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President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer. When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but declined to comment. The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting...

CHICAGO – A fundraiser held by Indian-American businessmen three days before Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges emerged Friday as a potentially key event in the federal investigation into whether he tried to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. Questions are being raised about last Saturday's event for Blagojevich because Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s brother, Jonathan, was among those attending. The Indian community has a long history of supporting the Jackson family's political aspirations, and the congressman has been clear about his interest in succeeding Obama. Rep. Jackson, however, flatly denied that he or his brother...

The Republican Party is in tatters. Over the next few years the party will have to rebuild itself and even select new faces in the coming decade. Among the top candidates for the job is the Indian-born governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. “Jindal is going to be one of the big gainers from a full-scale Republican defeat,” said a key Indian-American political fund-raiser. The Republicans are roughly at the same stage in their history that the Democrats were at after the Ronald Reagan wave. What was notable about John McCain’s defeat was how many traditionally red states turned blue. Virginia,...

NEW YORK: Barack Obama's historic win in the presidential election opens the gates for Indian American politicians like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jin dal to enter the White House in future, the Indian community in the United States said as they congratulated Obama. Sending congratulatory messages to the president-elect, Indian American organisations and community leaders hoped that the Obama Administration in the White House would herald a new era of relationship between India and the US. "The last few years under the Bush administration has seen the ties between US and India grow ever stronger and that culminated in reaching the...

American Hindus, numbering around two million, would not endorse any single candidate for the November four presidential election, it has been reported. The Indo-American Hindu leader Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that religion was something sacred and spiritual; a tool for communication with God; ‘human response to divine Reality’; and meant for focusing the heart/mind of the devotee to some higher ideal. It should not be associated with materialistic objectives like partisan politics.

A stronger relationship with India and a close strategic partnership will be a "top priority" of a Barack Obama administration, says the Democratic presidential candidate. "The US should be working with India on a range of critical issues from preventing terrorism to promoting peace and stability in Asia," Senator Obama said in an exclusive interview with IANS, the first with a South Asian journalist after his nomination for the presidency by the Democratic party. "Joe Biden and I will make building a stronger relationship, including a close strategic partnership, with India a top priority." On his agenda for working with...

Over the course of his presidential bid, Biden cemented his reputation as -- how to put this nicely? -- less than disciplined on the campaign trail. In the summer of 2006, as he was publicly mulling the race, Biden set off a controversy over comments he made about Indian Americans. "I've had a great relationship [with Indian Americans]," Biden said. "In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." On the day he formally announced his candidacy,...

               Sandeep Singh               June 04, 2008 The Department of Homeland Security last week showcased an India-born soldier, one of the six foreign-born members of the military, at a special naturalisation ceremony for new citizens of the United States.Ludhiana-born Sandeep Singh, 23, a soldier in the US Army's 3rd US Infantry Continental Color Guard Team, said he had "followed his desire to serve his adopted nation after the terrorist attacks of 9/11."He was among 26 men and women from 21 countries who were administered the Oath of Allegiance by...

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) — Somehow, being the first Indian-American and the youngest person ever elected to govern a US state wasn't enough. Within weeks of taking office, rising Republican star Piyush "Bobby" Jindal's name was thrown into the ring as a possible vice-presidential candidate by influential conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. And some say the 36-year-old son of Punjabi immigrants could make a great president if he plays his cards right. A cowboy boot-wearing social conservative, Jindal built his political support among Christian conservatives and middle-class whites with his promises to cut taxes, tighten government spending and impose...

The executive committee of the Democratic National Committee has elected three Indian-Americans to the standing committees at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, convening Aug. 25-28 in Denver, Colo....Pakistan-born Iman Malik Mujahid, founder and president of Chicago-based Islamic teaching materials distributor Sound Vision Foundation, was named to the credentials committee, which coordinates selection of convention delegates and alternates. Sunita Leeds, co-chair of the Washington, D.C.-based education-oriented Enfranchisement Foundation, was named one of the three co-chairs of the rules committee...San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Smita Shah, ...were named to the platform committee... Mujahid is a Muslim leader, activist, film producer...

A group of Indian American lobbyists came to New Delhi to learn more about the Indo-US nuclear deal, but ended up becoming a conduit between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). When the eight-member delegation met Manmohan Singh at his residence on Tuesday, they were not only told that the deal was still alive but the prime minister even asked them to carry a message to the BJP leaders. "He told us that as we were meeting BJP leaders, we should pass on a message. He asked us to tell them, 'Let's have an open debate...

