Content USA Today: 2012

Obama: Indo-US ties can advance peace in world

Describing the Indo-US strategic partnership as a defining and indispensable collaboration for the 21st century, President Barack Obama has said the two countries share a dynamic and broad relationship that serves to advance peace and prosperity in Asia and the world.

Obama conveyed this to new Indian Ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, at a ceremony at the White House last evening during which she presented her credentials.

"President Obama described the India-US global strategic partnership as a defining and indispensable collaboration for the 21st Century," the Indian embassy said in a statement after the ceremony that took place at the Oval Office of the White House.

"He said the two countries enjoy a natural friendship and that the India-US partnership has proven to be dynamic and broad and serves to advance peace and prosperity in Asia and the world," according to the statement.

During the ceremony, Obama warmly welcomed Rao to Washington and wished her every success in her high responsibilities as India's new ambassador to the US.

Rao, in her remarks to Obama, conveyed warm greetings from the President and Prime Minister of India to him and First Lady Michelle Obama, adding that India was greatly encouraged by his strong personal commitment to take the bilateral strategic partnership forward.

31 million watch Obama jobs speech on TV

More than 31 million Americans watched President Barack Obama deliver his agenda for creating jobs in a speech broadcast live on television, ratings data showed on Friday.

Obama's Thursday night address to a joint session of Congress drew a bigger audience than both his March speech on U.S. military involvement in Libya (25.6 million) and his August 2010 speech declaring the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq (29.2 million)

Nielsen ratings data showed that 31.4 million viewers watched Obama's address on jobs, which was carried live across 11 TV networks.

The TV audience, however, fell well short of the more than 56 million who watched the president announce the killing of Osama bin Laden in May.

Shortly after Obama closed his remarks, 27.2 million people watched the professional football's NFL kick off its season. Nielsen said the season opener between the Saints and the Packers on NBC was the second most-watched NFL regular season primetime game on any one network in 15 years.