Inside Ukraine's Rebel-Controlled Capital

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent, in Donetsk

A set of metal steps leads you down into the darkness of the underground shelter, below a suburban arts centre in the rebel-controlled capital of Donetsk.

The power had gone off earlier that morning, there had been shelling nearby.

They weren't sure when it would come back on.

Children emerged from the makeshift tents, keen to show their toys to the camera - happy and playing with their friends, but pale.

Most have not been outside for more than a few minutes at a time for a month.

Video: 'People Don't Have Money For Food'

One young girl said she couldn't remember when she had last played above ground.

The adults are afraid to allow them further than the courtyard upstairs - they say the street across the park was shelled four days ago.

They say the school was hit too, and it doesn't have a bomb shelter, so it's no longer safe for the children to go.

They haven't been to class since December.

Some of the boys played with plastic guns - fighting imaginary soldiers, but their fear is visceral and real.

Several described explosions and the damage to their homes.

When they were asked who was shelling them, they replied "fascists".

Video: Donetsk: Life In A City Under Siege

By this they mean the government in Kiev - and that's what these children and their parents believe: that the Ukrainian army is attacking them, that "fascists" have taken power, and that they have only the pro-Russian rebels to protect them.

During the time that we were filming we could hear only what appeared to be outgoing rocket fire, but both sides blame the other for the upsurge in violence in recent days.

Outside what was a busy market in the city centre, we saw long queues for humanitarian aid, donated by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.

The Ukrainian government has cut off pensions and social payments to those in rebel-controlled areas.

There is still food in the shops, but many particularly the elderly, have no money to buy it, and find themselves dependent on handouts.

All of which stokes the feeling here that the national government has abandoned them, that those in Kiev no longer care about their welfare.

It is not a recipe for a united Ukraine.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ukraine: Daily Struggle On Conflict's Frontline

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent, in Donetsk

As the fighting in eastern Ukraine intensifies, humanitarian conditions in the region are deteriorating.

Sky News filmed families in the rebel-controlled capital of Donetsk, as it was revealed the European Union has extended its first set of sanctions against the separatists and Russia, which has been accused of aiding the rebellion.

Some of the families in Donetsk have been living in underground shelters since July, too frightened to let their children play outside or go to school.

Two hundred people, including more than 50 children, are living in the basement of an arts centre in the city's western suburb - afraid to allow the children above ground for more than a few minutes at a time.

One eight-year-old girl said she couldn't remember when she last played outside.

Video: 'People Don't Have Money For Food'

"If they go out it's only for five minutes maximum," her mother, Vika Makeeva, told us.

"To get fresh air and come back."

They said the school had been shelled and it had no basement shelter so the children hadn't been since December.

UNICEF has provided them with hygiene kits, and individuals have donated food and toys for the children.

"They started to shell us from the Ukrainian side," Luba, one of the mothers, said.

"I took the child when he was asleep in his blanket, put him on a bike and we went to a shelter in the children's hospital, but it was really damp, with frogs, and then we came here."

Many of the residents have homes, but they are too frightened to return.

We went with one lady to check on her flat - she told us their block was shelled four days ago, and their roof destroyed.

As she led us across the courtyard she heard outgoing rocket fire and hurried behind a concrete wall, listening for the sound of the impact so she could work out which direction it was heading.

She said this was why she was afraid to bring her children outside.

In the city centre we saw long queues of people, the majority of them pensioners, outside an aid distribution point.

It was bitterly cold and there was thick ice on the ground, but they had been waiting patiently since 8am for handouts donated by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.

Video: Inside A Donetsk Bomb Shelter

The Ukrainian government has cut off pensions and other social payments to those living in rebel-controlled areas like Donetsk.

There is food in the shops, but many have no money to buy it, and so find themselves dependent on donations.

"For six months we have had no pension," one elderly woman told us.

"We have no salaries, no pensions, that's it so we're queuing for help."

"This is how we live," her husband added.

"Waiting for the humanitarian aid, thanks that they are helping us."

Pavel Gudchok worked for a Ukrainian bank, but they closed the branches in Donetsk last year and now he can't find a job.

