Johannesburg - Opening a regional summit on the political crisis in Zimbabwe South African President Kgalema Motlanthe expressed disappointment at the impasse in powersharing talks between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition and urged them to quickly reach agreement.

Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are attending the meeting of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg.

The conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a member of SADC, is also on the agenda of the meeting, which Congolese President Joseph Kabila is attending.

New York, Nov. 9 : U. S. President-elect Barack Obama will act on his campaign promise to tax the wealthiest Americans, an Obama senior adviser has told the New York Daily News. 

He said that Obama plans to raise taxes on the wealthy by asking the Democratic-controlled Congress to allow President Bush''s tax cuts to expire at the end of 2010. When they expire, it could pump in about 72 billion a year toward balancing the budget, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. 

Wellington - After nine years of liberal centre-left government, New Zealand has taken a decided swing to the right in Saturday's general election, but how far remains to be seen.

The conservative National Party's leader and prime minister-elect John Key says the organisation is "arguably more centrist and probably a little more pragmatic" since he became its leader two years ago.

Harare - Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper on Saturday blamed the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai for the stalemate in negotiations for a power-sharing deal and called on President Robert Mugabe to go ahead and appoint a new cabinet.

Tsvangirai and Mugabe signed a power-sharing deal in mid-September but have failed to agree on the distribution of ministries. The MDC accuses Mugabe of grabbing all the key portfolios such as home affairs, finance, foreign affairs, information, local government and justice.

Lahore, Nov 8: Senior PML-N leader and former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif, who had walked out of the Yousuf Raza-led federal cabinet a few months back citing differences on various issues, is scheduled to break bread tonight with the country’s President and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

Washington, Nov 8: Senator John McCain’s top two aides during the presidential campaign have denied the anonymous accusations circulating in the press about his running mate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

“The towel story categorically is not true,” The Washington Times quoted Steve Schmidt, top former McCain campaign aide, as saying.