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Households headed by women support Democratic Party

        Washington: Suzanna L. De Boef, a Penn State political scientist, has revealed that over the past quarter-of a century, the gender gap in America has favoured the Democratic Party whenever the economy slumps, and when female headed households increase. De Boef said that women who run households, whether single, divorced or widowed are near the bottom of the socio economic scale, and are more vulnerable to economic downturn because they perceive the Democratic Party as more likely to provide social programs favouring female-headed households. "Our findings reveal that, from the time political rhetoric takes a conservative turn, the gender gap shifts toward the Democratic Party about a half-year later," added De Boef. The Penn State researcher gave the example of a New York Times/CBS News poll taken shortly before the 2000 election showing that, while married women preferred George W. Bush over Albert Gore by a margin of eight percentage points, unmarried women picked Gore over Bush by a margin of 35 percentage points. "When women are most likely to be economically independent from men - holding better and, on average, high-paying jobs - they find themselves more like men, but also freer to develop their own perspectives which may be similar to or different from those of men," explained De Boef. "Women who head households have been inclined to back Democratic candidates, even during the last two decades of the 20th century, when support for the Democrats declined among both men and women," she added. De Boef further explained that the gender gap is likely to remain a recurrent feature of the American political landscape, with the potential for shaping election outcomes, especially in close races.

56 killed in China coal mine blast (Go To Top)

        Hong Kong: A gas explosion at a coal mine in central China has killed at least 56 people and left 100 others missing. More than 400 people were working in the mine in China's Henan province at the time of the blast late on Wednesday. Over 200 people escaped, but 148 people were trapped in the mine, and rescuers were searching for survivors, Xinhua news agency reported. Between January and June this year, 3,758 people have died in mine mishaps in China.

Pak turns down US' aid offer for reforming its madarasas (Go To Top)

       Islamabad: Pakistan has turned down Washington's offer to provide financial and technical assistance in carrying out Madarasa reforms. It said that the country does not want any foreign hand as far as education at Madarsas is concerned. US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca had made the offer of assistance to Islamabad while on her four-day visit to the country earlier this week. Madrassah reforms would be carried exclusively through indigenous resources and the government would not accept any foreign assistance in this regard, the Dawn quoted Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi as saying. "If at present we accept any sort of assistance for the ongoing Madressah reforms, it will strengthen the misperception that the ministry was following a foreign agenda," he added. He reportedly said that Madarasa reforms was a sensitive issue, and the government did not want to engage foreign hand in it. According to the paper, by offering the assistance the US wanted to keep a check at what was being taught at these `free schools', which are widely seen as the breeding grounds of terrorism. It further said that the US policymakers believed that religious education offered by the seminaries was "a source of extremism and militancy". Pakistan has embarked on mainstreaming the Madarasas under which subjects like English, general science and maths are being introduced, and necessary training being provided to teachers in these subjects. According to an estimate, over half-a-million students study at more than 10,000 such Madarasas across the country. They offer attractive alternatives like free education, free meals, free schoolbooks and even in some cases a stipend.

US strikes off Iraq from terror list (Go To Top)

        Washington: The United States announced to remove Iraq from the State Department's blacklist of "state sponsors of terrorism," thus having put an end to a 14-year-old determination that carried sanctions. "I hereby rescind the determination of September 13, 1990 that Iraq is a country which has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism," Powell said in a notice published in the Federal Register. Powell said that this is an important symbolic act for Iraq's interim leaders although the move would have little practical effect as most all of Washington's terrorism penalties on Iraq were suspended last year. "This action is a further step to cement the partnership of the United States and Iraq in combating acts of international terrorism and is an act of symbolic importance to the new Iraqi government," Powell said.

Karzai victory almost sealed, opposition awaits inquiry (Go To Top)

       Kabul: With more than half the ballots in Afghanistan's presidential election counted and outright triumph virtually assured for incumbent Hamid Karzai, attention turned Thursday to when the winner can be declared and how the losers will react. Two high-profile opposition figures claim alleged fraud robbed them of victory, with both Karzai's chief rival and the sole woman candidate telling media in separate interviews that the vote was manipulated and that they would have won if it was "free and fair". The latest vote tally at 14:07 pm showed Karzai on 2,661,709 votes or 58.7 percent of the estimated total, with 56.4 percent of the ballots counted. He kept his wide margin ahead of rival Yunus Qanooni, his former education minister and the favourite of the powerful anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, who currently has 17.4 percent. Based on the election commission's estimates of total votes cast, US-backed Karzai needs to win around 1.4 million more votes to attain the simple majority required to eliminate a second-round runoff. "A run-off looks very, very unlikely," said a Western election expert familiar with the process. While Karzai could reach that tally by Saturday, the winner will not be declared until next week at the earliest when all the estimated 8.16 million votes have been counted. "There will be no final official results before all the votes are counted," a Western election observer told media.

After Ganguly, Tendulkar too backs Parthiv (Go To Top)

        New Delhi: Embattled Parthiv Patel who is facing the axe, today found yet another support for himself. This time in the shape of Sachin Tendulkar, who said that the cricketer needed support and not criticism as he was simply passing through a lean phase of his career. Sachin said: "I think Parthiv has done a good job. I know there were plenty of guys criticising his wicket-keeping. But we have just got to understand that the ups and downs are always going to be there in everybody's career, and you need support when the chips are down." "Everyone went gaga over Parthiv then and the same people are now criticising him. I don't agree with that," he reportedly said in an interview with a sports channel.

Decision over shifting of ICC Hqrs. by November-end (Go To Top)

       Dubai: The decision to shift the headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC) from the Lords to any other location, perhaps in Dubai or Malaysia, would be taken by the end of next month. But, cricketing authorities in London would be consulted and taken into confidence before arriving at the final decision, an ICC statement released on Wednesday said. ICC chief Ehsan Mani had some time back said that they had a very good offer from the government of Dubai. He, however, said: "We are also waiting on a final offer from the British government." "As you know we have been based at the Lords since 1909. So, it would be right we don't get up and just leave without giving the country that has hosted us for last 95 years the opportunity to also come forward with a proposal," the Dawn quoted Mani as saying.