Obama, McCain Urge Focus on Afghanistan 
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday said the US must broaden its foreign policy focus beyond Iraq, as he pledged to end the war and focus on fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, while Republican John McCain put forward his strategy for addressing ongoing violence there. Read On

Taliban Wants Crisis between India, Pakistan
The Taliban extremists in Afghanistan who have established sanctuaries in Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions want to see a crisis between Islamabad and New Delhi, and the recent blast on Indian embassy in Kabul is an example, a well-known Pakistani expert has said. Read On

Immigration Scam: 39 Indian Pilgrims
Go Missing in New Zealand by Neena Bhandari
In what appears to be an immigration scam, another seven Indian pilgrims in transit in New Zealand en route to Australia for the week-long World Youth Day festivities have gone missing, taking the total to 39. The pilgrims, aged between 17 and 35, have left their host families and gone missing in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty region. Read On

China Slams BBC, International Court over Darfur
China Tuesday voiced "grave concerns" over the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s decision to charge the Sudanese president with genocide in the embattled Darfur region, and said a BBC report alleging that China had violated a UN arms embargo on Darfur was "strongly biased." Read On

Obama asks Colored People
to Take Responsibility by Arun Kumar
Vowing to stand up for them the way earlier generations stood up for him, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has asked America's colored people to take responsibility for their own lives. Americans must demand that govt and business take more responsibility "to break the cycle of poverty and violence gripping this country," he said. Read On

• US Still 'Plumbing' A. Q. Khan Network 
• Iran Ready to Talk Nuclear Issue
  without Preconditions: Ahmadinejad 
• Three More Indians Go Missing in New Zealand 

Abductions Highlight Turkey's Ongoing
Civil Conflict 
The abduction of three German mountaineers from their tents at a base camp on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey has brought back into the spotlight the issue of the Kurdish Workers' Party's (PKK) decades-long fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east. Read On

• US Financial Shares Drop Over Bank Failures
• Bush Lifts Ban on Offshore Oil Drilling  

Better US-Iran Ties after Elections: Ahmadinejad
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday said that relations between Iran and the US would improve following the US presidential election. "Regardless of who would become next (US) president, whether from this (Democratic) or that (Republican) party, that person would have more understanding with Iran," Ahmadinejad told state television. Read On

Military Strike on Iran will be Disaster,
Warns India
Amid reports about the US giving a go-ahead to an alleged Israeli plan to attack Iran, India Monday asked all “concerned governments” to “exercise restraint” and warned that a military strike against Tehran will have “disastrous consequences for the entire region.”  India's strong reaction to a feared military strike against Iran has underscored its independent foreign policy and its vital strategic and economic stakes in the region that is home to over 5-million strong Indian diaspora. New Delhi's position on the Iranian nuclear imbroglio is also aimed at emphasizing its fundamental differences in approach with Washington with whom it has struck a civil nuclear deal. Read On

Decks Cleared for Maoist Government in Nepal 
by Sudeshna Sarkar
After a 10-year war to capture power by the gun, Nepal's Maoists Monday began edging closer to their target with the caretaker parliament clearing the decks for the formation of a new government under their leadership. Read On

NDA Issues Whip to MPs,
BJP Confident Government Will Fall
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) issued a whip to its MPs to be present in New Delhi on July 20 and the BJP Tuesday asserted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government was set to lose the trust vote July 22. Read On

India Rejects Human Rights Report
on Salwa Judum 
The Indian government Tuesday implicitly criticized a report by Human Rights Watch demanding action against state-backed vigilantes battling Maoist guerrillas in Chhattisgarh. A report brought out by Human Rights Watch called for an end to all government support for unlawful activities by the Salwa Judum vigilantes and urged affected the state governments to take immediate measures to protect the tens of thousands displaced in violence. Read On

An Adamant Chatterjee Questions
Leadership Decision
Despite the pressure mounted on him by the CPI-M leadership to resign his post immediately, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee remains defiant as he questioned their very decision to go along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Read On

Left has Infused 'New Hopes' in BJP: Vayalar Ravi
Launching a fresh attack on the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), a senior minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government Tuesday said the Left's “help” has given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “new hopes” to fulfill its dreams including the construction of a Ram temple in the disputed area at Ayodhya. Read On

Equity Markets End at 15-month Low 
Indian equity markets ended at a 15-month low Tuesday following a 654-point drop in the Sensex. Banking, capital goods, metal and power stocks were the worst hit. All the sectoral indices ended the day in the red. The markets started on a weak note and kept going down through the day. Read On

• Double-digit Inflation
  Influenced by Global Factors: PM 

PM Confident of Winning Trust Vote Over N-deal
PM Manmohan Singh Tuesday said he was confident of winning the trust vote in parliament a week away and underlined that the India-US nuclear deal will end "the era of nuclear apartheid" against the country without compromising its strategic program... Read On

Congress Backs Iran,
Left Wants Military Ties with Israel to End
The Congress Tuesday condemned any "unilateral military action" against Iran while its estranged ally the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) urged the government to end military ties with Israel if it was "really concerned" about Tehran. Read On

Left will Continue Fight Against BJP: Karat 
Under attack from his comrades over the Left parties' withdrawal of support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat Tuesday sounded a placatory note and said there would be no let up in the fight against the BJP. Read On

• Stung by 'Broker' Charge, Amar Singh Slams Advani

Citizens Launch Crusade to Change Regulation Laws of Coastal Mumbai by Quaid Najmi
Every time the wealthy residents of skyscrapers dotting south Mumbai look out of their windows, they see dilapidated old buildings, narrow lanes and unhygienic conditions in which tens of thousands of people eke out an existence. This unsightly island of squalor amidst the glitter of the rich and famous comprises the C and D Municipal Wards of south Mumbai. Read On

• IAEA Board to Consider India Inspection
  Agreement on August 1 

IAEA Pact Undermines
India's Strategic Autonomy: BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday said that the Congress-led government's move to go ahead with the India-US nuclear deal will undermine the country's strategic autonomy. In his strongest denunciation of the nuclear deal, BJP vice president Yashwant Sinha and Rajya Sabha MP Arun Shourie said in a statement that the betrayal of India's interests was reflected in the draft safeguards agreement reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog. Read On