New Delhi, Oct 13: The Bureau of the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) will meet here today.

The meeting will be chaired by Iranian Housing and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Saeedi, who is currently the Chairperson of the APMCHUD.

The meeting will focus on concretizing the Action Plan for Regional Cooperation on promoting Sustainable Urban Development among Asia-Pacific countries as adopted during the Tehran Conference of APMCHUD in May 2008.

The APMCHUD was established in December 2006, subsequently to the first Asia Pacific Conference held at New Delhi under the aegis of Government of India, Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation and UN-HABITAT.

Tehran - Moderate cleric Mehdi Karroubi became the first candidate to officially declare his nomination Sunday for next June's presidential elections to challenge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The 71-year-old cleric is head of the moderate opposition party Etemad Melli (National Trust) and the party's choice run in the June 12 elections.

"It will be quite difficult but I am still ready to take the challenge for changing the political status quo," Karroubi said in a press conference in Tehran.

The cleric referred to the president's economic and foreign policies as the main problems of the current administration which should be amended.

Washington, Oct 12 : They cost millions of dollars, but negative campaign ads can have physiological and psychological effect on voters, says a researcher, who claims that the advertisements can drive potential voters away.

It has been revealed that negative political advertising makes the body want to turn away physically, but the mind remembers negative messages, though sometimes incorrectly, according to a research conducted by James Angelini, professor of communication at the University of Delaware.

Tel Aviv - Negotiations over the formation of a new Israeli government have made "real progress" and a new coalition agreement between the ruling Kadima party and the Labour party could be signed in the coming days, Israel Radio reported Sunday.

Sources close to Labour Party leader, Defence Minister Ehud Barak, said the progress was achieved during a Saturday night meeting between representatives of the two parties.

A further meeting, to discuss Labour's economic demands, is slated to take place Sunday.