New Delhi, Dec 8 : Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today greeted the nation ahead of the auspicious occasion of Id-ul-Zuha which is being celebrated to mark the supreme sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim and also coincides with the Haj Pilgrimage.

Hong Kong  - A court ruling Monday set the stage for prison inmates to be able to vote in territory elections for the first time in Hong Kong's history.

Justice Andrew Cheung ruled that inmates have the constitutional right to register as voters and cast their ballots while serving sentences.

The case was brought by two men, Chan Kin-sum and Choi Chuen-sun, who are currently in jail, and legislator Leung Kwok-hung, who had previously served time for offences against public order.

London, Dec 8 : A British historian has accused the Russian authorities of attempting to hide from the world the dastardly deeds that were done in Soviet Russia under Stalin.

According to a report in the Guardian, eminent British historian Orlando Figes has accused the Russian authorities of trying to ‘rehabilitate the Stalinist regime’ after armed police seized an entire archive last week detailing repression in the Soviet Union.

Figes, professor of history at Birkbeck, a London University college, condemned the raid on Memorial, a Russian human rights organisation.

London, December 8 : US President-Elect Barack Obama has pledged that he would not be violating The White House no-smoking rule.

The first African-American to be elected President of the United States, however confessed “falling off the wagon” when it comes to quitting cigarettes.

London, Dec 8 : Every Monday in December before Christmas has been dubbed as a ‘Mega Monday’, as it is the one day of the week when online sales are the busiest.

According to the commercial director of Visa Europe, more than two million Internet purchases take place on a Monday, reason being that when buyers fail to find what they want in the shops during the weekend they end up turning to the net.

“Monday is almost always the biggest shopping day of the week, and Mondays in December are usually huge,” Sky News quoted James Roper, IMRG head, as saying.

London, December 8 : Sir Cliff Richard has said that he will continue to baffle people raising fingers on his sexuality and his 67-year-old bachelorhood.

The legendary singer told BBC that he realised his restraint from the marriage institution made him a constant topic for speculation and that he intended to keep it that way because he did not care.

“I know but I don’t care, that’s the thing. I will die with things in my head that I don’t want to share with other people,” the Daily Express quoted him as saying.