Headley is a U.S. citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 to get across international boundaries without too many questions at customs, according to an FBI affidavit. He and Rana, a Pakistani immigrant to Canada who has lived in Chicago for a decade, are charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorism and providing material support to terrorism. They will not enter pleas until they are indicted. Blegen said his client would deny the charges if asked.

:: via dailymail.co.uk

'Australian Prime Minister Rudd faces twin crises as he weighs how to handle Sri Lankan Tamil refugees picked up at sea by Australian and Indonesian ships and taken to Indonesian ports. The "boat people" are refusing to disembark.'

:: via csmonitor.com

By contrast, though India’s annualised growth rate of around 6% this year is below China’s heady levels, it is impressive against a backdrop of global turmoil. What is more, government stimulus plays only a small part in the growth. Levels of capital and infrastructure investment compare favourably with China’s. And, much more than in China, the hot story in India is domestic demand. India is no mercantilist adding to global imbalances.

:: via economist.com

DuPage prosecutors have agreed to reconsider their decision to seek the death penalty for Kaushik Patel, the Glendale Heights father charged with murdering his two young sons in 2007 by setting them on fire.

:: via chicagotribune.com

A suburban Chicago woman has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly yanking the head scarf of a Muslim woman in Tinley Park two days after the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas.

:: via chicagotribune.com

BikeDekho.com - Kawasaki Ninja India - View Kawasaki Ninja models, Kawasaki Ninja Price, Kawasaki Ninja specifications, Read Kawasaki Ninja Reviews, Price: Rs - Rs , Average: , Reviews: , Engine Type: Petrol, Models

:: via bikedekho.com

The Michelin Guide’s list of top Tokyo restaurants features French eateries, sushi shops and even blowfish specialists. Left entirely unrepresented is one of Japan’s favorite foods: curry. Yet this gooey, affordable culinary transplant regularly tops surveys as the most-popular food among Japanese school kids and adults. Introduced from India by way of English traders in the 19th century, curry has been adapted to local taste and has become as much a part of Japanese culture as baseball.

:: via bloomberg.com

Beijing's India strategy is to tie it down in South Asia to stop it from breaking out as a major power. The strategy has three basic pillars. First, Beijing has supported Pakistan's nuclear and conventional military programs. Second, China wants an acknowledged sphere of influence in South Asia. And third, Beijing wants to resurrect the so called "hyphenated" approach to India. It thus needs the United States to again think of India as part of an India-Pakistan problem, rather than as an emerging great power...China won a diplomatic victory by getting Washington to agree to "cooperate" on issues of peace and development in South Asia. If China and America work together on South Asian issues, such as peace between India and Pakistan, then China is the great power while India is simply another South Asian country that needs help from others to solve its problems.

:: via foreignpolicy.com

What is your next project? I’m going to make a film on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It won’t be a so-called David Lynch film, really; it will be about Maharishi and the knowledge he brought out. It’ll hold a lot of abstractions. We’re on our way to India in December to start the India part of it.

:: via nymag.com

Found this on Drudgereport.com/breitbart.com: Six men have been arrested over the killing of a woman who was found dying in a London street with one of her hands cut off. The victim's estranged husband is among those arrested. Mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, 28, was attacked in Greenford, northwest London, on Tuesday as she made her way to her childminder's home

:: via breitbart.com