The Election Commission, ostensibly, is a divided on the issue of holding polls in Jammu and Kashmir and has maintained silence on the issue. This seems to have piqued the political parties causing their outburst at the commission.

Considering the precarious political scenario in J-K, it is perceivable that the election commission cannot afford to be indecisive on this issue. Yet the issue remains unsolved.

Washington - A supporter of Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin went beyond a bumper sticker and named his new born daughter after the duo.

The child's name, Sarah McCain Palin Ciptak, however was a surprise to her mother. The parents had agreed to name the girl Ava Grace, but father Mark Ciptak instead filled out the birth certificate with the political name to draw attention to the candidates, he told local newspaper the Kingsport Times News.

He only later told his wife, Layla.

Washington - Doctors examining US Vice President Dick Cheney discovered an abnormal rhythm in his heart Wednesday and ordered him to undergo treatment, the White House said.

Cheney has cancelled plans to attend a campaign event in Illinois to go to George Washington University Hospital for the outpatient procedure involving an electrical impulse to restore a normal rhythm in his heart's upper chamber, Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said.

Banja Luka - Bosnian Serb lawmakers voted Wednesday to resist closer ties with the rest of the country, underlining Bosnia- Herzegovina's paralysis as it seeks to join the European Union.

A resolution by the Bosnian Serb republic's parliament also called for fewer powers for the international administrator who polices Bosnia's divided politics under the 1995 Dayton peace agreement.

The crisis flared from a UN General Assembly speech last month by the Muslim member of Bosnia's three-member presidency in which he accused Bosnian Serbs of genocide during the 
1992-95 ethnic war.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang had bananas hurled at him as he delivered a policy speech Wednesday in a protest over the government's treatment of poor elderly people.

Three legislators with the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats were ejected from the city's Legislative Council as they shouted abuse and threw bananas during Tsang's annual policy address.

None of the bananas hit the chief executive, who looked stunned at the protest over the government's alleged lack of support for elderly people struggling to cope with rising food prices.

Moscow/Baku, Azerbaijan - President Ilham Aliyev is all but set to maintain his rule over post-Soviet Azerbaijan in Wednesday's elections as Russia and US continue to compete for his favour in the oil-rich Caspian state.

With Aliyev's only real opposition boycotting the vote, it is a forgone conclusion that the son of Azerbaijan's former strongman leader will be handed a five-year extension to 35 years of dynastic rule over the Caspian state.

Ten per cent of the country's 4.8 million voters in the principally Muslim nation neighboring Iran had cast their ballot two hours after polls opened at 8:00 am (0300 GMT), OSCE election monitors said. Polls were due to close at 7:00 pm (1400 GMT).