Kashmiri-origin woman is Clinton aide for Muslims

September 29th, 2009 TORONTO - Deepak Obhrai, an Indian origin junior minister in the Canadian government, has earned kudos for helping out a woman diabetic while on a flight from Ottawa to Calgary. Obhrai, a five-time MP from Calgary and parliamentary secretary (minister of state) to Canada's minister for foreign affairs, was flying from Ottawa to his hometown last Monday when a woman passenger suddenly fell ill.

September 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Osama Bin Laden's close aide and a top leader of al Qaeda, Nazimuddin alias Yahyo, was killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan on September 14, intelligence sources have said. Yahyo, who was under surveillance for quite some time, was involved in some deadliest attacks on troops of Pakistan army's elite forces.

September 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Senior Al-Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri, who was reportedly killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan earlier this month, was once considered former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's 'blue eyed boy'. Kashmiri, who was recently named the fourth most wanted terrorist by Pakistan's Interior Ministry, belonged to Pakistan occupied Kashmir's (PoK) Kotli region and was a former commando in the Pakistani Army.

September 19th, 2009 Obama extends greetings on Muslim holidayWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is extending greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr (ayd ahl-FIH'-tur), which marks the end of the holy monthlong fasting time known as Ramadan. The president on Saturday issued a statement saying he and his wife, Michelle, congratulate Muslims in the U.S.

September 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A group of Kashmiri Pandits living in Delhi tonsured their heads Monday to mark this day 20 years ago when a member of their community was shot dead by militants in Jammu and Kashmir triggering their exodus from the valley. "On Sep 14, 1989, militants killed a Kashmiri Pandit in the heart of Srinagar.

September 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Twenty years after the first ever killing of a Kashmiri Pandit by militants in Jammu and Kashmir - which triggered the community's exodus from their ancestral homes in the valley - some members living in Delhi will tonsure their heads Monday to protest their "exile". "On Sep 14, 1989, militants killed a Kashmiri Pandit in the heart of Srinagar.

July 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Onetime rival of President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton says she hoped there would a woman US president in her lifetime but doubts she herself would run for America's top job again. It was a "daunting" challenge for a woman to run for president, Clinton now secretary of state in Obama's cabinet told NBC's "Meet the Press" programme Sunday.

July 18th, 2009 MUMBAI - The US does not want to get involved in the India-Pakistan row over Jammu and Kashmir, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in remarks telecast Saturday. Asked by Times Now TV if Washington felt it had a role to play in the decades-old dispute, Clinton said any final decision over Kashmir had to be between India and Pakistan.

July 9th, 2009 SRINAGAR - A Kashmiri woman has died after she was allegedly assaulted by a Territorial Army man in a north Kashmir border village, an official said Thursday. Ashiq Hussain of the 160 battalion Territorial Army has been arrested after the family of the woman alleged that he Wednesday night barged into their house at Dolipora village in Kupwara, about 100 km from here.

July 2nd, 2009 ASTANA - Tensions exist between India's Muslims and Hindus because the two communities do not know enough about each other, an Indian delegate at the global faith conference here contended Thursday. "Yes, tensions do exist but they exist because Muslims and Hindus don't know about each other," Zafar Yunus Sareshwala, the CEO of Mumbai Stock Exchange-listed financial services provider Parsoli Corporation, maintained during the plenary on "Solidarity specially in the period of crisis", on the concluding day of the third Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions here.

June 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that as US special representative to Muslim communities Farah Pandith, a Kashmiri-origin woman, will "play a leading role" in US efforts to engage Muslims around the world. "I am pleased to announce the appointment of Farah Pandith to serve as Special Representative to Muslim Communities," she said making a formal announcement about the creation of a new office responsible for US "efforts to engage with Muslims around the world on a people-to-people and organizational level".

June 24th, 2009 WASHIGNTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in talks with one of her familys "staunchest loyalists", former White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, to serve as a consultant to the State Department, the New York Times reported said Wednesday. Blumenthal, who worked as an aide to president Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001, would work with Hillary Clintons speechwriting team, an administration official told the Times on condition of anonymity because the appointment was not yet public and could still fall through.

June 14th, 2009 Bill Clinton: Religious minorities gaining numbersWASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton says Americans should be mindful of the nation's changing demographics, which led to the election of Barack Obama as president. He told an Arab-American audience on Saturday that the U.S.

June 4th, 2009 CAIRO - "Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of another's," US President Barack Obama told the world's 1.5 billion Muslims in a speech from Cairo Thursday. "The richness of religious diversity must be upheld - whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt.

March 28th, 2009 JAMMU - A migrant Kashmiri Hindus' group Sunday said it would field candidates from two of the six Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The Jammu Kashmir National United Front, a political party founded by and for the Kashmiri Pandits - Hindus who have always been seen as a political elite in the Muslim majority state - will field its candidates in their original home, the Kashmir Valley.