New Delhi  - India will hold assembly elections in five states in November and December, the country's Election Commission announced on Tuesday, in what could prove to be a test for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition.

The voting will be held in the national capital New Delhi as well as central states Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, northern Rajasthan and north-eastern Mizoram from November 14 to December 4, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami told reporters in New Delhi.

Sonia Gandhi's dream railway project for her constituency was derailed by Mayawati just two days before Sonia accompanied by Railway Minister Lalu Yadav was to perform the ‘bhoomi pujan’ ceremony of the factory, on Tuesday, October 14.

The BSP government in Lucknow cancelled its order for allotment of 189.25 hectares of gram sabha land for the erection of a rail coach factory at Lalganj in Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency, Rae Bareli.

Prime Minister Dr.

Wellington - The state of the economy in New Zealand, which is officially in recession, was the key issue when the main parties formally kicked off their campaigns for next month's general election on Sunday.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, whose Labour Party has led minority coalition governments for the last nine years, moved to calm fears about the global financial crisis by announcing that she would guarantee deposits in bank savings accounts.

Montreal - Canadians are expected to elect another minority Conservative government as they head to national polls on Tuesday, the latest opinion polls show.

"We're not talking about a majority," Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, conceded during a last ditch campaign effort Saturday in southern Ontario.

"There's a million polls. Don't be fooled by any of them. This is a close election," Harper said at a rally in London, Ontario.

Vienna - Austrian political and religious leaders expressed shock about the death of far-right Joerg Haider in a car accident on Saturday morning, but many pointed to the divisive nature of his politics.

"He was a politician of great gifts and talents," President Heinz Fischer told national broadcaster ORF.

"He sparked intense approval as much as intense criticism," the social democratic president said about Haider, who was leader of the Alliance of the Future of Austria and governor of the province of Carinthia.

From the 1980s, Haider turned Austria's small right-wing movement into a force to be reckoned with by often denigrating political opponents, and by tapping into revisionist and anti-immigrant sentiments.