Washington, The Indian-American community has come out in strong support of US President Barack Obama, who kicked off his re-election campaign with two rallies in Ohio and Virginia, with an overwhelming 85 per cent of them favouring a second term for him. About 85 per cent of the Indian-Americans support Obama for a second term, according to a latest survey conducted by Lake Research Partners, a DC-based political consultancy firm, with APIAVote. APIA stands for Asian American Pacific Islander. "President Obama was strongest among Indian-American voters, leading Mitt Romney by a margin of 76 to eight per cent in the poll, and weakest among Filipino Americans, where the vote was 57 per cent to 20 per cent. Among Chinese Americans, it was 68 per cent for Obama, 8 per cent for Romney," said Toby Chaudhuri, veteran strategist and chair of APIAVote. The result of the survey conducted by Lake Research Partners is similar to that of India in New England, an ethnic Indian-American publication, which in an online survey in February had said that 80 per cent of the Indian-Americans support Obama against Romney. According to the Lake Research Partners survey, Indian Americans have the ...
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Islamabad, The US Embassy has issued an emergency message asking American citizens in Pakistan to take precautions for the next two weeks though it did not give any reasons for the alert. "This security message from the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan alerts US citizens to travel restrictions for US Embassy staff during the next two weeks," said the message posted on the Embassy's website. The message said the US Embassy had restricted its employees from going to restaurants and markets in Islamabad during April 27-May 5 due to "security concerns". It added: "We recommend that US citizens in Islamabad during this period take similar precautions." "Also, based on the current security conditions and a significant increase in the level of sectarian violence in northern Pakistan, the US Embassy has prohibited its employees from taking personal trips to the Gilgit/Skardu area until further notice," the message said. The US Embassy "continues to recommend that US citizens defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan," the message further said. The mission asked Americans to refer to the US Department of State's current travel warning for Pakistan and reiterated ...
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Washington, Around 13% of the world's adults - over 640 million people - would like to emigrate with roughly 150 million, including 10 million Indians wishing to settle in America. So suggests a new Gallup survey giving the US an undisputed title as the globe's most desired destination for would-be migrants. The would-be migrants mostly come from populous nations such as China (22 million ), India (10 million), Brazil (7 million), Nigeria (15 million ) or Bangladesh (8 million ). In addition to the almost 1 in 30 adults globally who would like to permanently settle in US, vast numbers are attracted to the UK (45 million), to Canada (42 million), to France (32 million), and to Saudi Arabia (31 ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama has said it would be a "mistake" to think that America could take unilateral military action in Syria, and that there was a simple solution to the crisis there. "For us to take military action unilaterally as some have suggested, or to think that somehow there is some simple solution, I think is a mistake," Xinhua quoted Obama as saying Tuesday at a press conference at the White House. Rejecting a parallel with Libya, where NATO air raids helped the opposition topple the Muammar Gaddafi government, Obama said that for Libya, the US and its allies mobilised the international community, won a UN Security Council mandate and had the "full cooperation" of the Arab states. "And we knew that we could execute very effectively in a relatively short period of time," Obama said. He described the situation in Syria as "a much more complicated" one. He said Washington will continue to work with key Arab states and international partners towards a resolution of the Syrian conflict. "But the notion that the way to solve every one of these problems is to deploy our military, you know, that hasn't been true in the past and it won't be true ...
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Los Angeles, A top US judge has turned in an apology after e-mailing a racially charged joke about president Barack Obama that likened African-Americans to 'dogs'. To make matters worse, Richard Cebull, a chief district US jugde for Montana sent the e-mail from his courthouse chambers to his seven close 'buddies', the Great Falls Tribune reported. The judge apparently never thought that the 'joke' may become public, but said he was surprised that one of the recipients passed it along with his name on it, to the Great Falls Tribune. "This is a private thing that was, to say the least, very poor judgement on my part," Cebull said. "I did not forward it because of the racist nature of it. Although it is racist, I'm not that way, and never have been." Acknowledging that he was opposed to Obama, the judge said he did not consider himself 'racist' and the e-mail was intended to be a private communication. "The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan," Cebull said. "I didn't send it as racist, although that's what it is. I sent it out as it's anti-Obama." The judge was nominated by former president George ...
