Brussels, Dec.9 (ANI): India and Russia are keen to expand areas of cooperation, and, the forthcoming visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to New Delhi on December 21 and 22, will further boost efforts in this regard, said a Indian Government official.
 
Relations between Russia and India have blossomed in recent years; with India becoming one of the biggest importers of Russian military hardware, said the Indian official.
 
Russia is a long standing and preferred partner of India, especially in the defence sector, and furthering ties in this sector, is to be expected during Medvedev''''s visit.
 
India and Russia host annual summit meets. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Russia last year and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was in India earlier this year.
 
The engagement continues at the highest level, said the Indian official.

Brussels, Dec.9 (ANI): Investigating authorities looking into the December 8 bomb explosion in Varanasi, have not yet arrived at the conclusion that the attack was the handiwork of Pakistan-based terror groups.
 
A government official, speaking on background, said that "Dots had to be connected and till that time it was mere conjecture" to link the blasts with Jehadi groups in Pakistan.
 
The e-mail sent out by the Indian Mujahideen barely half-an-hour after the attack was in keeping with its modus operandi in the past, said the official. 
 
"It was a ready to go e-mail, only the first line was different, and there too, the mail only used the words- the attack. There was no specification," the official said.

New Delhi, Dec.6 (ANI): Her birthday falls on the 23rd of December, but little children today at the Naz Foundation serenaded the French First Lady.
 
Some twenty HIV positive children, aged between 3-14, sang “happy birthday to you” to Carla Bruni Sarkozy, who seemed to have a tough time keeping her eyes from welling up.
 
One young boy sang her a song after saying: “I know you are a wonderful singer, I am no good compared to you, but I will try to sing to you.”
 
She listened in rapt attention and applauded enthusiastically at the end of the song.

New Delhi, Dec.6 (ANI): French First Lady Carla Bruni on Monday said that she was quite surprised by her popularity in India, and added that she was looking forward to her four-day stay in the country.
 
Talking to ANI TV on the sidelines of a visit to the Safdarjung Hospital and the Naz Foundation here this morning, Bruni said: “I am quite surprised by my popularity in India. I did not expect it.”
 
Bruni also said that as far as she was concerned, the visit to India was a very short one, and that she would love to return and stay for a longer period.
 

New Delhi, Nov.30 (ANI): An upma, filter coffee tiffin break with Kannadigas visiting Delhi from Karnataka is something I
 
wouldn’t miss for anything in the world. With disarming alacrity, they gossip about politics. Kannadiga -1 and Kannadiga - 2
 
are not from the Bharatiya Janata Party but are BJP supporters from Karnataka. After asking me all about Delhi politics, we
 
get talking about Karnataka politics, in English, of sorts. 
 
K-1 -  See ma, (my name is not seema, it translates into - look dear)  this yis a narth-south divide wonly. These narth 
 

New Delhi, Nov.26 (ANI): Two years since the barbaric attack by 10 Pakistani trained terrorists that resulted in the death of 166 people in Mumbai, the country’s wounds are festering and there is no closure in sight.
 
No amount of venting of anger against politicians for the tardy pace of police reforms, for the delays in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the attack, no candle light vigils, no silent grief, will bring catharsis to a nation, that mourns today.
 
Is it time to stop with the sympathy and tend to the wounds of those who lost their loved ones? Is it time to quell the hatred against those who planned, plotted and executed the attacks? Is it time to stop weeping and demand to know why action has been so slow in plugging all the loopholes that could result in another such attack, much in the same fashion and more so, with the same result?

New Delhi, Nov 9 (ANI): Dispelling the notion that American support to India’s role in a reformed United Nations Security Council is more symbolic than substantive, a senior government official said here today that America has given its unequivocal support to an Indian role in the UNSC.
 
The U.S. President, Barack Obama, in his address to the Joint Session of the Indian Parliament on Monday had said: "I can say today -- in years ahead, I look forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member."