Obama Writes to 'Absolutely Critical Country' India by Arun Kumar
Underscoring the importance of working closely with India, "an absolutely critical country" in the region, US President Barack Obama has despatched a personal letter to New Delhi through a top envoy. "We consider India an absolutely critical country in the region," the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said Wednesday disclosing the despatch of the "presidential letter" through US Undersecretary of State William Burns. Read On

• Bin Laden Still in Pakistan: CIA Chief  
• WHO Raises Swine Flu Alert
  to Highest Pandemic Level 

Pakistan-born Student Found Guilty
of Supporting LeT by Arun Kumar
A Pakistan-born student of Georgia Tech in Atlanta has been found guilty of conspiring to support terrorist groups including Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan based outfit blamed for the Nov 26 Mumbai attacks. Syed Haris Ahmed, who provided videos of important places in Washington to LeT and Al Qaeda operatives, now faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Wednesday Read On

Manmohan Offering 'Badly Needed' Olive Branch: Pakistani Media  
Indian PM Manmohan Singh has offered a "badly needed" olive branch to restore sub-continental peace by offering to walk half the way to resume the dialogue with Pakistan, an editorial in a leading English daily said Thursday, while another hoped Islamabad would "be able to meet" New Delhi at that point. Read On

Taliban Offences Enraging Pakistanis: Holbrooke
by Arun Kumar
Taliban offences in Pakistan are dramatically changing the attitude of the government and people there, says US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke. Read On

• India a Major Foreign Policy Priority: US 

Climate Change
Could Displace 25 Million by 2010
by Joydeep Gupta
By next year - that's how soon around 25-50 million people will be displaced by climate change as it unleashes more natural disasters and affects farm output, says a senior UN researcher. Northern India will be among the worst affected in the long term. Read On

Attacks On Indians 'Fact of Urban Life': Rudd
The unending attacks on Indian students in Australia are a "regrettable fact of urban life", Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Wednesday, warning Indians not to avenge the assaults on them. "The truth is, in our cities right across the country, there are acts of violence every day," Rudd was quoted in newspaper Australian as saying. "That's just a regrettable fact of urban life." Rudd said he condemned violence against any person - "Chinese, Indian, Queenslanders, anybody". Read On

Probe into Indian Health Projects
Exposed Corruption: World Bank by Arun Kumar
Citing a large-scale review of projects in India' s health sector, a new World Bank report says it has helped it make significant headway in the fight against corruption during Fiscal Year 2008. "The India Detailed Implementation Review (DIR) is not only about India," says the report by the World Bank Group's Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) which investigates allegations of fraud and corruption in Bank Group-supported activities. Read On

11 Dead, 56 Wounded in Pakistan Hotel Blast
At least 11 people, including an UN official, were killed and 56 others wounded Tuesday after a huge explosion ripped through the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's NWFP, officials said. The blast partially demolished the building, which is located near a military base and an important government building in a high-security zone Read On

US Backs Resumption of India-Pakistan Dialogue, says N-deal on Track
Making a strong pitch for resuming the stalled India-Pakistan dialogue, the US Thursday said it has been pressing Islamabad hard to take "firm and urgent action" against extremists and to bring the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks to justice. Read On

Kashmir Police Should Slowly Replace Central Forces: Chidambaram
Visiting Jammu and Kashmir in the backdrop of heightened tension over the rape and murder of two women, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday said a strategy should be worked out for "gradual substitution" of central paramilitary forces by the state police for security and law and order duties. Read On

Sonia in Rae Bareli,
Talks Development, Assembly Polls
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on a visit to her Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Thursday said that development would top the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's agenda for the next five years and also urged party workers to gear up for the next assembly elections. Read On

• Scientist goes Missing from Atomic Plant in Karnataka
• Speaking Out in Anger:
  Empower Students, Don't Ban Jeans  

Manmohan to Meet Zardari in Russia 
by Manish Chand
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to meet Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg next week. Their first meeting since the Mumbai terror attacks, however, will be more of an ice-breaker and is unlikely to lead to an immediate resumption of stalled dialogue between the two countries. Read On

• Sensex Goes Down 55 Points on Profit Booking
• Karnataka Minister Donates
  Rs.450 Million Gold Crown to Tirupati  
• India's 'Renaissance Man' Kalam Honored in UK

No Money, No Climate Change Inspection: India
by Joydeep Gupta
India will not let the international community check on what it's doing to combat climate change unless industrialized countries provide adequate financing and transfer green technologies, say government delegates. The issue of how to treat intellectual property rights (IPR) of green technologies and who is going to pay the incremental cost of moving to them has been a bone of contention at climate treaty meets for years, and has reared its head again. Read On

Raped Dalit Woman Struggles for Justice in Orissa
A month after a Dalit woman in Orissa was allegedly gang raped by four men, including a former leader of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the police have arrested only one of the accused. Opposition parties claim that a minister is shielding them and are demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Read On

India, US Discuss Pakistan
Amid Speculation on Manmohan-Zardari Meet
Amid a US push for the resumption of talks with Pakistan, India Wednesday made it clear that although it was keen to normalize strained sub-continental relations, talks can resume only after Islamabad takes concrete action against the 26/11 perpetrators and dismantles the terrorist infrastructure on its soil. In the first contact between the Obama administration and the Manmohan Singh government since it returned to power last month, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns Wednesday described India as "a major foreign policy priority".  Read On

• Post Mumbai, Indian Navy to Study Foreign Practices
  for Coastal Security
• IAF Aircraft's Wreckage with 13 Bodies Located
• NCP Suspends MP Accused of Murder

Equal Opportunities Panel with Court Powers Soon: Salman Khurshid by Darshan Desai
Within the first 100 days of the new government, India will have an "equal opportunities commission" vested with court-like powers to check discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, caste or language. "The equal opportunities commission is a big ticket idea and is a broader vision to instill among the citizens of India a sense of equal rights and a share in the national cake," Khurshid, 56, told IANS in an interview. Read On