Buenos Aires: Lawmakers in Pope Francis' native Argentina vote on Wednesday on legalising abortion, which if passed, would make it the most populous country in South America to allow women to terminate pregnancies.

The debate has divided the Argentinian society. Though it has shed some of its traditionalism by pioneering the legalisation of gay marriage in Latin America, it remains strongly influenced by the Catholic Church.

The Chamber of Deputies is deeply divided over the issue and after weeks of bitter debate, the result of Wednesday night's vote is far from certain.

Of the Chamber's 257 deputies, 109 are expected to vote in favour of the bill, 117 against, with the remaining 29 undecided lawmakers casting the decisive votes in the lower house.

"Today we see an almost a neck-and-neck vote, with a slight advantage for those against the bill," said Martin Maquieyra of president Mauricio Macri's ruling Cambiemos party, who will vote against.

Global ratings agency Moody's Investors Service today gave counterparty risk ratings (CRR) to 15 lenders in the country, including fraud-hit Punjab National Bank and country's largest lender SBINSE 1.59 %. 

Others who got the ratings include ICICINSE 1.20 % Bank, Axis BankNSE 0.68 %, Bank of Baroda and HDFC BankNSE -0.63 %, among others. 

It said the CRR are opinions of the ability of entities to honour the uncollateralised portion of non-debt counterparty financial liabilities ( .. 

The government today added ten Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) under phase III of its flagship programme, Swachh Bharat Mission. Raghavendra Swamy Temple (Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh), Hazardwari Palace (Murshidabad, West Bengal), Brahma Sarovar Temple (Kurukshetra, Haryana), Vidur Kuti (Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh), Mana village (Chamoli, Uttarakhand), Pangong Lake (Leh-Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir), Nagvasuki Temple (Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh), Ima Keithal/market (Imphal, Manipur), Sabarimala Temple (Kerala) and Kanvashram (Uttarakhand) have been taken up under Phase III of the flagship project of Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) of the Swachh Bharat Mission, an official statement said.

These sites have joined the 20 iconic places selected under Phase I and II where special sanitation work is underway. The iconic places included in Phase I of the project in 2016 include Ajmer Sharif Dargah, CST Mumbai, Golden Temple, Kamakhya Temple, Maikarnika Ghat, Meenakshi Temple, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Shree Jagannath Temple, The Taj Mahal and Tirupati Temple. The Phase II launched in November, 2017 included Gangotri, Yamunotri, Mahakaleshwar Temple, Charminar, Convent and Church of St Francis of Assissi, Kalady, Gommateswara, Baidyanath Dham, Gaya Tirth and Somnath temple.

Bengaluru: India captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday received the Polly Umrigar Award for being the best international cricketer for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons at the annual BCCI awards.

Kohli had a brilliant 2016-17 season as he went on to score 1,332 runs in 13 games with an average of 74. 

In the limited overs format, the Delhi batsman amassed 1,516 runs in 27 games at a 84.22 average. 

In 2017-18 Kohli scored 896 runs at an average of 89.6 in six Test matches while in ODIs he averaged 75. 

"POLLY UMRIGAR AWARD for 2016-17 season goes to #TeamIndia Skipper @imVkohli at #NAMAN," BCCI said on Twitter.

KASPIYSK, Russia — India’s Saweety Bora (75 kg) emerged as the sole gold medal winner from India while in the men’s department Brijesh Yadav (81kg) and Virender Kumar (91kg) suffered heartbreaks in their respective finals at the Umakhanov Memorial Tournament here June 12.

Saweety started off well but her opponent, Anna Anfinogenova from Russia, fought tooth and nail to keep the bout evenly contested.

However, in the men's division, Brijesh couldn't cope against his Russian opponent Rabadanov's quickness and settled for silver. Rabadanov towered over the Indian with his punches and beat him 5-0.

Virender also suffered the same fate as his compatriot and settled for silver after being defeated by A. Bwambale of Sweden by a similar margin.

Earlier, three Indian women — Pinki Rani (51kg), Shashi Chopra (57kg) and Pavitra (60kg) — and Gaurav Bidhuri had reached the last four-stage but lost their respective bouts to settle for a bronze medal.

The Indian contingent amassed a total of seven medals which included four bronze, two silver and a lone gold by Saweety.

In new documents released by Facebook to answer questions raised by two Senate committees probing social media privacy, the social networking giant has admitted that it allows advertisers to target users based on their "interests" and "behaviours".

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the US Congress in April, he faced several questions from lawmakers. But his in-person testimony left them with several lingering questions.

Now, Facebook has followed up with 500 pages of answers to written questions from two Senate committees, The Verge reported on 11 June.

In the documents, Facebook answers questions about the several issues for which it has come under intense scrutiny in recent times — including issues related to Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal, ad targeting and moderation policies.

Samsung has filed a motion with the US District Court in San Jose, California, to appeal a verdict that asked the South Korean giant to pay Apple $539 million for copying patented iPhone designs - a legal battle that dates back to 2011. Samsung thinks the verdict is wrong and wants a refund of some damages already paid, CNET reported on Monday. 

It asked a court last week to either dismiss the judgment or retry the case in which the damages were decided, the report said. 

Samsung lost the case in 2012. It was ordered to pay the US tech giant more than $1 billion for infringing on three of Apple's design patents related to mobile devices -- the quick links to phone numbers, the slide-to-unlock feature and the auto-correct function.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel on Tuesday faced tough questions from a parliamentary panel on bad loans, bank frauds, cash crunch and other issues even as he assured the members that steps were being taken to strengthen the system, sources said.

Sources present at the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance said the RBI Governor expressed confidence of tiding over the crisis regarding non-performing assets (NPAs).

Singapore (CNN)Nearly five hours of unprecedented and surreal talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un culminated on Tuesday with fulsome declarations of a new friendship but just vague pledges of nuclear disarmament.

"We both want to do something. We both are going to do something. And we have developed a very special bond. So, people are going to be very impressed. People are going to be very happy," Trump said at the conclusion of the landmark summit during a formal ceremony.

The document he and Kim signed said the North Korean leader "reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." In exchange, Trump agreed to "provide security guarantees" to North Korea.

Nearly eight months after Sharad Kumar, former Director General (DG) of National Investigation Agency (NIA) retired, the 1979 batch Haryana cadre IPS officer has been appointed as the Vigilance Commissioner in the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

62-year-old Kumar retired in September last year after heading the National Investigation Agency, an anti-terror probe organisation, for over four years.

Kumar has been appointed vigilance commissioner in the Central Vigilance Commission for a term of four years or till he attains the age of 65.