President Obama enjoyed a Himalayan-inspired meal prepared by renowned Indian American chef Vikas Khanna at a high-profile fundraiser held May 14, at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. Some of the city’s hoi polloi paid more than $35,000 for the multicourse meal that Khanna told Desi Talk, was inspired by the values the President espouses.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will attend a summit of NATO leaders in Chicago this weekend, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington said on Tuesday, ending speculation Islamabad might be excluded from the high-level talks on Afghanistan's future.

An Indian diplomat’s daughter is demanding $1.5 million from New York City and other entities for her wrongful arrest and detention last year. The suit was filed May 7 in federal court in the Southern District of  New York.

The first of five men to be tried in the 2010 fatal beating of Divyendu Sinha was convicted of lesser charges but was found not guilty of murder.  As the verdict was read in Middlesex County  Superior Court in New Brunswick, N.J., on May 7, Alka Sinha, the wife of Divyendu Sinha, broke down in tears and her teenage sons tried to console her, a friend present at the court told Desi Talk.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, has been listed by The New York Times as a rising power in the pantheon of influential people in the state. Bharara, who has prosecuted several high-profile Wall Street personalities and companies, is on a shortlist of people with whom the city’s power lies. “The Powers of New York” list, published May 5, includes Mayor Michael Bloomberg former U.S. Rep.

President Barack Obama extended his lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney to 7 percentage points because of increased support from independent voters and some optimism over the U.S. economy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday. With six months to go before Election Day on November 6, Obama was backed by 49 percent of registered voters in the telephone poll, compared to 42 percent who supported Romney.

Standing next to India's foreign minister, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed neighbouring Pakistan on Tuesday to do more to stamp out homegrown terrorism, in comments likely to please the Indian government but annoy Pakistani leaders.