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal became the nation's youngest governor and the first nonwhite to hold post in Louisiana since Reconstruction when he carried more than half the vote to defeat 11 opponents. Jindal, the Republican 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, had 53 percent with 625,036 votes with about 92 percent of the vote tallied. It was more than enough to win Saturday's election outright and avoid a November 17 runoff. "My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened. They found the American Dream to be...

Sant S. Chatwal, an Indian American businessman, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns, even as he battled governments on two continents to escape bankruptcy and millions of dollars in tax liens. The founder of the Bombay Palace restaurant chain, Chatwal is one of a growing number of fundraisers in the 2008 presidential campaign whose backgrounds have prompted questions about how much screening the candidates devote to their "bundlers" while they press to raise record amounts. Chatwal's case reached from his native India to New York City. The IRS pursued him for approximately...

Sant Chatwal courts controversy for helping Hillary By Arun Kumar, Washington, Sep 3 : Indian American businessman Sant Chatwal helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hillary Clinton's campaigns even as he battled to escape bankruptcy and millions of dollars in tax liens, the Washington Post alleged Monday. The founder of the Bombay Palace restaurant chain, Chatwal is one of a growing number of fundraisers in the 2008 presidential campaign whose backgrounds have prompted questions about how much screening the candidates devote to their "bundlers" while they press to raise record amounts, the daily said. Chatwal's case reached from...

Sant S. Chatwal, an Indian American businessman, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns, even as he battled governments on two continents to escape bankruptcy and millions of dollars in tax liens.... Chatwal's case reached from his native India to New York City. The IRS pursued him for approximately $4 million...New York state placed a lien seeking more than $5 million in taxes. He forfeited a building to New York City on which he was delinquent on property taxes and was sued by federal regulators seeking to recoup millions of dollars in loans...

Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for joking that Mahatma Gandhi used to run a gas station in St. Louis, saying it was "a lame attempt at humor." ...The director of a U.S. center devoted to Gandhi's teachings called the remarks stereotypical and racially insensitive...

Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times D. G. Sthar, a manager of the 7-Eleven on 42nd Street, and Yuka Sugahara, 22, of Emerson, N.J., with a cutout of Apu from “The Simpsons.” In Times Square, ...visitors to 345 West 42nd Street are reveling... In “The Simpsons,”...Kwik-E-Mart is a barely disguised 7-Eleven whose Indian owner changes the expiration dates on spoiled food, worships at a shrine for the elephant god Ganesha and is under constant siege by armed robbers. Far from shrinking from the image, 7-Eleven has embraced its inner Kwik-E-Mart... Andy Chaudhari (pronounced CHOW-dree), the 7-Eleven franchise owner on 42nd...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is wooing wealthy entrepreneurs with ties to India, seeking to tap the growing political clout of Indian-Americans in California's Silicon Valley. Clinton spoke by live video feed from New Orleans to nearly 4,000 businessmen attending the annual alumni conference of the Indian Institute of Technology. Clinton, the only Republican or Democratic presidential candidate to accept an invitation from the IIT, reiterated her call for more H-1B work visas for highly educated immigrants. It is an issue of deep concern to the Indian and Indian-American executives and engineers in the audience. But she did not...

Last Updated: Friday, 29 June 2007, 14:18 GMT 15:18 UK Tribal arrests at US reservation Duane Martin was wrestled to the ground Tribal police in South Dakota have arrested three Native Americans who set up a roadblock to keep alcohol out of an Indian reservation. Oglala Sioux police told the activists that they had no authority to stop and search cars at Pine Ridge reservation. The detained organisers - including one who allegedly carried a spear - were charged with disorderly conduct. The three said they wanted to enforce a ban on alcohol on the reservation, where alcoholism is said...

For what is believed to be the first time in its history, the U.S. Senate will on July 12 be opened with a Hindu prayer, the Senate Chaplain's Office confirmed Monday. For more than 200 years, the Senate has opened each workday with a prayer usually delivered by the Senate Chaplain, currently Barry Black, a Seventh Day Adventist. It is common, however, for senators to recommend religious leaders from their home states to serve as guest chaplains. Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain from Nevada, on will become the first Hindu to deliver the morning prayer. In a statement announcing his...