New Delhi, Tracking details of foreigners visiting India on valid travel documents, will become easier from Friday with the government inaugurating the central processing office of the Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT) system which has, so far, connected as many as 60 Indian Missions and many immigration offices. Besides helping foreigners in getting visa quickly and sharing information across the concerned Indian agencies about foreign travelers, the IVFRT will also help in "software aided passenger profiling for identifying risky travelers at Missions, Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) and FRROs, and generation of automated alerts about over-stay of foreigners beyond their Visa period". The system envisages facilitation services to the travelers including on-line application forms, 24X7 on-line channel, phone support for grievance redressal and e-mail/SMS support for dissemination of information, application status and feedback. Union home minister P Chidambaram will inaugurate the central office of the IVFRT here at Delhi Information Technology Park, Shashtri Park on Friday. The new system has already been implemented and operationalised ...
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Chicago, U.S. President Barack Obama, during the NATO Summit in Chicago, made clear his frustration over Pakistan's adamancy over the reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. Obama expressed his frustration by publicly thanking Russia and other Central Asian countries for providing "critical transit" of war supplies into Afghanistan in the six months since Pakistan closed its ground routes following U.S. air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, reports the Los Angeles Times. Obama chose to ignore Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who sat only a few feet away from him, and pointedly did not mention Pakistan and had initially refused to meet him one-on-one, the paper states. He also made no attempt to downplay the strained relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan which has been unstable since the U.S. raided the military garrison town of Abbottabad last May to kill Osama Bin Laden. "We need to work through some of the tensions (with Pakistan). I don't want to paper over real challenges," Obama was quoted, as saying. Obama said his staff members had known before they arrived in Chicago for the Summit that the dispute over access to supply lines would ...
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Washington, In a rebuff to Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, US president Barack Obama did not meet him on the margins of the NATO Summit in Chicago as the two countries failed to strike a deal on reopening the NATO supply lines to Afghanistan. Zardari, who flew to Chicago with hopes of lifting his stature with a meeting with Obama, was preparing to leave empty-handed as the two countries continued to feel the repercussions of a NATO air strike last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, an incident for which the US President has offered condolences but no apology. As the two-day NATO summit opened in Chicago last evening, Obama remained at loggerheads with Zardari, refusing even to meet him without a deal on the supply routes, which officials in both sides acknowledged would not be coming soon, US media reported on Monday. But White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said that Obama could not meet Zardari as he had a "full slate of summit meetings to attend." "The two bilateral meetings, really, that he did, or President (Hamid) Karzai for obvious reasons given the focus on Afghanistan here, and the Secretary General of NATO given that it's ...
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Srinagar, Militants hurled a grenade at the Sopore police station in Baramulla district today, leaving three persons, including two policemen, injured. The grenade exploded at the main gate of the police station, 52 kms from here, at 9.55am, official sources said. Two policemen and a civilian were injured, they said. Security forces have launched a hunt for the assailants, the sources said, adding no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack so ...
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New York, Former US President Bill Clinton dubbed Barack Obama "incompetent" and pressed wife Hillary to quit her job as secretary of state to challenge the incumbent president in the primaries, a new book has claimed. "The country needs you!" the former president had told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein's new biography of Obama. Obama, Bill Clinton had said, according to excerpts, "doesn't know how to be president" and is "incompetent". The title of Klein's explosive , unauthorized biography of Obama, 'The Amateur' , was taken directly from Bill Clinton's bombshell criticism of the president, the author said. "Barack Obama," Clinton said, "is an amateur." The withering criticism is incredible , given the fact that Bill Clinton is actively campaigning for Obama's re-election , the New York Post said. According to the book, Bill Clinton unloaded on Obama and pressed Hillary to run against her boss during a gathering in the ex-president's home office in Chappaqua last August that included longtime friends. "The economy's a mess, it's dead flat. America has lost its Triple-A rating . ...
