]]> New Delhi, March 12 (IANS) With a healthy booty of Washington apples, Indiana popcorns, Georgian pecan nuts, Californian pistachios and prunes, the US is looking to forge new “diplomatic” ties by increasing its presence in the Indian health food market.

“We connect to other cultures with book diplomacy, but food is also another great tool of diplomacy. Food unites us. As an ambassador, I can offer India delicious apples, wonderful pistachios, prunes and popcorns,” US ambassador Timothy Roemer told IANS at the AAHAR 2010, a festival of food and hospitality that began Wednesday at the Pragati Maidan here.

The US is represented by leading food export industry groups such as the California Prune Board, Food Export Association of the Midwest, Food Export-Northeast US, the Washington Apple Commission, Southern United States Trade Association and individual companies. The fair ends Sunday.

“The US exhibitors are bringing some of the best and healthiest American food to India. Indian cuisines and hospitality are known all over the world, but it is a pleasure to celebrate American foods that add healthy variety to the dinner tables. Whether it is the red beans and rice of my wife Sally’s native Louisiana or the ‘rajma’ in India, the two countries share so much in food. We use so many common references to food in both our cultures,” Roemer said.

Citing figures, he said: “President Barack Obama wanted the US to work on exporting more food to India.

“The good news is that food exports from Indiana – my hometown – to India increased by 41 percent last year. In food, the US, like India, is a great melting pot,” Roemer said between bites of fresh Californian prunes from one of the US vends at the fair.

Holly S. Higgins, minister-counsellor for US agricultural affairs in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and the head of US Agricultural Office in India, said: “American apples are in high demand in India because they were fresh and were available in 30 varieties.”

Flavoured pistachios and popcorns followed apples in the popularity chart. “Indians like six varieties of American apples, especially the Washington red apples. They usually sell during the off-season when Indians do not enjoy local apples,” Higgins said.

Prunes – dried sun-ripened plums – and pecan nuts are two other dry health food products that the US is trying to push through the Indian market.

“Prunes have no cholesterol and are rich in vitamins, while pecans, a slightly sweet-and-salty nut, can be used as dessert,” Higgins said.

R.G. Lamar, who grows pecan nuts on 2,000 acres of his family farm in Georgia, said: “The nuts are currently exported to China. But I will be meeting some companies in Mumbai next month to discuss tie-ups for export of packed raw nuts. It is a very popular snack in the US.”

Food collaboration with India is high on US agenda. “Apart from conventional retail, we have scientific collaborations in food production with fellowship programmes like the Norman E. Borlaug Fellowship for students of agriculture in Indian universities,” Higgins said.

The US Agricultural Office in India also interfaces with Indian farmers.

Reid was in serious condition after a car accident Thursday in Virginia that also injured his daughter. ]]> Washington , March 12 (DPA) The wife of US Senate Majority Leader Harry

Reid was in serious condition after a car accident Thursday in Virginia that also injured his daughter.

Landra Reid, 69, was in a Washington area hospital with a broken back, broken neck and broken nose, according to a statement from the senator’s office. Their daughter, Lana Reid-Barringer, 48, was

apparently less seriously hurt.

The two women were conscious in hospital and could “feel their extremities,” the statement said. Their injuries were said to be non-liffe threatening.

Their car was hit in the rear by a large tractor trailer in

Virginia, outside the nation’s capital, the statement said. The truck

apparently failed to slow down as traffic came to a crawl ahead of

it, The Washington Post reported.

Reid, a Democrat, is engaged in a mammoth fight for universal

health care against Republican resistance, and has brought the

legislation further in the Senate than any of the decades-long

attempts to reform the system.

US President Barack Obama wants a final bill by March 18, a date

regarded as the last gasp deadline before congressional campaigns

begin for November elections. Reid himself faces a serious challenge

in his home state Nevada over the health reform issue.

Obama divided the money up among 10 charities, with Fisher House, a non-profit that provides housing for families of patients being treated at military and veteran hospital, receiving the most at $250,000. ]]> Washington, MArch 12 (DPA) US President Barack Obama has donated the $1.4 million that came with winning the Nobel Peace Prize to charity, the White House said Thursday.

Obama divided the money up among 10 charities, with Fisher House, a non-profit that provides housing for families of patients being treated at military and veteran hospital, receiving the most at $250,000.

The Haiti relief fund set up by former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will receive $200,000.

The rest of the money will go to the College Summit, Posse Foundation, United Negro College Fund, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation, American Indian College Fund, AfriCare and the Central Asia Institute.

