Indian-American Sruthi Palaniappan elected president of Harvard student body
Washington, Nov 20: An Indian-American woman has been elected as the president of the powerful student's body of the prestigious Harvard University.
Sruthi Palaniappan, 20, whose parents migrated to the US from Chennai in 1992, was elected as president of the Harvard University Undergraduate Council.
Her running mate Julia Huesa, 20, was elected as vice president, according to an announcement by the Undergraduate Council Election Commission.
Palaniappan said the duo planned to work on improving the Council's communication with the student body in their initial days in office.
"I think from the onset, better structuring the way we communicate with students is something that we need to already set the tone and plan for," she said.
"I think we're going to work on it before we even leave for break and just get off the ground running," she told Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper of the varsity.
Palaniappan was the youngest delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July 2016.
According to report, Palaniappan and Huesa garnered nearly 41.5 per cent of the votes as against their nearest opponent Nadine M Khoury and Arnav Agrawal, who received 26.6 per cent of the votes.
They ran their campaign under the slogan "make Harvard home".
The duo, a long-time member of the Undergraduate Council, are scheduled to take over from the outgoing president Catherine L Zhang '19 and vice president Nicholas D Boucher '19.
Palaniappan is currently the council's education committee chair.
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Lebanon appoints new representative for talks with Israel, rejects linkage to Iran
Beirut: Lebanon’s has moved to underline its independent position in ongoing regional developments, amid attempts to link the country to the broader conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel.
President Joseph Aoun, while announcing the appointment of former US ambassador Simon Karam as Lebanon’s representative in talks with Israel, made it clear that Karam would be the sole representative for Lebanon and that there would be no substitute.
The move comes in response to what the Lebanese officials see as efforts by Iran to tie Lebanon’s situation to the wider regional conflict. Iran had indicated that there would be no ceasefire involving the US, Israel and Iran unless it also included a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Some groups, including Hezbollah and its supporters, had expressed support for linking the situations, citing concerns that the Lebanese government has limited leverage in negotiations with Israel. Lebanon is not formally a party to the conflict, and its army is considered weak.
However, others, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, have opposed this approach. They view Iran’s stance as an attempt to influence Lebanon’s internal affairs and see it as undermining the country’s sovereignty.
Officials backing the government’s position say the move is aimed at reaffirming Lebanon’s sovereignty and ensuring that decisions about peace and ceasefire within the country are not dictated externally.
They also see it as a safeguard, so that any breakdown in talks between the US, Israel and Iran does not automatically lead to renewed conflict in Lebanon.
