Jayalalithaa assets case: Court took into account A R Rahman's statement

CHENNAI: Music maestro A R Rahman, child prodigy Mandolin Srinivas, who died last month, and music director Gangai Amaran - these three are among several popular personalities whose depositions were also taken into account by special court judge John Michael Cunha while convicting AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case last Saturday.

Rahman and Srinivas said in court they performed at the wedding of Jayalalithaa's foster son (later disowned) V N Sudhakaran, a co-accused in the Rs 66.65-crore disproportionate assets case, free of cost and accepted invitations accompanied by silver and silk. Music director and screenplay writer Gangai Amaran (Ilayaraja's younger brother) said he 'sold' his 22-acre farmhouse at Payyanur on Old Mahabalipuram Road to Sasikala, who told him "Amma likes your farmhouse", in 1994.

Cunha said the statements of Rahman and Srinivas are relevant to the prosecution's claims that several hundred silver plates and silk saris/dhotis were procured to be given to VIPs while inviting them for the wedding.

READ ALSO: Woman sets herself ablaze upset over Jayalalithaa's conviction

"Their evidence, in my view, deserves full acceptance. Both these witnesses are independent witnesses. They are men of repute and professionals, whose presence at the venue and the rendition of concerts during the marriage is corroborated by number of witnesses...Thus, there is reliable material to hold that during the occasion silver plates, silk sari/dhoti and kumkum box were presented to VIPs," said Cunha.

Through Gangai Amaran's statement, however, the court gained insight into the modus operandi of the accused in buying properties that impressed them during the check period of 1991-96.

READ ALSO: Jayalalithaa shifted to another cell, subscribes to Tamil channels

Amaran, in his evidence, said he purchased nearly 22 acres in Payyanur bit by bit, and built a small farmhouse. He said Baskaran, son of Sasikalaa's sister Vanitha, took him to Poes Garden to meet Jayalalithaa. There he met Sasikalaa, who told him that the chief minister visited the Payyanur land and liked it very much, and that she was very much interested to buy it. Amaran said the house was very useful for music composing and story writing, and that he did not want to sell it. Thereafter, Sudhakaran talked to him daily over phone or came to his house. His family members were not willing to sell the land. At last, they decided to sell it. Sudhakaran and some officers came to his house and got his signature and the signature of his wife on October 1, 1994. They gave two demand drafts for Rs 13.1 lakh, he said.

Citing this, Cunha said: "There is not even a remote mention about the existence of any building," and hence the contention that structures standing in the property existed prior to check period cannot be accepted. "The documents relied on by the accused also do not establish the existence of the buildings prior to the check period," he said.

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Video released by Islamic State shows beheading of British hostage Alan Henning

LONDON: British taxi driver Alan Henning, who skipped Christmas with his family to raise funds to purchase ambulances and medical equipment and join an aid convoy to Syria, has been beheaded by Islamic State militants.

Henning (47) from Eccles, Greater Manchester had been held captive in Syria for nine months by IS militants.

Despite repeated requests from his wife who said that Henning "was working with Muslims to help the most vulnerable within Syria" IS on Friday night released a video showing Henning's beheading, making him the fourth western hostage and the second Briton to have been killed.

The others who were beheaded on video were US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and Scottish aid worker David Haines.

READ ALSO

ISIS video claims to show beheading of British hostage David Haines

Islamic State militants behead US journalist, release video

In the video Henning says: "I am Alan Henning. Because of our parliament's decision to attack the Islamic State, I as a member of the British public will now pay the price for that decision".

In the video, titled "Another Message to America and its allies," a masked man standing behind Henning, who is seen kneeling in front, says "The blood of David Haines was on your hands David Cameron. Alan Henning will also be slaughtered but his blood is on the hands of British parliament."

This handout image received from Britain's foreign and Commonwealth office on September 15, 2014 shows British aid worker Alan Henning holding a child in a refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border. (AFP photo)

​British prime minister David Cameron said the brutal murder shows how barbaric and repulsive "these terrorists are".