He was visibly shivering as he waited to help his grandmother at the aid point. 

"There's no money here, people are hungry here, without homes," the 24-year-old said.

"They need everything now."

The longer this goes on, the more attitudes here are hardening, the stronger the anger with Kiev - and the deeper the divisions in this already bitterly divided country.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Holocaust Survivors Mark Auschwitz Liberation

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Video: The Horrors Of Auschwitz Remembered

World leaders have joined around 300 Holocaust survivors at an event to mark 70 years since Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp.

The gathering in southern Poland marks perhaps the last major anniversary that survivors of the camp will be able to attend in such numbers - the youngest are now in their 70s. 

Around 1.5 million people, mainly European Jews, were gassed, shot, hanged and burned at the camp in southern Poland during World War II, before the Red Army entered its gates in winter 1945.

World leaders, survivors and their families attended the commemoration

It has become probably the most poignant symbol of a Holocaust that claimed six million Jewish lives across Europe.

The presidents of Poland, Germany, France were among hundreds attending the commemoration in a giant tent erected over the brickwork entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, part of the complex that is now a museum.

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1. Gallery: Holocaust Survivors Mark Auschwitz Liberation

   About 300 Holocaust survivors gathered to mark 70 years since Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski (C) lays a wreath at the 'Wall of Death' in the camp

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A survivor touches the 'Wall of Death'

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Hollywood director Steven Spielberg (2R) at Auschwitz

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Spielberg attends a ceremony unveiling the Pillars of Remembrance at the memorial site

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The railway tracks that bore Jews in train wagons from all across Europe to their deaths were lit up gold, the countryside around covered in deep snow.

One 88-year-old Auschwitz survivor - who sang a memorial prayer during the commemoration - said the Holocaust was "almost impossible for a human mind to comprehend", adding that he "prays to God that we as human beings are able to learn something from it".

Another, Rose Schindler, explained how only 11 of her loved ones survived the Holocaust, out of more than 300 relatives.

1/28

1. Gallery: Portraits Of Auschwitz Survivors

   Auschwitz death camp survivor Jacek Nadolny, 77. Jacek was seven during the Warsaw Uprising, when he was sent with his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau by train

Jacek holds up a wartime photo of his family. In January 1945 the family were moved to a labour camp in Berlin

]]>

Once the 85-year-old arrived at Auschwitz, she was chosen for slave labour and was given no chance to say goodbye to her parents and four siblings.

"I have no graves for my mother, sisters, my brother and my father. So this somehow is a way to say goodbye," she added.

Holocaust survivor Eizbieta Soczunska said: "In our minds we are still here, even if we are not here in person, and we want to underline that the children of Auschwitz are standing here today."

Video: Auschwitz Liberation Remembered

David Wisnia said: "I gave up anger long time ago because you are not going to accomplish anything (with it). The idea is to be good."

France's Francois Hollande made the trip less than three weeks after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly newspaper and a kosher supermarket in Paris.

Four French Jews were among the dead, the latest victims of a recent spate of armed attacks on Jews in Europe.

Video: Auschwitz-Birkenau: A Hell On Earth

Speaking earlier in the day at the Paris Shoah memorial to French Jews who died at Auschwitz and elsewhere during World War Two, Mr Hollande addressed France's 550,000-strong Jewish community.

"You, French people of the Jewish faith, your place is here, in your home. France is your country," he said.

US President Barack Obama, in a statement, said the Paris attacks were a "painful reminder of our obligation to condemn and combat rising anti-Semitism in all its forms, including the denial or trivialisation of the Holocaust".

1/19

1. Gallery: 70th Anniversary Of The Liberation Of Auschwitz Camp

   A general view of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim. The Germans built the Auschwitz camp in 1940 as a place of incarceration for the Poles

From 1942, it became the largest site of extermination of the Jews from Europe

]]>

Video: Survivor Tells Her Story

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Video: The Horrors Of Auschwitz Remembered

World leaders have joined around 300 Holocaust survivors at an event to mark 70 years since Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp.

