New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Thursday for focussed cooperation, especially in the area of maritime transport, in his opening remarks at a regional summit.

Top leaders and officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand attended the daylong summit in New Delhi of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

The BJP had accused the Central Government of Targeting Hindu leaders and linking them to cases of bomb blast that too without sufficient evidence.

The Main opposition also came to the defence of Yogi Adityanath whose name reportedly figured in the investigation into the Malegaon blasts case.
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Yogi Adityanath represents Gorakhpur parliamentary segment.

"Linking Adityanath to the (Malegaon blast) case is not procedural but political," BJP chief Rajnath Singh told.

Havana - Cuban President Raul Castro replaced his foreign investment minister after the agency reported a drop in the number of state firms receiving foreign investment.

The announcement of the cabinet change was made Wednesday night on state-run television and did not give a reason for removing Marta Lomas, 58, and replacing her with UN Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca, 52.

Paris - Segolene Royal, the defeated Socialist Party candidate in last year's French presidential election, said Wednesday that she wanted to replace her former partner as party chief.

Asked if she would be a candidate for party leader, she told TF 1 television, "I will tell you frankly: it's true that I want to (head the party)."

The Socialist Party will elect a successor to the current party secretary Francois Hollande on November 20, following the party congress, which is due to begin Friday in the city of Reims.

Zagreb - The European Union's top official for enlargement urged Croatia on Wednesday to fight organized crime and corruption in order to finish talks on joining the EU by the end of 2009.

Harare/Johannesburg  - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has been asked by his ZANU(PF) party on Wednesday to form a government of national unity even if the opposition does not want to be involved.

Addressing journalists in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, ZANU(PF) spokesman Ephraim Masawi said "the Zanu politburo unanimously agreed that President Mugabe form a government of national unity like yesterday. This is in conformity with the SADC (Southern African Development Community) resolution reached over the weekend."

This latest development is likely to further strain relations between ZANU(PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).