Cameron said "My thoughts and prayers tonight are with Alan's wife Barbara, their children and all those who loved him. Alan had gone to Syria to help get aid to people of all faiths in their hour of need. The fact that he was taken hostage when trying to help others and now murdered demonstrates that there are no limits to the depravity of these IS terrorists. We will do all we can to hunt down these murderers and bring them to justice".

The UK foreign office said in a statement "We are aware of the video and are working urgently to verify the contents. If true, this is a further disgusting murder. We are offering the family every support possible; they ask to be left alone at this time". The video also shows the jihadist then parading American hostage Peter Kassig. He says, "Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment in Syria which keeps on striking our people. So it's only right we continue to strike the necks of your people".

This undated photo provided by Kassig Family shows Peter Kassig standing in front of a truck filled with supplies for Syrian refugees. A video purportedly produced by militants in Syria released on Friday October 3, 2014, shows Kassig, of Indianapolis, kneeling on the ground as a masked militant says he will be killed next. (AP photo/Courtesy Kassig family)

Earlier this week, the wife of Alan Henning received an audio file from her husband pleading for his life.

The British aid worker was kidnapped last December while in Syria.

Barbara Henning sent out a plea to his captors to release him. In the statement, Barbara Henning said her husband had been to a Sharia court and cleared of "being a spy and declared to be no threat".

READ ALSO: Free Henning, wife pleads with ISIS

"I implore Islamic State to abide by the decisions of their own justice system," she added.

She said "He was working with Muslims to help the most vulnerable within Syria. We are at a loss why those leading Islamic State cannot open their hearts and minds to the facts surrounding Alan's imprisonment and why they continue to threaten his life."

She completed her message "Please release Alan".

She added "His purpose for being there was an act of sheer compassion. I cannot see how it could assist any State's cause to allow the world to see a man like Alan dying".

Over 100 of Britain's most influential British leaders and religious heads recently made an unprecedented joint appeal to Alan's kidnappers to release him unharmed or commit the "worst condemnable sin" against Islam.

READ ALSO: US may have identified man in beheading videos linked to Islamic State

A masked man stands next to a kneeling man identified as US citizen Peter Edward Kassig (L), in this still image taken from video released by Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria on October 3, 2014. (Reuters photo)

The request signed by dozens of Imams from across the UK said "In Islam, concern for fellow humans and the duty to help everyone is a religious obligation"

"Anyone undertaking a humanitarian act is paving his or her way to receive help from heaven," the letter said adding, "In contrast, the senseless kidnapping and despicable threats to Henning cannot be justified anywhere in the Quran and the Sunnah (Prophetic traditions)".

"The un-Islamic fanatics are not acting as Muslims. They are perpetrating the worst crimes against humanity. This is not Jihad — it is a war against all humanity. The Holy Quran says that 'Whosoever kills a human being, it is as if killing the entire human race; and whosoever saves a life, saves the entire human race'".

"We plead with those holding Alan Henning to see the errors of their ways, to embrace the word of the Quran and accept that what they are now doing constitutes the worst condemnable sin".

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Defused grenade found on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s standby Air India aircraft

NEW DELHI: Indian security establishment has gone in a tizzy with the discovery of a defused grenade inside an Air India aircraft kept standby in Delhi for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent trip to the US.

The Boeing-747 was kept on standby at IGI Airport, which means it was fully ready to fly out for the PM in case the Jumbo Jet being used by him developed a snag. According to sources, the aircraft was released for commercial operation when Modi landed here on Thursday night.

READ ALSO: PM Narendra Modi returns to Delhi after five-day visit to US

"The B-747 was sent on a Delhi-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah flight. On reaching Jeddah in the early hours of Saturday (India time), security agencies there found a defused grenade inside the business class of the aircraft. This sensational discovery of a defused bomb on an aircraft kept standby for the PM has sent everyone in a tizzy," said highly placed sources.

The aircraft is now grounded in Jeddah and held back from operating, as per schedule, to Calicut.

