Paris  - A French Socialist Party commission charged with investigating claims of election irregularities has determined that former presidential candidate Segolene Royal has lost the race to become party leader.

The official recount established that Lille Mayor Martine Aubry beat Royal by 102 votes out of nearly 135,000 cast.

Bangkok - Thai protestors on Tuesday blocked the main road access road to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport in an effort to prevent the return of Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who was scheduled to return Wednesday.

Police set up a blockade to prevent about 1,000 protestors, members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), from entering the airport and creating problems for passengers.

"At the moment it's just causing an inconvenience, but some people may miss their flights if this continues," said a spokesperson at Suvarnabhumi Airport's public relations department.

Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh indicated that he is going to join BJP-led NDA very shortly.

"We are discussing with many parties, but there are only two alliances-one is NDA another is UPA," he said to reporters. But when asked about his talks with BJP, he indicated an alliance.

"There are many crossings in the way," he added.

Earlier BJP chief Rajnath Singh said that, the decision on the alliance with RLD will be announced soon. Sources in the RLD said the party wants to contest at least 10 seats in western Uttar Pradesh.

Poor, homeless and unprivileged people of Kerala have a reason to cheer. The state government has launched a Rs 50 billion project to provide homes for the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) category.

Houses would be provided by the end of May 2011 to thousands of poor families as per Kerala chief minister, V .S. Achuthanandan, who was addressing the representatives of 27 organizations, campaigning for the rights of the underprivileged.

Though elections to several state assemblies are being held over the next two months, politicians of all hues from Punjab will be playing a key role in these elections directly or indirectly.

Bibi Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, the Leader of opposition in Punjab, has already jumped into the election field of Delhi. People turned up in large numbers to attend rallies addressed by Bibi Bhattal on Monday.

Singapore  - Singaporean President SR Nathan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will take a 19 per cent salary cut next year, leading a civil-service-wide downward salary adjustment to offset the impact of the global financial crisis, local media reports said Tuesday.

The president and prime minister would earn 3.14 million Singapore dollars (2.07 million US dollars ) and 3.04 million Singapore dollars (2 million US dollars) with the cuts in
2009.