NEW DELHI: Indian premier Manmohan Singh confirmed Wednesday he will meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this weekend in a major step towards better relations following rising tensions.
Singh said he will hold talks with Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the first such meeting in three years, amid heightened friction over a string of deadly military attacks across their border in disputed Kashmir.
“During my visit to New York, I... look forward to bilateral meetings with the leaders of some of our neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan,” Singh said in a statement before leaving for the United States.
Singh will first head to Washington to meet President Barack Obama to try to strengthen economic ties between the two world's largest democracies including on nuclear power, before leaving for New York.
“Over the past decade, our relationship with the United States, which is one of our most important relationships, has transformed into a global strategic partnership,” his statement said.
New Delhi and Islamabad have been working behind the scenes in recent weeks to secure a meeting, which was in jeopardy after deadly skirmishes in recent weeks between their militaries. The attacks repeatedly broke a ceasefire in place since 2003 along the de facto border in Kashmir.
The picturesque Himalayan region is divided between India and Pakistan by the UN-monitored Line of Control (LoC), but is claimed in full by both countries. Two of their three wars have been fought over Kashmir.
The deadly flare-ups followed an ambush in August that killed five Indian soldiers along the LoC. India blamed the Pakistan army for the attack, a charge that Islamabad denied.
Since winning a general election in May, Sharif has been vocal in his desire for better relations with India.
Last month he urged both sides to work swiftly to shore up the 10-year ceasefire after India's defence minister hinted at stronger military action along the LoC.
Analyst K. G. Suresh said the incidents in Kashmir, along with attacks by Pakistani militants on Indian soil, were among issues expected to be raised at the meeting — set to be held at a New York hotel on Sunday.
But Suresh told AFP that talk of a resumption of peace talks as a direct result of the meeting was premature. The talks were halted in January, shortly after they had resumed, following a deadly flare-up at that time along the LoC.
“The meeting is definitely a huge step forward (to improved relations),”said Suresh of the Vivekanand International Foundation think-tank.
“The Indian PM has taken a calculated risk by agreeing to meet Sharif ahead of elections next year,” he added.
India's embattled ruling Congress party faces national elections next year and is under domestic pressure not to be seen as too soft on Pakistan.
The premiers of India and Pakistan last met in 2010 on the sidelines of a regional summit in Bhutan's capital Thimphu, with both sides reaffirming the importance of moving forward with dialogue.
Peace talks were suspended for three years after the 2008 attacks in Mumbai which killed 166 people and which India blamed on Pakistani militants.
India has been demanding that Pakistan speed up trials for militants on its side thought to have been behind the attacks.
NEW DELHI: India on Sunday successfully test-fired for the second time a nuclear-capable missile that can strike the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, officials said.
Ravi Gupta, a spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Organisation, said the latest test of the Agni-V brought the missile a step closer to being inducted into India’s arsenal at some point in 2014 or 2015.
The missile was launched early Sunday morning from Wheeler Island off India’s east coast.
The missile has a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) and was first successfully tested in April last year. It’s seen as a boost to India’s efforts to counter China’s regional dominance and become an Asian power in its own right.
China is far ahead of India in the missile race, with intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching anywhere in India.
India’s longest-range missile is currently the Agni-III, which has a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,100 miles), leaving it short of many major Chinese cities.
The Agni-V is a solid-fuel, three-stage missile designed to carry a 1.5-ton nuclear warhead. It stands 17.5 meters (57 feet) tall, has a launch weight of 50 tons and was built at a reported cost of 25 billion rupees ($486 million).
It can be moved across the country by road or rail and can be used to carry multiple warheads or to launch satellites into orbit.
India already has the capability of hitting anywhere inside archrival Pakistan, but in recent years its increased defense spending has been focused on countering a perceived Chinese threat. India and China fought a war in 1962 and continue to nurse a border dispute.
India has also been suspicious of Beijing’s efforts to increase its influence in the Indian Ocean in recent years.
