The External Affairs Minister Mr. Shashi Tharoor may be in news for all wrong reasons, but he has managed to get an appreciation from the AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
When the entire Congress working committee has stood against Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi seems to be standing with the Thiruvananthapuram MP. He has said that Mr. Tharoor is still a possible asset for the party as well as for the country.
Shashi Tharoor has been in media from the day he took charge of the Ministry. When the country was dealing with serious economic crisis and global slow down, the minister was wasting the county's money in seven star hotels.
While UPA President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and the Finance Minster Mr. Pranab Mukerjee have decided to go for an economy class journey for cost cutting, Tharoor was busy in Twitter saying it's the cattle class. Then he commented on Nehru's foreign policies. But most recently, he had to step down from the ministry due to his involvement in the Kochi franchise of the IPL.
However, Rahul Gandhi has still faith on this diplomat-turned-politician.
Widow of longtime Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, has announced another run for elective office at the age of 80.
The Daily Telegraph has reported that Marcos plans to run for a seat in the lower house of Parliament, joining a field of 18,000 candidates for 287 seats. One of her goals for re-entering politics is to restore her late husband to the honor he deserves, she said.
She made her announcement at her husband's mausoleum, where she kissed the coffin holding his body. She is running for a seat now held by her son.
She further said, "This is one of our major injustices. He was one of our best ever presidents. During his time we had territorial integrity, freedom, justice and human rights."
Marcos lived in exile for several years after her husband was ousted in 1986. She returned to the Philippines in 1991, ran unsuccessfully for the presidency and served in Parliament for three years in the late 1990s. (With Inputs from Agencies)
The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) led government in the state of Uttarakhand has set its mood up to get the tax holidays extended from the central government for another three years.
In fact, the leaders of the opposition party Congress have also supported the move of extending the tax holidays. While the tax breaks vary from product to product but broadly it is referred to the excise duty concessions that the companies get who are operating in the state.
Notably, even if the BJP gets it approved from Honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it will again hit a roadblock once the central government applies the Goods sales Tax (GST) slated to make an appearance in April
2011.
According to the state investment commissioner's office, since the launch of the scheme, a total of 1,967 industrial units worth a whopping Rs. 17,352 crore have been set up in Uttarakhand providing employment to 121,811 people. The BJP government is of the view that once the tax holidays are over, many of the industries will be shifted to other places taking the state on to the backseat.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is hopeful for the government to arrange two-third majority in the parliament to pass the much-awaited Women's Reservation Bill.
The bill has been gathering dust in files since it was firstly introduced in the Parliament in 1996 during the tenure of PM H. D. Devgoda.
The bill, aimed to provide one-third reservation to woman in Lok Sabha and State Legislatures, would be presented in the upper house on Monday.
PM, speaking at the Women's Leadership Summit, said that that introduction of woman in the decision making process would strengthen government's efforts to boost the comprehensive growth of the country and empowering the women.
The PM said that the Constitutional Amendment Bill for increasing women's representation in Panchayats and urban bodies is already presented in the Parliament.
The bill would prove a mile stone for mitigating gender disparity and associated problems of illiteracy and infant mortality rate. Dr. Singh raised the issues of violence against women and high drop rate of girl child in schools in his speech.
Observers have said that millions of Russians took part in elections in 76 of Russia's 83 regions Sunday, offering support for the country's various political parties.
Nearly 32 million voters were able to take part in Sunday's elections, which included parliamentary voting in regions such as the Kurgan Region, the Sverdlovsk Region, the Voronezh Region and the Khabarovsk Territory, said RIA Novosti.
Members of the ruling United Russia party, as well as A Just Russia party members, Liberal Democrats and Right Cause opposition party officials are among the parliamentary candidates taking part in the election.
The political parties must earn at least 7 percent of votes in the region, in order to successfully be elected to regional legislatures. Parties must only earn 5 percent to prove successful, in the Republic of Altai.
Sunday's elections took place as Russia is struggling with the increasing threat of unemployment, along with increases in housing and utilities costs, RIA Novosti further said.
Politico has been told by some moderate House Democrats that they are less than anxious to have U.S. President Barack Obama campaign for them.
Interviews with close to a dozen unnamed congressional Democrats on the ballot this year show a lack of enthusiasm for Obama's help, something that reflects the president's 46 percent approval rating in the polls, the newspaper said.
According to the newspaper, the Democrats give a variety of reasons, like, The president's busy schedule and a long-term practice of not bringing in outside campaigners.
Politico alsoi said that the uncertainty over Obama was seen in Virginia last year. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds at first rejected Obama's help, then embraced it when polls in the final weeks of the campaign showed him far behind.
Uncertainty about Obama has now evolved into a feeling among centrist Democrats that they would be better off if he didn't campaign on their behalf, Politico further added.
Tthe Iranian president has said in Kabul that U. S. military forces do not need to be in Afghanistan because fighting terrorism requires only intelligence operations.
President Hamid Karzai welcomed his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Afghan capital Wednesday .
There were not only common interests but also common enemies that strengthened ties between the two Asian neighbors, Ahmadinejad further said.
Their enemies "do not want to see our region make progress but instead are willing to see us living in a state of insecurity," Ahmadinejad said in statements published on his Web site.
The visiting president was assured by Karzai that his country would not be used as a staging ground to create regional instability.
The Afghan president said," We clearly announce that no move will be allowed from Afghanistan against any other country."
Ahmadinejad in response to a simultaneous visit to Afghanistan by U. S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates questioned the need for the U. S. troop presence.
The president asked," My question to Mr. Gates is, what is he doing here? Your country is 7,500 miles away from the Middle East."
U. S. military forces are collaborating with their Afghan and international counterparts to take control of the Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan as part of broader counterinsurgency operations.
Military forces were not needed for counter-terrorism efforts, said Ahmadinejad.
Though accepting that they expect few changes in the country's political landscape, Kurdish political leaders in Iraq claimed victories in parliamentary elections.
The parliamentary elections witnessed a turnout of more than 60 percent. Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party published the results according to which their Kurdistan Alliance won eight of the 12 seats in the ethnically divided province of Kirkuk.
Despite the victory, few changes were expected in Iraq, said Iraqi President and Secretary-General of the PUK Jalal Talabani .
He said," I believe that the major parties currently ruling the country will continue to rule in the future with the participation of other parties that want to take part."
According to the reports of the Iraqi analytical Web site Niqash, PUK candidates took six of the seats in Kirkuk while their KDP counterparts took two. The secular Iraqiya slate led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi beat the State of Law coalition of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the remaining four seats.
Voter turnout in the northern provinces of Iraq, including the three Kurdish provinces, was the highest in the country, said the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission reported . Dahuk, with 80 percent, recorded the highest turnout in Iraq.
