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Myanmar holds rare elections
New UK visa to woo Indian entrepreneurs
Mt Merapi ash clouds Obamas’ Indonesia trip
Gays stage ‘kiss-in’ as
Pope drives by
Homosexual couples kiss in the Plaza de la
Catedral in Barcelona on Sunday. — Reuters |
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Pak for resumption of talks with India
Afghan Tangle
Now ‘befriend’ UK Royal family on Facebook!
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Myanmar holds rare elections
Yangon, November 7 The junta did not announce when the results would be announced, saying only that they could come "in time".
It was almost certain, however, that through pre-election engineering the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party would emerge victorious despite widespread popular opposition to 48 years of military rule. The streets of Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, were unusually quiet and early voter turnout appeared light at many polling stations. Some residents said they were staying home as rumours circulated that bombs would explode. The riot police were deployed at some road junctions, but no soldiers were seen near the balloting sites. The USDP is fielding 1,112 candidates for a total of 1,159 seats in the two-house national parliament and 14 regional parliaments. Its closest rival, the National Unity Party backed by supporters of Myanmar's previous military ruler, has 995 candidates. The largest opposition party, the National Democratic Force, is contesting just 164 spots. Election rules were written to benefit the USDP, and hundreds of potential opposition candidates, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won a landslide victory in the last elections in 1990 but was barred from taking office, are under house arrest or in prison. Several parties have complained that voters have been strong-armed into voting for the pro-junta party. Whatever the results, the constitution sets aside 25 per cent of parliamentary seats for military appointees. Voters expressed both fear and defiance. "I cannot stay home and do nothing," said Yi Yi, a 45-year-old computer technician. "I have to go out and vote against the USDP. That's how I will defy them." "I voted for the (democracy party) in 1990. This is my second time to vote," said a 60-year-old man, Tin Aung, when asked which party he had voted for. He then looked around and added, "I am really scared." Others said they had abstained from voting because that would legitimise the elections. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the elections a reflection of "heartbreaking" repressive conditions in the country. Yangon-based diplomats from the US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy turned down a government invitation to take "exploratory tours" of the voting today due to rules applying to the visits. The junta earlier banned foreign journalists and international poll monitors from the elections. — AP
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New UK visa to woo Indian entrepreneurs
London, November 7 Speaking before businessmen and entrepreneurs, Cameron said not enough was being done to attract the next generation of wealth creators and job makers to Britain. Referring to recent Home Office research that showed many professionals from India and elsewhere who entered Britain under the highly skilled category were in fact doing unskilled work, he said the tier one category “was a total failure”. Cameron said: “I can announce today that we will create a new Entrepreneur Visa. These Entrepreneur Visas will mean that if you have a great business idea, and you receive serious investment from a leading investor, you are welcome to set up your business in our country”. Professionals entering Britain under the highly skilled category and ending up doing unskilled work, Cameron said, was “wrong and it’s got to change”. The Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition introduced the controversial cap of 24,100 non-EU migrants until April 2011, by when a permanent limit will be imposed. — PTI
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Mt Merapi ash clouds Obamas’ Indonesia trip
Jakarta, November 7 White House officials said they were watching developments "very closely", but there were no plans for now to reschedule a visit that has already twice been postponed. The volcano, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta city in central Java, began spewing lava, superheated gas and deadly clouds of ash two weeks ago and has so far killed over 120 people and forced the evacuation of more than 200,000. — Reuters
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Gays stage ‘kiss-in’ as Pope drives by
Barcelona, November 7 Protesters said they were opposed to the pontiff’s two-day visit, during which he has criticized what he called an “aggressive” anti-church movement in Spain and called for Europe to rediscover its Christian roots. Benedict today was to dedicate Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church and visit a home for children with behavioural problems before returning to Rome.
— AP
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Pak for resumption of talks with India
Islamabad, November 7 Noting that the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks had undermined efforts for peace, he said: "Pakistan wants early resumption of the composite dialogue process with India". Pakistan, he said, is "cooperating in unearthing and bringing to justice the perpetrators of militant acts". He reiterated that the government would not let "Pakistani soil to be used by the terrorists against any country". Zardari further said: "The democratic civil government went out of the way in our peace overtures towards India. It would have been most helpful if our initiatives had been welcomed and responded to in a positive manner". Pakistan will "never allow a handful of terrorists and extremists to impose their extremist ideological agenda on the people through force," he said. The blame game will not serve the cause of the war against militancy. — PTI
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Afghan Tangle
Kabul, November 7 The AFP toll is based on a tally kept by the independent icasualties.org website. The total number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the war began in late 2001 is 2,196. Last year, 521 foreign troops died in the war. NATO and the United States have more than 150,000 troops in the country fighting the Taliban-led insurgency. The insurgency is concentrated in the southern provinces of Kandahar and neighbouring Helmand, regarded by the Taliban as their territory and where most of the world’s opium is produced. The UN said in a report early this year that most Afghan civilian casualties are caused by the Taliban. The perception among ordinary Afghans however is that the foreign military presence is behind the violence. — AFP
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Now ‘befriend’ UK Royal family on Facebook! To look at the Queen, you wouldn’t think she knew her escape key from her AltF10. Not so, apparently. Her staff and minor members of her family may and shoot innocent animals, but Her Majesty’s mind was really somewhere else. Somewhere much more modern, with it, and down with the kids. She was thinking of the launch of the British Monarchy Facebook page on Monday. It will join those other totems of just how in touch she really is: the royal YouTube channel (launched 2007), the Defender of the Faith’s Twitter page (2009), and Her Majesty’s Flickr account (July 2010). If you’re a forelock-tugging techie with an insatiable appetite for the official doings of the Queen and her family, life on your laptop cannot really get much better. The Facebook page will, it is promised, carry royal pictures, videos and an online Court Circular, that faced official record of royal engagements famous for recording such events as, say, from this February: However, unlike most Facebook presences, the royal one will be a page, and not a personal profile, which, as the online loyalist community will know, means that the Queen will not be filling her page with a list of friends, poking subjects at random or, perish the thought, amending her status. Of course, there are those sour sorts who will say this is just another digitised crumb thrown to the rabble from the windows of her gilded carriage by this fabulous head of a family still essentially stuck in the Edwardian age. But, at least it’s a bit of social networking that doesn’t involve Stephen Fry. For that, you have, once again, earned the nation’s gratitude, ma’am. — The Independent
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Cameron hires NRI Internet expert to head media section Chopper crash in Nepal leaves 2 dead Indian woman gives birth at 57 UK court upholds Naik’s exclusion Kenyan cop shoots 10 dead 
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Voters in Myanmar's first elections in 20 years today cast their ballots amid a barrage of criticism that the balloting was rigged in favour of the ruling military, as well as hope that some change toward democratic reform might nonetheless follow.
Barcelona,
November 7
