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New Delhi: India and Indonesia are likely to sign an extradition treaty when the visiting Indonesian President Dr H Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will meet the Indian Prime Minister for delegation level talks here on Tuesday.

Is the customary post-election honeymoon of Haryana’s second Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government over? The question assumes importance in view of the plethora of problems the Congress ministry faces within 15 months of coming to power. The knotty problems include: Jats agitation for shifting of the trial as well as the 98 accused in the Mirchpur case from Delhi to Haryana, protests by Dera Sacha Sauda followers against the High Court’s orders directing the Dera chief to appear daily in the CBI court at Sirsa in the double murder case, the High Court’s strictures against land acquisitions by the state government and the Supreme Court’s criticism of the government for its easy-going ways of pursuing the court cases.

KOLKATA: As a fact finding team sent by the Election Commissioner of India ended its four day visit to disturbed areas of West Bengal, the ineptitude of the ruling Left front and the state administration was exposed ruthlessly.

New Delhi: The Indian government may draw some satisfaction that the incidences of attack on Indian migrants have declined and also bank on Australian government’s assurances, but the recent figures tell a different story of a sharp decline in Indian migration, particularly due to the fear factor.

When the Union Minister of Railways Mamtaa Banerjee presents the railway budget 2011-12 in the last week of February 2011, she will be confronted with the compulsion of populist measures in view of the forthcoming elections to the West Bengal Assembly during the first half of this year, where she has a personal stake of now or never, and maintaining financial viability of Indian Railways.

New York: The fifth round of United Nations-backed informal talks on the dispute over Western Sahara ended on Sunday with Morocco and the Frente Polisario agreeing to continue their discussions in March.

Director-General of World Trade Organization (WTO) Pascal Lamy, in his opening address to the Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Summit on 22 January 2011, said that “trade plays or can play a better role in addressing the rise in food prices and tackling food insecurity. Trade is part of the solution, and not part of the problem.”

NEW DELHI: A 130-member strong, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) delegation from India will participate in the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, from 26 – 30 January 2011. The delegation comprises of high-ranking Government Officials, CEOs of major Indian companies, Media and Civil Society representatives.

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry is keeping its options open in respect of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill which was discussed by the members of the Standing Committee on Finance of Parliament in five sessions including the one earlier this month. The financial services division of the ministry which deals with the insurance sector has been told by the top officials to examine whether the provision of the FDI hike from the existing 26 per cent to 49 per cent can be introduced in the health insurance sector first to be followed later by its introduction in the other areas of non life and life.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Is there more to Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy’s ‘Kerala Mochana Yatra’ (Kerala Liberation March) than meets the eye? The answer to this question is an emphatic yes if a few significant straws in the wind are anything to go by.