Russian minority party leads in Latvian polls

A Russian minority party won 1/3 of the vote in the Latvian early parliamentary elections, the country's central election commission confirmed.

This is the first time in 20 years since the tiny Baltic state restored independence that a party defending interests of the country's largest ethnic minority is leading in parliamentary polls.

The center left leaning Harmony Center party is supported by 28.7% of the vote, the anti-corruption Reform party by ex-president Valdis Zatlers is the runner-up, with 20.82% of the vote, followed by the business-backed Unity bloc with 18.83% of the vote.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis triggered the elections after he dissolved the legislature for not backing a corruption probe of a businessman. Zatlers lost his re-election bid, but voters supported his decision to form a new legislature by passing a referendum.

At least 11 die in nearly 7.0 magnitude earthquake in India

At least 11 people died, with dozens received injures as an earthquake hit northeastern India on Sunday evening, world media reported.

An earthquake measuring 6.9 magnitude on the Richter Scale hit the Sikkim-Nepal border region, jolting large parts of India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Local buildings are damaged.

No tsunami warning was issued.

Turner vs Weiner: How do they compare

Anthony Weiner and Bob Turner are the political odd couple - and polar opposites in personality, too.

Weiner lost his congressional gig representing Brooklyn and Queens in disgrace amid a sexting scandal - and Republican Bob Turner won the seat last week in a special election by letting his rival implode on the campaign trail.

Voters in the 9th Congressional District better buckle up for a major change in their representative's cult of personality.

Weiner was a lithe, liberal lightning bolt, full of passion and arrogance - and never shy about seeking out a TV camera to denounce what he saw as the latest Republican scheme.

Turner is a soft-spoken and mild-mannered grandfather, a 70-year-old conservative businessman whose tenure in the House of Representatives may be short-lived.

"Weiner was one of the most visible members of Congress even before the scandal," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political science professor. "In Washington, visibility equals influence. Will Turner have that?"

Weiner carved out a niche as a firebrand and over the years emerged as one of the Democratic Party's leading - and loudest - voices. He was a natural on television, becoming a popular guest on left-leaning shows hosted by the likes of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, and some of his impassioned speeches on the House floor - including his defense of the Zadroga bill - became YouTube hits.

"He was the Democrats' attack dog du jour and was very effective in that role because he combined substance with antics," said political pundit Bob Liff.

Turner also knows his way around a television set, but in a behind-the-scenes role.

A former cable executive, he helped steer giant personalities - including Jerry Springer and Rush Limbaugh - to the small screen, but his own charisma doesn't light up a room. Turner's admirers say he projects a fatherly competence and a steady hand, and he's someone who will work hard without generating much controversy.

Pundits suspect Turner's voice won't carry as far as Weiner's for reasons outside his control.

Weiner's 12 years of seniority did not translate into many legislative accomplishments - none of the bills he authored became law - but they did lend a gravitas to his impassioned defense of President Obama's health care plan.

Turner, however, is the rookie who may be destined for a quiet seat on the back bench - and he may not even be able to stay there long. Many political observers believe his seat will be cut as part of a census-mandated redistricting.

"So what if he's 'congressman' 14 or 15 months?" quipped Sabato. "He'll always be called 'Congressman'; it's a great club. Considering how he won this special election, he'll always be a hero in GOP circles."

There is a chance that the unique circumstances surrounding his election could pay big dividends for residents of his district.

"He comes in loved by the party in power, and if he will be in another election, the GOP has incentive to prop him up and help him get things passed," said Liff. "That may produce results."

jlemire@nydailynews.com

Jury a challenge in ex-Bloomy consultant case

Manhattan prosecutors will have their hands full Monday keeping potential jurors in a grand larceny case from getting distracted by the alleged victim: Mayor Bloomberg.

Jury selection is set to begin in the trial of political consultant John Haggerty on charges of stealing $1.1 million from the mayor during Bloomberg's 2009 reelection bid.

The case opens a window into how politicians work around complex election laws and presents a challenge in keeping the jury's focus on Haggerty and away from Hizzoner.

"If a witness is a sitting mayor the jury may be instructed to ignore it - but how can they?" said Mark Bederow, a defense lawyer and former Manhattan prosecutor.

Haggerty is accused of duping Bloomberg into paying for a bogus poll-watching operation and using $600,000 of the funds to buy his brother out of a home they co-owned in Forest Hills, Queens.

Haggerty's lawyers - among them former Attorney General Dennis Vacco - argue the money was obtained legally from the Independence Party, which got the cash as a donation from Bloomberg.

They argue that the real issue is the roundabout way Bloomberg paid for the poll-watching service - allowing him to avoid reporting it as a campaign expense.

Jury selection experts said Bloomberg's star wattage may blind some potential jurors, and it may be impossible for prosecutors to weed out anyone with a grudge.

"The most important part of the trial is jury selection - without the right jury you might as well go home," said a Manhattan prosecutor who is not involved in the case.

Margaret Bull Kovera, author of the upcoming book "Jury Selection," said it will be impossible to protect against juror bias unless there is a change of venue.

The billionaire mayor's wealth will make it hard to portray him as a sympathetic victim, observers said.

"It's not a little old lady who was hit over the head and had her purse snatched," said defense attorney Earl Ward. "He's got more money than God. They're not going to think, 'Poor Mike Bloomberg.'"

mgrace@nydailynews.com

Lupica: GOP keeps pressure on Obama

Sometimes you think that Barack Obama's job has been Candidate in Chief, as if he went straight from the last campaign to this one, never stopping in between to actually be President of the United States. It is one of the reasons why he is in the trouble he is in, and not only because of an economy that has gotten worse on his watch.

But there is another problem for Obama, even if you are one of the people who believes he was and is a much better candidate than he has been a President, the way Jimmy Carter was:

Obama is a reasonable man in an increasingly toxic and unreasonable political world, where the only plan from the other side, from the time he got into office, has been to get him out of office. Mitch McConnell said it early for the Republicans, and nothing has changed since.

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President," McConnell said.

Not fix the economy, or health care, or Iraq. Fix this guy in the White House, but good.

It is why Obama better step it up now if he wants to keep his job. That doesn't mean he has to go at his opponents the way they go at him, in Congress, on cable America, in the radio world of the Limbaughs, and with anybody else with the crackpot idea that this President has some anti-American agenda.

But one of these days he needs to come hard at the people constantly coming at him, and not merely with a jobs plan that sounds more like the first draft of one. Really the President needs to say this about his opponents, and without TelePrompTing:

"They would rather beat me than help you."

He has no chance of saving himself with a jobs plan that sounds like some kind of slapped-together first draft. But what he needs to sell is something that will work, and that means the new tax he is expected to propose this morning - what is being called the Warren Buffett Rule - on people in this country making more than a million dollars a year.

Unless you think that spending cuts alone are going to get America out of the fix it is in. Unless you now think it is now against the law in America for the rich to pay their true fair share.

Obama is jumped for this tax plan before it is even formally announced, of course. As if the idea of added taxes for the rich make him even more of an enemy of the state than he already is. But that is the reality of Obama's situation. He is up against people who think their job is to make sure he loses his. No matter what the cost.

"A political move," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says on CNN Sunday.

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The National Security Agency is moving to open source a secure database technology, Accumulo, that it's been developing internally since 2008.

Broker payments face scrutiny

Some of the UK's leading stockbrokers are participating in commission deals on international share trades that are seemingly to face scrutiny by the City regulator, over concerns regarding conflicts of interest.