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Republican Race to White House Romney, Gingrich lock horns Washington, January 27 With stakes high for them as they lock horns in a crucial primary, top Republican White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich indulged in bitter exchanges, attacking each other on immigration, taxes, wealth and space policy at the Florida presidential debate. Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich (L) and Mitt Romney during a debate in Florida. — AFP

Blast kills 32 in Baghdad
Baghdad, January 27
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near a funeral procession in southeastern Baghdad today, killing at least 32 persons, half of them policemen who were guarding the march in the latest brazen attack since the US troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Republican Race to White House
Romney, Gingrich lock horns

Washington, January 27
With stakes high for them as they lock horns in a crucial primary, top Republican White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich indulged in bitter exchanges, attacking each other on immigration, taxes, wealth and space policy at the Florida presidential debate.

Romney and Gingrich, who appear headed into a largely two-way fight at the Florida primary on January 31, teared into each other’s campaigns as they sparred for the Republican ticket to challenge Barack Obama in the November presidential polls.

Rick Santorum, the former Senator from Pennsylvania, and Texas Congressman, Ron Paul, are the two other Republicans left in the fray.

Gingrich charged Romney for having investments in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and with Goldman Sachs, “which is today foreclosing on Floridians”. Romney fought back, and defended himself fiercely to attacks on his wealth and particularly on the charge that he was anti-immigrant.

“Mr Speaker, I know that sounds like an enormous revelation, but have you checked your own investments? You also have investments for mutual funds that also invest in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” he said.

Romney said that it was “repulsive” for Gingrich to label him “the most anti-immigrant” candidate in the field. Space policy and the moon also figured prominently in the debate. Former Massachusetts Governor Romney also said that as a businessman he would fire anyone who would come to him with the idea of building a colony on the moon, an idea being pushed by Gingrich.

Romney repeatedly criticised Gingrich in a cool and level tone, calling him a “horn-tooter” for the government-backed mortgage industry and mocking him for “going state to state, promising what people want to hear,” the Politico said.

Gingrich too fought back repeatedly, arguing that he has bigger ideas and a greater willingness to shake up Washington than his rivals do.

He protested when Romney hit him, saying, “You’re very quick to draw the widest possible exaggeration” and called himself a more natural heir to the legacy of Ronald Reagan. — PTI 

Gingrich to build US base on Moon!

Unveiling an election agenda that is literally out of this world, Newt Gingrich has promised to build a permanent American base on the Moon, an idea termed by his rivals as a wild dream and unaffordable for a country experiencing one of its worst economic crisis. He promised to establish a permanent base on the Moon by 2020 if he is elected president. 

Blast kills 32 in Baghdad

Baghdad, January 27
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near a funeral procession in southeastern Baghdad today, killing at least 32 persons, half of them policemen who were guarding the march in the latest brazen attack since the US troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Police officials said the blast occurred in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, where mourners had gathered for the funeral of a person killed the day before. They said 65 persons were wounded in the attack, including 16 policemen. Hospital officials confirmed the death toll.

Salam Hussein, a 42-year-old grocery store owner in Zafaraniyah, said he was watching the funeral procession, which was heavily guarded by the police, when the blast blew out his store windows and injured one of his workers. — AP 

Militants fire rockets at Pak military academy 

Islamabad, January 27
In a daring attack, militants today fired rockets at the prestigious Pakistan Military Academy, breaching its outer wall near the Abbottabad compound where Osama bin Laden was killed last year, hours after army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani attended a meeting there.

Nine rockets were fired at the Kakul Academy, the equivalent of British Sandhurst, from behind a mosque in the mountains overlooking the garrison town, officials said.

Two of the projectiles hit the outer wall of the academy, breaching it at places, but there were no reports of causalities or damage in the strike that was carried out at predawn, police officials said.

This was the first such attack in Abbottabad which is close to Pakistani capital Islamabad and where US Navy SEALS struck last year in a covert raid killing the al-Qaeda chief.

