America is undergoing a sea change in their sensibilities as a nation.

After decades of rule by the white-skinned leaders, the country gave a chance to first Black President, Barack Obama in 2008 and then re-elected him in 2012 for another four years!

How his rule changed America is a matter of debate, but in the next elections, a prominent candidate is going to be Hillary Clinton and as of today, the country seems inclined to embrace her as the first female president.

Hillary Clinton

Given such positive and flexible changes in the mindsets of the average American voter, why can’t we expand our horizons and imagine an Indian American occupying the top post? If a country where black people worked as slaves for centuries can make a black person its president, there is definitely a possibility of an Indian having an equal opportunity. As a race, we have already proved that we are hard-working, well educated, responsible and peace-loving people. Indians are contributing significantly to the country’s political, economic and social capital. The country’s 19^th Surgeon General is an Indian, Dr. Vivek Murthy!

Bobby Jindal

A Lot of politicians have won and re-won their elections with the likes of Bobby Jindal, Manan Trivedi, Kamala Harris, Nikki Haley regularly hogging the limelight for their precious contribution to social life.

Kamala Harris

The list is way too long if we include Indians involved in various other sectors like IT, business, entertainment, law etc.

Even if we are a mere 1% of the entire population of America, we are still one of the highest educated ethnic groups with the highest per capital income and become a major source of funding for both Democrats and Republicans! It is no mean task given that despite being second to people of Chinese descent, we command more respect from average Americans.

The factor which can work in our favour against the Chinese is the mutual distrust between the two countries. Hence the average American may find it bit difficult to let a Chinese become their President. Apart from that, no other race is as strong, well connected, well established and so very well integrated with the American life as ours! It becomes easier to run for the top post when you are considered a part of the culture and society rather than just being termed as an outsider or an immigrant.

May be 2016 is too early for an Indian to run for the presidency, but the day probably doesn’t look too far when we might read the headlines: An Indian American becomes the President of the USA!

America is a land of equal opportunities!

Let’s hope someone amongst us gets an opportunity to serve the world’s superpower!

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Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced on Tuesday that his country will build six civil nuclear power plants.

Speaking at a function, Coastal Power Project K-II and K-III in Karachi, Sharif said the country’s Atomic Energy Commission has identified six sites where civil nuclear power plants could be built, The News International reported. 

According to the prime minister, Pakistan would produce 40,000 MW of power from nuclear plants till 2050 and the government’s priority was to start work on power projects to overcome the energy shortage. 

Sharif also expressed his gratitude to China for its help in building nuclear power plants in Pakistan. 

-IANS

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As the number of affected people in the Philippines continues to rise, humanitarian assistance shipped out from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been distributed in remote regions devastated by super-typhoon Haiyan, also known as Yolanda locally.

The UAE-based logistics centre for humanitarian aid, International Humanitarian City (IHC), said on Tuesday that over 1,500 tonnes of relief supplies from stockpiles of various UN agencies and international NGOs have so far been sent from its warehouses.

Over the past two weeks, members and partner organisations of the IHC have been employed heavily in operations for the victims of typhoon Haiyan.

Since the beginning of the disaster, stocks and trucks carrying emergency relief goods have left IHC, and aircraft from Dubai have delivered items in Cebu, Manila, Leyte and Tacloban where operational hubs for relief have been set up to facilitate distribution of the relief items.

The Dubai global logistics office of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) dispatched two Boeing 747 aircraft financed by the British Department for International Development (DFID) to Cebu. 

The consignments included rescue vehicles, tarpaulins, hygiene parcels and jerry cans with a total value of $579,500. 

An additional Boeing B747 aircraft was sent out Monday with relief supplies worth $393,500. 

The Dubai Supply Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) sent six emergency flights from Dubai World Central, Abu Dhabi and Dubai International airports to the Philippines. 

These flights airlifted more than 600 metric tons of relief supplies of mainly family tents, blankets, plastic tarpaulins, water jerry cans, kitchen sets, as well as five vehicles with communication equipment. 

