Associated Press                our territory, and so we are     Sochi, Russia.
MOSCOW (AP) — Highlight-        helping President Assad
ing a new terror threat to      fight this threat before it                                                                        (Alexei Nikolsky/RIA-Novosti, Kremlin Photo via AP)
Russia raised by its air cam-   reaches our borders,” Pu-
paign in Syria, security of-    tin said in an interview with    Syria. The poll had a margin   apartment rented by the         Authorities did not say how
ficials said Monday they        Rossiya state television         of error of no more than 3.5   suspects.                       many people were de-
have thwarted a planned         broadcast Sunday.                percentage points.             The FSB said some of the        tained but said “between
attack on Moscow public         “We must take pre-emp-           The Federal Security Ser-      suspects had been trained       six and 11 people” fre-
transport system by mili-       tive action,” he said. “Of       vice, Russia’s main domes-     by Islamic State militants      quented the apartment.
tants trained by the Islamic    course, there are risks, but     tic security agency, said in   and were plotting a terrorist   The men had arrived in
State group.                    let me say that these risks      Monday’s statement that a      attack on Moscow’s pub-         Moscow “well before” Rus-
Sunday’s arrest of several      existed anyway, even be-         device with five kilograms     lic transport. The agency       sia began carrying out air-
terror suspects — some of       fore we began our opera-         (11 pounds) of explosives      didn’t immediately give         strikes in Syria on Sept. 30,
whom, intelligence officials    tions in Syria.”                 was found in a Moscow          further details.                the FSB said.q
say, were trained by IS in      Russian authorities have
Syria — has brought back        said that about 2,400 Rus-
memories of the string of       sians have joined the IS
deadly bombings that            militants and voiced con-
struck the Russian capital      cern that they may pose
just a few years ago.           a threat when they return
President Vladimir Putin has    home.
acknowledged the new            The latest arrests may play
danger, but insisted that       into Putin’s hands, proving
launching the Russian air-      his point that IS pose a ma-
strikes in support of Syrian    jor threat to Russia and the
President Bashar Assad’s        air raids are a necessary re-
army was necessary to fight     sponse to the challenge.
IS and other militant groups    A nationwide poll of 1,600
before they pose an even        conducted earlier this
bigger security challenge       month by VTsiOM polling
to Russia.                      agency found that two
“If we just stood by and let    thirds of respondents sup-
Syria get gobbled up, thou-     ported the Kremlin’s deci-
sands of people running         sion to launch airstrikes in

Jailed sons of deposed Egypt autocrat Mubarak to be freed 

BRIAN ROHAN                     businessman, after they          before being convicted         dences.                         embezzled. After the hear-
Associated Press                were sentenced in May to         in May along with their fa-    Separately, the two sons        ing, judicial and security of-
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian        three years’ prison each in      ther, who remains held in a    also face trial on insider      ficials said those amounts
court ordered the release       a corruption case dubbed         military hospital.             trading charges, with the       had already been paid
of the sons of deposed au-      the “presidential palaces”       The trio’s conviction, which   next hearing in October.        by the Mubaraks following
tocrat Hosni Mubarak on         affair by the Egyptian me-       came after a retrial, was      They were expected to           their first trial.
Monday, taking into ac-         dia.                             for embezzling millions        walk free later Monday.         Many Egyptians view the
count time already served       The two were first detained      of dollars’ worth of state     Last summer’s sentenc-          brothers as key symbols of
on a corruption conviction.     in April 2011 — two months       funds over the course of a     ing included a 125 million      an autocratic and corrupt
The Cairo criminal court        after their father stepped       decade, diverting money        Egyptian pound ($16.3 mil-      administration that struck
ordered the release of          down during a popular            meant to pay for renovat-      lion) fine to be paid by the    an alliance with the mega-
Gamal, Mubarak’s one-           uprising against his three       ing and maintaining presi-     three men, as well as the       wealthy at the expense of
time heir apparent, and         decades’ rule, but were          dential palaces to instead     return of 21 million Egyptian   the poor. q
his brother Alaa, a wealthy     freed in January on bail         upgrade their private resi-    pounds ($2.7 million) they
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