The gathering in southern Poland marks perhaps the last major anniversary that survivors of the camp will be able to attend in such numbers - the youngest are now in their 70s. 

Around 1.5 million people, mainly European Jews, were gassed, shot, hanged and burned at the camp in southern Poland during World War II, before the Red Army entered its gates in winter 1945.

World leaders, survivors and their families attended the commemoration

It has become probably the most poignant symbol of a Holocaust that claimed six million Jewish lives across Europe.

The presidents of Poland, Germany, France were among hundreds attending the commemoration in a giant tent erected over the brickwork entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, part of the complex that is now a museum.

1/19

1. Gallery: Holocaust Survivors Mark Auschwitz Liberation

   About 300 Holocaust survivors gathered to mark 70 years since Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski (C) lays a wreath at the 'Wall of Death' in the camp

]]>

A survivor touches the 'Wall of Death'

]]>

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg (2R) at Auschwitz

]]>

Spielberg attends a ceremony unveiling the Pillars of Remembrance at the memorial site

]]>

The railway tracks that bore Jews in train wagons from all across Europe to their deaths were lit up gold, the countryside around covered in deep snow.

One 88-year-old Auschwitz survivor - who sang a memorial prayer during the commemoration - said the Holocaust was "almost impossible for a human mind to comprehend", adding that he "prays to God that we as human beings are able to learn something from it".

Another, Rose Schindler, explained how only 11 of her loved ones survived the Holocaust, out of more than 300 relatives.

1/28

1. Gallery: Portraits Of Auschwitz Survivors

   Auschwitz death camp survivor Jacek Nadolny, 77. Jacek was seven during the Warsaw Uprising, when he was sent with his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau by train

Jacek holds up a wartime photo of his family. In January 1945 the family were moved to a labour camp in Berlin

]]>

Once the 85-year-old arrived at Auschwitz, she was chosen for slave labour and was given no chance to say goodbye to her parents and four siblings.

"I have no graves for my mother, sisters, my brother and my father. So this somehow is a way to say goodbye," she added.

Holocaust survivor Eizbieta Soczunska said: "In our minds we are still here, even if we are not here in person, and we want to underline that the children of Auschwitz are standing here today."

Video: Auschwitz Liberation Remembered

David Wisnia said: "I gave up anger long time ago because you are not going to accomplish anything (with it). The idea is to be good."

France's Francois Hollande made the trip less than three weeks after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly newspaper and a kosher supermarket in Paris.

Four French Jews were among the dead, the latest victims of a recent spate of armed attacks on Jews in Europe.

Video: Auschwitz-Birkenau: A Hell On Earth

Speaking earlier in the day at the Paris Shoah memorial to French Jews who died at Auschwitz and elsewhere during World War Two, Mr Hollande addressed France's 550,000-strong Jewish community.

"You, French people of the Jewish faith, your place is here, in your home. France is your country," he said.

US President Barack Obama, in a statement, said the Paris attacks were a "painful reminder of our obligation to condemn and combat rising anti-Semitism in all its forms, including the denial or trivialisation of the Holocaust".

1/19

1. Gallery: 70th Anniversary Of The Liberation Of Auschwitz Camp

   A general view of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim. The Germans built the Auschwitz camp in 1940 as a place of incarceration for the Poles

From 1942, it became the largest site of extermination of the Jews from Europe

]]>

Video: Survivor Tells Her Story

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12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Georgia Man Executed Despite 'Disabled' Claim

A man who killed a fellow inmate has been executed in Georgia despite claims by his lawyers that he was intellectually disabled.

Warren Lee Hill was put to death by injection of a single drug at the state prison in Jackson.

The 54-year-old had previously come within hours of execution on three separate occasions - however courts granted temporary reprieves each time.

His lawyers argued Hill was intellectually disabled and should not be executed.

"Today, the Court has unconscionably allowed a grotesque miscarriage of justice to occur in Georgia," a lawyer for Hill, said in a statement.

"Georgia has been allowed to execute an unquestionably intellectually disabled man, Warren Hill, in direct contravention of the Court's clear precedent prohibiting such cruelty."

