ISLAMABAD, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - A senior official in the party that backs Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Saturday that emergency rule should be lifted before a general election due by early January.

Mushahid Hussain, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which was in government until parliament dissolved on Thursday, said his party did not need a state of emergency to win the vote.

BEIJING, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - There was an almost tangible air of sadness as Zhang Lifan talked of his late father's vision for China almost 60 years ago.

'My father wanted democracy and the rule of constitution, he was a liberal,' said Zhang.

The 57-year-old writer's father, Zhang Naiqi, was a cabinet minister and co-founder of a political party that was part of a coalition government at the start of China's communist rule in 1949.

BEIJING, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - Like many of China's fast-growing band of upwardly mobile young women, Jenny Zhu likes to go out shopping with friends and watch American films.

The 26-year-old has ridden the nation's spectacular stock market boom with success and plans to buy a flat with her boyfriend in downtown Beijing.

Zhu, a personal assistant at a German company, appears to be just like any other young professional in modern cities around the world -- except that she is a member of China's ruling Communist Party.

BISHKEK, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Monday announced the creation of his own political party ahead of a referendum that is expected to lead to parliamentary elections in the Central Asian state.

'I have taken the decision to create and support a new party, a party of creativity, of responsibility, of action, which will be called Ak-Zhol, the People's Party,' Bakiyev told leading businessmen in Bishkek.

BEIJING, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Once-powerful senior Communist Party figures are, ironically like many dissidents, complaining bitterly about being muzzled.

Former National Bureau of Statistics chief Li Chengrui is among a group of 170 retired senior cadres who are staunch defenders of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong's socialist values and say the current regime is silencing them.

BEIJING, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - The Chinese Communist Party's five-yearly Congress gathering the nation's top cadres began here on Monday.

The following are key facts about the party:

About 73 million members, making it the largest political party in the world. Growing numbers of youths and private entrepreneurs have joined the party recently.

Formally established in 1921 in Shanghai by delegates to the 1st Party Congress, which included a 27-year-old Mao Zedong.

ROME, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni appears headed to a landslide victory in a vote to elect the leader of Italy's new centre-left Democratic Party, according to first projections from poll organisers.

Veltroni polled 74.6 percent of the vote Sunday according to a sampling of 100 ballot papers from each of 1000 polling stations chosen. The official result is expected on Monday.

After polling stations closed at 1800 GMT, organisers predicted an 'extraordinary' three million strong voter turnout.

ROME, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - More than a million voters turned out Sunday to cast a vote for the leader of Italy's newly formed centre-left Democratic Party, with Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni the favourite to win.

A victory for Veltroni could set him up as the likely heir apparent to Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

At 1500 GMT poll organisers put the total figure of voters so far at 1.5 million. Polling booths were scheduled to close at 1800 GMT.

ROME, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of Italian left-wing sympathisers went to the polls Sunday to vote for a party chief for the newly formed Democratic Party, with Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni the favourite to win.

Observers however have warned that an overall turnout of less than one million voters will be seen as a setback for Veltroni's popularity.

By 11:00 am (0900 GMT) more than 600,000 votes had already been cast leading to projections of a high turnout. Polls are set to close at 1800 GMT.

ROME, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Polls opened in Italy on Sunday to choose the leader of Italy's new Democratic Party, a merger of the left's two main parties, with Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni tipped to win.

Some 600,000 people had already cast their ballots by 11:00 am (09H00 GMT) Sunday, four hours after polling stations opened.

ROME, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Polls opened in Italy on Sunday to choose the leader of Italy's new Democratic Party, a merger of the left's two main parties, with Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni tipped to win.

The position would make the popular mayor the heir apparent to Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the centre-left leader elected last year by a razor-thin majority.

BEIJING, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - The Chinese Communist Party's five-yearly Congress gathering the nation's top cadres begins on Monday.

The following are key facts about the party:

About 73 million members, making it the largest political party in the world. Growing numbers of youths and private entrepreneurs have joined the party recently.

Formally established in 1921 in Shanghai by delegates to the 1st Party Congress, which included a 27-year-old Mao Zedong.

BEIJING, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - The Communist Party of China (CCP) meets beginning October 15 for its 17th Party Congress, in which top leadership positions and the nation's future course are to be decided.

Following are key facts about the CCP.

About 73 million members, making it the largest political party in the world. Growing numbers of youths and private entrepreneurs have joined the party recently.

Formally established in 1921 in Shanghai by delegates to the 1st Party Congress, which included a 27-year-old Mao Zedong.

RUILI, China, Oct 1, 2007 (AFP) - Amid the noise and hustle of traders and tourists, the Ruili gemstone market in China's southwest would seem an unlikely place to lead a movement for democracy in Myanmar.

But for one political exile his dreams of bringing about a change to the brutal military regime that has ruled Myanmar for the last 45 years begins here, a stone's throw from the remote mountains of his homeland.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Nepal's largest political party has abandoned its traditional support for the monarch to back the establishment of a republic in the Himalayan kingdom, party leaders said Wednesday.

'The general assembly of the party passed the resolution of going for a federal republic in the upcoming constituent assembly elections,' Arjun Narsingh K.C, senior leader of the Nepali Congress party, told AFP.

