Obama out of time, India blames United States

At the UN's highest-level conference yet on climate change, China on Tuesday pledged ambitious plans to plant enough forest to cover an area the size of Norway and use 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources within a decade.

The Chinese President, Mr Hu Jintao, also promised "determined and practical steps" to boost its nuclear energy, improve energy efficiency and reduce "by a notable margin" the growth rate of its carbon pollution as measured against economic growth.

"At stake in the fight against climate change are the common interests of the entire world," Mr Hu said. Much attention was fixed on the US President, Mr Barack Obama's first UN speech, where he said the US is "determined to act."

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Centre on monsoon flu alert

Six more per sons tested positive for the A-H1N1 swine flu virus in different parts of the country on Sunday, the largest number in a single day. The total number of confirmed infections in India now stands at 23.

Three of these were in Hyderabad, two in Bengaluru and one — a schoolboy from Jalandhar just returned with a school group from the US — in New Delhi.

The Union health ministry held a high-level review meeting with officials of the National Disaster Management Authority and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases to ensure the disease does not spread with the monsoon looming.

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Obama asks Muslims for new start

Quoting from the Quran for emphasis, US President Barack Obama on Thursday called for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims” and said that together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in West Asia.

“This cycle of suspicion and discord must end,” Mr Obama said in a widely anticipated speech, an address designed to reframe relations after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the US-led war in Iraq.

Mr Obama conceded at the beginning of his remarks that tension “has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.”

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Rice approved use of torture

The CIA first sought in May 2002 to use harsh interrogation techniques including water boarding on terror suspects, and was given a key early approval by then national security adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, a United States Senate intelligence document said.

The agency got the green light to use the near-drowning technique, which has been widely judged to be torture, on July 26, 2002 when attorney-general John Ashcroft concluded “that the use of water boarding was lawful,” the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a detailed timeline of controversial “war on terrorism” interrogations released on Wednesday.

Nine days earlier, the panel said citing CIA records, Ms Rice had met with the then-director of the Central Intelligence Agency Mr George Tenet and “advised that the CIA could proceed with its proposed interrogation of Abu Zubaydah,”

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Satellites smash in space

Space officials in Russia and the United States were on Thursday tracking hundreds of pieces of debris that were spewed into space when a US satellite collided with a defunct Russian military satellite.

The crash, which Russian officials said took place on Tuesday above northern Siberia, is the first publicly known satellite collision and has raised concerns about the safety of the manned International Space Station.

The collision happened in an orbit heavily used by satellites and other spacecraft and the US Strategic Command, the arm of the Pentagon that handles space, said countries might have to manoeuvre their craft to avoid the debris.

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Obama: United States is best for India

The US President, Mr Barack Obama, said Indians “should know that they have no better friend and partner than the people of the US”.

“Our nations have built broad and vibrant partnerships in every field of human endeavor,” he said, sending “the warmest greetings of the American people to the people of India” on the occasion of India’s Republic Day.

“It is our shared values that form the bedrock of a robust relationship across peoples and governments,” Mr Obama said.

“Those values and ideals provide the strength that enables us to meet any challenge, particularly from those who use violence to try to undermine our free and open societies.” He also wished the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, a quick recovery after the heart surgery.

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Bush calls up world leaders

On the eve of leaving office, US President George W. Bush on Monday spoke to leaders of Denmark, Georgia, Italy, Russia, and South Korea to say he enjoyed working with them, the White House said.

Mr Bush “expressed his gratitude for the kind hospitality all these leaders showed him and Mrs Bush over the years and told them how much he enjoyed working with them during his two terms,” said spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Mr Bush spoke to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, Johndroe said in a statement.

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Obama Beats History

The Democratic Senator, Mr Barack Obama, overcame a 400 year history of racial subordination to become the first African-American elected President of the United States as voters turned to a young, inspirational leader at a time of economic turbulence and military engagement in two wars in Asia.

