A 10-ball night, but only one couple mattered

In Obama's neighbourhood on Tuesday night, Mary J Blige couldn’t stop the tears up onstage. Stevie Wonder was on the keyboard. And when the new President mixed with the crowd, ABC cut to commercial.

Even with those mystery moments, it was a glittering start to a 10-ball night, a night when it didn’t seem to matter that the temperature was less than 28 degrees and the wind was cutting through the thickest overcoats.

Obama launched it with the Neighborhood Ball at the Walter E Washington Convention Center, a party where the new President and the first lady shared the stage for their first dance with Beyonce. Obama, confronted with one of the entertainment world’s hottest babes, kept his eyes on the first lady, Michelle Obama.

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Bush signs deal into law, guarantees India fuel supply, reprocessing rights

More than three years after the blueprint was outlined in a Indo-US joint statement in Washington, the nuclear deal got its final legal sanctity today when US President George W Bush signed the 123 agreement into law and made it clear that US will fulfill all its fuel assurance commitments in the agreement. He also specified that the agreement recognises India’s right to reprocess spent fuel.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will formally ink the deal tomorrow.

In an effort to address any doubts in India over the contents of the legislation he was signing and concerns that it had deviated from what the two countries had negotiated, Bush recorded in his signing statement, which is a reflection of how the US President interprets a particular law for further implementation and has its own sanctity, that Washington will meet all its obligations in the 123 agreement.

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Research and Analysis Wing ‘censures’ Jt Secy for letting wife work with World Bank ‘without approval’

The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, has “censured” a senior official for alleged “breach of discipline” after he let his wife continue working for World Bank despite being asked not to do so.

The censure came after an inquiry by RAW alleged that Jayadev Ranade, a joint secretary in the organization, was guilty of breach of discipline while holding a sensitive position. Following the censure, Ranade has applied for voluntary retirement from RAW. His case is being processed.

As per the inquiry, sources said, Jayadev was posted in Washington on a three-year tenure beginning 2001. His wife Vinita was employed with the World Bank on a short-term contract in Washington. RAW rules require its officials to take the consent of the organization before allowing their spouses to take any employment outside the country. While RAW permitted Vinita to work till June 2004, it refused permission for further extension of contract on the grounds that since Jayadev’s tenure was ending later that year and he was coming back to India, his wife could not be allowed to stay back in Washington.

Sources said that according to the inquiry, despite this refusal, Vinita renewed her contract. While she did come back to India with her husband in November 2004, she sought permission in the first quarter of 2005 to travel to the US to complete some unfinished work in Washington. That permission was turned down.

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