"Jeddah airport security has sanitized the aircraft and given it the clearance to fly out. But now Indian security agencies have taken over this case and are investigating how a defused grenade could make it inside the aircraft. All night long, AI and security agencies have been trying to resolve this mystery, which would be a serious security lapse unless it happens to be an exercise by the security/intelligence agencies to check the alertness of our aviation security wing," said sources.

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After over 30 years, exact location of HIV’s first appearance pinpointed by scientists

LONDON: Over 30 years after it first emerged and has since infected over 75 million people, scientists have finally pinpointed from where exactly HIV emerged.

A genetic analysis of thousands of individual viruses has confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that HIV first emerged in Kinshasa, the capital of the Belgian Congo, in about 1920 from where it spread thanks to the colonial railway network to other parts of central Africa.

Scientists have nailed the origin of the Aids pandemic to a colonial-era city — then called Leopoldville which was then the biggest urban centre in Central Africa including a market in wild "bush meat" captured from the nearby forests.

A "perfect storm" of factors then led to the virus' spread in the human population.

UNAIDS estimates that 35 million people were living with HIV in the world at the end of 2013.

Scientists from University of Oxford said, "Thirty years after the discovery of HIV-1, the early transmission, dissemination and establishment of the virus in human populations remain unclear. Using statistical approaches applied to HIV-1 sequence data from central Africa, we show that from the 1920s Kinshasa (in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo) was the focus of early transmission and the source of pre-1960 pandemic viruses elsewhere. Location and dating estimates were validated using the earliest HIV-1 archival sample, also from Kinshasa. Our results reconstruct the early dynamics of HIV-1 and emphasize the role of social changes and transport networks in the establishment of this virus in human populations."

Vendors sell their products beside a railroad track in Kinshasa, Zaire (File photo via Getty Images)

The breakthrough was possible due to a new, sophisticated analysis of hundreds of genetic sequences of HIV from different time points and locations.

The researchers also note that 13 documented cases exist of different simian viruses jumping from chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys into humans, but only one — known has HIV-1 group M — sparked a global epidemic. They show that group M and another strain, group O, expanded at the same rate until about 1960, but then group M nearly tripled its rate of spread. Possible reasons include public health campaigns that had contaminated needles and an increase in the number of clients of sex workers.

"For the first time we have analysed all the available evidence using the latest phylogeographic techniques, which enable us to statistically estimate where a virus comes from," said Professor Oliver Pybus of Oxford University. "This means we can say with a high degree of certainty where and when the HIV pandemic originated."

"Kinshasa at that time was growing fast, it was the biggest city in central Africa at that time and was very well connected to the rest of the Congo," said Nuno Faria of Oxford.

"Data from colonial archives tells us that by the end of the 1940s over one million people were travelling through Kinshasa on the railways each year. Our genetic data tells us that HIV very quickly spread across Congo, a country the size of Western Europe," Dr Faria said.

"Our research suggests that following the original animal-to-human transmission of the virus, probably through the hunting or handling of bush meat, there was only a small window during the Belgian colonial era for this particular strain of HIV to emerge and spread into a pandemic," Professor Pybus said.

"By the 1960s, transport systems such as the railways that enabled the virus to spread vast distances were less active, but by that time the seeds of the pandemic were already sown across Africa and beyond," he said.

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PM Narendra Modi's ‘Swachh Bharat’ initiative: It’ll take more than brooms on ground to clean India

With the Prime Minister himself taking up the broom along with his cabinet colleagues, BJP cadres and lakhs of government employees, the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign got off to an energetic start on Thursday. But a look at the jaw-dropping dimensions of the problem makes one wonder whether Modi really has a chance to meet his target to clean up India by 2019?

READ ALSO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicks off 'Swachh Bharat' campaign from police station

Here are some sobering stats. Urban India generates about 47 million tons of solid waste (garbage) every year or about 1.3 lakh tons every day, according to a study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). But this is only in cities and towns with a municipal body reporting. Another 30% of urban India lives outside these cities. If you add their garbage, the total would amount to about 68 million tons.

