A black man in the White House.
Barack Obama 47, defeated Senator John McCain 72  with a wide margin.
  OBAMA - 338
  McCAIN - 158. 


  
  GUWAHATI, November 3, 2008 (Reuters): A strike to protest against bombings that killed 84 people in India's troubled Assam state last week shut down the region on Monday, police said, with angry Indians blaming illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
  Protesters marched through the otherwise deserted streets of Guwahati, the state's main city, where 44 people died on Thursday when three bombs exploded within minutes. 
  The death toll in Thursday's serial bomb blasts in Assam has reached 84. Over 300 other have been injured in the 12 blasts in the fours cities of the state.

  Govt frees up petrol prices, hikes other fuels
  Dehli, June 25, 2010: The government on Friday freed up state-subsidised petrol prices and hiked other fuels as high global oil prices and pressure to trim the budget deficit outweighed concerns about the political impact of the measures. A panel of ministers increased prices of state-subsidised diesel, kerosene and cooking gas prices, which could help reduce the fiscal
deficit from the projected 5.5 percent of 2010/11 GDP and free up revenues for other programmes.
  The panel said petrol prices would be market driven, rising 3.50 rupees per litre, while kerosene prices would rise by 3 rupees a litre. While petrol is mainly used by the middle class for cars, kerosene is used by the poor for power. 
  Diesel prices will rise 2 rupees per litre and will be freed up in the future. Cooking gas prices were raised by 35 rupees a cylinder. "It was decided that the price of petrol will be market determined both at the refinery gate and at the retail level," Oil Secretary S.Sundareshan told reporters. Raising fuel prices would stoke inflationary pressures.
  Fire at Stephen Court on Park Street in Kolkata
  Kolkata, March 29, 2010: The fire at Stephen  building on the busy Park Street in Kolkata broke out at the fifth floor of the building and spread to the sixth. The death toll in Tuesday’s fire that destroyed portions of the multi-storeyed building on Park Street mounted to 43 on Monday .6 more skulls were found . 
  The bodies of 17 persons who were burnt alive were discovered by firemen in the staircase between the fifth and sixth floors of the building in the wee hours of the day after the flames were finally doused, an official of the fire services said. A six member forensic team visited the building to carry out investigations. Several commercial units besides residential apartments are housed in the building. Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, also visited the spot and instructed 
the officials of the fire services to rescue any who may remain trapped in the affected floors. 
  The sixth and seventh floors were constructed without proper sanction and were regularised later. Fire safety rules and building norms had been grossly violated, a fire official said. 
  Jyoti Basu remains critical
  KOLKATA, January 11, 2010 (PTI):  CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu continued to remain in a critical condition today with doctors attending on him saying that lack of any improvement in his health was "not a good sign". "It is not a good sign. We expected a bit more improvement, but there has been no change in Basu''s health. A patient staying in ICU without any improvement is a bad sign," medical board member Dr Susrut Bandyopadhyay told reporters here today.
  According to hospital sources, 95-year-old Basu''s blood pressure has been normal and he has been responding to broadspectrum antibiotics. The oedema, which is accumulation of fluid, in Basu''s brain has been arrested, doctors said, adding that he has been able to take in 40 per cent of the supplied oxygen. Doctors said they were unsure of Basu''s health if the three external supplies - partial ventilation, oxygen supply and food - were withdrawn. Doctors are taking measures to prevent bed sores as the former chief minister remained confined to bed in ICU, sources said. Basu was admitted to the hospital 11 days ago with pneumonia. 
  Jyoti Basu remains critical, PM, Pranab visit hospital
   Kolkata, January 07, 2010: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday paid a visit to 95- year-old Marxist veteran and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, who is in a critical 
condition at a hospital in Kolkata following a pneumonia attack. Manmohan Singh reached the private hospital in Salt Lake at around 1 pm and headed for the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) where Basu is being treated. He was at the hospital for over 20 minutes. He was accompanied by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chief Minister  Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who also received him at the airport. Basu was admitted to the hospital near his Indira Bhavan residence Jan 1 and is on ventilator support. 
  The prime minister had arrived in Kolkata from Delhi in a special aircraft around 12.30 pm only to visit Basu. After the brief one-and-a-half hour visit to the city, he left from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI)  airport. Entry was restricted to the hospital ahead of the prime minister's visit and traffic was diverted on nearby roads. Jammers were installed and Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel threw a security cordon around the hospital. The state government deployed a large number of armed policemen, Special Action Force (SAF) and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel to ensure foolproof security for the Prime Minister. Even the doctors had to undergo security checks before being allowed to enter the hospital on Thursday morning. Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Shyamal Chakraborty had 
earlier requested political luminaries and other dignitaries wishing to visit Basu to stay away from the hospital during the prime minister's visit.
  Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
   (Norway), October 9, 2009 (ANI): United States President Barack Obama has been surprisingly given the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 for his extraordinary efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and for taking landmark initiatives to create a nuclear-free world. 
   Announcing the award here, an official of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that Obama was yet to be informed about the award, and would receive the award on December 10 this year. He also said that Obama had beaten 205 other nominees for the prestigious award, which includes a gold medal, a Nobel diploma and 1.4 million dollars.
   The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 90 times to 120 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2009 - 97 times to individuals and 23 times to organizations.Since International Committee of the Red Cross was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981, that means 97 individuals and 20 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
  The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
  Venkatraman Ramakrishnan wins Nobel for Chemistry
   London, October 7, 2009 (PTI) Tamil Nadu-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, a senior scientist at the MRC Laborartory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 along with two others, the Nobel Committee announced today.
  Born in 1952 in Chidambaram, Ramakrishnan shares the Nobel prize with Thomas E Steitz (US) and Ada E Yonath (Israel) for their "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". Ramakrishnan earned his B.Sc. in Physics (1971) from Baroda University and his Ph.D. in Physics (1976) from Ohio University. He moved into biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he took a year of classes, then conducted research with Dr Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist.
  82 killed as cyclone hits West Bengal, army called
  KOLKATA, May 27, 2009: The city and some districts, devastated by cyclone Aila on Monday, are yet to come to terms with the reality, even as the death toll shot up to 82. Fresh areas in the north were reeling under the impact of the cyclone’s after-effects on Tuesday. More than 2.2 million people have been affected.
  Heavy and incessant rain in Darjeeling triggered landslips, which claimed nine lives. At least six people are reported missing. The highway connecting the hills to the rest of the State was blocked at several places. While Kolkata limped back to normal, vast areas of the districts hit by the cyclonic storm on Monday were under water that gushed in through breaches in the embankments. Army and Border Security Force personnel are assisting in rescue operations in Darjeeling and North and South 24 Parganas districts. Two MI-17 helicopters of the Air Force are airdropping relief materials and carrying out evacuations in inaccessible areas in South and North 24 Parganas.
  More than 41,000 people, who have lost their homes, have been put up in 109 relief camps. Around 61,000 houses have been destroyed and 1.32 lakh partially damaged, Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said here.Certain areas, including Patharpratima in South 24 Parganas district, remain inaccessible..

