Shettar to take oath as Karnataka CM on Wednesday morning

Bangalore: After day-long hankering over power spoils, Karnataka’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party today elected Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar as leader of its legislature wing, paving the way for him become chief minister replacing DV Sadananda Gowda.

Shettar will take oath Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the party told reporters after the meeting which was held five hours after the scheduled time as Gowda’s supporters wanted the party to announce his appointment as state party chief and also create two posts of deputy chief ministers.

The meeting was scheduled to begin at 11 am today but was convened only around 4 pm as party’s senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh brokered peace between the warring factions led by Gowda and state BJP chief KS Eshwarappa on one side and former chief minister BS  Yeddyurappa on the other.

A decision on the number of deputy chief ministers and who will hold the posts as also a position for Gowda would be announced after further meetings in New Delhi, party sources said.

IANS

Tom, Katie eye settlement

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were seeking ways to settle their divorce as the Hollywood stars entered the second week of a widely followed custody battle that has put their young daughter and the Church of Scientology in the media glare.

Celebrity website TMZ.com, citing an unnamed source, reported that Holmes, 33, and Cruise, 50, are negotiating visitation, child support and a property settlement. People magazine made similar claims and said the estranged couple wishes to avoid airing marital issues in court.

Attorneys for Cruise and Holmes did not return requests for comment on Sunday (Monday in Manila), but Holmes was photographed a day earlier entering her attorney’s office in New York.

In a move that Cruise’s spokeswoman said left the “Mission: Impossible” star “deeply saddened,” Holmes filed divorce papers in New York in late June, ahead of last week’s U.S. Independence Day holiday, citing irreconcilable differences.

According to her attorneys, Holmes is seeking sole custody of their 6-year-old daughter, Suri, and much speculation has surfaced that Holmes wants to raise the young girl outside the Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a key member. The estranged couple married in 2006.