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Rome, Dec 1 (DPA) Two Tunisians held captive in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay arrived Monday in Italy, the Interior Ministry said.

The two arrived in the evening in the northern Italian metropolis of Milan.

The acceptance of the suspected terrorists “sealed the close cooperation with the American government in fulfilling US President Barack Obama’s intention to close the prisoner facility”, the Interior Ministry said in its statement.

The two men are to be placed immediately in a high security prison upon their arrival, Italian media reports said.

The government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared in June that it would accept three Guantanamo prisoners who are also under investigation in Italy.

An estimated 210 prisoners remain in the controversial Guantanamo facility, set up by former US president George W. Bush to hold suspected terrorists from around the world.

To date, only a handful of prisoners are slated to be tried in US civilian courts. The US is looking for placement of dozens more in other countries.

New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) Less than five months into the job, US Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer has learnt one of the basic tenets of Indian culture – respect for the mother-in-law.

Speaking to reporters, Roemer recalled that he shared President Barack Obama’s table with his mother-in-law Mary Jonston at the state banquet in honour of the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

“As you can see, I’ve already adapted quite easily to Indian culture, bringing my mother-in-law to dinner…” he said, in a lighter vein.

Washington, Nov 30 (DPA) The United States has offered Pakistan an expansion of military and economic cooperation but has insisted that Islamabad ends dalliance with militant groups for its policy ends in India and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported Monday on its website.

Citing government officials speaking on condition of anonymity, the daily paper reported that James Jones, national security advisor to President Barack Obama, delivered the offer earlier in November to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

The offer of stepped up relations would require an end to Pakistan’s use of insurgent groups toward its policy ends. Pakistan has been suspected of past support for militants in India and

Afghanistan.

The report comes on the eve of Obama’s speech Tuesday evening at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he is expected to announce a long-awaited decision on additional troops for the war in Afghanistan.

The reported overture toward Pakistan is motivated in part by the country’s inextricable links with Afghanistan.

“We can’t succeed without Pakistan,” an official was quoted as saying, citing the risks to nuclear-armed Pakistan from instability in Afghanistan.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, expected to confirm on Monday that London will send another 500 troops to Afghanistan, on Sunday said in interviews that Pakistan must do more to “take out” leaders of terrorist network al-Qaeda.

Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri and other top al-Qaeda figures are believed to have been in hiding in Pakistan since the US-led ouster in 2001 of their Taliban allies in Afghanistan. Brown is due for talks Thursday in London with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Pakistan in recent months has stepped up its fight against militants within its own borders, though Western doubts persist about Islamabad’s ability and will to combat such groups.

New Delhi, Nov.30 (ANI): The United States and India are confident about taking bilateral cooperation in the fields of health and education forward, said US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer.

“President Obama and Prime Minister Singh reaffirmed our nations’ commitment to reduce the scourge of polio and fight the spread of global disease threats. We will implement a joint Global Disease Detection Program, with a new regional centre in India, to enhance detection of new threats and better respond to pandemic disease,” said Roemer in his opening statement during a press conference here this afternoon.

“In the field of education, The Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative will strengthen educational collaboration between American and Indian universities through increased university linkages and junior faculty development. We are also substantially expanding the Fulbright-Nehru fellowship program, a catalyst to the exchange of ideas and innovative thought that has helped our great countries become what they are today,” he added. (ANI)

New Delhi, Nov.30 (ANI): Apparently taking a u-turn from what US President Barack Obama envisaged in a joint statement issued during his recent visit toBeijing, where he advocated for China’s increased footprint in South Asia and envisioned a role for that country in facilitating a resumption of the suspended composite dialogue between India and Pakistan, US envoy to India Timothy Roemer said Monday that no outside interest or third country would determine India-Pakistan relations.

Addressing a question and answer session after a press conference in New Delhi, Roemer said: ‘US believes that bilateral relations between India and Pakistan will be determined at the pace, character and scalp determined by those two countries not by outside interest not by other countries, but by these two countries here in this region.”