TOKYO, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Incoming Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, warning of tough times ahead for the ruling party, on Monday demoted his beaten rival and placed fellow moderates into key posts.

Fukuda, a party elder, removed Taro Aso, the hawkish former foreign minister who had challenged him, from the position of secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

He named Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki to replace Aso in the party's number two position after the premier himself, party officials said.

TOKYO, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Incoming Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda is to demote his beaten rival and place fellow moderates into key posts in the ruling party, news reports said Monday.

Fukuda, a party elder, is to remove Taro Aso, the hawkish foreign minister who had challenged him, from the position of secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

He has chosen Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki to replace Aso in the party's number two position after the premier himself, public broadcaster NHK and the Jiji Press and Kyodo News agencies reported.

MOSCOW, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - The pro-Kremlin political party A Just Russia vowed on Sunday to use socialist methods to address issues such as demographic decline, as the main parties geared up for December 2 parliamentary polls.

Party leader Sergei Mironov told a pre-election party conference it was time to address the 'ideological vacuum' that had followed the Soviet collapse and urged state control of key industries and investment in health, education and housing.

MOSKOVSKY, Russia, Sept 22, 2007 (AFP) - Russia's Communist party vowed on Saturday to re-nationalise 'strategic' industries as opponents of President Vladimir Putin on the left and right set out their pre-election stalls.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov kicked off the party's annual congress at a farming village outside Moscow with an indictment of Putin's rule and a promise to restore some methods from the Soviet past.

BEIJING, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - There's no sign outside this compound in an old section of Beijing that behind its high walls lies the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party's internal disciplinary body.

The low-key setting masks what has become one of the country's most feared organs, the epicentre of a battle against the official corruption that is one of the country's hottest political issues.

YANGON, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - The only telephone line has been cut at the headquarters of Myanmar's major opposition party, a spokesman said Friday, as the junta seeks to tighten its grip after a series of protests.

'We have only one landline,' said Han Zaw, a spokesman for detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

'It has been cut since Wednesday without any reason. We hope it's just a technical problem and things will get back to normal soon.'

CAIRO, Sept 9, 2007 (AFP) - A top official in Egypt's ruling party says there is a consensus to elect President Hosni Mubarak as party chairman, quelling reports that Mubarek's son would take over, local press reported on Sunday.

Zakaria Azmi, a senior member of the National Democratic Party (NDP) and also Mubarak's chief of staff, told party members that there was a 'full consensus within the party to elect President Hosni Mubarak chairman during elections at this year's party conference in November,' the state-owned daily Al-Akhbar reported.

BEIJING, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - China's police chief has urged a crackdown on 'hostile forces and evil cults' ahead of a five-yearly Communist Party meeting aimed at solidifying the regime's rule, state press reported Friday.

'All police should strengthen information-collecting work to closely monitor and strike hard on overseas and domestic hostile forces, ethnic splittists, religious extremists (and) violent terrorists,' Xinhua news agency quoted police minister Zhou Yongkang as saying.

BEIJING, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - Former Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong, who was fired over the SARS crisis in 2003, has been appointed to a senior government position, state media said Friday, signalling his political comeback.

Meng, a protege of President Hu Jintao, was named deputy party secretary of Shanxi province in northern China, according to the China News Service website, a post that is customarily given to the provincial governor.

BEIJING, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - China said Tuesday it had set an October 15 start for the ruling Communist Party's pivotal congress, a five-yearly ritual during which key leadership changes are made and the nation's course is set.

The party's powerful Politburo recommended the date for the congress, the 17th since the party's founding in 1921, during a meeting on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

BEIJING, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - China's ruling Communist Party has fixed October 15 for the start of its pivotal five-yearly congress, which will make key leadership decisions and define policy to guide the country, state media said Tuesday.

The party's powerful Politburo recommended the date for the congress, the 17th since the party's founding in 1921, during a meeting on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

BEIJING, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - China's ruling Communist Party will hold its five-yearly congress from October 15, state television reported Tuesday, clearing up months of speculation over the date for the important meeting.

The report on China Central Television said the nine-member Politburo, the party's highest decision-making body, had recommended October 15 as the start date for the party congress.

The congress is held every five years to make top leadership decisions.

ISLAMABAD, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan from his exile in 'weeks and not months' ahead of elections, a spokesman for his party said Friday.

Sharif, 57, on Thursday won a landmark court battle to overturn his seven years' banishment by military ruler President Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew him in a bloodless coup.

'It is a matter of weeks and not months that Sharif will be in Pakistan,' Siddiqul Farooq, the spokesman for the ex-premier's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, told AFP.

CAIRO, July 29, 2007 (AFP) - Egypt's ruling party is to elect its leader for the first time in a move geared towards eventually offering President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal the country's top job, analysts said on Sunday.

The National Democratic Party (NDP) presidency -- a post held by Mubarak since he came to power in 1981 -- will be elected at its annual conference in November, party Secretary General Safwat al-Sherif said this week.

To qualify for candidacy, members need to secure signatures from 20 percent of the 5,500-strong party general assembly.