Year: 2014

By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) – Five Vietnam War veterans sued the U.S. military on Monday, saying they were denied some veterans services after receiving other-than-honorable discharges for actions that resulted from post-traumatic stress disorder. The men, including one who was the victim of a poison gas attack on his first day in Vietnam and another whose duties included sorting through body parts of soldiers killed in combat, called on the military to upgrade the discharges of veterans of the conflict who suffer from PTSD. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, seeks class action status for what it estimates are tens of thousands of veterans who can now be shown to suffer from PTSD, a condition not recognized by the military in the 1960s and early 1970s at the time of the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. "The military gave these service members other than honorable discharges based on poor conduct such as unauthorized absence without leave, shirking, using drugs, or lashing out at comrades or superior officers," the lawsuit said.

By Manoj Kumar and Rajesh Kumar Singh NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India's trade minister on Tuesday accused the United States of excessive trade protectionism, launching a broadside that coincided with the visit of a top U.S. official to patch up a stormy bilateral friendship. The ruling Congress party government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not want to be seen as bowing to U.S. pressure on trade issues ranging from the quality of Indian drug exports to software piracy. "There are issues which India has raised where we feel there is very high and unacceptable protectionism," Trade Minister Anand Sharma told reporters, adding that Washington made it too hard for Indian nationals to obtain U.S. visas. He also said that India's patent law was compliant with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), while India would not agree to tougher rules to protect intellectual property.