Hill was sentenced to serve life in prison for the 1986 killing of his 18-year-old girlfriend, who was shot 11 times.

While serving that sentence, he beat a fellow inmate, Joseph Handspike, to death using a nail-studded board.

A jury in 1991 convicted Hill of murder and sentenced him to death.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Litvinenko Inquiry: Widow Hopes For Truth

By Alex Rossi, Sky News Correspondent

The widow of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko says she hopes the inquiry into his murder will reveal the truth about his death.

Marina Litvinenko has told Sky News she wants closure for her and her son Anatoly and also wants to put an end to the conspiracy theories surrounding the crime.

She said: "I know my husband was killed, I saw how it happened. It was a torture. He died a long 23 days in front of me, in front of his son, in front of his friends."

She said she was "fed up" with speculation that her husband had smuggled radioactive material for a "dirty bomb". 

The inquiry is diplomatically sensitive and it was initially blocked by the government. There were fears it would cause too much damage to an already bad relationship with Moscow.

Video: Widow Wants To Save Husband's Name

Former Voice of Russia London bureau chief Dmitry Linnik said the fallout from the Ukrainian crisis and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 means the relationship between London and Moscow can hardly get any worse.

He said: "It is as bad as it probably can be short of an open conflagration in a military sense."

Alexander Litvinenko was a former agent for the FSB, the successor organisation of the KGB.

He was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin. He defected to the UK in 2000 - it's thought he then worked for MI6 as an informer.

Video: Former KGB Agent Denies Murder

While in Britain he accused Vladimir Putin of many crimes, including ordering the murder of the human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Litvinenko fell ill after meeting two Russian contacts - Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi - at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square on 1 November 2006.

He had drunk tea that had been poisoned with polonium 210, a rare radioactive isotope.

The two men are now both wanted by the British police on suspicion of murder but an extradition request has been refused by the Russian Federation.

Video: Litvinenko Inquiry 'Needs Answers'

Both men have consistently denied the allegation of murder.

The inquiry, which opens on Tuesday and is scheduled to last for the next 10 weeks, will attempt to fathom what their involvement was and ultimately whether or not the Russian state orchestrated the killing.

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Holocaust Survivors To Mark Auschwitz Liberation

About 300 Holocaust survivors are expected to attend an event marking 70 years since Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp.

They will be joined by world leaders later in remembering the 1.1 million people killed by Nazis at the site, along with the countless others who lost their lives during the conflict.

With all visiting survivors now in their 70s and older, this could be the last major commemoration attended in numbers. In 2005 - the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust - 1,500 victims made the trip to southern Poland.

Steven Spielberg spoke with some of the Holocaust survivors in Krakow

One 88-year-old Auschwitz survivor - who will sing a memorial prayer during the commemoration - said the Holocaust was "almost impossible for a human mind to comprehend", adding that "he prays to God that we as human beings are able to learn something from it".

Another, Rose Schindler, explained how only 11 of her loved ones survived the Holocaust, out of more than 300 relatives.

Video: Auschwitz Liberation Anniversary

Once the 85-year-old arrived at Auschwitz, she was chosen for slave labour and was given no chance to say goodbye to her parents and four siblings.

"I have no graves for my mother, sisters, my brother and my father. So this somehow is a way to say goodbye," she added.

For some survivors visiting Auschwitz on Monday, seeing the barbed wire of the former death camp was overwhelming. One survivor cried: "I don't want to come here anymore."

Vladimir Putin will be absent from the main event, amid continuing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. However, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and France's Francois Hollande will attend, along with Germany's Joachim Gauck, for a day of prayer and wreath laying.

On the eve of the commemoration, Steven Spielberg spoke with Holocaust survivors in Krakow - warning of "anti-Semites, radical extremists and religious fanatics" who want to propagate hate crimes.

The director of Schindler's List, speaking weeks after four Jews were murdered at a kosher supermarket in Paris, added: "If you are a Jew today – in fact, if you are any person who believes in the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom in free expression - you know that like many other groups, we are once again facing the perennial demons of intolerance."

