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BHOPAL: Arjun Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh when the Gas tragedy struck Bhopal, may be tight-lipped at present, but a day after the UCC Chairman Warren Anderson was arrested and released, he interacted with the media and gave a detailed explanation for the action taken against Anderson.

The new requirement regarding a minimum of 25% public share holding in listed companies has not caught anyone off guard. The union finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had promised to bring in such a rule in his budget speech. However, no one probably expected this new requirement to come into effect now. As such, this is welcome.

KOLKATA: Writings were on the wall, literally. Ms Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) is in control of more than 50 of the state's 81 municipalities, the Salt Lake-Rajarhat twin city and the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). There was never any doubt that she would win handsomely this 'semi-final' political match against arch rival CPM. Mamata's rise since the last parliamentary election in 2009, when TMC emerged as the single largest political party to be represented in Lok Sabha from West Bengal ending a 33-year CPM dominance in the state politics, has been phenomenal. It may be only a matter of months before her party takes full control of the state and its seat of administration, the Writers' Buildings.

New York: Sudanese Government-sponsored attacks against civilians continue in Darfur, with thousands of people freshly displaced from their villages and sexual violence against women also widespread, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) told the Security Council as he called for tougher action to improve the situation in the war-wracked region.

New York: A former leader of Switzerland who was instrumental to his country joining the United Nations eight years ago was on 11th June, chosen by the world body's 192 Member States to serve as the next President of the General Assembly.

New York: United Nations aid agencies and their partners in Guatemala have appealed for nearly $14.5 million to provide relief to survivors of Agatha, the first tropical storm of this year's Pacific hurricane season, which brought with it the heaviest rains in the Central American country in nearly 60 years.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the first review of Ethiopia's economic performance under the 14-month arrangement under the high-access component of the Exogenous Shocks Facility (ESF). The Executive Board decision was taken on a lapse of time basis. The approval will enable Ethiopia to draw SDR 40.11 million (about US$58.7 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 113.65 million (about US$166.2 million).

New York: Any inquiry set up by Israel to investigate the Gaza flotilla incident which led to the deaths of nine civilians must be given a genuine capacity to find facts or it will not be considered credible, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions has said.

Since the last review in 2002, Malawi has made progress in reforming its trade policy regime in the areas of customs procedures, competition policy, government procurement, and privatization of some state-owned enterprises, according to a WTO Secretariat review on the trade policies and practices of Malawi.

WASHINGTON, DC - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has approved a grant of $4.788 million from the Global Environment Facility to the People's Republic of China to help reduce the rural and agricultural pollution to the East China Sea. The GEF grant will be used in combination with $29.891 million from the recipient to develop activities that demonstrate effective and innovative pollution reduction in Shanghai's selected rural areas.