READ ALSO: PM Modi ropes in celebrities for his 'Swachh Bharat' challenge

According to a calculation done by TERI in 1998, the garbage generated till 2011 would cover 2,20,000 football fields piled 9 meters (27 feet) high with garbage.

Increasing amount of garbage generation is to be expected as population and GDP grow. But here's the thing: nearly one third of the garbage is not collected at all - it is just left to rot away in streets and alleys. So, in one year, about 14 million tons of garbage is left to rot in urban India's streets.

The 70% that is collected is taken and dumped either in landfills or just any space available outside the main habitation. Only about 18% of the collected garbage is treated to recycle or make fuel. In other words, about 27 million tons of garbage is collected and dumped out of the city.

READ ALSO: 'Swachh Bharat' initiative — 7 important things that PM Modi said

Since half of Indian garbage is typically organic matter which is compostable, the dumped garbage rots gets blown around and finally decomposes and mixes with the ground. The remaining untreatable part - mainly plastics - can be seen flying around.

What this gigantic mess needs is a plan for collection, segregation, proper dumping and treatment across the country. An estimate of the urban development ministry in 2009 had put the cost for doing this at about Rs.48,582 crore.

The other dimension of sanitation is sewage or wastewater disposal. CPCB estimates that in 2009, 38 billion liters of sewage was generated per day from 498 tier I cities. Installed capacity to treat this giant river of wastewater is 12 billion litres or less than one-third of the requirement. This means the remaining 26 billion liters is getting dumped into our streams and rivers daily, making many of them terminally sick.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleans the premises of the Mandir Marg Police Station.

In the four metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata - of the 16 billion liters sewage generated per day, only 8 billion liters get treated. In the 410 tier II cities, about 3 billion liters of sewage was generated per day but only a tiny fraction, 0.23 billion liters was treated.

READ ALSO: 'Swachh Bharat' campaign is beyond politics, PM Modi says

While the Modi government is planning to build millions of toilets, there doesn't seem to be any concrete plan or allocation for laying down sewerage networks or treatment plants, though these problems have been mentioned. The urban development ministry had calculated in 2009-10 that it would take Rs. 2.43 lakh crore to build a suitable sewage network covering the whole of urban India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dumps garbage into a bin during the launch of 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' in Valmiki Basti.

About 49% of Indians live in houses with no drains while another 33% live in houses with open drains. Apart from garbage, this is the single biggest source of filth and the primary source of various diseases. The bulk of these people are living in villages which somehow get sidelined in the hype about the need for urban cleanliness.

Clearly, just brooms will not be enough. Building toilets, however laudable a project, will not in itself solve the problem of sewage. Sanitation and hygienic living conditions will need a much larger vision. If the Prime Minister has it, he hasn't unfolded it as yet.

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India set to enter global nuclear club

NEW DELHI: India has completed all the requirements for membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the US told the Indian side during the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama.

This brings India much closer to becoming part of the global nuclear system, and essential if India has to access nuclear and dual-use technologies in fields as diverse as pharmaceuticals and space. India has been negotiating for membership to NSG, MTCR, Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group for the past few years.

READ ALSO: US holds the key to India's civil nuclear programme

Meanwhile, the contact group on civil nuclear issues will have its first meeting within weeks, said sources. On the Indian side, it will have key officials from MEA, DAE and NPCIL, while on the US side, it will involve officials from their department of energy (DoE), and lawyers and technical experts.

Modi has reportedly let it be known that he wants an early resolution to the outstanding issues, which can speed up the growth of nuclear power. India has believed for a while that the quest for clean energy, a big part of Modi's agenda, is not possible without nuclear power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama shake hands after briefing the media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (PTI Photo)

The two sides will wrestle through a couple of big issues. On the US side, the administrative arrangements on the civil nuclear deal with India involves the thorny aspect of their insistence that they have the right to track nuclear fuel through the entire nuclear process. India will not agree. But a resolution on this is imperative because on this hinges the fate of two other nuclear agreements - with Japan and Australia.

