Dhaka - Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia Thursday night announced that her party and allies would join the December election if the poll was deferred by 10 days.

"We will definitely join the elections if they take place on December 28," Zia, who leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four-party alliance, told a press conference.

She also asked the country's military-backed government to launch fresh round of talks to ensure participation of all the parties in the election to return the South Asian nation to democracy.

The interim administration on Tuesday reaffirmed that it would hold parliamentary and local government elections according to schedule on December 18 and 28 respectively.

Washington - Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican ever in Congress' upper chamber, bid farewell Thursday to his colleagues following his narrow defeat in this month's election.

Stevens, 85, was up for re-election on November 4 despite being convicted a week earlier on criminal charges of hiding 250,000 dollars in gifts from an Alaska company.

Stevens has vowed to continue fighting the case, but conceded defeat to Democrat Mark Begich.

"I have really a difficult time today articulating my feelings," an emotional Stevens said. "I hope if I puddle up a little bit ... I'll be excused."

In a letter addressed to Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has objected to her comments about senior Akali Dal leader, Bibi Jagir Kaur. Cherie Blair had been invited by a London-based NRI, to inaugurate a government school building in Punjab's Kapurthala district.

At the function organized by the Loomba Trust at Dhilwan on Tuesday, Blair - the president of the trust that gives scholarships to hundreds of orphans in India - projected former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur as a role model for the youngsters.

Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso apologized to a group of doctors on Thursday after he made an "inappropriate remark that drew misunderstandings."

Aso withdrew his previous day's remark that many doctors lack common sense in a meeting with Yoshihito Karasawa, president of the Japan Medical Association.

Karasawa visited the premier at his residence Thursday to file a protest against Wednesday's comment made by Aso at a meeting with prefecture governors.

Aso said: "I understand that hospitals in rural areas are having trouble getting doctors. There are many who lack a fair degree of common sense. Their values are very different."

Kathmandu - A general strike over the alleged murders of two youths by Maoist cadres shut down the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on Thursday.

The crippling strike closed main markets, educational institutions, offices and halted private and public transport.

The strike was called by various groups, including those supported by the Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist Leninists, which is part of the coalition government.

The groups claimed two youths were abducted and killed by members of the Maoist youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL), in Dhading district, about 50 kilometres west of the Nepalese capital.

The bodies were recovered by police on Tuesday, nearly a month after the two were abducted.

The move made by the Congress government in Maharashtra, in which they asked the manufacturing sector to reserve 80 per cent jobs for locals, was criticized by AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, just after one day of its announcement.

On Tuesday, Rahul said, “For me every citizen … should get equal opportunities throughout the length and breadth of country.”

When he was asked to give his take on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s anti-outsider campaign, he replied, “He is advocating regionalism, to which I’m strongly opposed.”