Sydney  - Australia's Sex Party picked an appropriate venue for its launch Thursday: a Melbourne sex-toy emporium where vendors promised something for absolutely everyone.

"Community attitudes to sex and censorship have been shown over and over again by community opinion polling to be more relaxed than ever, and yet in politics the opposite is the case," party leader Fiona Patten said.

"When was the last time you heard a politician say something positive about sex?"

In reaction to the propaganda by Raj Thackeray and other leaders that ‘outsiders’ were taking away jobs from locals in Maharashtra, Industries Minister Ashok Chavan clarified on Tuesday that the government resolution asking industrial units to reserve 80% jobs for the “locals”, is just a directive - it was not mandatory.

Jerusalem  - Israel will boycott the United Nations conference against racism to be held in April in Geneva, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced Wednesday.

Israel will not participate and will not legitimize the "Durban 2" Conference, she told North American Jewish community leaders assembling in Jerusalem.

The country threatened already earlier this year to boycott the event, if like the previous UN anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa of 2001 it would again focus excessively on the Jewish state to the exclusion of human rights violations elsewhere in the world.

Dhaka  - Bangladesh's military-backed government announced Wednesday it would hold December elections according to the announced schedules, despite the demands of a leading party not being met.

The announcement came an hour before the expiry of a deadline set by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, which had demanded the government delay the poll and allow her party to join.

The parliamentary and upazila (local council) elections would be held according to the previously announced schedule "as there had been no consensus between the political alliances ... (and the) government despite ... all our effort," said Hossain Zillur Rahman, a key adviser to the interim government.

Dhaka  - Bangladesh's military-backed government announced Wednesday that it would hold the country's December elections as per the previously announced schedules, despite the demands of a leading political party not having been met.

The announcement came an hour before the expiration of a deadline set by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, which had demanded that the government delay the poll and allow her party to join.

The deadline expired at 9 pm (1530 GMT) Wednesday.

London - The extent of support in Britain for the far-right British National Party (BNP) was revealed Wednesday with the publication of the personal details of more than 12,000 members and supporters on an internet site.

The list, published on the website Wikileak, gave the names, addresses, and in some cases the professions, of members who include serving and former soldiers, police officers, teachers and doctors, reports said Wednesday.