READ ALSO: Ahead of Modi's US trip, IAEA pact ratified

On the Indian side, the effort will be to convince the US that the liability law is not a constraint. The Indian government is in the process of drawing up a detailed list of components, specifying the amount of liability and its timespan. Its supposed to define precisely the scope of the liability law, but so far even Indian companies are not impressed.

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Asian Games: Some in Indian team not happy with Sarita Devi's emotional outburst

INCHEON: Indian boxer Sarita Devi's emotional refusal to wear the bronze medal at the Asian Games podium inside the Seonhak Gymnasium today has not gone down well with some members of the national contingent.

Readl Also: Sarita Devi faces AIBA probe for returning medal

Sarita, who lost a controversial 56 kg semi-final bout against South Korea's Jina Park, did not allow the medal to hang on her neck and after accepting it by hand she handed it over to Jina, who stood second on the podium.

Read Also: We have sought report from IOA on Sarita incident: Sonowal

Contingent sources told that at least one top international boxer, among quite a few who are here, felt that the Manipur boxer should not have behaved the way she did and that it sets a bad precedent.

Read Also: I protested against injustice in sport, inconsolable Sarita Devi says

"We all sympathise with her but she should realise that winning and losing is a part and parcel of sports, you win some and lose some. What happened today sets a bad precedent. She's a top boxer and her behaviour will give wrong ideas to youngsters who look up to her," said one official, who refused to be named.

Laishram Sarita Devi (R) reacts after she refused to accept the bronze medal as fellow bronze medallist Vietnam's Luu Thi Duyen looks on during the women's lightweight (57-60kg) boxing medal ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games. (AFP Photo)

"It is also wrong to say she was not supported yesterday. The chief coach of boxing was there, the deputy chef de mission was there. But the fact is, as per the rules you cannot lodge a protest. The boxing authorities refused to accept the protest or the money to go with it, then where's the question of the money being returned," the official wondered.

Devi burst into tears as she walked to the podium with her arms folded and her head down. As she was presented with the bronze she held up her hands and said she would not accept it. Twice officials tried to put it round her neck but she would not comply.

After the other medals had been awarded, Devi stepped off the podium, took the bronze from the official and went to shake silver medallist Park's hand.

As Park gave a traditional Korean bow, Devi put the bronze round the bemused fighter's neck. "I said, 'This is for you and all Korea, because you only deserve a bronze,'" Devi said afterwards.

Do you think Sarita Devi's emotional outburst after losing was justified?

"It was a protest for all the sportsmen and women of the world against injustice in sport."

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Microsoft announces Windows 10, skips version 9 to emphasize advances

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp announced its 'Windows 10' operating system on Tuesday to replace the largely unpopular Windows 8, skipping a number to mark a leap toward unifying the way people work on tablets, phones and traditional computers.

The next version of Microsoft's flagship product, which still runs the vast majority of personal computers and is used by 1.5 billion customers worldwide, is aimed at recapturing the lucrative business market, which generally ignored the new-look Windows 8.

Windows 10 will be "our greatest enterprise platform ever," said Terry Myerson, Microsoft's head of operating systems, at an event in San Francisco. Only 20 percent of organizations migrated to Windows 8, which was released two years ago, according to tech research firm Forrester. Many PC users disliked the touch-optimized interface and bemoaned the loss of the traditional start-button pop-up menu.

He said Windows 10, long known by the project name 'Threshold' internally, represented a new type of system for the company, as it seeks to unify computing as mobile devices proliferate. The name represented that leap, he said.

"Windows 10 adapts to the devices customers are using, from Xbox to PCs and phones to tablets and tiny gadgets," said Myerson.

Microsoft faces an uphill struggle in reigniting excitement about Windows. With the rise of Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad, and Google Inc's Android devices, Windows no longer plays a central role in many people's on-screen lives.

From a virtual monopoly on personal computing 10 years ago, Windows now runs only about 14 percent of devices, according to research firm Gartner.

(This image provided by Microsoft shows the start menu of Windows 10, the company's next version of its flagship operating system.)