Pakistan is consistently asking the United States in particular, and the international community in general, to urge India to resume dialogue that was suspended after last year’s terror attacks on Mumbai, which claimed 166 lives. India has consistently maintained that dialogue with Pakistan can only resume after Islamabad dismantles the terror infrastructure operating from its soil, and brings to book the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack.

Pakistan’s move to charge sheet seven main conspirators of the Mumbai attacks last week has not convinced India, which still feels that Islamabad needs to do much more on this front to convince it and the rest of the international community of its sincerity to act.

In fact, today, in a blunt letter to his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, President Barack Obama has called for Islamabad to end its alleged collaboration with extremist groups like al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Pakistan Taliban. He reportedly warned Zardari that using insurgent groups to pursue policy goals ‘cannot continue.’

Roemer said that both President Obama and Prime Minister Singh during the latter’s recent visit to Washington, had discussed how India and the US could work together to make Pakistan take effective action against the Mumbai attack conspirators.

‘They (Singh and Obama) also agreed to work together to defeat LeT and other areas of safe havens of terrorists. They had fruitful talks about working together to make sure that Pakistan prosecutes the seven suspects caught and hopefully convicts them of killing scores of Indian and six Americans,’ he added.

He further said that US strongly feels that Pakistan will pursue even suspects.

A special FBI team will be arriving in New Delhi this week to share ‘all details’ of its probe into the plans and network of US terror suspect David Headley and his Pakistani-Canadian associate Tahawwur Rana.

Refusing to comment on the extradition and on India’s demand for access to Hadlee and Rana, Roemer said: ‘ FBI continue to develop trust and confidence with India after the Mumbai attacks about a year ago. Both our countries share a working relationship. The FBI helped India not only in testifying in court, but also bringing a lot of their expertise forward, tracking information with technology, DNA etc’.

“This was very helpful to India, that will not only continue but expand as well,” Roemer added.

“I wanted to take a few minutes with you today to reflect on the events of last week. This is a watershed moment in the course of our amazing partnership,” Roemer said.

“We pledged to work together to protect our citizens from terrorism, to develop trade and economic opportunities for Americans and Indians, to educate our future generations so they can solve the global challenges facing the world, and to invest in new technologies which will provide us all an environmentally-sustainable and economically bright future,” the envoy said.

“Our new Counter-terrorism Cooperation Initiative will strengthen collaboration on counter-terrorism, information sharing, and capacity building – already at unprecedented levels – and make our citizens and cities safer,” he added.

He said that both leaders would also be enhancing efforts to build a free and stable Afghanistan. Both nations were also committed to expanding defence cooperation, including collaboration on humanitarian, disaster relief, and maritime security efforts through exchanges, exercises and defence sales.

Both President Obama and Prime Minister Singh, he said also pledged to work together for global non-proliferation and to realize their shared vision of a world
free of nuclear weapons. (ANI)

Aboard Air India One, Nov 30 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says he was charmed by US First Lady Michelle Obama and the conversation he had with her on the same table at the White House dinner last week were among the memorable parts of his trip to the US last week.

“I shared the table with Michelle Obama. And the conversation I had with her was one of the most memorable part of the evening,” Manmohan Singh told IANS when asked what was the most cherished moment of his four-day US visit that ended Thursday.

He was speaking while returning from Trinidad and Tobago, where he had gone to attend the Commonwealth summit, Sunday night.

Earlier in Port-if-Spain Manmohan Singh had described the White House dinner as “magnificent” and “a unique experience” to remember. The much written about state dinner- described by the New York Times as a “glittering gala with distinctive touches” – hosted at an elegantly designed white tent erected on the South Lawn of the White House was attended by top Obama aides, powerful senators, Hollywood moguls, billionaire tycoons and successful Indian-Americans.

Manmohan Singh and his daughters Amrit Singh and Upinder Singh sat with Michelle Obama at the state dinner last Tuesday.