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New Delhi, Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday invoked an oft-quoted line of Jesus Christ to dismiss the Bharatiya Janata Party's allegation that he or his son had financially benefited from a telecom deal in 2006 when he was finance minister. "'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'… I pray the god forgive their sins," Chidambaram said in the Lok Sabha, recalling a lesson a missionary teacher had taught him in his school days. The BJP's Yashwant Sinha, citing a newspaper report and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's allegations, had said Chidambaram had delayed permission for the sale of Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis in 2006 so that his son Karthi was financially benefited. "An honorable MP made a statement in the Lok Sabha making allegations against me and a member of my family…the allegations are wild and reckless," Chidambaram told reporters outside parliament after a din over the issue led to the adjournment of the Lok Sabha. Swamy had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that Karthi's firm and Aircel had entered into a "dubious transaction" in March 2006, just before Maxis' investment of Rs.4,000 crore in the ...
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New Delhi, There were no plans to review laws on death sentence, home minister P Chidambaram clarified on Wednesday and said the present government had disposed of a large number of mercy petitions. Replying to questions in the Rajya Sabha, Chidambaram said there were different views pertaining to capital punishment, but none of the commissions were in favour of abolishing the death sentence. "There are two views on death sentence, some countries have totally abolished it, some countries have kept it for certain cases... In India, death sentence is awarded in rarest of rare cases," Chidambaram said. "None of the reports have favoured abolition of death sentence," he said, adding that the government was presently not taking any view on whether or not the time had come to reconsider abolishing death sentence. The minister also added that there are windows for those awarded death sentence through the mercy petition, which either the state governor or the president can consider. "In the last three-and-a-half years we have disposed of 16 mercy petitions," Chidambaram said, adding that the procedure was faster than ...
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New Delhi, The Lok Sabha was briefly adjourned Tuesday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking a reply from the government on the role of Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who is alleged to have helped his son get financial benefits in a telecom deal when he was the finance minister in 2006. As soon as members assembled in the morning, some BJP frontbenchers rose to protest, demanding suspension of question hour to discuss the issue. Some BJP MPs staged protests near Speaker Meira Kumar's podium and disrupted the crucial question hour. The speaker first tried to restore peace in the house asking protesting MPs to go back to their seats. As the MPs intensified their protests, Meira Kumar adjourned the house till noon. Opposition MPs cited Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's allegations that Chidambaram had delayed permission for the sale of Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis in 2006 when he was finance minister so that his son, Karthi, was financially benefited. "The BJP is going to raise the matter very seriously in both the houses. The government is not coming with true facts pertaining to the deliberate delays in the Aircel-Mexis deal because of the interest of ...
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New Delhi, Saying the government has "done nothing" to address the rights of poor tribals, noted social activist and former peace negotiator Swami Agnivesh blames Home Minister P. Chidambaram, whom he calls the "biggest murderer of democracy", for the spurt in violence and abductions by Maoists. "The government has done nothing to address the issues of rights of poor tribals peacefully and lawfully. I feel disappointed. I doubt Chidambaram's intentions, if he is really serious in ending the problem as he claims," Agnivesh told IANS in an interview. The saffron-clad activist, who in 2010 was appointed by the government as an interlocutor for the now-broken down peace talks with Maoists, said the recent spurt in abductions and violent incidents was "only due to the government's non-seriousness" in resolving the issue. Left-wing extremists in Odisha kidnapped two Italians in March, released one after 11 days and the second almost a month later. Another Maoist group abducted March 24 Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator who was also released later. Alex Paul Menon, the 32-year-old collector of Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, was taken into captivity from the ...
