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Harvard rules left Blackwill with little option S Rajagopalan Washington, April 22 US Ambassador Robert Blackwill would have had to be back at Harvard by August if he did not wish to say good-bye to his teaching job at the institution. Under Harvard's rigid rules, a faculty member can't be away for more than two years. Blackwill's leave of absence expires in July. The Ambassador knew well that he had to make a choice soon enough between his high-profile but challenging New Delhi posting and the relatively laidback yet prestigious teaching assignment. The fact that he was not on...

India has told the United States that it will not be buying American for its $10-billion fighter aircraft deal. This more or less leaves the Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Rafale as the only remaining contenders for the deal. The two US contenders, Boeing and Lockheed, received formal letters fr om the Indian Ministry of Defence as to why their respective aircraft, the F/A-18 Superhornet and the F-16 Superviper, did not fulfil the technical requirements of Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft contract, said US and Indian sources. Defence Minister AK Antony has been signaling privately for weeks that the Indian Air...