Dr Sambhu N Banik, professor of psychology and counseling at Bowie State University, has been invited to chair the section on health as a human right at the Global Consultative Meeting on Human Rights and the Right to Health in Bangalore, February 15-16.
Diplomatic and political observers in Washington said that the controversy had now moved beyond simply targeting Chatwal and a deliberate effort to embarrass Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his Principal Secretary T K A Nair by not just the saffron lobby but by vested interests within the Congress.
The senate banking committee and commerce committee approved Kumar's nomination, which was buoyed by a rousing introduction of Kumar by Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, where Kumar has resided since 1993, and it's now the full senate that has got to vote on his nomination, and sources said he could be in place in his job at commerce by late this month or early March.
Special United States Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, who was once speculated to be US President Obama's trouble-shooter to Kashmir, is so sensitive to creating an uproar in New Delhi if he speaks about Kashmir, that he doesn't even want to say the 'K word.'
In yet another step towards full implementation of the United States-India civilian nuclear deal -- which the Obama administration has been accused in some quarters of not being fully committed to -- US President Barack Obama on Wednesday issued a memorandum certifying the agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency of the Safeguards Agreement on India's civilian nuclear facilities.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence in United States has said that 'in keeping with its status as an emerging world power, the government of India exerts strong leadership in global and regional, for and in important bilateral relationships.'
He said that while Pakistan public opinion favouring Al Qaeda and the Taliban have declined precipitously in the past year, "on the other hand, despite robust Pakistani military operations against extremists that directly challenge the Pakistani government authority, Afghan Taliban, Al Qaeda, and Pakistani militant groups continue to use Pakistan as a safe haven for organising, training and planning attacks against the United States and our allies in Afghanistan."
CIA Director Leon E Panetta said: "The bottom line here is that the war on terrorism is not just about Al Qaeda. It is a series of terrorist groups that are basically confronting us and it is the kinds of changes that we see in their methods of approaching the United States that I think represents the very important threat that we have to pay attention to."
United States President Barack Obama will visit India this summer, making him the first US President to visit India in the first two years of his first term in more than 30 years, senior administration officials and diplomatic sources.According to the sources, more details regarding the finalisation of dates will be discussed when Dr Singh arrives in Washington, DC on April 12 on a two-day visit, on the invitation of Obama, to attend the Global Nuclear Security Summit.
The largest-ever study on caste-based discrimination and segregation against Dalits has found that untouchability is still practiced widely across Gujarat, despite the practice being abolished by the Constitution, according to the Robert K Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights based in Washington, DC.The report said it addressed almost all known untouchability practices, including the segregation of housing, drinking-water wells, places of religious worship.
In an exclusive interaction with the Hindu American community, 26-year-old DuBois -- a political strategist and Pentecostal minister -- said his office has been tasked with some special projects by the president in his first term in office, one of which was "promoting inter-faith dialogue and cooperation both here at home and across the globe, especially cooperation through service."
Virginia's Republican Governor-elect Bob McDonnell has appointed his close friend and long-time fundraiser Dr Kamlesh Dave to his transition team for economic development.
Flamboyant and controversial New York hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, a major political contributor and fundraiser for the Clintons and several high profile Democratic politicians, is elated that he is in line to receive a Padma Bhushan in this year's Republic Day honours list, and rubbished concerns that he is undeserving of the award.
A high-powered US delegation of top-notch American educators and researchers from six major medical schools, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown, will visit India on an ayurveda study-tour that could possibly lead to the incorporation of this ancient herbal remedies in the US medical curricula.
Bruce Riedel, who spearheaded President Barack Obama's strategic review on Afghanistan and Pakistan, believes that aggressive US diplomacy to resolve the differences between India and Pakistan is 'absolutely critical' for the 'long-term chances of stabilising Afghanistan, and even more importantly, Pakistan'.He pointed out that "it got a whole lot more difficult," on 26/11 in Mumbai.
A federal grand jury on Thursday returned a superseding indictment adding Chicago native Tahawwur Rana, Pakistan-based terrorist leader Ilyas Kasmiri and a retired major in the Pakistani military Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, to charges filed last month against Pakistani American and Laskhar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley.
Pakistan has approximately 60 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, although the figure could be higher, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.The report states that Pakistan "continues to produce fissile material for weapons and appears to be augmenting its weapons production facilities, as well as deploying additional delivery vehicles -- steps that will enable both quantitative and qualitative improvements in Islamabad's nuclear arsenal."
Bharat Karnad said except for nuclear weapons, "Without indigenous production of its own weapons, a great power cannot have security," and said, "The armed services of India is remiss in not promoting and assisting the production of indigenous equipment."
Several Indian American organizations, including the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin--arguably the largest and most influential international medical group in the US--and leading Hindu leaders have blasted Fox News' conservative talk show host Glenn Beck for insulting medical care in India and joking that the holy river Ganges sounded like a disease.
American Senator John McCain, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and erstwhile presidential nominee, has said he is aware that the Obama administration is working very hard to help resolve the Kashmir imbroglio, sans any US mediation of the issue between India and Pakistan.
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