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Washington, US special forces teams are currently stationed in five South Asian countries including India as part of the counter-terrorism cooperation with these nations, a top Pentagon commander has disclosed. These teams have been deployed by US Pacific Command as part of its effort to enhance their counter-terrorism capabilities, in particular in the maritime domain, Admiral Robert Willard, the PACOM Commander said on Thursday. "We have currently special forces assist teams - Pacific assist teams is the term - laid down in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, as well as India," Willard told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing in response to a question on co-operation with India on counter-terrorism issues. "We are working very closely with India with regard to their counter-terrorism capabilities and in particular on the maritime domain but also government to government, not necessarily DOD (department of defence) but other agencies assisting them in terms of their internal counter-terror and counterinsurgency challenges," Willard said. Willard said, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) is a very dangerous organisation. It not only has very good operational ...
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Oslo, A total of 231 nominees are up for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, the Nobel Institute said on Monday, with Bill Clinton, Helmut Kohl, the EU and US soldier and Bradley Manning on the list. "As always, there are the usual nominees and some newcomers, some famous and some unknowns, hailing from the four corners of the world," the head of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, said. With 188 individuals and 43 organizations, the number comes close to last year's record of 241. Among the people known to have been nominated this year are former United States president Bill Clinton, ex-German chancellor Helmut Kohl who led his country's reunification process , and Ukraine's ex-premier and now jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko . Also on the list is jailed American soldier Manning, charged with 22 counts for turning over a massive cache of classified US documents to WikiLeaks. Despite its current crisis the European Union is also among the candidates ...
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Kabul, At least 10 people were killed and a dozen injured Monday when a suicide bomber blew up his car packed with explosives near the airport in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city, police said. "A suicide bomber blew his explosive-laden vehicle near the gate of Jalalabad city airport this morning. Ten people, including the suicide bomber, were killed and 12 others were injured," provincial police chief, Abdullah Stanekzai, told Xinhua. Jalalabad is the provincial capital of eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. He said five civilians, two army soldiers and two local security guards were among the dead. Two American and six Afghan soldiers were among the injured, said the police chief. Several cars were damaged in the blast that occurred at around 7 a.m. Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. ...
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Mumbai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed US-based NGOs for whipping up a campaign against the Russian-aided Kudunkulam atomic power station in Tamil Nadu, causing a major setback to the project. Singh, in an interview to the American journal 'Science' being published on Friday said, "The atomic energy programme has got into difficulties because these NGOs mostly, I think, based in the US, don't appreciate the need for our country to increase energy. The local NGO-led protests have stalled the commissioning of two 1000 mw nuclear reactors." TOI had first reported that foreign agents were behind the protests at Kudunkulam. Top officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) had hinted that the Intelligence Bureau had expressed suspicion that there was a foreign role in the demonstrations, but did not specifically identify any particular country. The atomic power plant's first unit was slated to attain criticality in November 2011, but got postponed following a series of protests from the local population.They feared that in the wake of the Fukushima accident, there was no guarantee that a similar thing would not happen at the Kudunkulam plant. Singh also ...
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Washington, US authorities have cracked down on a new scam in which so-called phantom debt collectors using call centres in India harassed Americans into paying bills running into millions of dollars. One scheme, which has bilked US consumers out of some $5 million so far, involved about eight million phone calls originating in India to American consumers over an eight-month period, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said on Tuesday. A US district court judge in Chicago ordered a Villa Park, California operation to cease and froze the assets of American Credit Crunchers, an affiliated company called Ebeeze and their owner, Varang K. Thaker, according to Chicago Tribune. FTC alleged Thaker obtained information - often including Social Security or bank account numbers - about consumers who had inquired about or applied for online payday loans. Thaker used callers in India, who often posed as law enforcement officers or other government officials, to threaten people with arrest, a lawsuit or the loss of their job if they didn't repay online payday loans. Scammers, officials said, demanded payments of about $500, but as high as $2,000. Some consumers complied even when they knew ...
