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Is there a leadership vacuum in the Congress party spilling over to the UPA government in the absence of its chief Sonia Gandhi who is convalescing abroad after her surgery? Going by the desperate mood in the party it appears so.

Chile has recovered rapidly from the global financial crisis and strong growth is expected to continue. Real GDP is expected to grow by 6.5 percent in 2011 on the back of buoyant domestic demand. Consumption will benefit from strong employment growth and firming wages, while large reconstruction spending will support investment. Domestic risks to the outlook are mostly to the upside. The main downside risks are related to the possibility of a sharp slowdown of economic activity in Asia, or an intensification of global financial stress.

New York: The economy of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) grew by 9.3 per cent last year, but that expansion was not enough to reduce the area’s 30 per cent unemployment rate, the United Nations trade and development arm said in a new report released today.

New York: Senior United Nations officials are calling on countries, businesses and individuals to give generously to support efforts to tackle the food security crisis gripping the Horn of Africa, warning that the world cannot “afford to lose momentum” in the fight against famine, disease and starvation.

New York: Hurricane Irene has unleashed heavy rains across northern Haiti, causing some flooding and agricultural damage, United Nations officials report, adding that over 160 evacuation sites have been opened in case of need and pre-positioned aid supplies mobilized.

New York: A shortage of funds has forced the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to halve its food rations for tens of thousands of Congolese refugees in Rwanda beginning on 1 September.

New Delhi: The Indian Army, with a view to counter the Chinese build up along the border is planning to set up a mountain strike corps. To further its initiative, the Army has planned to discuss the matter with the states which share the international boundary with China, particularly those in the northeastern region.

As lingering financial crisis in the developed world is casting its shadow on the developing countries, it is time to look beyond capitalism for sustainable and equitable development.

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee took office as Chief Minister on May 20. A hundred days is too short a time to draw up a balance sheet of achievements and failures of a new government. Even so, some preliminary assessments can be made. For one thing, the immense fund of goodwill with which Mamata Banerjee came to power, heading an alliance of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, still remains intact. She had promised that on coming power, her first two jobs would be to arrive at an amicable settlement of the Maoist problem in the jangalmahal area and the Darjeeling Gorkhas’ demand for a separate State.

KOLKATA: Ms Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, is completing her first one hundred days in power on August 27.