Indian-American Richard Rahul Verma has been sworn in as the US Ambassador to India by Secretary of State John Kerry.
46-year-old Verma is the first ever Indian-American to be the top US diplomat in New Delhi.
He is scheduled to arrive in India ahead of Kerry’s visit to Delhi next month. US President Barack Obama will arrive in late January to attend the Republic Day Parade on January 26 as the Chief Guest.
He was confirmed by the US Senate by a voice vote last week. Last week he met Obama at the White House.
Verma, who quietly played an important role in the Congressional passage of civil nuclear deal with India, had advocated for strong Indo-US ties when in the administration and recently started “India 2020” project at Centre for American Progress — a top American-think tank.
He will replace Nancy Powell, who resigned in March after a damaging row over the treatment of diplomat Devyani Khobragade over visa fraud charges.
The US Embassy in New Delhi is currently headed by a charge d’affaires, Kathleen Stephens.
Verma’s association with Obama goes back to 2008 when he worked on presidential debate preparations for the then Illinois senator.
His parents came to the US in the early 1960s.
“It is a day of celebration for Indian Americans,” said Dr Sampat Shivangi, national president of Indian American Forum for Political Education.
“Verma deserves this worthy appointment due to his dedication and well deserved respect he commands from President Obama and entire US Congress and the nation,” said Shivangi, one of the few Indian—Americans invited to attend the swearing in ceremony at the State Department yesterday.
The event was closed for the press.
CAIRNS (Australia): Australian police said on Saturday they had arrested the mother of most of eight children reportedly stabbed to death in the northern city of Cairns, as vigils were held to mourn the tragedy.
Officers have not revealed the cause of death of the children, aged between 18 months and 14 years, but said knives were found at the house where the bodies were discovered on Friday morning.
READ ALSO: Eight children found dead in Australia home
Flowers and teddy bears were laid near the crime scene and church services were held overnight in Cairns for the killings, which have shocked the community.
“The 37-year-old mother of several of the children involved in this incident has been arrested for murder overnight and is currently under police guard at the Cairns Base Hospital,” detective inspector Bruno Asnicar told reporters.
The woman, believed to be the mother of seven of the children and the aunt of the eighth, has not been charged, but Queensland Police said she was assisting them with their inquiries.
Flowers and stuffed toys are laid opposite the scene where eight children ranging from babies to teenagers were found dead in a house in the northern Australian city of Cairns early on December 20, 2014. (AFP Photo)
“She’s stable and being looked after,” Asnicar said, adding that the woman, who has stab wounds to her upper body, was “awake … lucid and speaking”. He could not say whether her wounds were self-inflicted.
“At this stage we’re not looking for anybody else. We’re comfortable that the community at large is safe,” he added.
The murders have rocked Australia, which is still reeling from a dramatic siege in a central Sydney cafe this week that left two hostages and a gunman dead and prompted a huge outpouring of emotion.
The dead children were reportedly discovered by the mother’s 20-year-old son when he arrived at the house in the Cairns suburb of Manoora on Friday morning.
The deaths have come as a shock to police, who said the house was not known as a “problem house”.
“This is just an ordinary neighbourhood,” Asnicar said. “A lot of good people, a lot of kids in the area and this is just something that has caught everybody by surprise. It’s absolutely tragic.”
Candlelit vigils and church services took place in Cairns overnight, and police said they are working closely with the indigenous Torres Strait Islander community to which the family belonged.
Torres Shire Council Mayor Pedro Stephen told Australian Associated Press that the entire region was grieving.
“It’s like a bomb has gone off,” he said. “Everyone is in shock.” Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Taylor said the impact of the deaths would be felt across Australia.
“There will be people who have never, ever been to Cairns who will be touched by this tragedy,” he said.
Reports said a woman was heard screaming in the house on Thursday night, with Brisbane’s Courier-Mail saying she was heard to shout: “Don’t let them take away from us. God bless us. Forgive me for what I’ll do.”
One neighbour told the paper the woman was having “a bad night” on Thursday.