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Islamabad, Religious parties in Pakistan have strongly condemned the resolution tabled in the US Congress calling for the right to self determination to the people of Balochistan, terming it a blatant conspiracy to disintegrate Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Syed Munawar Hasan said the US enmity against Pakistan's unity and integrity was no more a secret, and warned that Washington might use UN platform to separate Baluchistan in the manner it had done in the cases of East Taimor and South Sudan, The News reports. Munawwar demanded the government review ties with Washington, sever its relations relation with America and expel its ambassador, pull back its support to the US terror war and devise an independent foreign policy and efforts for the formation of a Muslim bloc with the support of China, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. JI ameer said the US drones were violating Pakistan's airspace, adding that both the US and India were behind Balochistan insurgency and patronizing the separatist movement by distributing arms and funds among them. Munawar Hasan said it was surprising that the US had never taken notice of state terrorism by Israel and India against Muslim ...
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Islamabad, US President Barack Obama has reviewed with his national security team efforts to improve ties with Pakistan, a Pakistani daily reported Friday. At a meeting held Wednesday, Obama received an update on America's "engagement with the Pakistani government on a range of issues of mutual interest, including efforts to strengthen cooperation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border", the Dawn quoted a White House statement as saying. US media reports have indicated that both countries were trying "vigorously" to reduce tensions that have affected their relationship for more than a year now. US sources told Dawn that the White House has been regularly consulting Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Sherry Rehman, on many issues. Recently, Rehman and a defence team from Pakistan met the head of the US Central Command, Gen. James N. Mattis, at the Pakistani embassy. The New York Times later reported that Mattis would visit Islamabad later in February for talks with Pakistani military officials. It also said he might convey an official apology on the Nov 26 NATO attack on a Pakistani border post that killed 24 soldiers. Pakistan has long demanded such an ...
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Islamabad, Pakistani students who visited the US under an exchange programme and studied in various institutions there said after returning that Americans know very little about Pakistan. The Global Undergraduate Exchange Program for Pakistan (Global UGRAD-Pakistan) is a programme of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. It provides full-time undergraduate students from Pakistan with the opportunity to enrich their education and experience through one semester of full-time, non-degree academic study in the US. A discussion session was held in Islamabad Tuesday, in which students who had returned from the US shared their experiences, the Online news agency reported. They said a few American children asked whether Pakistanis go to school on camels. "They asked us whether it was true that we beat children in our schools," said Badr Iftikhar, a member of the team. Karim Khan, a Pakhtun by ethnicity, said he was asked by some people whether Pathans were descendants of Jews. A woman student, Anum Masood, however, had a positive opinion about the US. "I used hijab (veil) there and the Japanese were wearing their own ...
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London, American intelligence agency FBI is reportedly developing new software to scan social networks Twitter and Facebook to look for emerging threats and predict crimes. The FBI has asked technology firms to create software that can effectively scan the websites for words, phrases and other suspected behaviour, the Telegraph reported. It will also be able to translate from foreign languages as well as detect patterns of users misleading the police. Campaigners of free speech have now raised concerns. Jennifer Lynch, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said it could erode the sense of freedom provided by the internet. "These tools that mine open source data, and presumably store it for a very long time, do away with that kind of privacy. I worry about the effect of that on free speech in the US," she said. Privacy International said the move risked placing large numbers of people under surveillance. Police in Britain already use Facebook routinely to ascertain the whereabouts of criminals. ...
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Washington, Virtually launching his re-election campaign, President Barack Obama hit out at “outsourcing” as he called keeping alive the American dream "the defining issue of our time" and pledged to fight obstruction by opposition Republicans. While he did not name India in his third annual State of the Union address to a joint sitting of Congress Tuesday, Obama announced creation of a trade enforcement unit to investigate "unfair trade practices in countries like China". “No, we will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phony financial profits,” Obama said as he defended a long list of his trademark policies -- tax increases on the wealthy, Wall Street reform, health care reform and government stimulus spending. “Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values,” he said. He called for lowering corporate taxes and providing incentives for US manufacturers to bring overseas jobs back to America, while ending tax breaks for businesses that ...