  Swine flu attack
  New Delhi, May 3, 2009: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus is 331 people. Mexico has seen the worst of the outbreak, with 156 confirmed cases by the WHO, though Mexican authorities put the number higher, at 300 cases in Mexico alone and more than 150 deaths. All schools have been closed and much of the country will be shut down over the next five days coinciding with a public holiday, but in an effort to stem the deadly outbreak. The US has confirmed 109 cases and 11 countries have now been hit. 
  Overnight the name of the virus has been changed from Swine flu to the 2009 H1N1 virus or H1N1 Influenza A because the World Health Organisation says the agriculture industry worldwide and United Nations Food Agency were concerned the term was mis-leading people, and also leading to the slaughter of pigs across the world.
  New Delhi, May 1, 2009:   Swine flu was confirmed in three more countries on April 30 prompting the WHO to raisew the flu alert level to five , a warning that the world is on the the brink of an epidemic.  
  The unconfirmed swine flu death toll is 160 in  Mexico.  India has begun  tracking passengers who traveled from Mexico and Us over the last week.

  World Bank bans 7 Indian companies so far
  MUMBAI/DELHI, Januay 13, 2009: Satyam, and now, Wipro Technologies and Megasoft, join the 300 companies that have been blacklisted by the World Bank since 2000. The More Pictures list includes four other India-based vendors. GAP International (India), a corporate training firm, and an individual Surendra Singh whose identity could not be verified, have been permanently barred since 2001. The Bank banned Nestor Pharmaceuticals in 2007 until 2010, and Pune- based Pure Pharma until 2007. 
  IT companies came under the Bank radar as its procurement policy of 2006 included "allotment of shares" as grounds for imposing bans. The others have been banned for alleged malpractices in the tendering process. "Wipro should have known that awarding shares to the staff while working with the Bank is against its regulations. However, the ban was imposed only after the policy came into effect in 2006," a World Bank spokesman told ET.
  According to IT industry sources, the total value of World Bank's outsourcing business given to Indian companies annually is around $25 million. TCS is its largest vendor in India and the company also provides back-up to the Bank's back-office in Chennai.  

