In an exclusive interaction with the Hindu American community, 26-year-old DuBois -- a political strategist and Pentecostal minister -- said his office has been tasked with some special projects by the president in his first term in office, one of which was "promoting inter-faith dialogue and cooperation both here at home and across the globe, especially cooperation through service."
Virginia's Republican Governor-elect Bob McDonnell has appointed his close friend and long-time fundraiser Dr Kamlesh Dave to his transition team for economic development.
Flamboyant and controversial New York hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, a major political contributor and fundraiser for the Clintons and several high profile Democratic politicians, is elated that he is in line to receive a Padma Bhushan in this year's Republic Day honours list, and rubbished concerns that he is undeserving of the award.
A high-powered US delegation of top-notch American educators and researchers from six major medical schools, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown, will visit India on an ayurveda study-tour that could possibly lead to the incorporation of this ancient herbal remedies in the US medical curricula.
Bruce Riedel, who spearheaded President Barack Obama's strategic review on Afghanistan and Pakistan, believes that aggressive US diplomacy to resolve the differences between India and Pakistan is 'absolutely critical' for the 'long-term chances of stabilising Afghanistan, and even more importantly, Pakistan'.He pointed out that "it got a whole lot more difficult," on 26/11 in Mumbai.
A federal grand jury on Thursday returned a superseding indictment adding Chicago native Tahawwur Rana, Pakistan-based terrorist leader Ilyas Kasmiri and a retired major in the Pakistani military Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, to charges filed last month against Pakistani American and Laskhar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley.
Pakistan has approximately 60 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, although the figure could be higher, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.The report states that Pakistan "continues to produce fissile material for weapons and appears to be augmenting its weapons production facilities, as well as deploying additional delivery vehicles -- steps that will enable both quantitative and qualitative improvements in Islamabad's nuclear arsenal."
Bharat Karnad said except for nuclear weapons, "Without indigenous production of its own weapons, a great power cannot have security," and said, "The armed services of India is remiss in not promoting and assisting the production of indigenous equipment."
The relationship between the United States and Pakistan is complex, the Pentagon said on Thursday, acknowledging that there were tensions on both sides.
Several Indian American organizations, including the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin--arguably the largest and most influential international medical group in the US--and leading Hindu leaders have blasted Fox News' conservative talk show host Glenn Beck for insulting medical care in India and joking that the holy river Ganges sounded like a disease.
America's Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday strongly refuted reports that Pakistani-origin US national David Coleman Headley, charged with criminal conspiring in the 26/11 terror attacks, was its agent at any point of time.
The Indian government has cancelled visas of Pakistani-origin terror suspects and Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, according to sources.
American Senator John McCain, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and erstwhile presidential nominee, has said he is aware that the Obama administration is working very hard to help resolve the Kashmir imbroglio, sans any US mediation of the issue between India and Pakistan.
The United States' mounting pressure on Pakistan -- to go after the Afghan Taliban inside Balochistan -- could affect the cohesion of the Pakistan army and lead to the destabilisation of the government, according to US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke.Earlier, Holbrooke said, "We will not be able to succeed in Afghanistan unless our Pakistan policy is equally successful".
"Read my lips," said Richard Holbrooke, special US representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, "I am not working on that problem," when asked by a Pakistani journalist if the Obama administration was 'serious to appoint any adviser to resolve this issue,' since as the latter contended, "We all know that deep down, there is no solution of Afghanistan and the South Asia problem, without resolving the Kashmir issue that is controlled by Indian government."
Pakistani-origin American national David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative charged with criminal conspiracy in the 26/11 terror attacks, now appears to have turned into an informant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to avoid death penalty.
Senior US administration sources and law enforcement officials have told rediff.com that it was President Barack Obama's "personal interest" in the David Coleman Headley case that led to the speedy indictment of the Chicago-based Pakistan American and also the dispatching of a team to New Delhi to brief India sleuths.
Let's face it. When it comes to the Pentagon, the Pakistani military can do no wrong. Even if it's going after only the Pakistani Taliban and not the Afghan Taliban, which it apparently continues to promote for strategic depth against India and as a hedge in case the US decides to cut and run.
The Pentagon does not believe that the shaky civilian government of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will be deposed by a military coup anytime soon.United States' Central Command Commander General David Petraeus assured the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that "as one who's been in Pakistan, and had a lot of conversations with military leaders as well as the civilian leadership, I actually don't think that the current challenges imperil civilian rule,".
Soon after his keynote address at the US-India Aviation Partnership Summit at the Washington Convention Center in Washington DC, Nambiar told rediff.com, although India's airlines were bleeding currently, they would bounce back because of domestic and international travel demands.