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Washington, Joining issue with those suggesting that Washington’s influence was on the decline, President Barack Obama has asserted that America remains the one indispensable nation in world affairs and he intended to keep it that way. “Yes, the world is changing; no, we can’t control every event. But America remains the one indispensable nation in world affairs - and as long as I’m president, I intend to keep it that way,” he said in his third annual State of the Union address to a joint sitting of the Congress Tuesday. “Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” Obama said, turning to foreign policy issues in his 65-minute address focused on the economy. “That’s not the message we get from leaders around the world, all of whom are eager to work with us. That’s not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they’ve been in years,” he said. “The renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe. Our oldest alliances in Europe and Asia are stronger than ever. ...
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Paris, Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, one of the key figures in the memo scandal, Wednesday said he will present more proof to the judicial commission probing the controversy in Islamabad. He told a French newspaper that his visa was ready and he will travel to Pakistan to face the inquiry. Ijaz said some people in Pakistan were trying to delay his visit but they are just wasting time. He also said that he has been receiving threats and has lost their count, Geo TV reported. He said the army has "shown patience over the government's arrogant attitude". Ijaz claims to have delivered a memo to the then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mike Mullen in May last year at the behest of then US envoy Husain Haqqani and the Pakistani government to avert a likely military coup. The claim kicked off a scandal that generated much heat in Pakistan. According to media reports, Ijaz has been issued a visa from the Pakistan embassy in Bern, Switzerland, and will be able to travel to Pakistan Jan 24 to appear before the inquiry commission. A three-member judicial commission constituted by the Supreme Court is currently probing the ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama Wednesday urged US companies to invest in America and bring jobs home, calling insourcing jobs a smart strategy. "We have heard from several experts and business leaders today, we are at a unique moment in our recent history where factors like rising American productivity and increasing competitive costs at home mean the economic case to invest in America and bring jobs back home is strong and getting stronger," Obama said. He was speaking after attending a business leaders' forum at the White House, Xinhua reported. "These companies are choosing to invest in the one country with the most productive workers, best universities, and most creative and innovative entrepreneurs in the world: the United States of America. "That is exactly the kind of commitment to country we need - especially now, at this make-or-break moment for the middle class," he said. "We've got to do more. In the next few weeks, I will put forward new tax proposals that reward companies that choose to bring jobs home and invest in America, and eliminate tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas," Obama noted. According to the latest report from ...
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BAGHDAD: Around 162,000 people, almost 80 per cent of them civilians, were killed in Iraq from the start of the 2003 US-led invasion up to last year's withdrawal of American forces, a British NGO said today. Iraq Body Count (IBC) warned that, contrary to apparent trends in figures released by the Iraqi government, the level of violence has changed little from mid-2009, though attacks are markedly down from when the country was in the throes of sectarian war in 2006 and 2007. In all, the non-governmental organisation said an estimated 162,000 people were killed in Iraq in the nearly nine years of conflict. It said around 79 per cent of the fatalities were civilians, while the remainder included US soldiers, Iraqi security forces, and insurgents. "The violence peaked in late 2006 but was sustained at high levels until the second half of 2008 -- nearly 90 per cent of the deaths occurred by 2009," IBC said in a statement. But it warned that "there has now been no noticeable downward trend (in civilian deaths) since mid-2009." "Recent trends indicate a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come. ...
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Sao Paulo, The Brazilian subsidiaries of Mexican telecom giant America Movil are planning 10 billion reais (USD 5.4 billion) worth of new investment in 2012, a media report said Tuesday. America Movil, owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, operates in Brazil via wireless operator Claro, fixed-line telephone company Embratel and cable television firm Net. Next year's scheduled spending includes 1 billion reais ($540 million) to build an undersea cable linking Brazil and the US, Claro Brasil president Carlos Zenteno told Folha de São Paulo. Claro and its corporate siblings will also focus on extending high-speed Internet coverage for 3G mobile subscribers, expanding their fiber-optic network and bidding on 4G frequencies in an auction set for April. While a merger of Claro, Embratel and Net is not on the cards for 2012, the firms will offer bundled services, Zenteno said. Embratel controls 18.2 of the Brazilian fixed-line telephone market and enjoys a monopoly on international calls in that segment. Claro, with around 25 percent of the market, is Brazil's No. 3 wireless company. Net, which is partly held by Brazilian media powerhouse Globo, is the country's leading ...
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