ELECTIONS

Millions of Iranians have suffered serious disruption recently in accessing email and Internet social networking sites, raising concerns authorities are stepping up censorship of opposition supporters ahead of parliamentary elections next month.

The European Union is likely to take action against Spain's newly installed government by May for delaying austerity measures ahead of a regional election next month, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Futures on major U.S. stock indices pared earlier losses and point to a slightly higher opening Tuesday ahead of of economic data including retail sales.

It looks like Barack Obama's Democrat supporters and dog lovers are determined to keep the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Doggy issue alive; in any case till the presidential elections. Romney's treatment of his dog Seamus has been making headlines quite often.

India's headline inflation slowed to its lowest level in more than two years in January as food prices fell, sparking hopes that the RBI will start cutting interest rates sooner rather than later to battle the country's economic slowdown.

Washington becomes seventh state in US to legalise same-sex marriage after Democrat governor Christine Gregoire signs bill in to law.

Rick Santorum has surged into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in a national poll on Monday, becoming the clear favorite of Tea Party voters and white evangelicals.

Billionaire investor George Soros attributed the nation's favorable economic outlook to the nation's shale resources in a weekend interview.

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's sister and party's star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi on Monday expressed her opinion on the ongoing controversy between Salman Khurshid and the Election Commission of India (ECI) and said that the Union Law Minister was free to express his opinions.

By indicting Pakistan's embattled prime minister for contempt of court on Monday, the Supreme Court may have cemented its role as a political player alongside the military and the civilian government, complicating an already Byzantine political scene.

Henrique Capriles Radonski, Governor of Miranda state, has won the opposition nomination to fight the incumbent socialist President Hugo Chávez in the October presidential elections in Venezuela. Capriles, 39, has swept the opposition primaries, defeating four of his opponents with huge margins. His one-sided victory in the primaries is seen as a warning sign to President Chavez who is looking forward to winning a third six-year term as Venezuelan President.

Carla Bruni Sarkozy - the super model wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy - is once again in the middle of a controversy. This time it is not her glamorous looks or alleged affairs but a proposed bronze statue of her that has caused an outrage in a Paris suburb.

Turkmenistan votes on Sunday in a one-sided election certain to extend the rule of President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov over a Central Asian country holding 4 percent of global natural-gas reserves, which rights groups rank among the world's most repressive.

The Greek government told rebellious lawmakers on Saturday to back a deeply unpopular European Union/International Monetary Fund rescue package in parliament or send the nation down an unknown, dangerous path to default and international economic isolation.

The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, on Friday demanded new elections and vowed mass street protests if the new government did not relent, raising the prospect of a protracted crisis on the Indian Ocean islands famed as a beach paradise.

It is a one-to-one match between Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in Maine. The state, which is holding a more-than-a-day caucusing, has 24 delegates to offer. Romney, who had won the state in 2008 Republican primaries, is hoping to repeat the same in 2012. While Texas Congressman Paul, is looking for his first victory.

President Barack Obama, in an abrupt policy shift aimed at quelling an election-year firestorm, announced on Friday that religious employers would not be required to offer free birth control to workers and that the onus would instead be put on insurers.

Egypt's embattled military rulers faced pressure on all sides Thursday, with the newly empowered Muslim Brotherhood demanding the regime cede power as an intensifying standoff over American nonprofit employees imperiled U.S-Egyptian relations.

Samuel Aranda took top honors in the 2012 World Press Photo contest with a photo of a veiled woman holding her wounded relative during the 2011 protests in Yemen.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has tossed out an appeal by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani designed to avoid appearing before the court in connection with an ongoing contempt case.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is up for re-election this year. He faces stiff competition from both the Socialist Party and the extreme right National Front. With France's economy in shambles, Sarkozy's re-election prospects look slimmer every day.