Reaction to the news was cautious. Microsoft shares fell 8 cents to $46.36 on Nasdaq.

"It's a bold statement for Microsoft to make," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. "So far there's not as much meat on the bone as we would have wanted, although it's still very early days."

An early version of the software, demonstrated on stage by Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore, showed two modes, one optimized for touch-controlled tablets, and one for PCs using a mouse and keyboard. Users can switch between the two depending on the device.

Myerson did not say exactly how or when the new Windows would be rolled out, but other executives said Microsoft was aiming for a full release in spring 2015. A technical preview can be downloaded from Microsoft's website, starting on Wednesday, for users to try out and give the company feedback.

"They were trying to start the messaging for a product that won't actually ship until sometime around the middle of next year," said Gartner analyst Steve Kleynhans at the event. "This was to tell the PC installed base that there is a future and it doesn't have to be covered over in brightly colored tiles, or force them to abandon everything they've learned over the past 15 years."

Myerson said his team toyed with calling the new product Windows One to emphasize the unity of all the companies' products, but noted that name had already been used.

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Stupid Reasons For Smoking! What's Yours?

TNN | Oct 1, 2014, 11.06 AM IST 0 0
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What is your reason to smoke? Watch this insanely funny video by Old Delhi Films on smokers and the excuses they make on why they do it. We hope you have a good one because as you know cigarette smoking is injurious to health.

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Kem Cho Mr PM? Obama asks Modi; Michelle Obama not present at dinner

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Monday hosted a private dinner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House here, ahead of their summit level talks.

Modi was welcomed by Obama who greeted him in Gujarati, "Kem Chho?" (how are you?), the mother tongue of the Prime Minister.

Set in an informal ambiance, the dinner is the first opportunity for both the leaders to interact with each other.

First Lady Michelle Obama, however, gave the dinner a miss.

READ ALSO: How Narendra Modi has pulled a 'fast' one on Obamas

Master card: Narendra Modi gifts US visa power

Both the leaders were joined by 20 attendees at the dinner. The President was joined by Vice-President Joe Biden, secretary of state John Kerry and NSA Susan Rice among others.

Modi was accompanied by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, national security advisor Ajit Doval and Indian ambassador to the US S Jaishankar among others.

As Obama hosted Modi for dinner, the local Indian-Americans celebrated the Modi-Obama meeting by organizing a cultural event and performing "Garbha" dance in front of the White House.

A small group of Kashmir separatists and Sikh separatists also held a protest outside the White House building, but they were far out numbered by the pro-Modi supporters.

There was an unprecedented level of security in and around the White House and Blair House, the official guest house of the US President, in view of the two recent security breaches.

(Activists gathered in Layette Park and along Pennsylvania Avenue supporting and protesting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the presidential mansion. Photo: AFP)

The Pennsylvania Avenue was closed for most part in the evening and the pro-Modi group and anti-India protesters were pushed far behind when the motorcade crossed the avenue on its way to the White House.

Obama received Modi at the South Gate of the White House and the dinner was held in Blue Room of the President's official residence.

The Blue Room is used for receptions and receiving lines, and is occasionally set for small dinners.

Modi's grand reception in NY reflects deep cultural ties: White House

The "rockstar" treatment given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the prestigious Madison Square Garden by some 20,000 Indian-American people is the reflective of the "deep cultural ties" between the two countries, the White House said on Monday.

"I think the strong turnout at that event and the enthusiastic reaction highlights the deep cultural ties that exist between the United States and India; that there are so many immigrants from India to the United States that are now interwoven into communities all across the countries," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

He was responding to questions about the historic turnout of some 20,000 Indian diaspora who had turned up from various parts of the country to attend the reception for Modi at the prestigious MSG in New York City on Sunday.

"I think that just highlights one other way in which the relationship between our two countries is so important," Earnest said.

On Sunday, Modi joined a long but exclusive list of international singers and film stars among others who have spoken at the iconic Madison Square Garden. Modi was perhaps the first international delegate from a country to speak at this venue, which opened on February 11, 1968.

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