W O R L D

32 killed, 60 hurt in Pak blast
Islamabad, November 10
At least 32 persons were killed and over 60 injured when a powerful car bomb ripped through a crowded market in northwest Pakistan today, the latest in a string of deadly attacks across the country amid a major army offensive against the Taliban in the restive tribal belt.

Obama, Singh ready to take Indo-US ties to 'new level'
Washington, November 10
The Indo-US relationship has evolved into a “comprehensive partnership of mutual trust and confidence” and the two countries are prepared to take it to a “new level” during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit here, Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar has said.

3 South Asian students stabbed in London
London, November 10
Four people suffered stab wounds after a mob of white and black youths set upon Muslim Asian students - including at least six of Indian origin - near the prestigious City University in north London, police and student groups said today.

Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor pauses after laying a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Tuesday. — AP/PTI

‘Afghanistan under Indian influence’
Washington, November 10
Acknowledging that there is “an ingress of the ISI in every terrorist group,” former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has alleged Afghanistan is under influence of Indian intelligence agencies and he has documentary evidence against it.

‘Incredible India’ campaign wins global travel award
London, November 10
The ‘Incredible India’ campaign, an initiative by the 
Indian government to promote tourism, has won the World Travel Award 2009 for being the best campaign of the year.

 

32 killed, 60 hurt in Pak blast

Obama, Singh ready to take Indo-US ties to 'new level'

Washington, November 10
The Indo-US relationship has evolved into a “comprehensive partnership of mutual trust and confidence” and the two countries are prepared to take it to a “new level” during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit here, Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar has said.

Speaking at the prestigious James Baker III Institute for Public Policy at the Houston's Rice University, Shankar said the financial partnership would be a source of strength for the two nations at a moment of global economic uncertainty.

“We are at an exciting moment of hope and opportunity, as Prime Minister Singh and President (Barack) Obama prepare to build on the progress,” the Indian Ambassador said last week.

In her key note address on “India and the US: A partnership for prosperity,” Shankar said the heart of the two leaders' effort would be to create a framework that unleashes the energy and enterprise of people, to build a relationship that will make the two nations safer and more prosperous and also help address the global challenges faced by them.

She said the historic civil nuclear agreement inked last year had been as much a symbol as an instrument of transformation in the Indo-US relationship. Singh will be here on November 24 for the first state visit of the Obama administration.

The Indian Ambassador said: “Beyond the civil nuclear agreement our ties have become genuinely broad-based. The extraordinary breadth of our engagement has taken us into hitherto uncharted territories, including defence, intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation.” Contending that the India-US relationship has evolved into a “truly comprehensive partnership of mutual trust and confidence,” she said there was hardly a field of human endeavour where the two countries are not breaking new grounds and re-defining their paradigm of engagement. — PTI

3 South Asian students stabbed in London
Indian-origin students among those targeted

London, November 10
Four people suffered stab wounds after a mob of white and black youths set upon Muslim Asian students - including at least six of Indian origin - near the prestigious City University in north London, police and student groups said today.

Three students and a passerby who tried to intervene had to be hospitalised with facial and head injuries when a 30-strong mob armed with knives, metal poles, bricks and sticks attacked South Asian students, the police said.

A spokeswoman for the university, which is ranked among the world’s top 500 and has a large number of international students - including many from India - said the university did not have the “record of nationalities from the police incident report”.

Asked to check the nationalities against their names in the university records, she said: “I do not think that would be appropriate”.

However, a spokesman for a nationwide body of Muslim students said those targeted by the mobs included at least six students of Indian origin.

“We are trying to find out if any of them are Indian nationals,” said Qasim Rafiq of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS).

Apart from the stabbing victims, two other men were also beaten in the violence, the police said, adding three teenagers had been arrested o far.

Although the attackers were said to include blacks as well as whites, the incident comes amid a surge in violence instigated by white extremist groups in urban areas with large non-white populations, including London, its suburbs and Manchester.

The police said earlier in the week, racists shouted abuse at a student going to a prayer room at the university, and later attacked him and other students escorting him to the underground train station.

One student suffered a fractured skull in the incident. Detective inspector Trevor Borley of the local Islington force said the police patrolling in the area had been increased and “we are taking this matter very seriously”.

Rafiq said: “We believe these attacks involved the same group but there have been sporadic attacks at other universities over the last year,” adding the gang repeatedly shouted out “Get those Muslims” and “Paki”.

City University acting Vice-Chancellor Julius Weinberg said: “We’re shocked and saddened that some of our students have been the victims of an attack near the University,” but added that London is “on the whole a safe, friendly and welcoming city”. — IANS

‘Afghanistan under Indian influence’

Washington, November 10
Acknowledging that there is “an ingress of the ISI in every terrorist group,” former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has alleged Afghanistan is under influence of Indian intelligence agencies and he has documentary evidence against it.

“Afghan intelligence, Afghan President, Afghan Government, don't talk of them. I know what they do. They are, by design, mislead the world. They talk against Pakistan, because they are under the influence of Indian intelligence,” Musharraf said on Sunday when asked that Taliban leader Mullah Omar was in the Quetta city of Pakistan.

“Whatever I am saying, I am not saying it here (for the first time). I have given documentary evidence of all this to everyone. And we know the involvement of Indian intelligence, in India, with their intelligence,” Musharraf, currently in London, charged. Musharraf denied reports and statements coming from the US leaders that ISI still has contacts with the terrorists. “They (ISI) will not support it (terrorists). That was not the government policy. That was not the military policy.

However, there was ingress,” he said.

“Always, in every group, there is an ingress of the ISI. And that is the efficiency, the effectiveness of the ISI. You must have ingress, so that you can influence all organisations. And it is this ingress of theirs, which doesn't mean that they are supporting them. They have some contacts, which can be used for their own advantage,” Musharraf added. — PTI

‘Incredible India’ campaign wins global travel award