Readwrotes Blog

By David Gollust New Delhi 20 July 2009 The United States and India have expanded their emerging partnership with agreements that could clear the way for large-scale Indian purchases of U.S. nuclear and military technology. The accords were announced as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton capped a five-day visit to India. US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (L) and India's FM S.M. Krishna exchange documents after signing an agreement in New Delhi, 20 Jul 2009 The agreements announced by Clinton and Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna aim to accelerate a growing partnership ignited by the two countries' landmark nuclear cooperation accord reached in 2005. In a step to advance the nuclear accord, India has approved two sites in that country where U.S. firms will have exclusive rights to build nuclear power plants, action that could mean $10-billion worth of business for American companies. The sides also r...

By Paula Wolfson The White House 20 July 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama is devoting much of his time these days to one issue: reforming the nation's health care system. Concerns about the cost and scope of reform are growing among members of Congress and the general public. Mr. Obama is making an all-out effort to regain the upper hand. President Obama is speaking out about health care reform on a daily basis - stressing its importance to the nation's long term economic well-being. Pres. Obama talks about health care reform after a discussion with health care providers, 20 Jul 2009 The latest stop on his campaign was the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. - a hospital that provides specialized care in the capital city area. He met with doctors, nurses and administrators. Afterwards, he told reporters that what he heard only strengthened his conviction that health care reform ...

By VOA News 20 July 2009 Spacewalker Dave Wolf works outside the International Space Station during the second spacewalk of the STS-127 mission, 20 Jul 2009 Astronauts at the International Space Station have completed the second spacewalk of five, during the shuttle Endeavour's 11-day mission at the station. Astronauts Dave Wolf and Tom Marshburn undertook a 6-hour, 53-minute spacewalk Monday to conduct maintenance work at the station. The walk coincided with the 40th anniversary of man's landing on the moon. Wolf and astronaut Tim Kopra completed the first spacewalk of the mission during a 5.5-hour operation Saturday. They installed an external platform on the massive Japanese lab at the space station. The lab is known as Kibo, or "hope." The platform will allow scientists to conduct experiments in the vacuum of space. With the shuttle crew's visit, there are 13 astronauts aboard the space stati...

By Paula Wolfson White House 20 July 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama is reaffirming his commitment to space exploration as America marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. Barack Obama was only seven years old when Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. But he still has memories of those days. He recalls standing on his grandfather's shoulders in his native state of Hawaii, waiting for the Apollo 11 space capsule to be plucked from the Pacific Ocean and brought to shore. "And I remember waving flags and my grandfather telling me that the Apollo mission was an example of how Americans can do anything they put their minds to," said President Obama. President Barack Obama (right) greets Apollo 11 astronauts (from left) Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong in the White House on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lu...

By Al Pessin The Pentagon 20 July 2009 Senior U.S. defense officials have condemned the use of a captured American soldier in a video released by the Taliban and say the U.S. military is doing everything possible to find the missing man. Video frame grab taken from a Taliban propaganda video released 18 Jul 2009 shows Private Bowe Bergdahl U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had only this today about the capture of 23-year-old U.S. Army Private Bowe Bergdahl and the video the Taliban apparently forced him to make. "Our commanders are sparing no effort to find this young soldier. And I also would say my personal reaction was one of disgust at the exploitation of this young man," Gates said. In the video, Private Bergdahl is seen sitting on the floor in a nondescript room, wearing a traditional Afghan outfit and eating a meal. "Well, I am scared - scared I won't be able to go home. It is v...

By VOA News 20 July 2009 A Palestinian official says Israeli settlers stoned cars and set fire to Palestinian-owned olive trees in the West Bank Monday. Israeli forces clash with Jewish settlers throwing stones at Palestinian motorists outside the West Bank city of Nablus, 20 July 2009 Official Ghassan Daglas said two Palestinians were lightly injured as the rampaging settlers torched fields and hurled rocks in the northern city of Nablus. He said some of the settlers were on horseback, leaving fires blazing in their wake. Reports of the crowd size vary, with between 10 and 30 settlers taking part in the unrest. An Israeli border guard spokesman said one settler was arrested. The settlers were apparently retaliating because the army removed a settler's caravan from an unauthorized settlement outpost in the area earlier in the day. Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

By Edward Yeranian Cairo 20 July 2009 A group of reformist Iranian religious leaders is calling for a popular referendum to determine the fate of a disputed presidential election. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a religious ceremony (file photo) At the same time, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is warning the country's political elite not to foment unrest that "abets Iran's enemies" while again lashing out at the West for allegedly meddling in Iran's internal affairs. The Ayatollah used thinly veiled language to address the country's reformist leaders, without naming them, to insist that they be careful about what they say or do. He says that the country's top echelon must be aware that their words and actions help those [foreign enemies] who are acting against the nation. [For this reason], he adds, we must be vigilant. Khamenei also...