Acknowledging that the attack amounted to a major security breach, officials said no arrests had been made so far and security forces have launched a search operation. The incident happened hours after army chief Gen Kayani visited Abbottabad to attend a commanding officers’ conference, officials said.

The rockets were fired from a mountain behind the Ilyasi mosque in Nawan Sher, a town near Abbottabad, district administration chief Imtiaz Hussain Shah told the media.

The police had found nine rocket launch pads behind the mosque. “A total of nine rockets were fired. About three went towards the PMA and two of them hit the boundary wall,” Shah said. — PTI 

Special to the tribune
British MP Gardiner takes a dig at Indian High Commission
NRIs rally behind envoy Rajesh Prasad and his diplomatic colleagues
Shyam Bhatia in London

NRI leaders, including members of the UK Parliament, have rallied behind the Indian High Commission after a baffling political swipe at Acting High Commissioner Rajesh Prasad and his diplomatic colleagues.

The author of the critical onslaught, Cambridge and Harvard-educated Barry Gardiner, has been an MP for the past 15 years and also served as a junior minister in the previous Labour government. He does not single out Prasad or any other Indian diplomat by name, but it is perfectly clear from the nature and thrust of his controversial comments just who he is focusing on.

Gardiner was speaking in the House of Commons earlier this week in a debate, entitled UK-India trade, when he said: "I have argued the case for and often defended India in Parliament. But true friends don't just tell you what you want to hear and today I want to be a true friend of India."

He went on to note "India's failure to reform its markets, deal with the problem of corruption and to establish a market conducive to foreign investment". Commenting on bilateral ties, he went on, "My view of the future relations between the UK and India is a real masala. Profoundly hopeful, but also seriously worried."

But he then twisted the knife by adding: "This is the first time I can remember a debate of this nature not being attended by a representative of the Indian High Commission. This demonstrates that not only is the Indian High Commission rudderless, but that India has downgraded the UK as a global partner."

NRI leaders are dismayed in particular by the salvo against the High Commission headed by Prasad who is variously described as "unassuming but brilliant", "diligent", "hard working" and "sympathetic to one and all while defending India's interests at all times."

Such responses were being freely bandied about at the glittering Republic Day function hosted by Prasad at a leading London hotel on Wednesday night. Gardiner was one of the invitees who arrived a little later than the other guests.

Asked what he thought of Gardiner's speech, leading London hotelier Joginder Sanger told The Tribune, "It was uncalled for."

Dr Rami Ranger, Chairman of Sun Mark Ltd and other UK-based companies, responded: "I always thought that this Acting High Commissioner should have been made High Commissioner. He is committed to his job and he has given thought and direction to relations between the UK and India."

Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East and Chairman of the prestigious Home Affairs Select Committee, commented: "Rajesh is an outstanding diplomat, relations are the best they have been, trade is spectacular. I don't know why Barry said what he did."

Virendra Sharma, Labour MP for Ealing Southall, commented: "I am one of the five MPs who have disassociated themselves from what Barry said. I have worked closely with the Acting High Commissioner and other members of the staff and they are wonderful people."

Leading businessman Lord Gulam Noon said: "Rajesh is a good and amicable Acting High Commissioner who has been holding the fort very well in the absence of a High Commissioner. I am a bit surprised at what Barry has said. I would like to meet him to clear the air."

Gardiner, who helped to found and chair Labour Friends of India from 1999, is a well liked MP for Brent North and has many NRIs among his constituents. He recently started a campaign to drop the Dow Chemical Company as a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics.

There is some speculation that Gardiner is annoyed at the so-far lukewarm support he has received from the Indian government for his campaign. He has also been unable to stir up much enthusiasm in Delhi for his hopes of taking a delegation of British parliamentarians on a new visit to India.

Whatever the merits of his gripe, his knock against Indian diplomats who cannot answer back is something of a first in the annals of Indo-British relations. There would be an outcry in Delhi if an MP from the opposition BJP used the Lok Sabha to launch a similar assault on the British High Commission.