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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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New Delhi, Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said the government will take a "hard decision" on the controversial National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) given the terror threats the country faces. "Hard decisions have to be taken. Our decision cannot be based upon our past experience alone, because the past does not contain any indicators," Chidambaram said in his concluding remarks at Saturday's chief ministers' conference on the anti-terror agency that has almost been dumped due to opposition from many state governments. "Some risks have to be taken, some calibrated steps have to be taken. But given the nature of threats we face, we must take hard decisions," he told the chief ministers in his concluding address the transcription of which was released to the media Sunday. Chidambaram said he was still with "an open mind" to consider all suggestions that came during the daylong meeting. He said he was ready to reconsider the issue of having the proposed NCTC out of the ambit of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) - one of the sticking points that have blocked the formation of an all-powerful anti-terror intelligence hub. The home minister said it was not he who had ...
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New Delhi, Home Minister P. Chidambaram Saturday strongly defended his pet project, the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which he said would be an "important pillar" of the country's security infrastructure. In a bid to dispel fears of some chief ministers that the proposed anti-terror intelligence hub would infringe on their policing domain, the home minister stressed that countering terrorism "is a shared responsibility" of central and state governments. "I wish to assure you and the people of India that counter terrorism is a shared responsibility. That is what the constitution says, that is the practical and prudent way forward," Chidambaram said in his address to chief ministers here on the controversial NCTC, whose formation has been put on hold following vehement opposition from non-Congress ruled states. Chidambaram said the government in collaboration with states had neutralised 21 terror modules in the past one year but there were cases related to "jihadi' terrorists" and Maoists, where, despite inputs regarding the presence of terrorists, the security agencies did not act "either due to lack of capacity or lack of a timely decision". "What should ...
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Washington, Osama bin Laden had planned to kill US President Barack Obama and General David Petraeus, who was then top US commander in Afghanistan, and had issued instructions to Ilyas Kashmiri to set up two units to target planes carrying them. According to the documents seized from the Abbottabad safe-house of bin Laden , the then al-Qaida leader wanted to target only Obama and Petraeus. Some of the documents were released by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point on Thursday. "Bin Ladin had asked Atiyya's predecessor, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid , to task Ilyas, presumably Ilyas Kashmiri, to set up two units, one in Pakistan and another in Bagram, Afghanistan , to target airplanes known to be carrying president Obama and/or general Petraeus on their visits to these areas," CTC said in its report. He explained that the death of Obama would see the "utterly unprepared" Vice President Joe Biden automatically assume the presidency, which would cause the US to enter into crisis mode, and "the killing of Petraeus would have a serious impact on the course of the war" , as bin Ladin considered him to be "the man of this (critical) phase" , CTC said. Bin Laden did not ...
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Kabul, Three suicide bombers attacked the Afghan capital of Kabul on early Wednesday morning, killing at least seven people and injuring several others, officials said. It happened shortly after an unannounced visit by U.S. President Barack Obama. The attack began at around 6 a.m. local time in the eastern area of Kabul, about 95 minutes after Air Force One carrying Obama had departed Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The eastern area of Kabul is where many Westerners live, being home to a compound of guesthouses known as the 'Green Village.' The Interior Ministry said three suicide bombers carried out the assault, which began when one of them blew up an explosives-laden car near the compound housing the Westerners. Two other suicide bombers, reportedly disguised as women by wearing a burqas, then clashed with Afghan forces before detonating their explosives. At least seven civilians were killed in the attack, including four people in a nearby vehicle, two people nearby and a Nepalese security guard. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said eight civilians were killed, although this figure was not immediately confirmed by Afghan officials. At least ...
