November 4
US President Barack Obama took the blame for what he described as a ‘shellacking’ handed out to his Democratic Party in mid-term elections on Tuesday that cost it control of the House of Representatives.

“Over the last two years, we’ve made progress. But, clearly, too many Americans haven’t felt that progress yet, and they told us that yesterday. And as President, I take responsibility for that,” a reflective Obama said at a White House press conference a day after the election.

“We’ve stabilised the economy. We’ve got job growth in the private sectors. But people all across America aren’t feeling that progress. They don’t see it. And they understand that I’m the President of the United States, and that my core responsibility is making sure that we’ve got an economy that’s growing, a middle class that feels secure, that jobs are being created,” he said, adding, “And so I think I’ve got to take direct responsibility for the fact that we have not made as much progress as we need to make.”

Obama said he was saddened to see some of his Democratic colleagues lose their seats and was now questioning whether he could have done more to help them win. “It’s hard. And I take responsibility for it in a lot of ways,” he said.

The President disagreed with the suggestion that his policies were taking America in reverse but said it would be fair to argue “we are stuck in neutral”. He goaded lawmakers to focus on ideas that will drive the country forward as it competes with economic powers around the world.

Obama said the focus of his upcoming swing through Asia, which starts with a visit to India on November 6, would be on how to open up markets so that American businesses can prosper, more US goods are sold and jobs created at home.

“And a whole bunch of corporate executives are going to be joining us so that I can help them open up those markets and allow them to sell their products,” he said of the Asia trip.

The Republican Party picked up 60 seats to seize control of the House of Representatives. The election marked the largest switch in House seats since 1948.

Poll after poll found Americans’ biggest concern was the dismal state of the economy and high unemployment numbers. “I think that there is no doubt that people’s number 1 concern is the economy,” Obama said.

Obama, who was elected in 2008 on the promise of change and a tidal wave of support from American voters, sounded a wistful note as he recalled that victory. “I can tell you that some election nights are more fun than others. Some are exhilarating; some are humbling,” he said, adding, “But every election, regardless of who wins and who loses, is a reminder that in our democracy, power rests not with those of us in elected office, but with the people we have the privilege to serve.”

The President said people were excited when he won his election in 2008 because they thought he would change how business is done in Washington. “And we were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn’t change how things got done. And I think that frustrated people,” Obama admitted.

With Democrats retaining control of the Senate, Obama said the election drove home the point that no one party will be able to dictate terms in Washington. Yet, it is important that he has the support of Republicans in the House if he wants to push through any legislation in the next two years of his presidency. Obama said he was “very eager to sit down with members of both parties and figure out how we can move forward together”.

However, that spirit of bipartisanship was not reciprocated by Republicans who will be in leadership positions in Congress. They have vowed to reverse Obama’s health care reforms and to cut spending.

“I’m not suggesting this will be easy,” Obama conceded, adding, “I won’t pretend that we will be able to bridge every difference or solve every disagreement.”

Earlier, the presumptive Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner, described Obama’s healthcare reform as a “monstrosity” that would “kill jobs, ruin the best healthcare system in the world and bankrupt our country.” He vowed to repeal the reform.

Washington, November 4
Relation between India and China has deteriorated in last 18 months and is unlikely to get better, a former US Ambassador to India has said and he shared the perception of many Indian strategic thinkers that Beijing is using Pakistan to slow India's rise.

"I think it's fair to say now that China-India relations are not very good and in fact have been deteriorating for about last 18 months," Robert Blackwill, former US Ambassador to India said in a conference call with reporters in a briefing on Obama's India visit.

"The Indians have a long list of Chinese transgressions, which in my judgment are accurate, having to do with Chinese policy on Kashmir and on the border dispute between the two countries and the so-called 'ring of pearls' of Chinese quasi-military installations in Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka and in Pakistan and so forth," he said.

Blackwill is currently the Henry Kissinger Senior Fellow for US foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations - a prestigious US-based think tank.

"So the relations aren't very good between the two. The Prime Minister keeps saying, and I think deeply believes, that there's no reason why India and China could not have a good long-term relationship. But it isn't clear that same degree of enthusiasm for that end state is felt in Beijing," he said.

Many Indian strategists think that think there's some evidence that China's preoccupation with Pakistan and its long-time close links is closely connected to the Chinese realisation that if India is preoccupied, if not pinned down by cross-border terrorism from Pakistan and problems in the India-Pakistan relation, that it will slow the rise of India as a great power.

"In other words, China using Pakistan to slow India's rise," Blackwill said.

"So China-India relations are not good, and I myself don't think they're going to get very much better on the geopolitical and security side. Now on the economic side, they're thriving, and of course, that's good for both countries," he said.

"The Indians have no interest in thoughts of containing China, a concept that one sees in the American media from time to time. No way faster to clear a Delhi drawing room than to begin to talk about containing China.

"But what India would like is an agreement with the US that over the long term, the US and India will keep in close touch, both to the issue of Chinese behaviour and trying to decipher it, and second, close touch on trying to shape Chinese external behaviour in a positive way," Blackwill said. — PTI

Boston, November 4 
Chinese President Hu Jintao has been named the most powerful person in the world by Forbes, ahead of US President Barack Obama, who is ranked second among 68 people "who matter", a list that also includes Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 

Sonia ranks 9th on the Forbes 2010 list of the "world's most powerful people". Singh comes in at number 18. India's business tycoons Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata and head of ArcelorMittal Lakshmi Mittal also make the list.

Forbes said the second most powerful person in the world is Obama who has slipped in this year's ranking after occupying the top slot last year. 

China is also poised to overtake the US as the world's largest economy in 25 years. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Qantas grounds super jumbos after emergency landing
Sydney: Australia's Qantas Airways grounded its fleet of Airbus A380 super jumbos on Thursday after an engine failure forced a dramatic emergency landing in Singapore. Chief executive Alan Joyce said Qantas's six A380s, the flagship of its 191-strong fleet, had been suspended from take-off pending investigations into the incident. "We have decided that we will suspend all A380 take-offs until we're fully comfortable that sufficient information has been obtained about QF32," Joyce told reporters in Sydney. — AFP

World’s oldest person dies at 114
Pointe-a-pitre: The world's oldest person, a nun named Eugenie Blanchard, died on Thursday aged 114 in the French West Indies, officials said. Blanchard died in hospital on Saint-Barthelemy, an island some 250 km north of Guadeloupe, local officials said. She was born on Saint-Barthelemy, a French overseas territory, on February 16, 1896 and after becoming a Catholic nun left to pursue her vocation in the then-bustling Dutch West Indies colony of Curacao. — AFP

Lanka to publish pics of porn actors
Colombo: A Sri Lankan magistrate on Thursday ordered police to publish photographs of 83 local pornography actors in a bid to identify and arrest them for violating obscenity laws, officials said. The police told Colombo Fort magistrate Lanka Jayaratne that the men and women featured on 180 Sri Lankan pornographic websites that have been blocked by telecommunications regulators. He said the actors faced up to six months jail or a fine of $90 dollars, or both, if convicted. — AFP