Powered by a campaign organisation that raised more money than any other in US history, Mr Obama swept to victory in Tuesday’s election by promising to tend to the financial needs of the middle class, wind down the war in Iraq and step up combat against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

South Asia experts predicted US relations with India would change little with Mr Obama as President, with the possible exceptions of new tensions on global warming and nuclear weapons testing.

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City girl found dead in the United States

Arpana Jinega, 24, a software engineer from Hyderabad, was found dead in her flat in Seattle in the United States on Monday.

Her father, Dr Basvaraj C. Jinega, a professor in the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, said the family got the information in the early hours of Monday.

Arpana is the sixth person from the state to be killed on foreign soil in the last two years. She was working as a software quality engineer in EMC Corp and called her family on Friday when she told them that she was going to a Halloween party.

“We usually get calls from her daily,” said Prof. Jinega. “But we have not heard from her since then and became anxious.” On their request, one of their friends in Seattle, Mr Jairam, went to Arpana’s flat in Valley View Apartments at Redmond Woodinville Road and found that the door had been broken open.

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Unites States plans nuclear rewrite to build Nuclear Suppliers Gconsensus

The draft of the India-specific waiver is likely to undergo further changes to make the language more acceptable to the NSG and to enable a consensus.

“The US has pledged to revise the draft and serious attempts are being made,” a diplomat said on the sidelines of its plenary in Vienna on Thursday.

US under secretary of state William Burns indicated the possibility of tweaking the language when he said some countries had raised “important questions that need to be addressed”.

The discussions, he said, were “constructive... and clearly aimed at reaching an early consensus.” New Delhi emphasised it cannot go “beyond” its commitment to Parliament, and said it would walk out of the deal if not satisfied.

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United States: No deal if India tests

In a major embarrassment for the Manmohan Singh government, a US state department letter to a Congressman, written in January but made public only now, made it clear the United States will terminate all nuclear cooperation, including fuel supply, if India conducts a nuclear test.

The letter reinforces the supremacy of America’s Hyde Act over its 123 Agreement with India, and says the “fuel supply assurances” were “not legally binding” but simply a commitment by President George W. Bush. These assurances, the Washington Post quoted the state department letter as saying, would not “insulate India against the consequences of a nuclear test or a violation of non-proliferation commitments.”

This disclosure comes on the eve of the NSG’s crucial Vienna meeting Thursday. It negates some of the Prime Minister’s statements within Parliament and outside: that the nuclear deal does not in any way affect India’s right to test and that the deal would ensure uninterrupted supply of fuel.

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Russia seizes region as Georgians flee

Russian troops took Tskhinvali, capital of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia, on Sunday after a three-day battle as Georgian forces retreated and the Tbilisi government offered a ceasefire and talks.

Georgia’s foreign ministry said it told Russia on Sunday evening it was ready “to immediately start negotiations” on a ceasefire.

Russia poured troops and tanks across its southern border into Georgia and bombed Georgian targets after Tbilisi attempted to retake South on Ossetia, a small pro-Russian province which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.

In a possible opening of a second front, Georgia accused Russia of starting military operations earlier pn Sunday in Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia. Moscow denied involvement.

The crisis has alarmed the United States, Georgia’s mainally, and unnerved investors in Russia, who sold stocks and the rouble heavily Friday.

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YouTube invites Congress, BJP to election party

The presidential election campaign in the United States this time is being fought as much in the party primaries as on YouTube, the enormously popular Google-owned site where anyone can post a video free of cost. In the run-up to the next general elections in India, we may see a similar online video war between the Congress and the BJP.

Google announced the launch of YouTube’s India operations on Wednesday. However, it has already broached the use of YouTube with the BJP and the Congress in their campaigns for the coming general elections.

“We will provide space to the parties for telecasting video campaigns. We can also create customised interactive platforms for them,” says Google India managing director Shailesh Rao.

YouTube could become the quickest and cheapest mass based electronic means of reaching out to young urban voters in this country. YouTube already has some 200,000 registered users in India, the company claims another five million occasional visitors to the site. Most of them are in the age group of 20 to 30 and located in urban centres.

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