Republicans 2012: National security focus at TV debate

The eight Republican presidential hopefuls have traded blows on national security at a wide-ranging debate in Washington DC.

Before an audience of foreign policy experts, candidates were probed on domestic and foreign issues including defence cuts, Iran and border security.

The latest debate put former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the spotlight after a recent surge in opinion polls.

The first Republican nominating contest will be on 3 January 2012 in Iowa.

Mr Gingrich is the latest in a series of Republican contenders to join former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at the top of the polls.

Analysts say the conservative Republican base is dissatisfied with the prospect of Mitt Romney as their nominee, and has been searching instead for a known conservative candidate capable of taking on Barack Obama in November 2012.

With few of the candidates boasting significant foreign policy experience, the latest debate offered a new challenge for the leading contenders.

Mr Romney criticised the defence cuts triggered by the failure to reach a deficit-reduction deal and mounted a strong defence of Israel, while Mr Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry both spoke out on the emotive issue of immigration.

Mr Huntsman found more speaking opportunities than usual, but Herman Cain, a confident voice on domestic economic issues, was less prominent than in recent debates.

The likelihood of almost $1tn of defence and domestic spending cuts, now in prospect after Congress' failure to reach a deficit deal, was roundly criticised by most candidates.

Mr Romney said the potential costs of Mr Obama's healthcare bill matched the level of cuts to the Pentagon budget.

"We need to protect America and protect our troops and our military and stop the idea of Obamacare," he declared.

Mr Perry, once seen as Mr Romney's chief rival but whose campaign gaffes have seen him lose support, said Defence Secretary Leon Panetta should resign in protest at the cuts his department could face.

Mr Gingrich, though, took a contrasting view. "It's clear that there are some things you can do to defence that are less expensive," he said.

On Pakistan, Mr Perry and Michele Bachmann sparred over US involvement with Islamabad.

Mr Perry said he would "not send them a penny" as the country has shown the US "time after time they can't be trusted".

Ms Bachmann cautiously said she would continue sending aid to Pakistan, because they were still sharing intelligence. Pakistan, Ms Bachmann said, was "too nuclear to fail".

But Mr Romney described Pakistan as being in need of urgent development. "We need to bring Pakistan into the 21st Century - heck, into the 20th Century."

There were few sharp exchanges between candidates in the debate, which was staged and moderated by CNN.

In a rare back and forth, Mr Huntsman and Mr Romney argued about the planned US troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
Mr Huntsman said US troops should come home sooner than planned, with some acting as trainers to the Afghan army and a "drone presence" maintained in the country.

Mr Romney disagreed, arguing that leaving Afghanistan early would leave it open to more violence. The two former governors also argued over the president's role as commander-in-chief.

On Iran, Mr Gingrich said Tehran's leaders could be gone within a year if fuel supply to the government was restricted. A peaceful change of government in Iran would be vastly preferable to a war or military strikes, he said.

Mr Romney also said that his first international trip as president would be to Israel, to show US support for its long-term Middle Eastern ally.

On the question of the Arab Spring, Mr Huntsman said the US "did itself a dis-service" by acting too soon in Libya.

"Our interests in the Middle East is Israel and preventing from Iran from going nuclear," he said.

Mr Perry, who declared support for a no-fly zone over Syria earlier in the day, appeared to soften his line somewhat, saying it was just one of several actions that could be taken against the Assad regim

Chhat Pooja reaches US

The ancient Hindu festival 'Chhat', dedicated to worshipping Sun, which attracts millions of people in India, has reached the American shores too.

More than 200 people mostly Indian American had gathered last evening on the banks of the historic Potomac river in Sterling, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, as four fasting women took a dip in the water and performed pooja of the Sun God.

"This is our third year, but the largest gathering so far," Kripa S Singh, a software engineer from Patna, told, as his wife Anita performed the pooja on the banks of Potomac river.

"More people are expected in the morning," said Singh, who started the Chhat pooja alone on the river banks in 2009.

Some of the attendees came even from faraway places like New Jersey.

The pooja is being performed by Govind Jha, a priest at the local Rajdhani Mandir, a temple in Virginia.

