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Washington, Sep 18 : Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Vayalar Ravi has assured Christian leaders here that the government is keeping a close vigil on the recent spate of violence against the community in some parts of the country.

“The Government of India is in touch with the state government and has advised it to take strong measures to protect minority groups... and to suppress these brutal attacks,” said Ravi said while assuring the leaders.

“The Government of India is monitoring every day with the State Government so that there is no repeat of the incident,” he said.

Warsaw  - Poland will toughen criteria for getting loans from banks amid the recent US financial crisis, reported the daily Dziennik on Thursday.

The changes will likely take effect at the end of this year, the head of Poland's Financial Supervision Authority told the daily. They will affect consumer and mortgage credit in all currencies. The move could lower property prices as less people would be able to afford homes.

"We see in the example of the US where excessive optimism leads in judging client's financial conditions," Krzysztof Broda of the Financial Supervision Authority was quoted as saying.

New York, Sept 18 : Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has slept with 35,000 women in his 82 years of life, according to an upcoming documentary.

"He slept with at least two women a day for more than four decades - one for lunch and one for supper,” the New York Post quoted an ex-Castro official named "Ramon" as telling filmmaker Ian Halperin.

“Sometimes he even ordered one for breakfast," the official said.

"I don''t think he would have stayed on as long as he did if not for all the incredible women he had access to as president,” the official added.

Washington, Sept. 18 : The latest forecast of the Electoral College suggests that John McCain is way ahead of his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

The research to be presented at the annual meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences on between October 13 and 15, less than three weeks before the election, says that as of September 16, the margin in electoral votes could be as high as 282.8 votes for Senator John McCain against 255.2 for Senator Barack Obama, depending on the forecasting scenario.