-IANS

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Pakistan Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for the twin blasts in Karachi city on Friday in which eight people were killed and over 40 were injured.

Shahidullah Shahid, spokesperson of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, said they carried out the blasts in Karachi to take revenge for the killing of 15 people in the Nov 21 US drone attack in Hangu district, Xinhua quoted the spokesman as telling the media. 

Shahidullah Shahid said they would carry out more such attacks across the country if drone attacks are not halted.

Two bombs were triggered off by a remote controlled device near Ancholi area of Karachi on Friday night, killing four people on the spot and injuring many others.

Another four people later succumbed to injuries at a hospital where doctors said the death toll may rise further as five to six people were still in critical condition.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Javed Alam Odho said an estimated three to four kg of explosives were planted in two motorbikes.

The blasts were followed by a round of condemnation from various religious groups and political leaders including Syed Qaim Ali Shah, chief minister of Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital.

-IANS

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The Chinese military carried out a successful test flight of the Asian nation’s first jet-powered stealth drone, the South China Morning Post said on Friday.

Only three other countries – the US, Britain and France – have mastered the technology to produce a stealth drone.

Thursday’s maiden flight of the Lijian (‘Sharp Sword’ in Chinese) lasted about 20 minutes, the Hong Kong-based newspaper said.

The drone can be used to monitor “developments in the East and South China seas and will help Beijing make accurate decisions when dealing with territorial disputes with its neighbours,” a former People’s Liberation Army general told the Post.

The Lijian is also “a symbol of how China’s military modernisation is catching up with advanced countries,” retired PLA Maj Gen Xu Guangyu said.

Using the same flying-wing design as the US military’s X-78B drone prototype, the Lijian was built by aerospace firms Shenyang Aviation and Hongdu Aviation Industry.

The drone is the PLA’s third stealth aircraft, joining the J-20 and J-31 fighters.

The J-20 made its debut in 2011 and foreign media suggested at the time that the Chinese plane relied on technology found aboard a US F-117 Nighthawk shot down over Serbia in 1999 during the NATO bombing campaign in the Balkan nation. 

-IANS

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The death toll from typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines soared to 5,209 with 1,602 people still missing, an official said in Manila on Friday.

The considerable increase in the fatalities came after validation of over a thousand more deaths related to the devastation of super typhoon Haiyan, said Eduardo del Rosario, executive director of the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council, reports Xinhua. 

Bodies of additional fatalities were actually recovered over the past five days, he added.

Del Rosario said eastern Visayas registered most of the casualties with 4,919 dead, 22,658 injured and 1,582 missing.

The rest of 290 fatalities came from the other affected regions including Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western and central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula and Caraga.

-IANS

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UN Humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has called for longer-term support for the Philippines people, millions of whom are affected by the devastating Typhoon Haiyan, a UN spokesperson said on Thursday.

Amos warned that people, left without homes, will require substantial longer-term support from the international community to ensure they are provided with the means to rebuild their houses, ” reported Xinhua citing Fahran Haq, associate spokesman for the UN secretary-general at a regular news briefing here.

Of the 4.4 million homeless people, more than 387,000 people are still staying in evacuation centers across the six affected regions in the Philippines, the official added. 

-IANS

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Given the complex threats of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and cyber warfare, NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow has said the security organisation cannot slow down.

Vershbow, attending the 17th International NATO Conference, on Thursday predicted that next year’s NATO summit would mark the start of a new chapter in the organisation’s life, Xinhua reported.

He said NATO would move forward with joint intelligence operations and missile defences, and has to build a fleet of heavy lift helicopters.

Given the need for the tools to guarantee security, Vershbow pointed to the Smart Defence and Connected Forces Initiatives (CFI). 

According to the NATO website, Smart Defence aims to pool countries’ buying power to equip the Alliance with shared capabilities, while CFI is focused on a series of measures in the field of education and training, exercises and technology.

