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Top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s lawyer for the email investigation has a glaring conflict-of-interest in the case: he was an Obama administration “point person” on Benghazi who dealt with classified information and exchanged redacted emails with Hillary Clinton. Miguel Rodriguez of the Washington law firm Bryan Cave is part of Abedin’s big-money legal team and is already handling communications with the government on her behalf during the scandal. But Rodriguez brings some personal baggage to his role as Abedin’s counsel ... Before joining Bryan Cave, Rodriguez served as deputy assistant secretary at Hillary Clinton’s State Department; then he was...

The evidence clearly shows that the congressional investigation of the White House Gatecrashers is being controlled and limited. Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), now the subject of an Ethics Committee investigation, has made it clear that he wants to limit the investigation. Is he trying to protect White House officials with something to hide? Ignoring evidence of White House connections to the alleged gatecrashers, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, Thompson will not subpoena Desirée Rogers, the White House social secretary who is a very close friend of Barack and Michelle Obama. As a result of the stonewalling and cover-up,...

The head of the Secret Service accepted full responsibility Thursday for last week's security breach at President Barack Obama's first state dinner, but he said that the president and Vice President Joe Biden were never in danger from a party-crashing couple who shook hands and posed for pictures with them. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told the House Homeland Security Committee that his agents were at fault for allowing uninvited Washington socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi into a lavish state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sullivan told the committee that three uniformed agents had been put on administrative...

NEW DELHI: Inflation is forecast to have risen to uncomfortable levels for policymakers in October due to stubbornly high food prices, adding to the pressure for further interest rate rises despite slowing economic growth. Data on Tuesday is forecast to show annual consumer inflation at 9.9 percent in October, up slightly from September, and figures on Friday are expected to show wholesale inflation running at an eight-month high of 6.90 percent, according to Reuters polls of economists. In a more positive sign, factory output is forecast to have risen 3.5 percent in September from a year earlier, much faster than...

The results of India's election, which are rapidly appearing today, seem to show a huge win for the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A victory had been expected, but this looks like a massive landslide. The next prime minister is almost certain to be Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, a state in western India. He is known for his economic agenda, which is seen to be relatively business-friendly (expect stocks to react very positively to the news), and his controversial brand of Hinduism. Modi's ideology is certainly going to be important over the next several years, but his...

The nine-phase ballot begins on Monday and concludes on 12 May. Votes will be counted on 16 May... A new anti-corruption party, the AAP, is also contesting the elections after a spectacular result in local polls. The AAP (Aam Aadmi, or Common Man's Party) made a strong showing at the state assembly polls in the capital, Delhi, and is standing for all the seats in the parliament. ..The Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) has 543 elected seats and any party or a coalition needs a minimum of 272 MPs to form a government. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has defended his economic reforms, saying they are necessary to fight an economic slowdown in India. The reforms include allowing foreign supermarket giants to buy large stakes in India's retail sector. They have been fiercely opposed by trade unions and prompted coalition ally, the Trinamool Congress party, to resign from government. Mr Singh said the changes were needed to revive investor confidence. "We have to restore the confidence of foreign investors... Money does not grow on trees and that is why we have made these decisions," Mr Singh said in a rare national televised address. Earlier...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his country's strategic partnership signed with India is not meant as an aggressive move against Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai pose before a meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Karzai is on a two-day official visit to India.(AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, address the media after a signing of agreement meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011.This is Karzai's second trip to India this year and comes just days after he accused neighboring Pakistan...

Manmohan Singh takes stock of country's nuclear arsenal Rajat Pandit May 17, 2011, 04.20am IST NEW DELHI: India on Monday took stock of its nuclear arsenal and delivery systems like long-range ballistic missiles, fighter-bombers and warships towards its quest to have an operational nuclear triad -- the capability to fire nukes from land, sea and air -- in the near future. Sources said the top-level meet held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was "not just a general security review'' but in fact a full-fledged Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) conference to assess the steps being taken to consolidate and strengthen India's...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Moscow on Sunday to ink billions of dollars of weapons deals and for talks on a landmark nuclear deal that could significantly widen atomic fuel imports from Russia. India, along with China, is one of Russia's biggest clients for arms sales but New Delhi has been upset in recent years by long delays in the delivery of a refurbished Soviet-era aircraft carrier under a $1.6 billion (9.72 million pounds) contract. The signing of arms deals and talks on a civilian nuclear deal to widen uranium fuel deliveries are set to...

