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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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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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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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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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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Washington, US President Barack Obama Thursday held a videoconference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and discussed security issues in Afghanistan, the White House said. White House Spokesman Jay Carney said Karzai updated Obama on the security situation in his country, Xinhua reported. Carney said the two presidents discussed a range of issues of mutual interest, including US-Afghan Strategic Partnership negotiations and the Afghan-led reconciliation, which was "essential to the ultimate resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan". "The leaders noted progress toward concluding a strategic partnership that reinforces Afghan sovereignty while addressing the practical requirements of transition," Carney ...
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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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Washington, Israeli President Shimon Peres will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom when he visits the White House in Washington, D.C. later this spring, U.S. President Barack Obama told an audience on Sunday. Obama made the announcement at the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, the largest gathering of the pro-Israel movement, in Washington, D.C. He praised Peres, who has led Israel since becoming president in July 2007, as having fought for Israel's independence and for peace and security. "As a member of the Haganah and a member of the Knesset, as a Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs, as a Prime Minister and as President -- Shimon helped build the nation that thrives today: the Jewish state of Israel," Obama said as he announced the award. "But beyond these extraordinary achievements, he has also been a powerful moral voice that reminds us that right makes might -- not the other way around." Obama said Peres has lived to the story of the Jewish people, recalling the Israeli leader's remarks previously that 'slings, arrows and gas chambers can annihilate man, but cannot destroy human values, dignity, and freedom.' "He has ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama has warned that a premature attack on Iran would allow it to play the "victim" in the nuclear crisis just days before key talks with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. In some of his toughest comments yet on Tehran's nuclear drive, Obama also warned that Israel and Iran should take seriously possible US action against Iranian nuclear facilities if sanctions fail to stop the country's atomic ambitions. "I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff," Obama told the Atlantic Monthly magazine in remarks published Friday. "I also don't, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are. But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say." Netanyahu arrived in Canada early Friday ahead of key discussions Monday with Obama at the White House, against a backdrop of growing fears that Israel could unilaterally strike suspect Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only but ...
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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, A judge in a US state has apologised after forwarding an email to friends that contained a joke deemed racist and involved President Barack Obama's mother. According to local media, the Montana state judge argued that he forwarded the email because he disliked Obama, not because he was a racist, Xinhua reported Friday. Judge Richard Cebull told the Great Falls Tribune that his brother sent him the email, which he forwarded to six friends and acquaintances. The judge apologised and acknowledged to the newspaper that the content of the email was racist but said he does not consider himself racist. He said he did not write the preface to the message. "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 because it's ...
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Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama has said that his formal apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the burning of Korans by U.S. troops last week has "calmed things down" after the incident sparked an outbreak of violence across the country. "We're not out of the woods yet," Obama said in an exclusive interview with ABC News'at the White House. Obama added: "But my criteria in any decision I make, getting recommendations from folks who are actually on the ground, is what is going to best protect our folks and make sure that they can accomplish their mission." The president's comments came just hours before a formal White House dinner to honor Iraq War veterans, some of whom have also served in Afghanistan and may be redeploying there to assist ongoing U.S. military operations. Bob Woodruff was the only journalist invited to attend the dinner. Obama said his letter to Karzai aimed to curb further danger to U.S. troops on the ground. It reportedly expressed regret for the apparently inadvertent burning of the Korans, the sacred text of Islam, on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. Still, the president's critics and some members of the military ...