NATO, said Vershbow, has to continue to operate as a safety net and as a headquarters in maintaining security and in initiating closer cooperation among partner countries. It also has to assist countries in transition and to make Europe more secure.

-IANS

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The number of cellphone users in China reached 1.22 billion till October end, the Chinese government has revealed.

According to the Chinese ministry of industry and information technology (MIIT), there were 1.11 billion users in the country in 2012, Xinhua reported. 

Among them, 67.19 percent or 817 million mobile phone users are connected to the Internet and 34.5 percent of them are 3G users.

In contrast, fixed telephone lines are decreasing, as it was found the number of fixed line users shrank by 8.82 million in the first 10 months to 269 million at the end of October.

Overall, the mobile phone users account for 81.9 percent of phone users and fixed line users 18.1 percent.

The provinces of Guangdong, Henan and Sichuan reported the most mobile phone user growth in the first 10 months.

-IANS

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A day after a deadly suicide attack in the central part of the Horn of Africa country, Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said the government will continue its battle against Al-Shabaab militant group.

Sihrdon made the remarks on Wednesday during a visit to a hospital at the Mogadishu headquarters of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to see those injured in Tuesday’s attack in the cental town of Beledweyne.

“The government alongside AMISOM will continue the fight until we have eradicated the plague of Al-Shabaab from Somalia,” reported Xinhua citing the prime minister. 

“Somalis know that this foreign inhumane agenda has no place here. Al-Shabaab offers nothing but indiscriminate violence and suffering to innocent Somalis,” Shirdon added.

More than 20 people were killed and dozens more injured including Somali government police officers after a suicide car bomb hit a police station in the town, 300 km from Mogadishu.

-IANS

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Death toll from typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) breached the 4,000 level, the Philippine disaster agency said on Wednesday.

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Executive Director Eduardo del Rosario said that 4,011 people perished due to the super typhoon that struck the country Nov 8.

The number of people reported injured rose to 18,557, while 1,602 people were still missing, he said.

The cost of damage to properties was estimated at 12 billion pesos ($275 million).

Some 2.15 million families or nearly 10 million people were affected in 10,718 villages in 44 provinces. Of the affected population, 4.4 million were displaced and being served inside and outside the evacuation centres.

Of the total cost of damage, Del Rosario said 1.79 billion pesos ($41 million) came from infrastructure and 10.45 billion pesos ($239.6 million) from agriculture in seven regions of the country.

The government and non government organisations have extended 387 million pesos ($8.87) worth so relief assistance to the affected families.

-IANS

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Three people were killed and 12 wounded in separate incidents of violence in Iraq on Tuesday, police said.

A soldier was killed and three suffered injuries when a suicide bomber blew up himself among soldiers while they were carrying out search operation in houses in Tarmiyah town, some 30 km from Baghdad, reported Xinhua citing a police source. 

In a separate incident, a truck bomb went off in Saiyd Gharib area, some 80 km from Baghdad, wounding eight civilians. 

In Diyala province, a leader of a government- backed paramilitary group was killed when gunmen attacked his car at a village near Edheim city, about 65 km from Baghdad, a police source said. 

In another incident, an employee working for the office of a lawmaker in Iraqi parliament was killed when a sticky bomb attached to his car detonated in Baladruz town, the source said. 

-IANS

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Indonesia issued a warning to international and domestic flights to avoid air routes near Mount Sinabung and Mount Merapi, both of which erupted on Monday, officials said.

The 2,475-metre-high Mount Sinabung, located in North Sumatra province, erupted Monday morning, shooting a column of ash about 8,000 metres high, the biggest eruption since the volcano first rumbled back to life in September after being dormant for three years, Xinhua quoted Agus Budianto, head of volcano observation at the country’s volcanology agency, as saying.

“This is the biggest eruption in vertical since September,” Agus Budianto told Xinhua.

The ash with volcanic material spewed towards the southwest direction, Budianto said.

Indonesian transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said the volcanic ash was found to have shot up to 25,000 metres in the air and that would endanger flights. 