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

At Least 30 Dead As Rebels Hit Ukraine Homes

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Video: Rebels Attack Ukraine Homes

At least 30 people have been killed in a rocket attack by pro-Russian rebels on the strategic port city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine.

A further 83 people were injured in the separatist offensive, which saw homes, shops, schools and a busy market hit by long-range missiles.

The rockets were fired from rebel-held territory, international monitors have confirmed.

It led the European Union's foreign policy chief to warn of a further "grave deterioration" in EU-Russian relations.

Mariupol is strategically important

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the fighting in eastern Ukraine had sharply escalated with a large-scale offensive by Russian-backed separatists.

"This is in utter disregard of the ceasefire," he said in a statement.

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1. Gallery: At Least 20 Dead In Ukraine Rocket Attack

   At least 20 people have been killed and 86 wounded in an attack on a residential area in the port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry says long-range rockets were fired on homes, buildings and a busy open air market.

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The attack came after rebels promised to escalate their campaign of violence.

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Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko has confirmed they launched the attack on Mariupol on Saturday morning.

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Mariupol, in the Donetsk region, is strategically important because it lies between the Russian mainland and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March.

]]>

"Russian troops in eastern Ukraine are supporting these offensive operations with command and control systems, air defence systems with advanced surface-to-air missiles, unmanned aerial systems (drones), advanced multiple rocket launcher systems and electronic warfare systems.

"I strongly urge Russia to stop its military, political and financial support for the separatists, stop destabilising Ukraine and respect its international commitments."

Earlier, pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced the start of an offensive on the government-held city, only to later claim his forces had "conducted no active operations in Mariupol".

It came the day after he said he was ripping up the September peace agreement and launching an all-out offensive aimed at seizing lands.

He was quoted by a Russian news agency as saying at a memorial service for eight civilians killed at bus stop: "Today an offensive was launched on Mariupol. This will be the best possible monument to all our dead."

Ukrainian President President Petro Poroshenko has pledged to protect Ukrainian territory, and said he would convene an emergency meeting of the country's security council.

He said: "We are for peace, but we accept the challenge of the enemy. We will protect our motherland,"

Mariupol mayor Yuriy Khotlubei said in a video statement: "The shelling was carried out by militants. This is very clearly Russian aggression that has caused terrible losses for the residents of the eastern part of our city."

The authorities in the government-held city struggled to calm the panicking residents and condemned the attack on ordinary residents.

One resident said: "Obviously everyone in the city is very scared. The rebels have already seized the airport and now they are starting to destroy Mariupol itself."

Footage and pictures emerging from the city showed widespread damage.

Mariupol city council dismissed suggestions Ukrainian armed forces were planning to withdraw from the government-held city, which is strategically important because it lies between mainland Russia and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March.

In a statement, urging residents not to panic, the council said: "On the contrary, all units are on fully battle-ready. Security measures in the city have been strengthened."

A peace deal between the government and the separatists was signed in September but is has been repeatedly violated by both sides. It came after a push on the city of Mariupol in August.

There has been a significant increase in fighting in the last two weeks and the United Nations says 262 lives have been claimed in the past nine days alone.

Moscow has denied claims by the West that it has sent troops and weapons to support the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

The nine-month conflict, which has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people, has led to the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.

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Video: Rebels Attack Ukraine Homes

At least 30 people have been killed in a rocket attack by pro-Russian rebels on the strategic port city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine.

A further 83 people were injured in the separatist offensive, which saw homes, shops, schools and a busy market hit by long-range missiles.

The rockets were fired from rebel-held territory, international monitors have confirmed.

It led the European Union's foreign policy chief to warn of a further "grave deterioration" in EU-Russian relations.

Mariupol is strategically important

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the fighting in eastern Ukraine had sharply escalated with a large-scale offensive by Russian-backed separatists.

"This is in utter disregard of the ceasefire," he said in a statement.

1/8

1. Gallery: At Least 20 Dead In Ukraine Rocket Attack

   At least 20 people have been killed and 86 wounded in an attack on a residential area in the port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry says long-range rockets were fired on homes, buildings and a busy open air market.