  Satyam scam
  Govt not planning Satyam bailout for now 
  NEW DELHI, Jan 15, 2009 (Reuters): The government is not at the moment considering any financial bailout package for fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd, Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla said on Thursday. "Not at this stage," Chawla said when asked whether the government was considering any financial help for Satyam.
  Shares of Satyam tumbled as much as 30 percent on Thursday after one of its newly appointed directors dashed investor hopes for any government bailout. Satyam is a financially viable company,  quoting Kiran Karnik, one of three new directors appointed by the government after the company last week revealed India's biggest ever corporate scandal.
  January 08, 2009: Satyam scam is the worst fraud in corporate India's history, Ramalinga Raju admitted to cooking Satyam's books for years; resigned as Satyam Chairman. Ram Mynampati will act as the interim CEO. Both the centre and the state government promised action against Satyam and Ramalinga Raju.
  The Andhra Pradesh government may also review Satyam's three Special Economic Zones, and all projects undertaken by Maytas. Market regulator SEBI has also launched a probe into alleged insider trading in the Satyam stock and is also in touch with the exchanges for coordinated action. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said there’s no question of the government taking Satyam over. Dalal Street also went into a shock after Raju's admissions; the Satyam stock crashed over 77% as 30% of its investors sold, pulled the Nifty down 192 points and the Sensex by 749 points. 
 The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today expressed its shock and disappointment at the disclosures made by Mr B Ramalinga Raju on the financial position and financial statements of Satyam Computer Services.  India Inc has been shocked by the Satyam scandal. Industry veterans have called for more rigid auditing processes and have called for a dramatic change in mindsets. Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC said, “I am surprised, I am shocked. It is a scandal.” 
  Rajeev Chandrashekhar, President, FICCI said, “Obviously the unkind and the strongest argument would be that they were in some way a part of this, so either way I do not think that they are off the hook.”  Anand Mahindra, VC & MD, M&M said, “I am very, very angry at this development because I think it's done incalculable and unjustifiable damage to the image of India abroad in a generic sense and particularly to the image of Indian IT which was ironically what led the creation of brand India in the past decades.”  
 The New York stock exchange also said that the trading on the Satyam ADR was suspended even before trading opened and will not reopen. HP Ranina, Advocate, Supreme Court is of the view that there is a failure on the part of audit committee on the board. Under the IPC this is nothing but cheating under section 420 and that could involve at least 7 years imprisonment.” Pankaj Jain, Council Member, ICAI said for the audit committee, there is also a financial penalty of Rs 5 lakh which can be levied on the guilty member.
                                                                                                                

  Hooch death toll mounts to 25 in Kolkata
  KOLKATA, January 6, 2009: The Kidderpore hooch tragedy claimed another eight lives since Sunday night, pushing up the death toll to 25. Around 200 litre of illicit liquor was seized and 12 people running the dens were arrested.  Three people who consumed spurious liquor at the Bibi Halt and Hooghly Jute Mill slums are still admitted at Shambhu Nath Pandit hospital.
  State finance minister Asim Dasgupta said a deputy excise collector and a sub-inspector of the excise department have been showcaused. "The OC of West Port police station has been removed. Police have given a preliminary report. We will go to the bottom of this. The police commissioner and excise commissioner will review the situation every month," he said. Among the five arrested on Sunday Lakshmi Devi alias Kani, Savita and Prabhu Devi ran the outlet at Hooghly jute mill.

