Cairo: The leadership of Egypt's ruling party quit on Saturday, but the protesters who have rocked the political establishment dismissed the move as a ruse that would not deter them from their goal of toppling the president. The United States, Egypt's key ally, which has been demanding transition begin immediately, signalled it might be changing tack by declaring explicitly that President Hosni Mubarak should stay in power to oversee the process. This was likely to anger demonstrators demanding he resign immediately. Reports by Al Arabiya saying President Hosni Mubarak had resigned as head of the party were later withdrawn by the Dubai-based television news channel. Mubarak has reshuffled his government but says he intends to stay on as president until elections in September. State television said only the leadership of the party, including Mubarak's son Gamal, had resigned and named the new secretary general as Hossam Badrawi, seen as more liberal. A US official called th...

Wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified mark-uplanguage . Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative works including community websites, corporate intranets, knowledge management systems and note services. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, came across the word 'wiki' while on honeymoon in Hawaii. The word means 'quick' . Jaya Srivastava, Uttar Pradesh

WASHINGTON: Welcoming any step that moves Egypt, which is the middle of a political unrest, towards transition to democracy , the White House today said that it is for the Egyptians to decide how this transition occurs. "As the President has repeatedly said, Egyptians will be the ones that decide how this transition occurs. We welcome any step that provides credibility to that process," said Tommy Vietor Spokesman, National Security Council, White House. The White House statement came amidst reports that Gamal Mubarak, the head of the National Democratic Party and son of embattled President Hosni Mubarak has resigned. "We view this as a positive step towards the political change that will be necessary, and look forward to additional steps," a senior Administration official said when asked about the latest development coming from Egypt. ...

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa women and child development minister Pramila Mallick on Saturday resigned from her post in the wake of allegation of Rs 700-crore scam in purchase of dal for mid-day meal [MMD] scheme and Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP). Women and Child Development department is the nodal agency through which dal is being given to about 95 lakh beneficiaries including 50 lakh school children. I have tendered my resignation on my own on moral grounds in the interest of the Biju Janata Dal [BJD] and to keep the clean image of the government intact. It is a sacrifice for the party and government. I am not afraid of any probe," she said claiming that she was a victim of conspiracy. Claiming that there was no pressure on her to resign, Mrs Mallick said she met the chief minister this morning and conveyed her desire to step down to prevent people f...

New Delhi: Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy on Saturday asked a Delhi court to name Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, Rajas relatives and his wife as accused with Raja in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. "I have prepared an additional application to impeach Mr Karunanidhi as co-accused along with some other accuse, whom I may name them later on. Karunanidhi is co conspirator in looting the country, Raja couldn't have done it alone," said Swamy. In a petition filed on January 17, Swamy had sought the summoning of seven officials from agencies such as the CAG, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Sandeep Sethi appeared for CAG and filed the certified copy of the report in the Tis Hazari court. The Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai was summoned last week after a complaint by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, seeking the prosecution of the former Telecom Minister, A Raja, in the 2G case. The court on Saturday issued a notice to the CBI...

New Delhi: Uncle of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the NSG commando killed by terrorists during the 26/11 attacks who attempted self-immolation on Thursday outside Parliament, died on Friday night. The 56-year-old K Mohanan suffered 98 percent burns when he set himself on fire. Although it was not clear why he took the drastic step, some reports say he was disturbed over his nephew's death. He was apparently also upset with the government's apathy in treating 26/11 victims. K Mohanan attempted to set himself on fire in front of Parliament on Thursday. He was admitted to the RML hospital in the capital with 70 per cent burns. K Mohanan, a native of Kozhikode in Kerala, poured kerosene on his body and set himself afire outside Gate No 4 of Parliament House near Vijay Chowk at around 5:45 pm, a senior police official said. (With inputs from PTI)

Aurangabad: BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Saturday criticised the Central government for not making efforts to declare the names of those who had stashed black money belonging to India in Swiss banks. "I don't understand why they do not want to make the names of the account holders public? Is anybody from the treasury bench involved? The Indian money, stashed in the Swiss banks should be brought back and the names of the account holders should be declared," Gadkari said at a rally here this evening. "The money belongs to the poor people of our country. If the money is brought back each person in the country would get Rs 2,34,000 and it can be utilised for the development of the nation," he added. Alleging that the Congress had "looted" the country, Gadkari said people like Ottavio Quattrocchi, involved in the Bofors scam, were "permitted in the house of the top Congress leaders" without any security check. Gadkari further said that along wi...