Dressed in a glittering champagne-coloured gown designed by Indian-born, US-based designer Naeem Khan, Michelle Obama was the talk of the town. Ahead of the dinner, in a conversation with school children at the White House, Michelle Obama showered praise on India and asked the students to imagine a day when they will be studying in Mumbai or New Delhi or Bangalore to deepen ties between the world’s greatest democracies.

“The prime minister has great admiration for President Obama and Michelle. They were very warm and hospitable throughout the trip. The conversation at the table was great,” according to senior Indian officials who were among the privileged few who attended the first state dinner of the Obama presidency.

Manmohan Singh’s spouse Gursharan Kaur shared the table with US President Barack Obama, former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi.

London, November 30 (ANI): The two uninvited guests who managed to sneak their way into the state dinner hosted by US President Barack Obama for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House may face serious consequences.

Tareq Salahi, a former US polo captain, and his wife Michaele, a putative star of an upcoming US reality TV show, walked past the camera crews and reporters like other high profilers attending the dinner on November 24.

The couple shook hands with President Obama, posed for pictures with Vice-President Joe Biden, and also met the First Couple in the receiving line, reports Times Online.

Edwin M. Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, confirmed that the department was “deeply concerned and embarrassed” after the security breach.

Donovan said the service was yet to determine whether party-crashing is illegal but two senators, Evan Bayh, of Indiana, a Democrat, and Jon Kyl, of Arizona, a Republican, have demanded the couple be prosecuted.

Ed Rollins, a former strategist for President Reagan, also furiously condemned the incident.

He said: “This despicable, desperate, duplicitous couple disgraced the Secret Service and embarrassed the President in his home.

“Charge them, prosecute them, and — if a DC jury finds them guilty — jail them.” (ANI)

New Delhi, November 30 (ANI): Actress Heather Graham has claimed that she and her coven of witches did their bit to help Barack Obama become the US President.

The 39-year-old Hangover star said she and her pals sent the president positive energies so he would get elected to the White House, reports the China Daily.

She said: ‘It’s just for fun. We never jinx someone with evil spells. We meet in order to release positive energy. When one of us wishes to meet a great guy, we try to have an influence on that.

‘We sent Barack Obama positive energies, so that he would become the next president. I always liked magic. Now when I see Obama’s picture in the paper, I feel good.’ (ANI)

Chicago, Nov 30 (ANI): Canadian born Lashkar operative Tahawwur Hussain Rana’s lawyer today said that Rana has denied his involvement in the 26/11 terrorists attacks.

Rana is being questioned for a possible link to the Mumbai attacks that saw 166 people killed without reason.

The Pakistani-Canadian says that he has no ‘ill-will’ against Indians, his lawyer said.

This is the first response from Rana’s side after doubts arose that he and US terror suspect David Coleman Headley, who has been arrested by the FBI for plotting attacks in India at the behest of Lashkar-e-Taiba, could have links to 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan said on Sunday (November 29) that US President Barrack Obama would soon send a high level FBI team to India to share all details of its investigation and the network of Headley and Rana.

The hearing of Rana’s bail is scheduled for December 2.

Rana’s lawyer claimed that Rana has a clean record and prestige as a businessman.

‘They will testify he is not a risk of flight, has ties to the community, that he is regarded as an honest and a trustworthy businessman and has no record whatsoever,’ he said.

Rana owns an immigration business that has offices in Mumbai. A grocery shop primarily in the Indian-Pakistani neighbourhood is also under his possession here. (ANI)

New Delhi, Nov 29 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned to the capital Monday morning after his state visit to the US and Trinidad and Tobago, where he participated in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Manmohan Singh’s four-day State visit to the US was the first by a foreign leader since the Obama administration took over in January this year.

The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on counter-terrorism and five other pacts. Manmohan Singh held talks with President Obama on the entire gamut of bilateral relations, situation in the region, and global challenges like terrorism and climate change.

At Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, where he attended a two-day meeting of the Commonwealth leaders, the prime minister expressed India’s willingness to sign an ambitious global target for emissions reduction if it was accompanied by an equitable burden sharing paradigm.

Singh also had meetings with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the sidelines of CHOGM summit.