Washington, Feb 27 (IANS) US President Barack Obama has honoured folk legend Bob Dylan and actor-director Clint Eastwood in a ceremony at the White House.
A statement from the White House hailed Dylan as “an icon of youthful rebellion and poetic sensitivity” and praised Eastwood’s films as “essays in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American,” reports starpulse.com.
Both Dylan and Eastwood were not present at the award ceremony. Obama noted the pair’s absence and said: “Obviously, their careers have marked the landscape of American culture for decades. They bring us joy, they bring us understanding and insight.”
“They bring us comfort in the good times and perhaps especially in difficult times in our own lives and the life of our nation,” he added.
“Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker was among those present at the event.
Washington, Feb 27 (IANS) US President Barack Obama will host an international nuclear security summit here April 12-13, the White House said.
“On April 12 and 13, the president will host a nuclear security summit at the Washington Convention Centre,” Xinhua reported quoting White House spokesman Robert Gibbs as saying Friday.
“The purpose of the summit is to discuss steps we can collectively take to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and prevent acts of nuclear terrorism,” he added.
This confirmation of the highlighted event came after the US and Russia resumed their talks earlier this month in Geneva on a nuclear arms reduction treaty as a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that expired Dec 5, 2009.
Obama has embraced the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. Talking about nuclear weapons, he called them “perhaps the greatest danger to the American people” in his first State of the Union address last month.
London, Feb. 26 (ANI): British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has “laughed off” reports claiming that his “you ruined my life” outburst at Tony Blair led to his predecessor’s departure from 10 Downing Street.
The claim of Brown’s alleged showdown with Blair emerged from a book by political commentator Andrew Rawnsley, and it came a day after Chancellor Alistair Darling insisted that Brown “unleashed the forces of hell” against him after he predicted that the recession would be the worst for 60 years.
When asked how damaging the “you-ruined-my-life” and “unleashing-the-forces-of-hell” stories were, Brown said both of them were “so ridiculous.”
“Given that they are both completely wrong, and that you can almost laugh them off, they are so ridiculous,” The Scotsman quoted Brown, as saying during a visit to Allied Vehicles Ltd in Glasgow.
“I think what people are looking for is someone who gets on with the job. I’m passionate to do things, I want to get things done and I’m very passionate about the future of our country,” he said.
“For me, being in the job I am in is about delivering for the people of our country and delivering every day,” he added.
Rawnsley’s book describes a stormy private meeting on the eve of Blair’s announcement in 2006 that he would stand down as Prime Minister within a year. It asserts that Brown demanded that Blair ensure he faced no rival for the Labour leadership succession.
The book, The End of the Party, quotes Blair later telling friends: ‘He kept shouting at me that I’d ruined his life.’
Recently, Brown has admitted that he and Blair made a deal over the Labour leadership when it came up in 1994.
Brown indicated he felt he should have taken over at that point. Instead, he stood aside for Blair on the basis that he would later back Brown to take over in the top job. That did not happen for 13 years. (ANI)
New York, Feb.26 (ANI): In an apparent bid to strengthen ties both with India and Pakistan, and create new opportunities for the country’s defence firms, the United States is considerably increasing arms sales to the two nuclear powered South Asian nations, a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said.
The report said that the Obama Administration wants to remain neutral amidst the barbed Indo-Pak relations, however, it has also not hesitated from pursuing large-scale weapon deals in the region.
“The US has made billions of dollars in weapon deals with India, which is in the midst of a five-year, 50 billion dollar push to modernise its military,” the report in one of the leading financial newspapers said.
“For 2010 and 2011, India could well be the most important market in the world for defence contractors looking to make foreign military sales,” the report quoted Tom Captain, the vice chairman of Deloitte LLP’s aerospace and defence practice, as saying.
It is worth mentioning here that Russia has been India’s main source of military hardware for decades, supplying about 70 percent of equipment currently being used.
The Obama administration is trying to persuade New Delhi to buy American combat jets, a shift would lead to closer military and political relations between India and the US, White House officials cited by the journal said.
According to the report, the US military aid to Pakistan would nearly double next year, allowing Islamabad to acquire more US-made helicopters, night-vision goggles and other sophisticated military equipments.
The newspaper pointed out that the huge amount of US aid to Pakistan would ultimately help that country to take on militants more effectively, as the White House tries to make Islamabad believe that extremists breeding inside the country and not India pose the real threat to its existence.
“The aid has made it easier for Pakistan to ramp up its fight against militants on the Afghan border, as the US tries to convince Islamabad that its biggest security threat is within the country, not in India,” the report said. (ANI)
Washington, Feb 26 (IANS) The US media saw Thursday’s secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan as a “first step” with broad agreement that even if there was no breakthrough as expected it was a significant diplomatic achievement.
“Few analysts had expected any breakthroughs from the meeting, which had been framed as a small step in restarting diplomacy between the two nuclear-armed neighbours,” said the New York Times in a story from New Delhi titled “In ‘First Step,’ India and Pakistan Resume Talks”.
India broke off the formal “composite dialogue” after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008,the influential US daily noted. “For months, India refused to resume dialogue on the grounds that Pakistan was not aggressively pursuing those responsible for the attacks and that it had done too little to confront domestic terrorist groups that focus on India.”
Like the Times, the Washington Post too said: “Few experts expected a breakthrough during Thursday’s meeting, which India’s home minister had termed “talks about talks.”