“I heard her fighting with someone this morning about 4:00 am” on Friday (1800 GMT Thursday), she said. “I last saw her about 6:00 am, then it was quiet.
“I saw her moving stuff out of the house yesterday. She was putting furniture and stuff out the front on the street, giving stuff away to family and friends.
“She said she was changing her life. She wasn’t well but she loved those kids.”
A 13-year-old girl who is friends with one of the children that lived in the house said she had walked her friend home on Thursday night after shopping and had met the mother, who had given her money for a taxi ride home.
“She was saying stuff about God and other stuff,” she told Australian Associated Press. “She said: ‘Papa God gave me the power to do anything’.”
Nagapattinam: An engineer was missing after a barge carrying 60 tonnes of essential commodities and diesel to a ship engaged in exploration activities off Nagapattinam coast sank in the sea, Coast Guard officials said.
The CG managed to rescue seven workers on board but the Engineer Ranjith Singh, who was in command of the barge, was missing.
They had set sail from Karaikal port on Thursday to ferry the items to the ship owned by a Mumbai-based firm, officials said.
Last evening, the barge developed a problem when it was off Nagapattinam coast with workers spotting an oil leak. When the engineer was trying to set things right, a glass pane of the barge broke and sea water started getting in following which it started sinking.
The seven workers managed to jump into the sea.
On information, Indian Coast Guard, Karaikal Station Commander Uddhal Singh deputed a vessel to the spot which rescued the workers struggling in the water and brought them to shore. They were given first aid and admitted to Karaikal Government Hospital last night.
However, the team could not trace the engineer, a native of Mumbai, Singh said, adding, search operations were still on.
DUBAI: A bomb blast in a Shiite village in Bahrain, the scene of simmering unrest since anti-government protests were crushed in 2011, has left three policemen slightly wounded, officials said.
The three were on patrol in the village of Bani Jamra when the blast occurred, the Gulf kingdom’s Interior Ministry said in a statement on Twitter posted late Friday.
It said that the three sustained minor injuries, describing the explosion as a “terrorist” blast and adding that “necessary steps are being taken,” without elaborating.
Witnesses said that the blast occurred late Friday and that security forces swiftly sealed off the village, which lies not far from the capital Manama.
They added that a young protester was also injured in clashes with police in another Shiite village, Sanabes, late Friday.
Attacks against security forces have intensified this year.
Two people, including a Jordanian policeman, were killed in the area last week.
It was the first deadly attack on security forces since parliamentary polls in November boycotted by the main Shiite opposition group, which is calling for democratic reforms in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
The election was the first in the Gulf state since authorities quelled the 2011 protests.
Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, remains deeply divided three years after the month-long demonstrations.
Protests still frequently break out in Bahrain’s Shiite villages, sometimes sparking clashes with police.
Attacks on the security forces have increased this year, with three policemen – including an Emirati – killed in a bombing in a Shiite area on March 3.
Another policeman was killed in a bomb blast in a Shiite village in February during protests marking the third anniversary of the failed uprising.
With an aim of preserving and revitalising the soul of old cities, government will launch the Rs 500 crore heritage city development project early next year.
National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) will be launched for 12 selected cities early next year, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said at a workshop organised here for the project.
The cities selected for the HRIDAY project are Amritsar, Varanasi, Gaya, Puri, Ajmer, Velankanni, Mathura, Kanchipuram, Dwarka, Badami, Warangal and Amravati.
The cities selected under the scheme are symbolic of the broad diversity in the heritage prevalent in our country, in form of their cultural, regional and religious identities, he said, adding, “More cities will be identified in due course based on joint consultations between Centre and states.”
As per the plan of action, steps will be taken to tap the unlimited potential underlying in tourism and heritage sector unleashing the power of skillful artisans and traditional economy.
“Our aim is to preserve the rich heritage and showcase them to the next generation as the contribution or achievements of our ancestors,” he said.
The project with a time-frame of three to five years and an outlay of Rs 500 crores in Phase 1 is expected to be launched next year.
Naidu said the entire funding will be from the Centre and the cities will have to submit the detailed project report for this.