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Washington, President Barack Obama broke into song Tuesday at a White House blues show, as Rolling Stones frontman Barack Obama urged a reluctant US leader to step up and sing a few lines. "Not tonight!" the US leader protested as Jagger and blues legends B.B. King and Buddy Guy invited him to singalong to the classic " Sweet Home Chicago." To cheers from the audience, a smiling Obama sang parts of the tune, an ode to his adopted hometown, originally made famous by the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Obama singing soul legend Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" was a sure-fire hit last month, garnering positive coverage on cable news and online -- one of the videos of him crooning "I'm so in love with you," at New York's famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, has been viewed over five million times on YouTube. Earlier Jagger, 68, delivered some bluesy rock in his renowned dancing swagger in the East Room of the US presidential mansion at the "Red, White and Blues" event, singing "I Can't Turn You Loose." He also let loose "Commit a Crime" with fellow British rocker Jeff Beck. As president, Obama told the audience, "some nights when you want to go out and just take a ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama raised over $29 million in January for his re-election campaign and the Democratic Party, it was announced Friday. The number once again dwarfed Obama's Republican challengers in terms of fundraising capability. It also raised Obama's total fundraising in this election cycle to about $250 million, Xinhua reported. The president continued to show his ability to attract small donors, with 98 percent of the donations in January for $250 or less, according to his campaign. Obama received 48 percent of his total haul in 2011 from individual donors contributing $200 or less, according to the Campaign Finance Institute's study last week. That stood in contrast to the grand old party. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, for instance, raised over $56 million from all donors in 2011, with only 9 percent coming from small donors. The 2012 presidential campaign is expected to be the most expensive one in the US history as a previous Supreme Court ruling loosened restrictions on the outside spending -- most importantly those spent by the so-called super-PACs (political action committees) -- in presidential ...
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Washington, Acclaimed Indian economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, who is bet known for his work on the causes of famine, was felicitated by US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday night with the U.S National Medal for Humanities. Acknowledging Sen’s presence, who has earlier been bestowed with the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998, Obama said that it’s a very unusual and rare occasion when they have an economist on stage. The White House citation for Sen described him as an economist with ‘philosophical thinking to questions of policy’ with which ‘he has changed how standards of living are measured and led to an increased understanding of how to fight hunger’. The 77-year academician, who is currently the Professor at Thomas W. Lamont University and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, was felicitated with this award ‘for his insights into the causes of poverty, famine, and injustice’. The award has been typically awarded to US nationals through its 16-year history and Amartya has become the first Indian to be felicitated with this honor. The basic objective behind presenting this award is to honor ...
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Washington, President Barack Obama presented Monday his budget plan for 2013, which calls for nearly $4 trillion in spending and aims to reduce the deficit from 8.5 percent of US gross domestic product to 5.5 percent. The US economy should concentrate on developing the manufacturing sector, renewable energy and in making education accessible for training qualified workers, he said in a speech at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale. Obama, who will face the voters in November, said that the budget presented Monday aims to cut future debts by $4 trillion up to 2022. "I'm proposing some difficult cuts that, frankly, I wouldn't normally make if they weren't absolutely necessary. But they are. And the truth is we're going to have to make some tough choices in order to put this country back on a more sustainable fiscal path," he said. About a budget that projects GDP growth of 2.7 percent for this year and 3 percent next year, the president said that we can't repeat the mistakes that brought on the economic crisis and because of which "a few people do really, really well, and everybody else struggles to get by". Before an audience of community college ...
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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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Washington, The Republican party's topsy-turvy race to elect a presidential nominee to face Barack Obama took another unexpected twist with conservative candidate Rick Santorum, largely written off, sweeping to wins in three states that held party polls on Tuesday. Dubbed Sanctum Santorum by some for his ultra-conservative views, the former Republican senator won party caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, and a party primary in Missouri, to remount a challenge to frontrunner Mitt Romney, who he had narrowly defeated in the season opener in Iowa. Romney had bounced back to win New Hampshire, Florida, and Nevada, while ceding South Carolina to Newt Gingrich. But Tuesday's win positions Santorum as Romney's principal challenger while undermining the latter's status as frontrunner although the three states that returned results on Tuesday are considered lightweight in the larger scheme of things. Colorado and Minnesota hold caucuses (informal, homey party meetings) with nonbinding preference polls, and the Missouri primary was described by one pundit as a "beauty contest" of little consequence. Still, the fact that he has failed to lock up the nomination despite his ...
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