Nairobi  - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki have signed a deal to set up a local tribunal to try politicians and businessmen accused of orchestrating this year's post-election violence.

The deal was signed hours before the midnight deadline given by a commission headed by Justice Philip Waki.

Waki in October handed down the deadline to create a local tribunal to try those named in an envelope Waki handed over to former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Kuwait City  - Kuwait's emir reappointed on Wednesday former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Sabah, who resigned last month, and asked him to form a new cabinet, the official KUNA news agency reported.

The Kuwaiti government resigned on November 25 in an effort to prevent parliament from questioning the prime minister about a visit to Kuwait by a Shiite Iranian cleric, who was banned from visiting the Gulf state.

On November 18, three Sunni lawmakers called for the questioning of the prime minister.

Shiela Dikshit, took oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third consecutive term on Wednesday. 

The 71-year-old Dikshit was administered oath of office and secrecy by Delhi Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna at the Raj Niwas in New Delhi. 

Six other cabinet ministers were sworn-in along with Dikhsit.

The list includes five old faces A K Walia, Mangat Ram Singhal, Haroon Yusuf, Rajkumar Chauhan and Arvinder Singh Lovely and the only new one Kiran Walia.

Washington  - President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped a long-time friend and head of Chicago's school system to become education secretary and vowed to boost student achievement that is key to US competitiveness in the future.

Arne Duncan has been chief executive of Chicago's public schools since 2001. His work has been met with praise from both sides of the political aisle, including from current Bush Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

Dhaka - Bangladesh's military-backed government Tuesday lifted the state of emergency restoring civil and political rights ahead of December 29 elections, according to an official gazette notification.

The withdrawal of the state of emergency came in the face of demands by major political parties, civil society actors, rights groups and international donors to allow full electioneering by the parties and candidates, and to allow the population to exercise their democratic rights ahead of the poll, the statement said.

A Lok Sabha committee that went into the cash-for-votes scam during UPA government's confidence vote gave Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh and Congress MP Ahmed Patel a clean chit on the pretext of the absence of solid evidence against them.

"There is no direct evidence against Amar Singh. The committee is inclined to discount the video clip of the car entering or coming out of Amar Singh's house because in the first place the video clipping does not show the face of persons (claimed to be Shri Argal and Kulasthe) seated in the rear seat," the committee said.