]]>

The attack came after rebels promised to escalate their campaign of violence.

]]>

Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko has confirmed they launched the attack on Mariupol on Saturday morning.

]]>

Mariupol, in the Donetsk region, is strategically important because it lies between the Russian mainland and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March.

]]>

"Russian troops in eastern Ukraine are supporting these offensive operations with command and control systems, air defence systems with advanced surface-to-air missiles, unmanned aerial systems (drones), advanced multiple rocket launcher systems and electronic warfare systems.

"I strongly urge Russia to stop its military, political and financial support for the separatists, stop destabilising Ukraine and respect its international commitments."

Earlier, pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced the start of an offensive on the government-held city, only to later claim his forces had "conducted no active operations in Mariupol".

It came the day after he said he was ripping up the September peace agreement and launching an all-out offensive aimed at seizing lands.

He was quoted by a Russian news agency as saying at a memorial service for eight civilians killed at bus stop: "Today an offensive was launched on Mariupol. This will be the best possible monument to all our dead."

Ukrainian President President Petro Poroshenko has pledged to protect Ukrainian territory, and said he would convene an emergency meeting of the country's security council.

He said: "We are for peace, but we accept the challenge of the enemy. We will protect our motherland,"

Mariupol mayor Yuriy Khotlubei said in a video statement: "The shelling was carried out by militants. This is very clearly Russian aggression that has caused terrible losses for the residents of the eastern part of our city."

The authorities in the government-held city struggled to calm the panicking residents and condemned the attack on ordinary residents.

One resident said: "Obviously everyone in the city is very scared. The rebels have already seized the airport and now they are starting to destroy Mariupol itself."

Footage and pictures emerging from the city showed widespread damage.

Mariupol city council dismissed suggestions Ukrainian armed forces were planning to withdraw from the government-held city, which is strategically important because it lies between mainland Russia and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March.

In a statement, urging residents not to panic, the council said: "On the contrary, all units are on fully battle-ready. Security measures in the city have been strengthened."

A peace deal between the government and the separatists was signed in September but is has been repeatedly violated by both sides. It came after a push on the city of Mariupol in August.

There has been a significant increase in fighting in the last two weeks and the United Nations says 262 lives have been claimed in the past nine days alone.

Moscow has denied claims by the West that it has sent troops and weapons to support the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

The nine-month conflict, which has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people, has led to the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.

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12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Barack Obama Lands In India For Visit

US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have arrived in New Delhi for the start of a three-day visit to India.

Mr Obama, who landed in the capital at around 9.40am local time, was given a red carpet welcome and received a hug from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his arrival.

It is the second time the president has travelled to India while in office.

The two leaders are due to hold detailed talks later today on a range of issues including climate change, defence co-operation, intelligence sharing, and a civil nuclear power agreement.

Analysts say it appears unlikely that their discussions will result in major policy breakthroughs, but the mere fact that they're talking is a sign of progress given recent tensions that have marred relations between the US and India.

Their relationship hit rock bottom in later 2013 when Indian Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade was arrested and strip-searched in New York over allegations she lied on visa forms to bring her maid to the US while paying her a pittance.

The diplomatic row saw the Stars and Stripes torched on the streets of New Delhi.

But ties between the two countries have been steadily improving since Mr Modi took office last May.

He and Mr Obama met for the first time late last year in Washington, and officials from both countries say they quickly developed an "easy chemistry".

In an interview ahead of his arrival, Mr Obama hailed the "remarkable" rise of the 64-year-old Mr Modi, the son of a tea-seller who was elected the leader last year of the world's largest democracy.

He told India Today magazine: "When I addressed the Indian Parliament on my last visit (in 2010), I outlined my vision for how we could become global partners meeting global challenges.

"I'd like to think that the stars are aligned to finally realise the vision I outlined."

Mr Obama will be the chief guest at Monday's Republic Day parade in the capital.

He had been due to visit the Taj Mahal in the city of Agra on Tuesday, but he has scrapped that leg of his trip in order to attend the funeral of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in Saudi Arabia.

More follows...

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More