HRIDAY will have four themes – physical infrastructure, institutional infrastructure, economic infrastructure and social infrastructure for reviving and revitalising the soul of heritage city.
He said the project is also open to private participation. “If any organisation wants to join it then it is OK because citizens’ engagement shall be pivotal”.
“A liitle effort on our side can create transformational changes, which will make the past, the present and the future generations of the country and the world proud of India,” he said.
The United Nations has been talking to the Afghan Taliban on measures to limit the impact of the conflict on civilians, as it recorded the highest ever number of civilians killed and injured in Afghanistan in 2014.
UN’s top official in Afghanistan Nicholas Haysom told reporters here yesterday that the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is continuing discussions with all parties, including the Taliban, to strengthen mitigating measures to limit the impact of the conflict on civilians.
“We think it is really important to engage all parties to the conflict on the question of civilian casualties…We have more recently engaged with the Taliban,” he said.
UNAMA continues to advocate and lobby all parties particularly “anti-government elements” to do much more to abide by their legal obligation under international law and under Afghan law to reduce civilian casualties and to not attack civilians either deliberately or indiscriminately.
Haysom highlighted the devastating impact of the conflict on Afghan civilians.
Civilian casualties in Afghanistan increased by nearly 20 per cent in 2014 compared to the previous year and are expected to rise to a figure over 10,000 by end of December for the first time since the UN mission in the country began keeping record in 2008.
UNAMA documented that from January 2014 to the end of November there were 9,617 civilian casualties which includes 3,188 civilian deaths and 6,429 civilian injuries.
“One of the measurements of the security situation has been civilian casualties,” the special envoy said.
“Civilian casualties are a particularly tragic and very prominent part, even benchmark, of the horror of the violence that ordinary Afghans face.”
As of November 30, UNAMA recorded more civilian deaths and injuries during 2014 than in any other year since it began its authoritative reports in 2009.
Civilian casualties increased 19 per cent overall from last year, Haysom said. These casualties resulted mostly from ground engagements between parties to the conflict, improvised explosive devices, and suicide and complex attacks.
Insurgents were responsible for at least 75 per cent of the casualties. Children casualties increased 33 per cent compared to 2013, with casualties among women up 12 per cent.
Georgette Gagnon, the Director of Human Rights at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said current projections indicate that 2014 will be the first year that the civilian casualty count will pass 10,000 civilian casualties since it began its reports.
India’s troubled airline SpiceJet has grounded flights after oil companies refused to refuel any of its planes, reports say.
The debt-ridden carrier owes money to creditors, including oil companies.
SpiceJet is India’s fourth-biggest airline by market share.
On Tuesday, civil aviation authorities gave SpiceJet a reprieve when they said state-owned oil companies would be asked to give credit to the cash-strapped airline for up to 15 days.
The civil aviation ministry also said that banks or other financial institutions would be asked to lend up to $94m (£60m), backed by a personal guarantee of SpiceJet chairman Kalanithi Maran, a well-known media businessman.
The ministry said the measures were aimed at avoiding a collapse which it said would be a “major setback” for the airline industry.
Correspondents say the government hopes to save jobs and prevent a repeat of the high-profile collapse of Kingfisher Airlines which was grounded in 2012.
It is not clear, however, why oil companies have refused to refuel SpiceJet planes after Tuesday’s announcements.
“Not even a single flight has taken off this morning due to fuel supply issue with the oil companies,” sources in the SpiceJet told the BBC on Wednesday.
SpiceJet has $314m (£200m) in debts and it is looking to raise funds.
The company has been unable to pay its dues to staff, airports, tax authorities and its lenders.
The airline, which has been making losses since last year, is also battling refunds for customers and forced flight cancellations.
It has already cut the size of its fleet by a third since September and cancelled dozens of flights a day for the rest of the year.
TEXAS CITY, Texas –
The owners of a Galveston County plumbing company have received phones calls and threats from people over a photo that’s gone viral on the internet.
The photo originally appeared on Twitter and was reportedly put there by a militant group in Syria who is fighting the civil war.