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New Delhi, Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday sounded confident that the differences between non-Congress ruled states and the centre over setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) will be resolved at the May 5 meeting of chief ministers. He also said that before the May 5 meet, the agency's standard operating procedures (SOP) will be circulated among all chief ministers. At a press conference here a day after the chief ministers conference on internal security was held, Chidambaram also disagreed with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's assessment that the centre was causing "distrust" with states by its actions. "We are circulating the SOPs draft to the state chief ministers before the May 5 meeting (on NCTC) and we will resolve the differences with some states and the centre," Chidambaram said to a question. "A vast number of states have no distrust with the centre," he said when asked to react to the comments of Modi. To a query if the centre was willing to back off from internal security duties in Maoist-infested states if the states took up more responsibility, Chidambaram said this is what the centre has been talking about all ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing on petitions seeking investigations into alleged role of P Chidambaram as the finance minister to overrule finance ministry officials' objection on sale of spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices, but the CBI said there was no merit in the plea. The CBI said as noted by the apex court in its judgment, the agency had completed investigations into 2G spectrum scam and filed chargesheets. The CBI's counsel, senior advocate K K Venugopal said, "The pleas amounted to saying that the CBI had not investigated the case properly." Arguing before a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan, Venugopal said: "All documents now being cited by the petitioners were placed before the court earlier. After going through them, the court had delivered its judgment saying no further investigation was required. But, the same documents are being relied now to make a prayer against Chidambaram. This is not maintainable." Veugopal said he was appearing for the CBI, which is the investigating agency. "Hence, I do not have much to say except arguing on the legal aspects," he said. An NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' and Janata ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court is expected to hear on Wednesday a plea seeking investigation against Union home minister P Chidambaram for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam. Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation have moved the apex court against the trial court order giving clean chit to Chidambaram in the scam. Swamy had accused Chidambaram of acting in collusion with jailed former telecom minister A Raja on spectrum ...
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Washington, US president Barack Obama sat in the belly of the "Beast" on Sunday afternoon and made yet another remorseful phone call to Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai to express his regrets about an unhinged American soldier massacring 16 locals in a bloody carnage. The incident, which recalled the infamous My Lai massacre in Vietnam in which a company of US soldiers slaughtered dozens of unarmed civilians, has increased the pressure on Washington to exit Afghanistan post-haste, even as the Taliban is swearing revenge. "This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the US has for the people of Afghanistan," he said in a statement, even as the White House released a photograph of a contrite President phoning Karzai from the back of the presidential limousine, nicknamed the Beast. He conveyed his administration's commitment to establish the facts as quickly as possible and to hold fully accountable anyone responsible. While analysts broadly agreed that the latest incident was a fatal blow to the US military mission in Afghanistan, it is also threatened to become a political football in ...
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New Delhi, Days after an Indian journalist was arrested for the terror attack on an Israeli diplomat, the national security adviser of Israel Yaakov Amidror will meet home minister P Chidambaram and his counterpart Shivshankar Menon. While sources said the meeting had been fixed some time in advance, Amidror is likely to discuss the progress in investigations into the attack. It is now believed that the New Delhi and Bangkok attacks were related. Syed Mohammed Kazmi, a journalist working with the Iranian news agency IRNA, was arrested for allegedly helping the attackers who had apparently come from Iran. However, Amidror's visit is expected to focus on bigger issues. Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu was in Washington DC last week for talks with US President Barack Obama regarding Iran's nuclear programme. Menon's conversation with Amidror is expected to touch on that visit as well. The two NSAs are expected to have regular contact with each other, given the close security and defence relationship between the two countries. In Washington last week, Amidror told a press conference about the possibility of Israel attacking Iran, "Ultimately, the decision will be premised on ...
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New Delhi, Preparing to take on the UPA government as Parliament opens for the budget session on Monday, opposition NDA on Sunday worked out an aggressive strategy with the focus on "assault on federalism". With most of the opposition parties, including those outside the NDA combine, as well as some ruling UPA allies like Trinamool Congress and DMK ready to protest against the Centre's interference in state matters, the NDA will ask for a discussion on assault on federalism, it was decided at the NDA parliamentary party meeting held at NDA chairman L K Advani's residence on Sunday. The NDA has also decided that it will take on home minister P Chidambaram on the floor of the House instead of boycotting him as it did in the winter session. Since the discussion on "assault on federalism" will need the home minister's presence and replies, NDA leaders decided against continuing the boycott. The government, however, may have just escaped an opposition barrage in the House over its decision to ban cotton exports. By withdrawing the notification on Sunday, the government seems to have avoided disruption of the House right from the start as NDA leaders had decided to take it ...
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