The Obama administration has defended its decision to go in for trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and a former spokesman for Al Qaeda, in a civil court in New York instead of those in Guantanamo Bay.
Ambassador Islam A'Isi' Siddiqui -- who recently resigned from his position as chief agricultural negotiator in the office of the United States trade representative -- has joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies as senior adviser on Global Food Security.
Pakistani journalist, scholar and author Ahmed Rashid has virtually taken on an advisory role to the Obama administration on Pakistan. He has been arguing that the United States should not unilaterally re-set its relationship with Islamabad -- which is in the doldrums -- unless that country completely eschews supporting and funding terrorist groups that attack the US, India and Aghanistan. Aziz Haniffa reports.
The strategic partnership between India and the United States has "retreated" under the current Obama Administration as compared to the momentum built during the Bush-era, Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign has said.
Aneesh Chopra, the highest ranking Indian American in the Obama administration, is stepping down from his position as White House Chief Technology Officer, administration officials announced on Friday.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is looking forward to meeting "dynamic" and "influential" Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee next week during which she will discuss the progress made by West Bengal under her leadership and her take on India-Bangladesh ties.
Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney has chosen Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, a strong critic of the Obama administration's economic policies, as his running mate for the forthcoming presidential polls in United States.
The United States has said that drone strikes are "legal and ethical" tools against Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan, dismissing Islamabad's concerns over the attacks.
Two top United Stastes lawmakers have questioned Pakistan's "duplicative role" in the war against terror, blaming Inter-Services Intelligence for aiding extremists, particularly against India, while criticising the Obama administration's lack of assertiveness against Islamabad on the issue.
The dreaded Haqqani network has emerged as the 'most ominous threat' to the already fragile US-Pakistan ties as American officials believe the terror group has an 'ongoing relationship' with the ISI and the two were doing more than just talking, a media report has said.
Islamabad is set to sell to Washington a new formula where it will assure the Barack Obama administration that it will act swiftly on key targets identified by the CIA in the tribal areas. Amir Mir reports
The Obama Administration has condemned the decision of Russia and China to veto the United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria, saying "those who voted against the resolution are on the wrong side of the history."
The United States working with its partners and allies is going to hold China accountable to follow the rules, US President Joe Biden has said, as he referred to his recent meeting with leaders from Quad countries involving Australia, India and Japan.
As many as 61 per cent of the land mass of the United States is currently being characterised as being impacted by this drought, the Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, told reporters on Wednesday at a White House news conference, noting that this drought is having an impact in crops.
Ramping up the pressure on the Obama administration to designate the Haqqani Network as a foreign terrorist organisation, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed a bill through voice vote
Is the United States actually serious to proceed against the Haqqanis this time or is it yet another ploy on the part of the Obama administration to pressurise one of the most influential power players in Afghanistan to join hands with the international community to hold future negotiations with the Taliban? Amir Mir tries to find out.
Is the United States actually serious to proceed against the Haqqanis this time or is it yet another ploy on the part of the Obama administration to pressurise one of the most influential power players in Afghanistan to join hands with the international community to hold future negotiations with the Taliban? Amir Mir tries to find out.
The Senate confirmed ambassadors to 16 countries following Obama administrations's concern over the posts lying vacant. The confirmation had been lying pending before the senate for about two months now.
Slamming Pakistan for refusing to cut ties with the Haqqani network of militants, a leading US daily has said the military of the 'crippled and chaotic' state continues to play a "double game" of accepting aid from America while enabling the Afghan Taliban.
Amid reports claiming America has threatened India with sanctions if it does not reduce its Iranian oil imports by June end, United States officials on Friday said Washington and New Delhi are having "productive conversations" on the issue and termed the reports as "highly speculative".
The recent US actions, targetting trade practices of China, are not driven by the upcoming presidential polls, Obama administration has said.
The pace of withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan has not been decided yet, even as the Obama Administration is committed to transfer the country's security to Afghan forces, the White House said on Tuesday.