The photo shows a Ford F-250 pick-up truck with “Mark-1 Plumbing” written on the side, the name of the local plumbing company, along with their phone number. In the back of the truck is a man with a large gun.
Believe it or not, the vehicle once belonged to the owners of the plumbing company. Local 2 stopped by their Texas City office but no one wanted to appear on camera.
The owner’s son did confirm they got rid of the truck during a deal with the Autonation dealership on the Gulf Freeway.
A spokesperson for Autonation told Local 2, the vehicle was part of a trade-in, back in November 2013. The 2005 pick-up truck had 176,000 miles on it and within 24 hours went to auction.
What happened to it after that is a mystery.
The Autonation spokesperson said whoever obtained the vehicle probably didn’t register it because that’s where the paper trail stops. He also said the truck was probably part of an overseas whole sale and that’s how it ended up in Syria.
Mexico City (AFP) – An armed group briefly seized about 60 Mexican reporters and their families and beat some of them for supposedly showing disrespect towards 43 missing students, a local journalist organization said Tuesday.
The journalists were gathered for an annual awards ceremony Saturday in the town of Tlapa de Comonfort in the restive state of Guerrero — where the students vanished in September — when the attackers went for them shouting “Sold-out press!”
“There were dozens, nearly a hundred persons, some of them wearing hoods and armed, and others with sticks and police clubs,” Miguel Angel Mata, president of the Guerrero Journalists’ Club, told AFP.
The state has been simmering with protests since the disappearance and presumed massacre of the 43 male students, allegedly at the hands of a drug gang in league with police in the Guerrero town of Iguala.
Mata said the armed assailants identified themselves as members of the Popular Movement of Guerrero, which includes a radical state teacher’s union as well as students of the teachers college that the missing students attended.
Local press reports said several men armed with rifles and wearing the uniforms of community guards locked the journalists in the town hall.
They said they were a jury and were going to try us because we had come to offend them,” Mata said.
He said they accused the journalists of breaking mourning over the deaths of the missing students by using the awards event to promote politicians.
“They began to beat me, my wife and some companions,” Mata said.
They stopped only after the newspaper Milenio reported on its website that journalists had been kidnapped.
The group then made Mata deny the report in a video that circulated on the Internet in which he is seen with a man armed with a rifle standing behind him.
He said they were finally released around midnight Saturday.
“We talked to the state human rights commission, the national commission, the government, and no one came to help us,” Mata said.
The Paying GuestsSarah Waters
“Five hundred pages-plus of effortless reading. A story that begins with the simple premise of a mother and daughter taking in paying guests to help with financial difficulties. It turns into a page-turning extraordinary thriller.” jkinnaird
“Sarah Waters is well-informed and skilful in unfolding a story, presenting detailed descriptions of people whose inner lives and social histories are generally ignored by traditional literature. Waters describes housework, lesbian sexuality among ordinary people, and untold class and money issues created by the first world war and its aftermath.” Dianne Hunter
What we said: “Satire meets costume drama” – read the Guardian review
2Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain SurgeryHenry Marsh
“A stunningly honest and moving memoir of Dr Marsh’s life as a neurosurgeon.” stilllistening
“This is the book which explains why I so often prefer non-fiction to fiction these days. Who could make up a story as interesting and moving as this? It is suspenseful, sometimes chilling, humane and wise. And, it has the funniest anecdote about computers and lost passwords which tops all yours! I laughed out loud and immediately shared it with friends. You can’t not read this book.” philipskel
“Honest, fascinating, funny and moving.” Diana Patel
“Gripping, surprisingly honest, very well written memoir of a brain surgeon.” howardjl
3Elizabeth Is MissingEmma Healey
“Poignant but deadly accurate depiction of someone suffering from dementia solving a crime. Anyone with a relative suffering dementia will recognise the black humour! A brilliant debut.” xerif
“A beautifully written insight into the mind of a dementia sufferer, it certainly opened my eyes. It’s both funny and heartbreakingly sad. It’s a very simple read, but the reader takes away a clearer, more complex understanding of a condition which is likely to affect many of us in modern times. I would highly recommend this book.” scotty01