It all started some four years ago, when Anita was asked by her mother-in-law in Bihar to do Chhat pooja come what may as this is something they could not afford to miss.

Singh inquired among his friends and other Indian American community leaders if anyone here performed the Chhat Pooja.

They found that people, if any, did it inside their homes or at the most in a makeshift plastic tub full of water.

While he was doing all this research and inquiry, Singh and some of his friends went for a picnic on the banks of the Potomac River in Loudon County, a suburb of Washington DC.

The concrete boat ramp there, Singh said, gave him the idea that this place could be good for performing Chhat Pooja in the real way with all the traditional and religious rituals.

Soon he approached the Loudon County Parks and Recreation Department with the details and sought if he can get the necessary permission to do the Chhat pooja on the river banks.

"Permission was granted," he said.

But in 2009, the first year, Anita was the only one to do the pooja.

"This year we are four. But more important is that there were more than 200 people watching this festival Tuesday evening," he said.

"This is a unique effort to maintain our tradition and culture far away from other motherland," said Kumar Singh, an eminent Indian American community leader in Greater Washington Metropolitan Area.

Hacking on 9/11 families or anyone is " personal profit of news channels"

Attorney General Eric Holder reassured about a dozen family members of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks that the Department of Justice is vigorously investigating allegations that employees of News Corp. may have hacked into phones used by victims and/or their family members.

"(Holder's) words with regard to the allegations, he said they were 'very disturbing,' and that it is a priority for him and the DOJ," said Norman Siegel, the New York-based attorney who accompanied the group to Washington on Wednesday.

One of the 9/11 family members who attended the meeting, and who spoke to Fox News on condition of anonymity, said the federal officials provided next to no details on the status of the probe during the 75-minute session. This individual said Holder described the probe as a "preliminary investigation," but that the attorney general added that this does not mean the investigation is at the beginning stages. jim Riches, a retired New York Fire Department deputy chief whose firefighter son, Jimmy, was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, did not identify himself as the individual Siegel was referring to. But Riches, standing alongside Siegel, told reporters: "I received many phone calls after 9/11 concerning body parts and my son...These are things that people don't realize that 9/11 families had to go through. And I would hate to know that people were listening in on these personal phone calls."

Today’s meeting between U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and a group of family members of 9/11 victims was held in Washington and lasted more than hour, according to attorney Norman Siegel, who represents the 9/11 families. The group sought the meeting in the wake of reports that News Corp reporters may have attempted to hack into victims’ family members’ phone numbers, much in the same way journalists at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the Worldhacked into phones of the families of London bombing victims and murdered children, as well as of politicians and celebrities. That fallout from that scandal caused NOTW to shutter and eventually ended News Corp’s bid to take over the UK’s biggest satellite TV provider BSkyB. Holder didn’t say today whether there were phone records indicating tampering on this side of the pond, Siegel said, but did say that the FBI investigation is in the preliminary stages.

strongest earthquake in eastern America

The strongest quake to strike the eastern America in more than a century has rattled offices in the US capital, forcing authorities to evacuate buildings as far as New York and shut down two nuclear power plants.

The Indian Embassy, the Pentagon and the US Capital were among the well-known buildings in Washington that were evacuated yesterday during the earthquake measuring 5.8 on Richter Scale, which is the strongest since 5.9 magnitude quake in May 1897.

According to the US Geological Survey, the quake had its center at 54 kms from Richmond in Virginia and 139 kms from Washington.

Though no casualty or major damage was reported, officials said the National Monument may have been damaged, while the National Cathedral's central tower was damaged.

The century-old historic building near Dupoint Circle in Washington which houses the Indian Embassy to the US was reported to be safe, even as occupants of the building rushed out of it as they felt the shocks last afternoon.

No damage was reported to the nearly half-a-dozen Hindu temples and gurudrawas in the Greater Washington Area.

Shocks of the earthquake was also felt as far as Martha's Vineyard where President Barack Obama is on a vacation.

Obama was briefed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the earthquake soon thereafter.

"The President was told that there are no initial reports of major infrastructure damage, including at airports and nuclear facilities and that there were currently no requests for assistance."