No Republican lawmaker dares cross Norquist, as the majority of them signed on to his Taxpayer Protection Plan, where they pledge never to vote for any legislation to increase taxes.
Subtlety is not exactly the strong point of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And the Obama administration learnt this the hard way when, during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Netanyahu carried a cartoon bomb with him to the dais.
Pleased with the settling of the leadership issue in Pakistan, the Obama administration on Friday said it is looking forward to work with the new prime minister hoping this would provide them with an opportunity to get the relationship back on track.
Pakistan's political circles were abuzz on Wednesday with speculation about the recall of ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani in the wake of media reports on secret communications between Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and the American administration to avert a possible military takeover.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pakistan's military and its power intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence funnelled $4 million over two decades to tilt America's Kashmir policy against India. But despite Kashmir American Council's executive director Ghulam Nabi Fai relentless efforts, he hardly influenced the Clinton, Bush or Obama administration, believes veteran diplomat Howard Schaffer.
A Sikh rights group in New York has submitted a petition to the Barack Obama administration seeking that the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India be recognised as a 'genocide'. The Sikh Genocide Petition with 46,000 signatures, including 29,000 online, is the first petition of its kind to be submitted to the administration on the 1984 riots, in which a large number of Sikhs were killed, Sikh for Justice said in a statement.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that even with a firewall that has been constructed against the diversion of massive American military aid to Pakistan to the nuclear weapons programme, there are no ironclad guarantees that aid cannot be diverted and hence it remains a major concern to the US. Clinton was appearing before the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee to defend the Obama administration's foreign aid budget for the fiscal year
United States Ambassador to India Nancy Powell plans to meet Narendra Modi, signalling a shift in America's stand towards the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A White House statement in this regard along with other objections of the administration to NDAA-2017 came as the bill made its way to the House of Representatives from House Armed Services Committee.
The United States believes India has the required institutional capacity to become a global power and sees a growing strategic convergence between the two nations, a top administration official has said ahead of next week's India-US strategic dialogue.
Pakistan is expected to discuss with the US, the alleged role of India's external spy agency RAW in abetting violence in the country.
While the consensus seemingly among Barack Obama administration and US congressional lawmakers and several policy wonks who deal with South Asia at leading think tanks is that Pakistan meets all of the criteria to be designated a state sponsor of terrorism, opinion is mixed among security experts if it would serve any purpose or be counter-productive.
The Obama administration is moving ahead with a 'range of steps short of war' that it hopes will forestall an Israeli attack on Iran, while forcing Tehran to take more seriously negotiations that are all but stalemated, a media report on Monday said.
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, who is visiting Washington, DC, has cautioned that India is unlikely to go along with tough sanctions against Iran even as the paranoia over that country's alleged nuclear weapons programme reaches fever-pitch. He also warned that any military action in the Gulf would plunge that region into grave instability and chaos.
Ranjan Mathai, who is on his first trip to Washington, DC after taking over as India's foreign secretary, on Monday added his voice to the growing chorus of senior Indian and Barack Obama administration officials attempting to rebut the growing perception in recent months that the envisaged India-United States strategic partnership is adrift.
India has been discomfited by signs that the United States and its allies are preparing to leave Afghanistan.
Amidst growing concern in the United States Congress that the India-US nuclear deal is in limbo, the Barack Obama administration last week attempted, albeit weakly, to assuage the angst that Washington has been taken for a ride by New Delhi. Parliament's nuclear liability law has left American companies hanging after all of the capital they extended in pushing the accord through both the US Senate and the House of Representatives.
A top Republican Senator has slammed the Obama administration's plan to end the Afghanistan combat mission in 2013, saying the "very unfortunate" move is more directed towards domestic politics rather than ground realities. "It is very unfortunate that the administration continues to provide reassurance to our enemies that the United States is more eager to leave Afghanistan than to succeed," Senator John McCain said.
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