Washington: Indian-American physician Ami Bera has won the Congressional election from California in a tight race, becoming only the third from the community to make it to the US House of Representatives. Nearly 60 years after Dalip Singh Saund scripted history by becoming the first Indian-American to be elected to the House, Democrat Bera repeated the feat defeating incumbent Republican Dan Lungren in California's Seventh Congressional District.
While the counting of votes was still going on, local media projected Bera, 47, to have won the November 6 poll. The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters announced yesterday that Bera had increased his lead against Lungren and was now ahead by 2.2 per cent or 5,696 votes.
Bera's lead has widened with each new count. On November 6, Bera had a lead of just 184 votes, thus necessitating the counting of provisional and absentee ballots. This lead grew to 3,800 votes on Tuesday.
Latest update shows that "we've processed another 38,510 ballots since Tuesday's update. This leaves an estimated 7,782 vbm (vote-by-mail) and of course the 31,000 provisional ballots left to process," the County Registrar said. Next update is scheduled for Monday....
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04:03 PM, Nov 16, 2012
Washington: Ami Bera on Thursday won the Congressional election from California, creating history by becoming only the third Indian American ever to have been elected for the US House of Representatives. While the counting of votes is still going on, local daily Sacramento Bee said that Bera has defeated incumbent Republican Dan Lungren for the election to California's Seventh Congressional District held on November 6. The Sacramento County Registrar of...
08:14 AM, Nov 16, 2012
Washington: Democrats in the US Senate increased their voting edge to 10 with a newly elected independent saying on Wednesday he will align with them. Senator-elect Angus King says he has decided to caucus with Democrats, ending months of speculation about which party he would vote with. The former Maine governor was elected last week to replace retiring Republican Sen Olympia Snowe, a prominent centrist. Republican and conservative groups spent...
10:42 PM, Nov 14, 2012
Gilbert: Police in Arizona say a Mesa woman injured her husband by running over him with an SUV because he didn't vote in last week's US presidential election. Authorities say Holly Solomon opposed President Barack Obama and was upset her husband didn't go to the polls. The husband told investigators Solomon believed her family was going to face hardship if Obama were re-elected. Police say Solomon chased her husband through...
08:52 PM, Nov 14, 2012
St Petersburg, Florida: Four days after the election, President Barack Obama can finally claim victory in Florida. The state finished counting its votes Saturday. Obama was declared the, giving him a 332 to 206 final margin in the Electoral College. Florida officials said Obama had 50 per cent of the vote to Romney's 49.1 per cent, a margin of about 74,000 votes. The win gave Obama victories in eight of...
11:27 PM, Nov 10, 2012
Washington: President Barack Obama said on Friday he was prepared to compromise with Republicans to avert a looming US fiscal calamity, but insisted a tax increase for the rich must be part of any bargain. Obama, who was re-elected on Tuesday, reminded Republicans that his approach to avoiding steep tax hikes and spending cuts due in January, which could trigger another recession, had just won the backing of Americans at...
06:52 AM, Nov 10, 2012
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday called up US President Barack Obama to congratulate him on his re-election and said this had given the opportunity to the two countries to carry forward and build on the "enormous successes" achieved in bilateral ties in the last few years. While thanking Singh, Obama described him as "a wonderful partner" whose leadership at the world stage he appreciated and said he...
10:39 AM, Nov 09, 2012
Washington: In a new video released by his campaign, US President Barack Obama wipes away tears as he thanks members of his campaign staff and volunteers. Obama's campaign released a five-minute video of the President's address on Wednesday to members of his staff at his Chicago headquarters. The short speech came a day after he won re-election. The US President talks about his work as a community organizer in Chicago...
08:01 AM, Nov 09, 2012
Washington: Big changes are coming to President Barack Obama's administration - just not right away. The White House is making the nation's high-stakes fiscal crisis its top priority coming out of the election, underscoring the vital importance of averting severe year-end tax increases and spending cuts, not just for the economy but in setting the tone for Obama's second term. Still, Obama is weighing replacements for high-profile officials expected to...
