Union Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal met the country''s envoys, who are posted abroad, on the concluding day of the Conference of the Heads of Missions (HoMs) here on Sunday.

About 119 HoMs from Indian Embassies and High Commissions participated in the three-day conference, conceived to brainstorm on the course of the national foreign policy and chart its future course.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, addressed and interacted with the delegates during the course of the three-day conference.

British Conservatives are demanding to form the Government in the UK Parliament. David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party has said that his party can have the necessary majority and they can form the next Government. He has also urged smaller Democratic parties to support and he is anticipating that he will be able to form an alliance soon.

The recent general national election has shattered 13 years of supremacy of the Labor Party. The Party has ended with only 258 seats. But at the same time it has provided the Conservative Party and other small organization a chance to prove their majority.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

After a lot of hue and cry over the biotechnology being used for brinjal, the PM Manmohan Singh has finally taken a stand and confronted the nation on the issue. Dr. Manmohan Singh has clearly not underestimated the importance of biotechnology for the productivity and food security purposes and has called in for private investors, if they are interested for trying their luck at biotechnology.

This week's raids on current Chief Minister Shibu Soren's aide M. L. Pal, which reportedly unearthed undisclosed assets worth Rs. 65 crore has further cemented the belief that becoming a private secretary to a chief minister is an easy route to riches in Jharkhand.

Vivek, another ex-personal secretary of Soren, still moves around with the chief minister carrying files, though he does not have any official post as Pal continues in his post as the chief minister's personal secretary.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that India's decision to resume talks with Pakistan was a "positive step", but he added that the outcome of the talks depends on the Indian response.

He told a press conference on Thursday in Brussels," We are ready for meaningful engagement with India."

With the 60th annual Republic Day celebrations only a few days away, the Central government has finalized a list of new Governors for seven states - West Bengal, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Himachal Pradesh.

According to TIMES NOW reports, the National Security Adviser M K Narayanan will take over as the new Governor of West Bengal, former Home Minister Shivraj Patil will assume the Governor’s office in Punjab.

While former Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt will become the new Chhattisgarh Governor, the senior Congress leader Mohsina Kidwai will be the new Governor of Jharkhand.

New Delhi, Jan 11 : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is on a three-day visit to New Delhi paid her tribute to Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, and had friendly discussions with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on promoting economic relation and combating terrorism on Monday.

Sheikh Hasina accompanied by dignitaries from Bangladesh, visited Rajghat and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi.

New Delhi, Jan 8 : Inaugurating the eighth edition of the ''''Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas'''', Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) may soon vote in the elections and the process may start as early as the next general elections.

New Delhi, Jan 8 : Congress President Sonia Gandhi will on Friday chair the meeting of the Congress Core Committee where wide-ranging consultations will be held on the Telangana statehood issue.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony and Gandhi''s political secretary Ahmed Patel are also expected to attend the meeting.

New Delhi, Jan 7 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will on Friday address the eight edition of the ''Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas'' that begins here on Thursday. President Pratibha Patil will deliver her valedictory address on January 9.

''Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas'' is India''s flagship annual event that aims to connect with its diaspora spread around the globe and it focuses on boosting investment and sharing of expertise.

The three-day event will witness the participation of around 1500 delegates from over 150 countries including top businessmen, economists, entrepreneurs and scientists.

Islamabad, Jan. 6 : Pakistan’s parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms has agreed to clip the president’s powers to appoint the Chief Election Commissioner.

According to the Dawn, the committee, which has been reviewing the constitution articles for almost the past five months, has agreed that appointment of the CEC would be made through a joint parliamentary committee, as envisaged in the Charter of Democracy.

Islamabad, Jan 4 : Senior politicians of various political parties in Pakistan have rejected the intense campaign launched by the Pakistan People''s Party (PPP) leadership against state institutions and the media, saying that its a pre-emptive strategy to influence the upcoming detailed judgment of the Supreme Court on the NRO.