  Sheikh Hasina Wajed of Bangladesh returns to power
 Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the Awami League leader and the former prime minister of Bangladesh whose father led the nation to independence, returns to power in a landslide victory. After spending a year in custody on murder and corruption charges,  she never left Bangladesh's turbulent political scene and sealed her comeback with a crushing victory over arch rival Khaleda Zia.
  Sheikh Hasina, 61, first came to power in 1996, ruling for five years, although she has always struggled to come out of the shadow of her father, president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in a 1975 military coup. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led Bangladesh in its liberation struggle against Pakistan in 1971.
  Sheikh Hasina  the leader of the left-of-centre Awami League told a crowd of 100,000 at her final election rally on Saturday: "There is a threat on my life but I'll continue my struggle to see the country smile."I'll serve you until I die." Her key election promises have been to fight poverty in the country of 144  million, to lower food prices and modernise the country through technology.
  Sheikh Hasina was active in student politics and married nuclear scientist M.A. Wajed Miah in 1968. They have two children, who both live in the United States.  

 
 Sheikh Hasina  the leader of the left-of- centre Awami  League and daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led Bangladesh in its liberation struggle against Pakistan in 1971.
 

  Terror arrack in Mumbai
    Mumbai, November. 30, 2008: After a 60 hour battle the Taj Hotel is finally under control. More than 172 people were killed. 
 The Home minister Shivraj Patil regined and P. Chidabaram has been put in charge of the home portfolio.  
  Ratan Tata, the chairman of the Tata Group of companies which owns the hotel, arrived at the premises later in the morning. He may be shocked by what he finds when he is finally let inside.
  India blamed the strike on "elements" from Pakistan, raising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals. An Indian state minister said one of the militants arrested was a Pakistani national and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned of "a cost" if India's neighbours did not take action to stop their territory being used to launch attacks.
  The arrested man has confessed to being a member of the Pakistan- based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which has long fought Indian forces in disputed Kashmir and was blamed for an attack on India's parliament in December 2001.  But Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi struck a conciliatory note and promised full cooperation. MUMBAI, November 27, 2008: At least six foreigners have been killed and the death figure has gone up to 101 now in one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil.  Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city's most high- profile targets -- the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard -- killing at least 101 and sending hundreds of injured to hospital, according to latest reports. 
  The attacks have taken a tragic toll on the city's top police brass: The high- profile chief of the anti-terror squad Hemant Karkare was killed; Mumbai's additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was gunned down outside the Metro; and celebrated encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was also killed. The attacks appeared to be aimed at getting international attention as the terrorists took upto 40 British nationals and other foreigners hostage. The chairman of Hindustan Unilever Harish Manwani and CEO of the company Nitin Paranjpe were among the guests trapped at the Oberoi. All the internal board members of the multinational giant were reported to be holed up in the Oberoi hotel.   
  The Army and Navy in Mumbai were put on alert. 65 Army commandos and 200 NSG commandos were being rushed to Mumbai, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.  

 
  The top of Taj hotel is burning in terror attack. At least six foreigners have been killed and the death figure has gone up to 101 now in one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil. 

    
    
     
   
 
  

    
Barack Obama
rade and investment, defence and agriculture - all those areas   would now come to the fore. 

     Serial bomb blasts in Assam

   
  Candles lit in Assam to pay homage to blast victims 
  Guwahati, November 03, 2008: People from all walks of life in Assam converged on the streets on Sunday to express their anguish against Thursday’s serial blasts and firm resolve to fight terrorism. Candles were lit to pay tributes to those 
killed in the blasts and to pray for the speedy recovery of the injured.  
    The death toll in Thursday's serial bomb blasts in Assam has reached 84. Over 470 other have been injured in the 12 blasts in the fours cities of the state.  The blasts took place at around 1130 hrs IST in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Bongaigaon. Investigators now focusing on who could be behind the meticulously planned attacks. Security forces believe the blasts were caused by a splinter faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) acting in tandem with the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (HuJI). A new batch of breakaway ULFA cadres are believed to have been given in Chittagong in Bangladesh in April by Bangladesh's military intelligence, DGFI.
  They have been reportedly been asked to strike at urban centers to inflict maximum damage, ULFA has however denied it hand in the blasts. Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said that RDX was used in the blasts in Guwahati.
  In New Delhi, the Union Cabinet, met on Thursday night, and discussed the blasts and the overall internal security situation in the country. Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said all possible steps would be taken to maintain peace and bring the perpetrators of such acts to book. ''Such barbaric acts targeting innocent men, women and children only highlight the desperation and cowardice of those responsible,'' the Prime Minister said while reacting to the Assam blasts.  
 Lawyers of High Court and Sessions Courts in Guwhati abstained from work and held protests outside the court premises. All examinations scheduled under the G.U. and State Education Board of Assam have been canceled till further notice. 

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