05:10 AM, Nov 09, 2012
Washington: US President Barack Obama has called more than a dozen key world leaders including the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to thank them on their congratulatory messages on his re-election and assured them of addressing the serious challenges being faced by the world today. "Since Tuesday evening, the President has been receiving messages from his counterparts around the world congratulating him on winning re-election to a second term in...
04:13 AM, Nov 09, 2012
Chicago: On the day after the 2010 midterm election that swept Republicans into control of the House of Representatives and decreased Democrats' majority in the Senate, senior White House adviser David Axelrod had a message for President Barack Obama. "I think they just planted the seeds of your re-election," he told his boss. "The most strident voices had seized control of the Republican Party and you knew that the nominee...
03:30 AM, Nov 09, 2012
Bali: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday ridiculed the expense of the US election a day after voters kept President Barack Obama for another four years, mocking the American process as a "battleground for capitalists" while speaking at a democracy forum. Ahmadinejad, whose government has been criticised for human rights abuses and is subject to sanctions for its nuclear programs, told the forum in Indonesia that democracy has become a...
12:20 AM, Nov 09, 2012
Washington: The only US lawmaker to have publicly advocated revocation of visa ban on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi lost the Congressional election to a Democrat. Joe Walsh, a far-right Tea Party member, was defeated resoundingly by Democrat Tammy Duckworth in the Eighth Congressional District of Illinois by nearly 10 percentage points. His defeat was welcomed by several Indian American groups, including the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). "In a...
10:58 PM, Nov 08, 2012
Islamabad: The roars celebrating the re-election of US President Barack Obama on television give Mohammad Rehman Khan a searing headache, as years of grief and anger come rushing back. The 28-year-old Pakistani accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a US drone attack a month after Obama first took office. "The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected,"...
12:46 PM, Nov 08, 2012
New York: As Michelle Obama stepped on stage with her husband in Chicago today, she accepted her role not only as first lady but fashion tastemaker for four more years this time, wearing a Michael Kors magenta silk chine pin-tucked dress. As Mrs Obama joined President Barack Obama, she sported a dress pulled in at the waist, and she topped it with a black shrug that showed a peek of...
11:08 AM, Nov 08, 2012
New Delhi: Indian markets tumbled on on Thursday as Wall Street worried about the fiscal crisis and the European economy's further deterioration, underpinning the safe-haven dollar and yen as well as US Treasuries on safety bids. US Congress must avert the fiscal cliff of nearly $600 billion worth of spending cuts and tax increases set for early 2013. There is also the issue of a debt ceiling, which needs to...
10:00 AM, Nov 08, 2012
New York: So much for gut feeling. After correctly predicting the results in 49 of the 50 states that have been called in the US election (Florida remains too close to call), Nate Silver, the statistician behind the popular FiveThirtyEight blog, woke on Wednesday to find himself the poster child of what is sure to be a new data-driven approach to politics. While Obama was declared the winner of the...
08:54 AM, Nov 08, 2012
Washington: The electoral fate of Indian American physician Dr Ami Bera, who has a slender lead of 184 votes over his Republican rival in the Congressional election from California, now depends on counting of tens and thousands of provisional and absentee ballots, which might take days or even weeks. Republican stalwart Dan Lungren has refused to concede the election to Dr Bera, who gained a slender lead of 184 votes...
08:29 AM, Nov 08, 2012
Washington: Terming the election of Tulsi Gabbard to House of Representatives as a "milestone" for the community in the US, the Hindu Americans have said that the victory of this Democrat from Hawaii is a testament to the greatest ideals of American pluralism. "Gabbard is an incredibly inspiring leader whose political rise is a testament to the greatest ideals of American pluralism," said Aseem Shukla, co-founder and board member of...
07:56 AM, Nov 08, 2012
Washington: One day after a bruising, mixed-verdict election, President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner both pledged on Wednesday to seek a compromise to avert looming spending cuts and tax increases that threaten to plunge the economy back into recession. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev said "Of course" an agreement is possible. While all three men spoke in general terms, Boehner stressed that Republicans would be willing...
07:09 AM, Nov 08, 2012