The Central Asia Institute promotes community based education and literacy in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a special focus on girls.

The Nobel committee awarded Obama the prize in October, pointing to the change of tone in Washington but prompting critics to question the pick less than a year into his presidency.

Sarkozy has asked Carla, 43, to end a holiday with her alleged lover, singer Benjamin Biolay, 37, and even chartered a plane to bring her home. ]]> London, March 11 (IANS) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked his wife Carla Bruni to end a holiday with her lover in Thailand and return home, a news report said. Sarkozy is also travelling to Britain on Friday without his spouse.

Sarkozy has asked Carla, 43, to end a holiday with her alleged lover, singer Benjamin Biolay, 37, and even chartered a plane to bring her home.

The French president confirmed Wednesday night that he will travel to Britain without Carla, amid reports that the marriage is over.

The president is travelling to London to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron. The Elysee Palace has confirmed that Carla “will not be travelling to Britain Friday”, The Sun reported.

French newspaper Journal du Dimanche has said: “The presidential marriage is breathing its last”.

Sarkozy decided to travel alone after media reports said that his wife, a former model, had jetted to Thailand with Biolay several weeks ago. The pair are old friends.

The holiday “was cut short by Nicolas Sarkozy himself. The president chartered a plane to bring his wife back to Paris,” Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve wrote.

According to rumours, the lovers were reported to be living together in the capital. And, Sarkozy, 55, is said to be having his own fling with environment minister Chantal Jouanno.

However a spokesman for Jouanno, 40, said she was “scandalised by this rumour”.

Sarkozy and Carla married in 2008 after a three-month romance.

The military junta that runs Myanmar, published a law on Wednesday that stated 2,000 imprisoned dissidents cannot participate, effectively sidelining jailed activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy. ]]> Washington, March 11 (DPA) The US will not recognise the outcome of Myanmar’s elections scheduled for later this year because of new laws that ban political prisoners and the country’s leading democratic activist from participating, the US State Department said Wednesday.

The military junta that runs Myanmar, published a law on Wednesday that stated 2,000 imprisoned dissidents cannot participate, effectively sidelining jailed activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy.

“We made clear that, given the tenor of the election laws that they’ve put forward, there’s no hope that this election will be credible,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, adding the laws make the election a “mockery of the democratic process.”

The regime has yet to announce a date for the election, the last of which took place 20 years ago before the military junta seized power and began rounding up democratic activists. Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for years.

The US has applied sanctions to Myanmar to keep pressure on the regime for democratic reforms, and the Obama administration had reached out to Myanmar hoping to encourage change. But those efforts do not appear to be working.

“Our engagement with Burma will have to continue until we can make clear that the results thus far are not what we had expected and that they’re going to have to do better,” Crowley said.

"People should be under no illusions that the crisis is over," Obama said after meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval at the White House. ]]> Washington, March 10 (DPA) US President Barack Obama warned Wednesday that the situation in Haiti remains “dire” and called on the world to step up its efforts in the earthquake devastated Caribbean nation.

“People should be under no illusions that the crisis is over,” Obama said after meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval at the White House.

More than 220,000 people were killed in the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas Jan 12.

Preval was in Washington ahead of the March 31 international donors conference to raise money for Haiti’s redevelopment.

There is still a “desperate need” for food, medicine and shelter and with the spring rainy season on the way the situation could grow worse, Obama said.

“The challenge now is to prevent a second disaster,” Obama said.

The private sector business interactions hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) are expected to inform the official level bilateral discussions at a meeting of the US-India High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) Tuesday. ]]> Washington, March 10 (IANS) Top US and Indian business executives will meet here Monday to address critical issues affecting US-India High Technology Cooperation in areas like defence/strategic trade, civil nuclear cooperation, biotechnology, nano-technology and civil aviation.

The private sector business interactions hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) are expected to inform the official level bilateral discussions at a meeting of the US-India High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) Tuesday.

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will address the business-to-business session convened by the USIBC in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Rao and US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Dennis F. Hightower will co-chair HTCG meeting, the first meeting of the group since President Barack Obama took office.

The Keynote Address at the business session will be given by Michael Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs and Development.

HTCG was conceived in November 2001 with a joint statement by then President George W. Bush and then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who affirmed their commitment to transform and deepen US-India relations.

Both countries agreed to take cooperative steps to create the requisite political, economic, and legal structures for successful high-technology commerce.

Apart from meetings in the Commerce Department, Rao will also be meeting senior members of the US Administration as well as the US Congress during her five-day stay in Washington.