Obama kicks off Asia tour with Mumbai attacks tribute
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MUMBAI — US President Barack Obama arrived in India Saturday on the first leg of a trade-focused Asia tour that will kick off with a sombre tribute to the victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Obama’s regional trip, which also takes him to Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, is weighted toward prying open new markets for US exports and creating new jobs to ease 9.6 percent unemployment at home.
It comes just days after his Democratic Party’s drubbing in mid-term elections in which the state of the US economy was a primary source of voter dissatisfaction.
After touching down in Mumbai, Obama and his wife Michelle were helicoptered to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where they will be the most high-profile guests since the attacks two years ago by 10 Islamist militants that claimed 166 lives.
Obama was to meet survivors and pay tribute to those who died at a memorial erected at the luxury seafront hotel, which was the focus of the militant assault and where 31 persons, including 12 staff members, were killed..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101107com3.html
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