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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Indian PM has successful heart surgery

NEW DELHI: India s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent successful coronary bypass surgery on Saturday, while confusion surrounded who was in charge of government just months before a general election .

The 76-year-old leader will be in hospital for at least a week and may be able to return to work in a month, doctors involved in his operation said.

;The entire country is rejoicing because our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has come out ... Successfully from the operation,; ruling Congress party general secretary Veerappa Moily told reporters.

Singh s operation came just as his Congress party prepares its re-election campaign for a general election by May.

No acting prime minister has been named while Singh is in hospital.

Some officials said Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee would take over most prime ministerial responsibilities, including defence, security and the finance portfolio, while Singh was recovering from surgery.

Pranab Mukherjee is in charge of the government until the prime minister resumes his duty,; an official in the prime minister s office, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.

This is normal procedure as he is the most senior member of the cabinet, so there has been no official announcement.

But a government spokesman insisted this was not the case

The prime minister is still in charge,; he told Reuters. ;Nobody has taken over his functions.

Moily told local media: There cannot be two prime ministers and under the constitution, there can only be one prime minister.

NO CLARITY

That confusion was mirrored in the media, where some papers and television channels said Mukherjee was in charge but others disagreed.

Nobody named in charge,; the Mail Today announced on its front page. ;No clarity on who controls the nukes.

The confusion led to speculation the ruling Congress party did not want to give Mukherjee a public endorsement as acting prime minister just before an election, and overshadow other candidates within Congress battling to be Singh s successor.

Rahul Gandhi, heir to one of India s most powerful family dynasties, is emerging as a potential successor, media reports said.

Singh has been expected to continue as prime minister if the Congress coalition wins the general election. The main battle is between the Congress-led government and a coalition led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

A soft-spoken economist, Singh does not play an important role in election rallies, so analysts said the impact of his absence on the Congress party s chances may be limited.

Singh underwent bypass surgery in 1990 in Britain. He also underwent wrist surgery in 2006,prostate gland surgery and a cataract removal procedure last year, officials said.

Across India, hundreds of Indians prayed for him at temples.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani sent bouquets of flowers to the prime minister. India s relations with Pakistan have been tense since attacks in Mumbai in November which killed 179 people.

In neighbouring Bhutan, hundreds of Buddhist monks held special prayers for the Indian prime minister.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Obama: 'Much more determined' to break Mideast deadlock

President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday the suffering on both sides of Gaza's borders has led him to ramp up his commitment to working for a peace deal in the Middle East.

Smoke billows over Jabalya, Gaza, after an Israeli airstrike on Sunday.

"When you see civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli, harmed, under hardship, it's heartbreaking. And obviously what that does is it makes me much more determined to try to break a deadlock that has gone on for decades now," he told ABC's "This Week."

Rejecting criticism that he has been relatively quiet on the violence in Gaza, Obama said he believes "the one area where the principle of 'one president at a time' has to hold is when it comes to foreign policy. We cannot have two administrations at the same time simultaneously sending signals in a volatile situation.

"But what I am doing right now is putting together the team so that on January 20, starting on day one, we have the best possible people who are going to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process as a whole, that are going to be engaging with all of the actors there, that will work to create a strategic approach that ensures that both Israelis and Palestinians can meet their aspirations," he said.

Asked whether he will be building on President Bush's policies toward the region or offering "a clean break," Obama responded: "I think that if you look not just at the Bush administration, but also what happened under the Clinton administration, you are seeing the general outlines of an approach. And I think that players in the region understand the compromises that are going to need to be made."

Dealing with Iran, Obama said, will be "one of our biggest challenges. ... Not only is Iran exporting terrorism through Hamas, through Hezbollah, but they are pursuing a nuclear weapon that could potentially trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East."

Iran insists it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, only nuclear energy. But the Bush administration has said Iran's nuclear energy program is a guise to build nuclear weapons. European officials -- some of whom share the U.S. concerns -- have repeatedly tried to broker a resolution to that stalemate.

During the presidential election, Obama vowed to meet with leaders of Iran and several other nations without preconditions during his first year, though his campaign later added that there would be "preparation."

Obama said Sunday that his commitment to "engagement" early on will help send a "signal that we respect the aspirations of the Iranian people, but that we also have certain expectations in terms of how a international actor behaves."

While vowing quick action on a host of issues, the president-elect warned that some major tasks will take time. Among them is the closing of the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where about 250 men considered by the government to be suspected terrorists continue to be held.

Asked whether the closure will take place in his first 100 days in office, Obama responded, "That is a challenge. I think it's going to take some time. ... But I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution."

Since winning the presidency, Obama has been given intelligence briefings on top secret information that he did not have access to as a candidate or as a U.S. senator. iReport.com: Share thoughts, reactions to crisis in the Middle East

Asked whether he's been shocked by anything he's learned involving U.S. security, he responded, "There hasn't been something that was eye-popping. But, you know, the situation still requires vigilance."

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Top 10: Poker Hotties

TOP 10 LIST

By Thomas Foley

START WITH No.10

Some would argue that the words “sexy” and “poker” don’t really go together (unless you're thinking strip poker). Just think of your old man’s weekly games in the basement with his cigar-toting, beer-bellied crew of misfits and plumbers. Think of Chris Moneymaker, Howard Lederer, Greg Raymer, and just about any other successful poker pro. Although brilliant on the felt and generally pretty decent blokes, they don’t exactly conjure up images of sex appeal, do they? After all, the game has never traditionally been linked with sex and glamour so much as it has been with masculinity and bravado. However, we all know that cash and fame tend to bring out the lookers, and with poker’s current place as a global moneymaking phenomenon, the abundance of new poker hotties is being noted and duly appreciated.

While some of the poker hotties mentioned here are genuinely great poker players, others are merely involved in the game in some manner or another. We’ve chosen these poker hotties mainly because of their looks, but of course their poker skills have factored in also.

So, here are 10 of the most important poker hotties around.

Start with No.10