Month: March 2011

Tokyo, March 31: Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumatahas said that four of its six reactors at the earthquake-cum-tsunami nuclear plant in Japan will completely be ‘scrapped’.

“We have no choice but to scrap the No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 units at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station,” The New York Times quoted Katsumata, as saying.

He said the No. 5 and 6 units were still operational, but added any decision to restart the other units would be taken only after consulting with the government and local residents.

Washington, March 31: US President Barack Obama, who already has over two dozen Indian Americans serving in top jobs in his administration, has named two more from the community, Deepa Gupta and Nisha Desai Biswal, to key posts.

While Gupta has been named as a member of National Council on the Arts, Biswal, currently Assistant Administrator for Asia at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), will in addition serve on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

New Delhi, March 31:Even as Australian Ministers, politicians and officials were taking the position in public that there was no racial motivation behind the spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia, chiefly in and around Melbourne in the State of Victoria, Australian diplomats were quietly acknowledging to their U.S. counterparts that it was indeed a likely factor. Also, the Australian government’s efforts, in their opinion, had only a limited impact on cooling tempers (230335: confidential, October 20, 2009).

The cables were accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks.

United Kingdom,March 31: Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons he had ordered the officials – including the country’s military attache – to leave following concerns about their actions in Britain.

Britain says it has expelled five Libyan diplomats loyal to Muammar Qadhafi’s regime because of their intimidation of opposition supporters and their potential threat to the U.K.’s national security.

Memphis, March 31: Long-forgotten photos that show James Earl Ray being brought to jail after his arrest for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. were unveiled Wednesday to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the civil rights leader’s death.

Washington, March 31: After a brief reprieve, immigration authorities are once again denying applications for immigration benefits for same sex couples following a legal review.

Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Services agency, said Wednesday that a review by lawyers from the Department of Homeland Security, it was concluded that a law prohibiting the government from recognizing same sex marriages must be followed, despite the Obama administration’s decision to stop defending the constitutionality of the law in court.

Washington, March 31: The Obama administration on Wednesday offered up to a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the suspected drug traffickers who shot and killed a U.S. immigration agent and wounded another in Mexico last month.

The State Department said its Narcotics Rewards Program would pay the amount to anyone coming forward with information that results in the arrest of those responsible for the February 15 attack that killed Jaime Zapata and wounded Victor Avila. Both men were agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

New Delhi, March 30: The US today congratulated India and Pakistan for progress made in the peace talks and lauded the leadership of the two countries for initiating “cricket diplomacy”.

“We commend the leaders of both countries for carrying forward with what the media is calling cricket diplomacy,” US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer said.

In a statement issued here, he also applauded the progress made on a wide range of issues in the just-concluded Home Secretary level talks.