“This (Monday) morning, we issued a warning to flights to avoid the air routes W11, W12, L774 and R456 near Sinabung volcano,” he told Xinhua.

The spokesman said the routes were commonly used by international and domestic flights.

Over 6,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of this month as Mount Sinabung erupted intermittently.

Mount Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia and located in central Java, erupted earlier Monday, shooting a cloud of black ash about 2,000 metres high, Budianto said.

The 2,911-metre high Mount Merapi’s most violent eruption was in 2010, in which at least 350 people were killed and thousands displaced.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago country with 17,500 islands, is home to 129 active volcanoes and sits on a vulnerable quake-prone zone called the Pacific Ring of Fire.

-IANS

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Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s party on Sunday announced that it was postponing its plan to block supply route for NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), which is the ruling party in country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, had declared to cut the NATO supply line from Nov 20 as a protest against the US drone strike which had killed Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, Xinhua reported.

The party’s chairman Khan announced the postponement of the protest sit-in against drones and to stop NATO supplies from Nov 20 to 23, keeping in view the grave security situation in Pakistan. 

“This is not a cancellation but a postponement in response to the sensitivities of our people and the acute security situation prevailing in the country,” Khan said in a statement.

The decision was taken after sectarian clashes in the garrison city of Rawalpindi left nine killed and dozens others injured. 

-IANS

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All 50 people on board a Boeing 737 plane were killed when it crashed in a Russian city while landing on Sunday, Russian authorities confirmed. There were no survivors.

The accident occurred in in Russia’s Kazan city, capital of Tatarstan republic, when the plane, belonging to Tatarstan Airlines, crashed about 7.20 p.m. Sunday. 

According to the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, the deceased comprised 44 passengers and six crew members, Xinhua reported. Earlier the toll was reported to be 52 comprising 46 passengers and six crew. 

Irek Minnikhanov, son of Tatarstan’s President Rustam Minnikhanov, and Alexander Antonov, the republic’s security service chief, were among the killed, said Tatarstan Republic’s deputy prime minister Yury Kamaltynov.

The National aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said the plane was about to fly a second circle before landing.

The cause of the crash was yet to be determined as the black boxes had not been found.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to the families of the killed, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, adding that the president also instructed for setting up an investigation commission for the air crash.

Russian Investigative Committee, the country’s criminal investigative body, said it would send experts to the site of the air crash, and the committee head Alexander Bastrykin would fly to Kazan Monday. 

Tatarstan authorities declared Monday as the day of mourning for the air crash victims.

-IANS

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At least 100 people were killed in the latest clashes between Messiria and Salamat tribes in Sudan’s Darfur region, official Sudan Radio reported on Saturday.

“Clashes broke out between Messiria and Salamat tribes in Um Dokhon area in Central Darfur State, which resulted in the killing of around 100 people and injuring of dozens,” Xinhua quoted the radio as saying in its mobile news service.

The fighting ceased after local authorities and security forces intervened, the report said, noting that the authorities were conducting comprehensive listing for losses the clashes left. 

Meanwhile, Assudan Newspaper, an independent electronic newspaper, reported that some Chadian soldiers were also killed during the tribe clashes in Um Dokhon.

“Chadian soldiers, who were part of a joint Sudanese-Chadian patrol on the border, were killed during the battles between the two tribes in Darfur region,” the paper quoted what it termed as “humanitarian source” as saying.

Up to now, the Sudanese army spokesperson has made no comments on the clashes.

The tribal clashes in Darfur added another dimension to the armed conflict in the region which has been suffering from a civil war since 2003.

Two days ago, the UN warned against outbreak of tribal clashes between Messiria and Salamat in central Darfur state, disclosing that it had received field reports showing that the two tribes were mobilising their groups in areas of Um Dokhon, Bendasi and Mukjar in the state.

Clashes between the two tribes last year led to the death of at least 136 people. The UN said around 4,000 people have fled their homes due to the tension in central Darfur state.