What we said: “Emma Healey’s dementia detective story” – read the Guardian review
4The Book of Strange New ThingsMichel Faber
“Michel Faber is a wonderful author. His writing skills and use of language are superb. In this new novel he introduces themes which could make the book difficult to read or perhaps follow, but I could not leave it alone until I had finished it. There is a poignancy to the book that remains long after the reading of it has finished.” maureenglasgow
What we said: “Astonishing and deeply affecting” – read the Guardian review
5We Are All Completely Beside OurselvesKaren Joy Fowler
“ A masterly study of family interactions, behaviours, and the nature of memory. It tackles some serious moral issues without getting heavy.” Roburite
“Because the story was completely unexpected, as well as enjoying the book, I also learned a few things.” Isabelle Leinster
“I liked the character, story, twist and interesting use of scientific studies of chimps and it is v well written and narrator was very funny at times.” ID9694371
What we said: “A provocative take on family love” – read the Guardian review
6All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony Doerr
“Beautifully written, a beautiful story about family, duty, and personal honour.” Melody Alder Maysonet
“This is a novel with many layers and beautiful language.” HeleneM
What we said: “A story of morality, science and Nazi occupation” – read the Guardian review
Anthony Doerr’s book takes in the Nazi occupation of France and the D-Day landings. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
7The Bone ClocksDavid Mitchell
“There are many reasons this novel is great – its richly characterised voices, its sumptuous period details, its dark sense of humour and healthy but never grating awareness of itself. None of these even gets close to why it’s such a marvel. Its plot is truly ridiculous. It is basically unspoilable. It’s the kind of labyrinthine sci-fi that teenage boys love and everyone else gives a heartening smile and pats on the head. But 600 pages fly by without stopping for a second to think, wait, how did I just let any of this happen?” Nicholas Watts
What we said: “Dazzle of narrative fireworks” – read the Guardian review
8This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. the ClimateNaomi Klein
“The impact of climate change, as Margaret Atwood says, is a conversation we need to have now. It cannot be put off any longer and Klein’s book reinforces that thought with clarity.” LaikaLizzie
“Naomi Klein is a mainstream author, and she was bold for writing about a topic that is still not considered appropriate when people socialise. This book spells out reality, it’s easy to read and the message is incredibly important. I read about 35 books a year – this is top of my list over the last 12 months.” Ian James
What we said: “It addresses a potential catastrophe yet is calm and welcoming” – read the Guardian review
9The Narrow Road to the Deep NorthRichard Flanagan
“No one needs telling even once that war is a horrible business for everyone involved, during and after, but sometimes it’s good to be told in a way that is painfully beautiful and moving. As this book is.” zendik
“I don’t think I have ever read a book like it. The harrowing descriptions of the POWs’ existence in Burma juxtaposed with a passionate but ill-fated love affair said so much to me about the potential of human experience to be at once beautiful and terrible; I have felt haunted by it ever since.” philojo
“Literary quality of the writing combined with ethical philosophy and believable characterisation. Great historical fiction.” 100blague
10The GoldfinchDonna Tart
It wouldn’t be a proper end-of-year list without a bit of cheating. The Goldfinch came out at the end of 2013, but it was published in paperback this year and that’s when the majority of readers have had a chance to read it – so we decided to accept the nominations.
“A long book, with not a word wasted. Wonderful characters in an utterly compelling story. Clever, funny and curiously misunderstood. Could read it again already!” lilycarver
“It is an experience, dreamlike, sharp with grief and the growing up on it. I love Theo like he is a real person. He is more than three dimensional, he has a psyche. This will remain an all-time favourite book.” Madeleineann
“Just a wonderfully woven dark (and richly long) tale of redemption, sacrifice, loss, life choices and beauty, all in the beholder’s eye. I read professionally for work, so to devote my time (and then desire) to delve into this 850+ page wonder-read – on a colleague’s recommendation, no less – and then to so thoroughly enjoy the writing so as not to want to put it down, is statement enough. 2014’s deserved Pulitzer winner.” Jennifer Cross
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