By Sonja Pace London 20 July 2009 Another British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the 17th this month. Rising casualties have sparked a political debate about the country's involvement in Afghanistan and why more and more of its soldiers are dying. British soldiers carry coffin of Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe into The Guards Chapel in the Wellington Barracks in London for a funeral service, 16 Jul 2009 Britain has more than 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, about one third of them involved in Operations Panther's Claw against insurgents in Helmand province. And it is there that an increasing number of British troops have been dying, many killed by roadside bombs. The rising toll has not gone unnoticed back home. In the small town of Wootton Bassett in southern England growing crowds gather ever more frequently to pay their final respects as the dead are repatriated and their flag-draped cof...

By Phil Mercer Sydney 20 July 2009 Australia has upgraded its travel advisory to Indonesia after the fatal hotel bombings in Jakarta. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra warns Australians to reconsider their need to travel to Indonesia because of the possibility of further terrorist attacks. Forensic investigators examine the ruins at the site of the bomb blast at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 18 Jul 2009 The explosions at Jakarta's Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people, including three Australians and a New Zealander. The attacks have prompted the Australian government to warn its citizens to think twice before traveling to Indonesia. The upgraded travel advisory warns that further acts of terrorism are possible. In Canberra, officials say that Bali, a resort island popular with Australian tourists, remains vulnerable to attack. David Mackney, a security expert in ...

By Anjana Pasricha New Delhi 20 July 2009 In India, a Pakistani man accused of mounting last year's terror attacks in Mumbai has pled guilty in court, reversing his earlier plea of innocence. The terror strikes killed 166 people, and raised tensions between India and Pakistan. 26 Nov 2008 file photo shows a gunman walking at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, made the dramatic confession in a special court in Mumbai, standing up and telling the judge he wanted to plead guilty to his crime. Kasab is the only gunman who was caught the assault mounted by 10 terrorists on multiple targets that included five-star hotels, a rail station and a Jewish Center last November in Mumbai. It is unclear what prompted Kasab's confession. The public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, says lawyers were taken aback because he had pleaded not guilty when the trial began in M...

By Peter Fedynsky Moscow 20 July 2009 Moment of silence is held for Natalya Estemirova (standing l-r: Oleg Orlov, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Alexander Filippenko, Vladimir Lukin Russia's "Memorial" human rights organization has suspended its activities in Chechnya following last week's murder of its local representative, journalist Natalya Estemirova. Human rights activists have blamed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev for maintaining a culture of permissiveness and impunity that led to Estemirova's death. Memorial's Chechen branch has issued a statement saying the health and safety of its members are under a serious threat. The statement adds that Chechen authorities exhibit undisguised hostility toward any independent civic initiative and also complete lack of understanding of civil society, insofar as senior government officials equate human rights activists w...

By VOA News 20 July 2009 Human Rights Watch has called on Nigerian authorities to prosecute security personnel who allegedly killed more than 130 people during sectarian violence last year. Representatives of the group testified Monday before a judicial commission of inquiry in Nigeria's Plateau state. In a report released Monday, Human Rights Watch accuses soldiers and police of arbitrarily killing 133 men and boys, nearly all of them Muslim, in the city of Jos last November. It says most of the killings occurred November 29, the day after clashes between Muslim and Christian mobs killed several hundred people in Jos. The report says police and soldiers shot unarmed citizens, and lined up victims on the ground before executing them. Reuters news agency quotes a Plateau state police spokesman (Mohammed Lerama) as saying the accusations are not true. The judicial commission has been tasked with looking into the cause...

By Scott Stearns Nouakchott, Mauritania 20 July 2009 Mauritania's largest coalition of political parties is rejecting the results of presidential elections that show a big win for the country's former military leader. A supporter of former military leader Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz celebrates his election as civilian president, 19 Jul 2009 Mauritania's interior ministry says former general Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz won 52 percent of the vote, making last year's coup leader this year's civilian president without a second round of voting in which his political opponents had vowed to unite against him. Those opponents are rejecting what they call an "electoral coup d'etat." Ahmed Ould Sidi Baba is vice president of the political party that was toppled in the Aziz coup. Baba says the electoral results are fraudulent and the opposition National Front for the Defense of Democracy is con...