-IANS

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British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a tough message to Sri Lanka in Colombo on Saturday, insisting that if the island country does not put its human rights issues in order by March, his country will push for an international investigation into the alleged war crimes.

Cameron made his stance clear after visiting the former war torn northern part of Sri Lanka Friday and having a meeting with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa, reported Xinhua.

Cameron is the first foreign leader to visit Jaffna since Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948 and he insisted that the visit “gave a voice to the Tamil people in the north and it is a voice the world should listen to”. 

“I have made clear to Sri Lanka’s president that he now has a real opportunity to show magnanimity and reform and build a successful and inclusive future for his country and I very much hope he seizes it,” he told reporters. 

“Let me be very clear. If an investigation is not completed by March then I will use our position on the UN Human Rights Council to work with the UN Human Rights Commissioner and call for a full, credible and international inquiry.”

-IANS

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Sixty-five Australians were among more than 300 people arrested worldwide after Toronto police smashed a Canadian-based child sex abuse ring, the New South Wales (NSW) Police said on Friday.

As part of a global investigation targeting the users of a Canadian-based child exploitation website, the Australian federal police and state and territory police arrested 65 people, including two teachers, a priest and a former priest under Operation Thunderer, Xinhua reported. 

The four men have all been charged with possessing child abuse material and using a carriage service to access child pornography.

Meanwhile, 386 children around the world have been removed from harm, including six in Australia, the NSW Police said.

The three-year investigation was announced by Canadian authorities on Thursday night referring the details of numerous Australian-based users of the child exploitation website to policing jurisdictions in Australia.

Commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad, Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, said the Sex Crimes Squad would continue to work closely with its counterparts both in Australia and overseas to target those people involved in the sexual exploitation of children.

“The internet has created new opportunities for sex offenders to target and sexually exploit children and we will continue to prioritise the identification of these people so they can be put before the courts,” he said in a statement.

“Behind every child abuse image there is a real victim who has been sexually exploited and abused, and we need to do everything we can to remove these children from harm and arrest those involved in that exploitation.”

-IANS

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The number of deaths in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Haiyan rose to 2,357, a government agency said on Thursday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in its report that 77 persons remained missing and the number of injured stood at 3,853, reports Xinhua.

More than eight million Filipinos in 43 provinces have been affected by the most powerful typhoon in the country’s history. About 534,340 individuals have been displaced and 359,570 people are still in 1,099 evacuation centres.

The Philippine Civil Aviation Authority-controlled airports are now operational, but operations in Tacloban city, the worst-hit area, are still limited, the report said.

Power shortage is still being experienced in some provinces in the central part of the country. Telecommunication services have been restored in 88 percent of the areas in Aklan province, 65 percent in Capiz province and 94 percent in Antique province. 

-IANS

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A new survey found that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan rose to record levels this year, with a 36 percent increase compared to last year, a UN official said on Wednesday.

Yury Fedotov, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), called the findings sobering, Xinhua reported quoting UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky as saying at a daily news briefing. 

Fedotov underscored the need for an integrated, comprehensive response to the drug problem, embedded in a long-term security, development and institution-building agenda, he said.

The 2013 Afghanistan Opium Survey, released in Kabul by the Afghan ministry of counter narcotics and UNODC, said the area under cultivation rose to 209,000 hectares from last year’s total of 154,000 hectares — higher than the peak of 193,000 hectares in 2007.

Almost 90 percent of opium poppy cultivation this year remained confined to nine of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, including those most affected by the insurgency, the survey found.

Helmand, the principal poppy-producer since 2004 and responsible for nearly half of all cultivation, expanded the area under cultivation by 34 percent, followed by Kandahar, which saw a 16 percent rise, it added.

In addition, two provinces — Balkh and Faryab — lost their “poppy-free” status, leaving 15 provinces poppy-free this year compared with 17 last year, it said.

Farmers may have driven up cultivation by trying to shore up their assets as insurance against an uncertain future resulting from the withdrawal of international troops next year, according to UNODC.

-IANS

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