Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to reclaim a second term with a resounding mandate for his Congress party. Singh, seen as architect of India's economic reforms in the 1990s, will be the second Indian prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1960s to hold the post twice after a full five-year term. His Congress party, headed by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, alone won 205 of 543 boroughs of the federal parliament -- its best performance since 1991 in a ...

President Obama has accepted the resignation of Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office responsible for the controversial low-altitude flyover of New York by a 747 plane used as Air Force One, the White House said Friday. The photo shoot, which President Obama said he was "furious" with, happened on April 27. The image of a low-flying plane accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet sent some New Yorkers into the streets and into a panic -- ...

A key aide to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has resigned after e-mails reportedly smearing top political opponents were leaked, British media said Sunday. The e-mails, which made a number of innuendo-laden suggestions about the private lives of politicians, including Conservative Party leader David Cameron, ended up in the hands of a well known political blogger, it was reported Saturday. According to The Observer, Damian McBride, a special adviser to Brown, discussed setting up a Web site to publish "scurrilous ...

The leader of an anti-government protest that forced cancellation of a summit in Thailand was arrested Sunday and charged with instigating people to break the law, police said. Arismun Pongruengrong was being interrogated after his arrest at his residence, a police spokesman said. Police can detain Arismun without charge for 24 hours, but are considering asking the court to extend the detention period, said the police spokesman, Maj. Gen. Suporn Pansuea. Arismun led demonstrators to storm a hotel Saturday where ...

Twenty-two people were killed and 58 others injured in a fireworks factory fire in western India, police said Saturday. The e-mails, which made a number of innuendo-laden suggestions about the private lives of politicians, including Conservative Party leader David Cameron, ended up in the hands of a well known political blogger, the Telegraph reported. They were sent in January from a supposedly secure Downing Street account by special adviser Damian McBride to former Labour party advisor Derek Draper, The Daily ...

Political demonstrations in Thailand on Saturday disrupted the Association of South East Asian Nations summit, according to Thai and Japanese officials. Thousands of "red shirt" protesters -- named for their clothing -- have rallied for days to demand that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down. Their protests are not directly related to the Asian summit, but the demonstrations created so much chaos that summit members could not reach at least two of their meetings. The disruptions included traffic ...

Britain's top counter-terrorism officer has resigned, the London mayor's office said Thursday, a day after he accidentally exposed a sensitive document about a terrorism investigation. Police were forced to bring forward the timing of a series of raids after Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick unwittingly revealed the names of those to be arrested. Quick was photographed as he got out of a car at Prime Minister Gordon Brown's residence in London and the names were easily to read ...

Pakistan has placed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif under house arrest for three days, his party told CNN. Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League - N (PML-N), was ordered confined to his residence in the city of Lahore from 8 a.m. Sunday (0300 GMT), said the party's acting President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi. The police detention order said the move was meant to preserve law and order, Hashmi said. Sharif's party is backing thousands of lawyers who are on a four-day ...

Pakistani television station GEO-TV has been shut down in locations across the country, according to the station's managing director. Government officials have instructed cable operators to remove the channel from the airwaves or push it farther down in the channel order, Azhar Abbas said Saturday. The channel signal has been blocked in certain areas, but other cable operators are still carrying it. The channel is functioning and broadcasting in some areas in Pakistan. Repeated phone calls from CNN to the ...

Shares in Switzerland's biggest bank UBS rallied on Thursday as Marcel Rohner announced his resignation, just weeks after announcing losses of nearly $17 billion -- the largest ever by a Swiss group. Rohner is replaced by Oswald Gruebel, who served as CEO of rival Credit Suisse from 2003 until 2007. "With his previous employer Credit Suisse, Mr. Gruebel was the architect of a successful turnaround and restored confidence in the company in turbulent times," UBS said in a statement. ...