“But the session was seen as a first step, and expectations were so low that even the meeting itself was seen as progress,” it said noting the “first formal talks since the deadly siege of Mumbai in 2008″… “come at a pivotal moment in the troubled region.”
“India and Pakistan are struggling for influence in Afghanistan and, some experts say, jeopardiing regional security.” the Post said noting, “The Obama administration hopes that if tensions between the neighbouring countries decrease, Pakistan will focus more on eliminating the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other extremist groups based in its western border region.”
The Wall Street Journal said; “Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has staked his government’s standing on a bid for peace with Pakistan, but their first formal meeting in more than 14 months showed the two countries still don’t agree what is the most pressing issue to discuss.”
“Whether or not the talks eventually bear fruit, it was apparent on Thursday, after a meeting intended to set the agenda for more talks, the two sides differ on the focus of future dialogue,” it said.
The Los Angeles Times carried an Associated Press report saying, “Expectations were extremely low for Thursday’s talks, which were seen as little more than a symbolic first meeting and which India had billed as ‘talks about talks.”
Both sides indicated little of substance had been achieved, it said. “But just meeting after 15 months was a significant diplomatic achievement – even if it came in the wake of months of pressure from Washington.”
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Harkins has told at the health care summit that step by step legislative response to the big health care problem would not bring the solution or genuine reform to existing health care crises. He was pressing Obama argument that health care needs to be passed as quickly as possible.
The senator compared the incremental approach and urged the Republicans to a swimmer who is “50 feet off shore drowning and you throw him a 10-foot rope.”
He further said that it is not practical to have “this kind of incremental approach that I hear others talk about.” He further said that current health insurance discriminate people based on the pre-existing condition.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Harkins has told at the health care summit that step by step legislative response to the big health care problem would not bring the solution or genuine reform to existing health care crises. He was pressing Obama argument that health care needs to be passed as quickly as possible.
The senator compared the incremental approach and urged the Republicans to a swimmer who is “50 feet off shore drowning and you throw him a 10-foot rope.”
He further said that it is not practical to have “this kind of incremental approach that I hear others talk about.” He further said that current health insurance discriminate people based on the pre-existing condition.
Washington, Feb 25 (IANS) Backed by over 160 venture capitalists, including several Indian Americans, two US senators have introduced a bill to give fast track visas to immigrant entrepreneurs in return for creating jobs to increase America’s global competitiveness.
The StartUp Visa Act of 2010 will allow an immigrant entrepreneur to receive a two year visa if he or she can show that a qualified US investor is willing to dedicate a significant sum – a minimum of $250,000 – to the immigrant’s startup venture.
“Global competition for talent and investment grows more intense daily and the United States must step up or be left behind,” said John Kerry Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who introduced the bill with Richard Lugar, top Republican on the panel.
“Creating a new magnet for innovations and innovators to come to the United States and create jobs here will offer our economy a double shot in the arm – robust job creation at home and reaffirmation that we’re the world’s best place to do business,” Kerry said.
“Our country should strive to attract to the United States the most talented and highly skilled entrepreneurs,” said Lugar.
Among the Indian American entrepreneurs, many of them from California’s Silicon Valley, who have endorsed the senators’ proposal are, Sameer Gandhi of Accel, Manu Kumar of K9 Ventures, Deepak Kamra of Canaan Partners, Ravi Belani of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Karan Mehanderu of Scale Venture Partners and Ajay Chopra of Trinity Ventures.
The StartUp Visa Act of 2010 would amend immigration law to create a new EB-6 category for immigrant entrepreneurs, drawing from existing visas under the EB-5 category, which permits foreign nationals who invest at least $1 million into the US, and thereby create ten jobs, to obtain a green card.
After proving that he or she has secured initial investment capital and if, after two years, the immigrant entrepreneur can show that he or she has generated at least five full-time jobs in the United States, attracted $1 million in additional investment capital or achieved $1 million in revenue, then he or she would receive permanent legal resident status.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
Moscow, Feb 25 (IANS) China may strengthen its nuclear capability in response to the US global missile defence plans, said a Russian military expert.
“At present, China has a very limited nuclear potential, but my recent contacts with Chinese military representatives indicate that if the United States deploys a global missile defence system, in particular in the Far East, China will build up its offensive capability,” said Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky, former department deputy head in the Russian Defence Ministry.
He did not elaborate on how a potential missile shield could be countered with nuclear weapons or why it would threaten China, said a RIA Novosti report.
So far, Washington has been mostly preoccupied with a missile shield in Central Europe and says it is needed to counter potential Iranian strikes.
In a move to ease Moscow’s concerns, Obama last year scrapped plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.
Earlier this month, however, Romania and Bulgaria said they were in talks with the Obama administration to deploy elements of the US missile shield on their territories from 2015.
London, Feb. 25 (ANI): In a showdown with his predecessor Tony Blair, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown repeatedly shouted “you ruined my life,” and the episode led to Blair’s departure from 10 Downing Street, according to an upcoming book.
Later, Blair described the encounter as “ghastly” and “terrible”, The Times quoted from leaked extracts of Andrew Rawnsley’s new book, which claims that Brown was implicated in the 2006 coup attempt to topple his predecessor.
The reports of the alleged confrontation surfaced at a time when Brown’s relationship with his most senior Civil Service and political colleagues has come under renewed scrutiny.
Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, said that he repeatedly spoke to Brown about how to get the best out of his civil servants.
Meanwhile, Brown held clear-the-air talks in private with Alistair Darling before denying in public that he had ever sanctioned hostile press briefings against his Chancellor. (ANI)