The Manmohan Singh government on Thursday said it was imperative for the international community to continue putting pressure on Pakistan to dismantle the safe havens that export terror into the neighbourhood. Responding to President Barack Obama’s Afghan policy, MEA spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said Pakistan has to be persuaded to root out these safe havens. `` India believes that it is in the interest of the international community to impress upon Pakistan that it must use all its influence and resources to implement its commitments to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and to deny sanctuary to all terrorist groups who operate...

Bush dinner tastes sour for Obama - PMO decision to entertain former President causes hurt in Washington K.P. NAYAR Washington, Oct. 24: Preparations for Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington on November 24 have begun on a negative signal to the Obama administration with a decision by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to host former President George W. Bush for dinner at Singh’s residence at the end of this month. Bush is visiting New Delhi on October 30 and 31 at the invitation of an Indian newspaper and will speak at a conference organised in New Delhi on October 31 on...

Exclusive: PM’s wife to launch INS Arihant, India’s first nuclear submarine Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi, July 16, 2009 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur is to crack the auspicious coconut marking the historic launch of India’s first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine at the naval dockyard, Visakhapatnam on July 26. The launch, which naval tradition demands always be performed by a lady, is also the tenth anniversary of the conclusion of the Kargil War. After spending over a decade cloaked under an obscure project name, the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) India’s first nuclear submarine finally gets a name: Arihant (destroyer...

Low-Key Singh Wins High-Profile Victory By PAUL BECKETT and VIBHUTI AGARWAL NEW DELHI--In January, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh handed over the reins of power to a deputy as he underwent heart bypass surgery. It seemed an apt metaphor for a leader struggling to deal with the aftermath of the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai and a rapidly slowing Indian economy. On Saturday, however, Mr. Singh was firmly back in control as his Congress Party turned in a surprisingly big victory in national elections that were held over the past month. The triumph virtually assures Mr. Singh a return to...

India’s Ruling Party Set for Decisive Victory By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: May 16, 2009 NEW DELHI — The ruling Indian National Congress was poised Saturday to soar to a surprisingly decisive victory in India’s parliamentary elections, sidelining small, regional party bosses and potentially diminishing the power of communists who had been largely responsible for blocking economic reforms over the last five years. With the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party conceding defeat by early afternoon, the apparent Congress landslide signals the possibility of a stable and strong government in the face of stiff challenges: a sharp slowdown in economic growth, abiding poverty...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be meeting the Republican nominee for US presidency, Senator John McCain, on September 24 in New York. Significantly, Dr Singh will not be meeting the Democratic nominee for the President's post, Senator Barack Obama. Dr Singh does not have any official programme on September 23, the day of his arrival in New York City. But the next day is action-filled. He is scheduled to meet Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, president of the World Bank Robert B Zoellick and Pakistani President Asif Zardari, and Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, apart from McCain. On September 25...

Stressing on the need for India to have a "proactive and pragmatic" strategy to deal with climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday exhorted the scientific community to develop environment-friendly and efficient technologies that are "affordable and also scalable". Speaking after inaugurating the 95th Science Congress here, the Prime Minister said India must take steps to stop further environmental degradation even though the major responsibility lay with the developed countries. "They (the developed world) bear the biggest responsibility for what has happened and must bear the greatest responsibility for correcting the damage. But we too have to take action....

Bloomberg is link only -- per FR policy.FULL STORY

(Washington, D.C. - AP, December 18, 2006) - President Bush on Monday signed a civilian nuclear deal with India, allowing fuel and know-how to be shipped to the world's largest democracy even though it has not submitted to full international inspections. "The bill will help keep America safe by paving the way for India to join the global effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons," Bush said. The bill carves out an exemption in U.S. law to allow civilian nuclear trade with India in exchange for Indian safeguards and inspections at its 14 civilian nuclear plants. Eight military plants,...

A Nuclear Hat Trick For Dr Manmohan Singh An IDC Analysis New Delhi, 29 August 2006 Dr Manmohan Singh is not known for his cricketing skills, but more as the Finance Minister who saved India from defaulting on its external debt in 1991. Yet recently he had to bowl against three formidable batsmen on the pitch created by the Nuclear Deal he negotiated with President Bush. The PM’s UPA allies, the CPM were not happy with some clauses, and the BJP went to town even on clauses which did not exist, while the former nuclear doyens (scientists) of India revolted...