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The 65th Staff Course at Defence Services Staff College that completes its mandatory 45 week training in April 2010 becomes the first course to train as per the recently revised training syllabi with far greater emphasis in jointness - more than 50 % of the syllabi consists of joint training of the three services - The Army, Navy and the Air Force.

Kolkata: The Jute mills workers have called off their indefinite strike with effect from February 14, 2010. The strike was called off after signing of tri-partite agreement in the presence Minister I/C Labour Department, Government of West Bengal, in Kolkatta.

New Delhi: A task force on Project Elephant has been constituted. It will provide detailed recommendations to upgrade the project to bring about a more effective conservation and management of wild as well as captive elephants in India. This will give a fresh impetus to this Project. The Task Force will submit its Report by the end of May 2010.

For sustainable development and efficient management of water resources in India, the Ministry of Water Resources is responsible for laying down policy guidelines and programmes.

Regional parties, which dominate events in such large states as UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, are now in deep turmoil. Yet the political babus in Delhi simply dismiss their ongoing power struggles as local disturbances. This is a false notion. A closer look will show that the present existential crises in states are going to have direct consequences on the power balance at the Centre.

Niger has weathered the external environment relatively well because of the buoyant non-agricultural growth, declining inflation and high foreign direct investment related to the expansion of the oil and uranium sectors. Macroeconomic prospects for 2010 appear broadly favorable. The medium term outlook is also positive, with oil and mining projects coming into their production phase after 2012.

Tajikistan has shown strong resilience in the face of sizable external shocks in 2009. Despite the 31 percent decline in remittances, and difficult markets for aluminum and cotton exports, the economy registered real GDP growth of 3.4 percent. This is a reflection of the government's policies, including efforts to diversify the agriculture sector that have yielded a better domestic food supply.

New York: Despite efforts to end the use of child soldiers in the war-torn east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), youngsters are still being recruited within the ranks of both the rebels and the national army, with girls at particular risk of becoming sex slaves and less likely to be released, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

The Georgian authorities' economic program has been successful in putting a floor on the contraction of economic activity in 2009 and in restoring confidence. On the back of these achievements, the economic recovery that started in the second half of 2009 is expected to continue in 2010, although at a moderate pace.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Slovak Republic have signed an agreement to provide the Fund with up to €440 million (about US$600 million).