Bangkok - Thailand's newly appointed Culture Minister Worawat Ua-apinyakul has announced plans to promote the sale of black magic amulets, including phallus and buffalo-shaped ones, as souvenirs for tourists, media reports said Wednesday.

"We can turn local amulets with phallus symbols and buffalo statuettes into key chains and sell them to tourists," said Worawat, unveiling his bold plans for the culture ministry under his leadership. Worawat was named Minister of Culture last week.

Although the dominant religion in Thailand is Buddhism, there is a strong undercurrent of Brahmanism and black magic in local customs, such as the use of amulets that are believed to protect the wearer from harm or endow them with special powers.

Onboard Air India One, Oct. 1: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh returned this morning after completing a hectic and significant ten-day visit to the United States and France, during which he managed to see through the US Congress, the passage of the US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal and the signing of a historic civil nuclear cooperation pact with France.

Belgrade/Pristina  - Serbian President Boris Tadic hinted at a possible initiative by Belgrade to partition the breakaway Kosovo, drawing an angry dismissal from Pristina on Tuesday.

"If we spend all other options, and there are many, I'm ready to consider that option," Tadic said in an interview, pointing out that partition is "not on the agenda at this moment.

Formally, Tadic has little real power as the head of state, but as the leader of the pro-European coalition which won in May elections, he is the actual spokesman for Serbia.

New York, Sept. 30: The latest FOX News/Rasmussen Reports indicate that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has increased his lead over Republican rival John McCain in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The candidates are within a single point of each other in three other battleground states -- Colorado, Florida and Ohio.

In Pennsylvania, Obama now leads by eight percentage points, 50 percent to 42 percent.

In Virginia, it's Obama 50 percent and McCain 47 percent.

Hong Kong - The popularity of Hong Kong's leader has plunged to a new low in the wake of the contaminated milk scandal in China, according to a survey Tuesday.

Beijing-appointed chief executive Donald Tsang was given a score of 53.4 out of 100 in the monthly poll of more than 750 people, his lowest score since taking office in 2005.

The ratio of people satisfied with Tsang's administration fell 3.7 percentage points month-on-month to 21.3 per cent, also the lowest level since Tsang took office.

New Delhi/Kolkata, Sept 30: As Tata consider re-locating the stalled 'Nano' project, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi here today to resolve the Singur impasse.

Mamata said that she will submit all papers to the UPA chairperson on the agreement that provides for return of maximum land from within the Tata Motors car project site at Singur to "unwilling" land-losers, signed in the presence of state Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on September 7.