Cambridge confers honorary degree on Ratan Tata

India’s leading industrialist Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, has been conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Law by the University of Cambridge.

Tata, Hon. KBE, and seven others were conferred with the doctorate at a congregation held in Cambridge on Monday. It was presided over by Chancellor Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The other recipients of the honorary degree include George John Mitchall, lawyer (Doctor of Law), Dame Louise Napier Johnson, DBE, FRS (Doctor of Science), Sir Andrew John Wiles, KBE, MA Ph.D. FRS (Doctor of Science), Geoffrey William Hill, (Doctor of Letters), Richard Sennett (Doctor of Letters), Sir Harrison Birtwistle, (Doctor of Music), Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie (Doctor of Music).

U.S. is “pleased” with Colombia’s new president-elect Santos

The United States on Monday congratulated Colombia’s new president-elect Juan Manuel Santos and said it was “pleased” with the election of the conservative who is expected to continue the policies of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe.

P.J. Crowley, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, praised the “spirited debate” before Sunday’s runoff and Colombia’s “longstanding commitment to democratic principles.” Mr. Crowley dismissed the suggestion that Mr. Santos’ intention to improve relationships with neighbouring Venezuela could drive a wedge between close U.S.-Colombia ties. Venezuela has been critical of Bogota’s close relationship with Washington.

“We wish him luck with that,” Mr. Crowley said.

Mr. Santos, a former defence minister who led the Uribe government’s military hard line against the Marxist rebels who have waged a five - decade civil war, won 69 per cent of the run-off vote against Antanas Mockus, a former Bogota mayor who had finished a distant second in the first-round vote.

It was the biggest election victory for a president in Colombia’s democratic history.