16 MARCH 2014

Ø  Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday that the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 had been “deliberately” diverted from its course and it had flown for seven hours after its last known point of contact over the Gulf of Thailand.

Ø  Bharatiya Janata Party announced that the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi while party president Rajnath Singh would be shifted from Ghaziabad to Lucknow.

Ø  The Supreme Court on Saturday stayed till March 31 the execution of death penalty of two of the four convicts in the December 16 gang-rape and murder case, a couple of days after the Delhi High Court upheld their punishment awarded by the trial court.

Ø  India has nominated Rani-ki-Vav, a 11th-century step well located in Patan, Gujarat, and the Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh as candidates for UNESCO’s World Heritage Site status this year. The World Heritage Committee, which will convene in Doha, Qatar, in June, will review the nomination and take a final decision.

Ø  Maruti Suzuki India, which has come under pressure from institutional investors over the proposed takeover of its Gujarat plant by parent Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC), has tweaked its proposals related to the plant and has decided to seek the approval of minority shareholders for the same.