Gupta said the new Agni, named for the Hindi word for fire, should not be seen as a threat.
“We have a declared no-first-use policy. Our program is for deterrence and for peace,” he said. AP
A surface-to-surface Agni-V missile is launched from the Wheeler Island off the eastern Indian state of Odisha September 15, 2013. India successfully test-fired for a second time a nuclear-capable missile on Sunday that can reach Beijing and much of Europe, bringing a step closer production of a weapon designed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent. REUTERS/Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation
Read more: India retests missile able to reach Chinese cities - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/india-retests-missile-able-to-reach-chinese-cities-1.356512#ixzz2eyl3Qten
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - France's far-right National Front, buoyed by improving poll numbers, is aiming for big gains in municipal elections next year and the top spot in the European parliament ballot, its leaders said at the party's annual convention.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - France's far-right National Front, buoyed by improving poll numbers, is aiming for big gains in municipal elections next year and the top spot in the European parliament ballot, its leaders said at the party's annual convention.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
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Narendra Modi has massive support among India's middle classes and business community, who credit him with turning Gujarat into an economic powerhouse
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India's main opposition party has named controversial politician Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for elections due next year.
Mr Modi, who has been chief minister of Gujarat state since 2001, has long been seen as a rising star of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In June, he was chosen to lead the party's campaign for the election.
Mr Modi is credited with making Gujarat one of India's most prosperous states.
But he is also accused of doing little to stop anti-Muslim riots in 2002 which left more than 1,000 dead - allegations he has always denied.
In recent months he has been courted by international investors and foreign diplomats, and his image is that of a clean and efficient administrator who is corruption-free.
'No stone unturned'
A crowd of jubilant supporters gathered outside the BJP's headquarters in New Delhi ahead of the formal announcement of Mr Modi's candidacy on Friday.
"I assure that I will leave no stone unturned in working for a BJP victory in the 2014 elections," Mr Modi said in a statement after being nominated.
"I seek the blessings of the people in our efforts to free our nation of the turbulent times we are going through."
Critics say his candidacy will shift the debate from the alleged scams and inefficiencies of the ruling Congress to Mr Modi's controversial persona, the BBC's Vineet Khare, in Delhi, reports.
But supporters see him as a strong figure who can lead the BJP to power, after it lost the last two parliamentary elections, our correspondent says.
A brilliant speaker, Mr Modi was chosen in June to lead the BJP's election campaign for next year. Some senior party leaders including former deputy prime minister L K Advani opposed his appointment.
However, Mr Modi has massive support both within the party as well as among India's middle classes and business community, who see him as a charismatic leader who has turned Gujarat into an economic powerhouse.
As a result, he was re-elected twice as the state's chief minister.
Mr Modi also enjoys strong backing from senior leaders in the right-wing Hindu organisation the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The RSS, founded in the 1920s with a clear objective to make India a Hindu nation, functions as an ideological fountainhead to a host of hardline Hindu groups - including Mr Modi's BJP, with which it has close ties.
The RSS has a particularly strong base in Gujarat, and Mr Modi's links were seen as a strength the organisation could tap into when he joined the state unit of the BJP in the 1980s.
Ability for secrecy
Mr Modi has a formidable reputation as a party organiser, along with an ability for secrecy, which comes from years of training as an RSS "pracharak" or propagandist, analysts say.
Although Mr Modi escaped censure in the 2001 Gujarat riots, his close aide, Maya Kodnani, was convicted last year and sent to jail for 28 years.
The rioting began after 60 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire blamed on Muslims in the town of Godhra.
Ms Kodnani was not a minister at the time of the riots, but was appointed junior minister for women and child development by Mr Modi in 2007.
His critics accused him of "rewarding her with the ministership" for her role in the riots.
Mr Modi himself has never expressed any remorse or offered any apologies for the riots, and many Muslims displaced by the violence continue to live in ghettos near Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city and commercial capital.
