Amethi (Uttar Pradesh), Nov 20 Priyanka Gandhi took to the wheel even as elder brother and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi sat next to her after the two landed in his constituency Amethi Friday.

Priyanka and Rahul reached the Fursatganj airport in Sultanpur district at around 11 a. m. After getting out of the airport, she sat in the driver's seat of the green Toyota Qualis and set out for Amethi to meet Congress functionaries and Women's Self Help Groups (SHGs).

London - The announcement Thursday night of Briton Catherine Ashton as the first-ever European Union "foreign minister" drew mixed reactions from politicians and media outlets Friday.

"It will ensure, of course, that Britain's voice is very loud and clear," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

But many media outlets were less full of praise.

The Sun tabloid said her appointment was a "consolation prize," given that the top job of president of the European Council had gone to Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy.

Dhanbad, Nov 19 Congress president Sonia Gandhi Friday asked the people of Jharkhand to vote for her party in the coming assembly elections so that the state could have a stable and corruption free government that would ensure development for the tribals.

New Delhi, Nov 20 : Both houses of Parliament adjourned till Monday on the sugarcane pricing issue following opposition protests.

After eminent journalist H K Dua took oath as Rajya Sabha member, the opposition rushed into the Well of the House and forced an adjournment.

Later, when the house was reconvened, the opposition again raised the sugarcane pricing issue and demanded suspension of Question Hour to discuss the issue.

New Delhi, Nov 20 : The Union Government on Friday asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to increase the security provided to Congress Party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi during his visits to the state.

In a letter to the U P Government, the Union Home Ministry also expressed its unhappiness over the security provided to Rahul Gandhi by the state government.

The letter said Rahul’s security had been compromised on several occasions by the U P Government.

London, Nov. 20 : Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy has been elected as the first President of the European Union, while Britain’s European Trade Commissioner, Baroness Ashton, is the new foreign minister of the council.

Poet-economist Van Rompuy is almost unknown outside Belgium.

A staunch advocate of European integration, he has backed policies including a European-wide tax on all financial transactions to fund EU work, The Telegraph reports.

Brussels - Herman Van Rompuy entered the race for the post of European Union chief as favourite Thursday as leaders headed for Brussels to pick their first-ever, full-time president.

Preparations were already underway for the possible departure of Belgium's prime minister, with the Belgian media speculating about likely post-Van Rompuy scenarios.

Budapest - A NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan would lead to a strengthening of al-Qaeda and cause instability to spread through the region, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday in the Hungarian capital.

Rasmussen spoke of the possibility of a gradual handover of power to Afghan security forces beginning as early as next year, the state news agency MTI reported.

Brussels - Hamid Karzai must rid his new administration of rampant corruption, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday as he hailed the Afghan president's second term as an "historic" event.

"On behalf of NATO, I congratulate President Karzai on taking office for his second term as leader of Afghanistan. This is an historic event: the second time in modern Afghan history that a government has taken office peacefully," the alliance's secretary general said in a statement.

Kolkata, Nov 19 : West Bengal Industries and Commerce Minister Nirupam Sen has accused the Trinamool Congress of creating problems in the state government''s land acquisition plans, thus delaying industrialisation in the state.

Addressing reporters after inaugurating the first IT Park in Kolkata, Sen said: "Work on various projects in the state is being delayed because of an anti-land acquisition movement.

Bangalore, Nov 19 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader Sushma Swaraj has said her party will emerge stronger from the internal crisis in Karnataka.

Talking to reporters here after a meeting of the newly constituted coordination committee and the BJP legislature party, Swaraj said: " All through the crisis, the party has emerged stronger. We have learnt many lessons and the main lesson is that the root cause of most problems is lack of dialogue."

London - In a ceremony marked by pomp and circumstance, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II Wednesday set out the government's legislative programme for the remaining months before a general election to be held before June, 2010.

The queen, 83, rode from Buckingham Palace to the Westminster parliament, in the horse-drawn carriage used for state occasions, flanked by her husband, Prince Philip, who is 88.

Adjournment motions on price rise and a debate on the Maoist violence are expected during the month-long winter session of Parliament, which gets underway on November 19.

The first two sessions of new Lok Sabha were fairly sedate. But the upcoming session, the opening day of which coincides with the 93rd birth anniversary of late prime minister Indira Gandhi, will be a test of Speaker Meira Kumar’s ability to manage the House. The Left, BJP and Samajwadi Party (SP) will try to gain lost ground after their recent poll defeats in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh by cornering the government.

New Delhi, Nov 18 : Amid speculation by the media that Rajnath Singh, the President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), may quit from his post before the completion of his term, Singh said he has no problems about quitting before his tenure, provided the party finds a suitable successor.

Singh whose term as BJP President ends on December 31, told reporters here that he along with his party colleagues would find an early solution.

"There should be efforts that it happens as soon as possible. But I will sit with all my colleagues and hold discussions to reach a consensus," said Singh.

Islamabad, Nov. 17 : Coming down hard on opponents for representing the Presidency in bad light, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said the opposition parties were carrying out a ‘vilification campaign’ against him.

Zardari said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would not be deterred by any such propaganda and continue to march forward to achieve its objectives.

New Delhi, Nov 17 : More and more support is pouring in for Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar after Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray slammed him for his "I am an Indian first" comment.

Even Shiv Sena''s ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), supported Tendulkar. "Well, Sachin has said that he is a proud Maharashtrian and a proud Indian, I think the statement is absolutely correct. I don''t think anybody can have any objection to that. He is proud to be an Indian and the whole country is proud of him," said BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

New Delhi, Nov 16 Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's remarks that India's cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar should "keep off the political pitch" has evoked strong reactions with virtually all political parties and sportsmen condemning Thackeray strongly.

Thackeray was reacting to the cricket legend's statement last week that "he was an Indian first and Marathi too, but Mumbai belongs to all". Here are the reactions to what the Shiv Sena supremo wrote Monday in party mouthpiece Saamna:

London, Nov 16 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to follow the example set by his Australian counterpart who has formally apologised for his countrymen's physical and mental abuse of half a million children, including thousands of foreigners, for over four decades.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Sunday apologised to the so-called Forgotten Australians - some 500,000 children who were subjected to emotional and physical abuse in Australian orphanages and care homes, including more than 150,000 children from Britain.

Gordon Brown's office said he will make a similar apology in the New Year for Britain's role in the affair.

New Delhi, Nov 16 The Supreme Court Monday dismissed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's plea challenging an Allahabad High Court decision to entertain a lawsuit seeking revival of a corruption case in the multi-crore Taj Heritage Corridor scam.

A bench of Justice V. S. Sirpurkar and Justice B. Sudershan Reddy dismissed Mayawati's plea saying that the apex court cannot stop high courts from entertaining lawsuits.

Guwahati, Nov 16 Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Monday claimed several senior opposition party leaders and legislators were keen to join the ruling Congress party ahead of the 2011 assembly elections.

The chief minister said some leaders of the main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) were holding informal talks with Congress ministers and legislators in an effort to join the ruling party.