More intellectuals to be involved in process of governance: PM

September 26th, 2009 CHENNAI - India will host the ninth World Tamil Conference early next year in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has said.

September 26th, 2009 PITTSBURGH - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday described the G-20 meeting as very productive and said that a comprehensive discussion was held among the leaders on wide range of issues. Addressing a press conference after the G-20 meeting Manmohan Singh said: "We have had a very productive meeting in which there was a comprehensive discussion among the leaders on a wide range of issues." He said that the summit was not meant to be a trillion dollar summit and its purpose was to review what has happened and chart the way forward.

September 24th, 2009 PITTSBURGH - Indian Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar said on Thursday that India will pursue reform of the governance structure of international financial institutions and changes in the international financial architecture so that they reflect the contemporary world. Speaking to the media here on the eve of the G-20 Summit, Shankar said the voice of the new emerging market economies have to be accommodated and international financial institutions must reflect the existing world.

September 3rd, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has said his party would not get involved in any 'undemocratic' process to bring down the ruling PPP government. Interacting with media persons here, Sharif said a change of regime would not resolve the crisis being faced by the country at present.

August 31st, 2009 LAHORE - Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has urged greater interaction between intellectuals of the two countries as the way forward in the stalled subcontinental dialogue process. Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), made the observation during a meeting Monday with visiting Hurriyat leaders, including Yasin Malik, at his Raiwind estate on the outskirts of Lahore.

August 26th, 2009 BEIJING/TOKYO - A new survey has revealed that the Chinese and the Japanese are seeing each other a bit more positively than last year. The survey, jointly sponsored by the China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank, found that a majority of people in both countries believe Sino-Japanese relations are important.

August 9th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan People's Party has accused the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership in Punjab of 'widespread corruption', while the PML-N has rebuffed the allegation, charging the federal government of appointing 'criminals to high positions'. PPP's Information Secretary Fouzia Wahab levelled charges against the Punjab government of colluding with the Transparency International's report, which had claimed that the corruption was declining in Punjab.

August 6th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has said that Islamabad should not beg New Delhi for talks. "We should tell India if they are not ready for talks then Pakistan is also not eager to enter any talk process," Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told the House in categorical words.

July 10th, 2009 DHAKA - A US-trained political scientist and security analyst who has served in India has been appointed adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Gowher Rizvi was the Ford Foundation's representative for South Asia, New Delhi office from 1998 to 2003 and deputy director, governance and civil Society at New York office from 1995 to 1998.

June 29th, 2009 World Bank study finds major Africa improvementsWASHINGTON — Several African nations are among those that have made great improvements in how their people are governed, with Botswana even on a par with many more-developed Western nations, the World Bank and the Brookings Institution said in a report released Monday. Other African countries that have showed particular progress are Liberia, under the continent's only democratically elected woman leader, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf; Uganda; Angola; Ethiopia; and Congo.

June 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Terming the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region as 'terror safe haven', US President, Barack Obama has expressed concern over the increasing activities of a "resurgent" Taliban. In a statement issued by the White House here, Obama highlighted that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have intensified their activities in the ungoverned tribal regions along Pakistan and Afghanistan.

May 31st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Although the composite dialogue process between India and Pakistan has come to a halt, "track-two diplomacy" is being revived, with an important Indian delegation expected to visit Islamabad next week, a media report said Sunday. A team from India comprising writers, former diplomats and intellectuals will visit Pakistan to resume the efforts of the previous teams to normalise relations between the two countries, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said Sunday citing official sources.

May 25th, 2009 LAHORE - Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri has said he is "50 to 60 percent sure" that the peace process between India and Pakistan will resume in six months. In an interview with Najam Sethi on Dunya News, Kasuri said he had played a vital role in improving ties between Pakistan and India.

May 25th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Newly elected Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal today said that bringing the peace process to its logical conclusion and drafting a new Constitution would be the top priorities of his government. Speaking to mediapersons after assuming his office at the PMO in Singha Durbar, Madhav Kumar mentioned that addressing the immediate needs of the people, maintaining good governance, law and order and creating employment would be other priorities of his cabinet.

May 4th, 2009 LAHORE - Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Muhammad has declared it un-Islamic for anyone to be photographed, and added that democracy, communism, socialism, fascism are un-Islamic systems of governance. Sufi said any duplicated image of a person, whether a "still picture or video" was un-Islamic.