Indians respond to Obama’s message of hope: US envoy

September 16th, 2009 SYDNEY - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Thursday warned students from India not to take the law into their own hands after writer and activist Farrukh Dhondy reportedly urged Indians in the country for "some form of retaliation" following the brutal assault on four Indians in Melbourne. Dhondy has urged Indians in Australia to take matters into their own hands, The Age reported Thursday.

September 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian Government on Wednesday called on the Australian Government to take stern action against the perpetrators of alleged racial assaults on Indians in Melbourne, Victoria. External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in a statement that the matter of the recurring attacks on Indians in Australia had been taken up with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith by Indian High Commissioner Sujatha Singh.

September 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian Government on Wednesday called on the Australian Government to take stern action against the perpetrators of alleged racial assaults on Indians in Melbourne, Victoria. External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in a statement that the matter of the recurring attacks on Indians in Australia had been taken up with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith by Indian High Commissioner Sujatha Singh.

August 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Assuring a "vibrant and promising India" that it has a natural friend in the US, President Barack Obama has greeted people of India on the country's 63rd Independence Day. "This vibrant and promising India has a natural friend in the United States," Obama said in a message personally signed by him.

August 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Setting the tone for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's official visit to Washington in November, US ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer Wednesday said the "most tangible results of the partnership" would be announced during the trip.

July 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Wednesday assured India that it has no plans to appoint a special envoy for Kashmir as it considers it to be a matter between New Delhi and Islamabad. "I can assure you that we are not going to appoint a special Kashmir envoy," Assistant Secretary for South Central Asian Affairs Robert O.

June 13th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Australia's image in India has been damaged after attacks on Indian students, Canberra's envoy to New Delhi John McCarthy has said, adding that "India's voracious 24-hour cable news channels helped stoke the wave of fear and outrage among Indians in both countries". "It's done damage.

June 9th, 2009 BANGALORE - Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Tuesday urged Indian students in Australia to stay calm and not to get provoked by attacks on them. Time and again, Indians have demonstrated that peaceful methods of protest have a far greater power in achieving goals than any violent acts, the Art of Living founder said in a statement.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Australia Thursday admitted that some of the attacks on Indian students in that country may have elements of racism. I think all attacks probably have different motivations.

May 1st, 2009 Peru Indians block jungle airport in land protestLIMA, Peru — Ashaninka and Yines Indians are blocking an airport in the central Peruvian jungle town of Atalaya as well as two stations on a northern oil pipeline to protest laws that they say threaten their ancestral land and resources. Edson Rosales, spokesman for an Indian rights group in the Amazon, says 15,000 Indians have been protesting since April 9 and plan to start taking over oil and gas rigs.

February 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The global meltdown has forced about 20,000 Indians to return home after losing jobs abroad, the government said Thursday. According to Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, there are reports which indicate that between 16,000 to 20,000 Indians have come back to India after the economic slowdown forced companies across the world to downsize.

February 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress represents hope for the future, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told party workers Sunday and urged them to apprise voters about the achievements of the government in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. 'With elections around the corner, you are once again called upon to carry the party's message and the government's accomplishments to each and every voter throughout the country,' the prime minister, recuperating from a heart surgery, said in his message that was read out at a convention of the Congress leaders here.

January 19th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - Sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik Tuesday has created on Orissa's Puri beach a huge sculpture of the White House with Barack Obama in front of it. The four-foot high colourful sculpture, created by the artist and his students, bears the message 'Change Has Happened'.

January 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Three Indians are being held hostage by Somali pirates on board a Kenyan fishing vessel in the Gulf of Aden since Jan 9, the Indian Navy said Friday while assuring that action would be taken to free them. The ship, M V Alpha Manyara, was taken over by the pirates near the Kenyan coast.

January 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Amid a worldwide economic downturn, Indians have emerged as the most optimistic lot as people who think that their country will climb out of recession in the next 12 months, a survey said. 'Despite the global economic recession, about 51 percent Indians, the highest in the world, seem to be quite confident of the economy picking up in the near future,' said Sonia Pall, Executive Director in Consumer Research at The Nielsen Company, which conducted the survey.