Maulana Fazlullah of the Taliban in Swat was referred to as 'FM Mullah' because of his effective use of the radio 'to preach to the local people about Shariah.'
India should carve out a policy response that protects India and its interests from the negative externalities of the US strategy in Afghanistan, writes Harsh V Pant.
Encouraged by the possibility of talks between India and Pakistan, the Obama administration has said the two south Asian neighbours share a number of important interests -- from tackling terrorism to encouraging trade.
Washington and several cities in America's East Coast set a record since 1899 for snowfall after a blizzard slammed the region on Thursday for the second time this week.
The Kashmiri Pandit leadership from across the United States, led by California-based community activist Jeevan Zutshi, last week met senior Obama administration officials at the State Department and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to implore them to help address the plight of the Pandits in India.
Despite managing to get $2.29 billion in fresh military aid, Pakistan failed to extract anything from the US on two key issues of civilian nuclear deal similar to that of India and American intervention in resolving the Kashmir issue.
The senior administration officials present at the swearing in included US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick F Kennedy, Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Council, Dr Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Pradeep Ramamurthy, Senior Director for Global Engagement at the National Security Council.
Amid increasing tension between the United States and China over the arms sale to Taiwan and US president Barack Obama's upcoming meeting with the Dalai Lama, the US appeared to be adopting a conciliatory approach saying that it has many areas of common interest with the communist country.
The Obama administration welcomed the Indian proposal to hold talks with Pakistan at the level of foreign secretary on Thursday.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday virtually accused the Asif Ali Zardari-led Pakistan government of surrendering to terrorists.Mincing no words over the Barack Obama administration's anger over the Zardari government's striking a deal with the Taliban in Swat Valley, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists."
The Obama administration is apparently committed to alleviating India-Pakistan tensions and consequently influencing the Pakistani army to focus on the internal terrorist threat from the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and not India, in order to advance Washington's AfPak agenda.
United States President Barack Obama will visit India this summer, making him the first US President to visit India in the first two years of his first term in more than 30 years, senior administration officials and diplomatic sources.According to the sources, more details regarding the finalisation of dates will be discussed when Dr Singh arrives in Washington, DC on April 12 on a two-day visit, on the invitation of Obama, to attend the Global Nuclear Security Summit.
Enhanced co-operation between India and the United States on tackling terrorism particularly in South Asia and Pakistan's role in the region, dominated the deliberations of the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram with top officials of Obama Administration today.
The decision by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom to place India on its 'Watch List,' for what it said was "the government's largely inadequate response to protecting religious minorities," will not impact in any way on the growing US-India strategic partnership, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake has said.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake was asked pointedly by rediff.com to respond to a growing perception that Pakistan was hedging on punishing the terrorists behind the Mumbai terror attack and the US was backing off from applying too much pressure on Islamabad because of its strategic interests. Blake said, "First of all, let me say these are really a very complicated set of issues that are for India and Pakistan to resolve."
Ways to strengthen Indo-United States anti-terrorism cooperation and Pakistan's inaction against perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks are among the issues likely to figure prominently in talks Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will have with top American officials during his four-day US visit that began on Tuesday.
Al Qaeda has started feeling the heat as a result of the intensification of American efforts against it in the Af-Pak region, a top Obama Administration official has said.
The New York Times report that Pakistan illegally modified the Harpoon anti-ship missile provided by the United States apparently to bolster its conventional weaponry against India, has embarrassed the Obama administration and Senators John F Kerry and Richard Lugarjust as Washington is poised to provide Islamabad with a massive economic and military largesse of $ 7.5 billion over five years
Expressing concern over the nuclear arms race in South Asia, a senior Democratic lawmaker, who opposed the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, has asked the Obama administration to "encourage" India and Pakistan to sign Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban and halt production of nuclear-weapon fissile material.
The Obama administration has not received any specific assurances from India that it will help carry the developing countries with it to help successfully complete the stalled Doha Development Agenda, but the fact that New Delhi is hosting the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting exudes optimism in this regard, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk has acknowledged
As Administrator of the USAID, Shah is the highest-ranking Indian American in any US presidential administration and is leading the massive US efforts in rescue and recovery efforts in Haiti.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday there has been a remarkable advancement of defence relationship between India and the United States in the last few years. "There have been remarkable advances made just in the last few years," Gates told media-persons on board flying with him on his trip to India-his first as the US Defence Secretary in Obama Administration.
American Defence Secretary Robert Gates will visit India from Tuesday on a three-day trip to boost defence ties and step-up cooperation on regional security.
United Stated Defence Secretary Robert Gates will visit India next week during which the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan and regional security issues will dominate the agenda of his talks with the Indian leadership. The January 19-21 tour of Gates will be the first high-level visit from the Barack Obama administration after the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington in November last year.
The Obama administration's point man for South Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake has assured that there will be deliverables from the first US-India Strategic Dialogue that will be held in Washington, DC, on June 2-3.
The decision in this regard was taken when urban development secretary M Ramachandran met with top officials of the Obama Administration during his four-day visit to the US capital this week.
During his presidential campaign, Obama had pledged to make comprehensive immigration reform a top priority in his first year as President.
The Barack Obama administration has announced the appointment of a prosecutor to investigate prison abuse cases that were carried out as part of the torture programme during the eight years of the George W Bush era. The announcement in this regard was made by Attorney General Eric H Holder soon after the Justice Department released a long-secret report on Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation techniques during the Bush administration's tenure, post-9/11.
The provision in this regard is expected to be included by US President Barack Obama when he rolls out his annual budget next month, media reports said.
The 39-year-old Indian-American was sworn in on Friday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the chief of USAID, which oversees disbursal of $40 billion US foreign aid programme.
India will most likely sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty--a top non-proliferation priority of the Obama Administration--if the world moves "categorically towards nuclear disarmament in a credible time-frame," India's point man for nuclear issues has indicated.
At a time when the Obama administration is attempting to develop a new relationship with the Islamic world, Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan's statement that he was grilled at a United States airport because of his Muslim name has gained prominent space in the American media.
In its latest bid to press Iran to halt its uranium production, the US is planning to impose strong and immediate new sanctions against Teharan that will target its elite Revolutionary Guards, the military force believed to run the clandestine nuclear weapons effort.
The closing down of the Guantanamo detention centre was in US' security interest, the Obama administration maintained on Wednesday, amid a clamour among lawmakers for a review of the decision and for stopping of the transfer of detainees to Yemen.
The designation of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and lumping it with the likes of other Pakistan-based terrorist outfits such as the Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayiba, 'is a no brainer,' and will likely happen before the month is out, senior Obama administration officials told rediff.com.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said some people in the Pakistani government are aware of the whereabouts of elusive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar.
There was "no indication" to suggest that the Nigerian terror suspect was acting as part of a larger plot when he unsuccessfully attempted to blow up a US plane midair on the Christmas Day, US Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, told the CNN on Sunday.
The Obama Administration is unlikely to mediate on the Kashmir issue and the US policy of non-interference will continue despite calls for greater American involvement, according to a latest Congressional report.
"One of the significant issues when the Secretary (of State) arrived (in Copenhagen) on Thursday morning and worked through these issues during the day on Thursday and the President on Friday was in fact to make sure that there was a significant, verification aspect to the accord," assistant secretary of state for public affairs P J Crowley said.
Former United States vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has won the dubious honour of telling the biggest political 'Lie of the Year'. A panel of experts chose her claim -- that the Barack Obama administration was planning to introduce 'death panels' -- as the most misleading statement of 2009, the 'PolitiFact.com' reported. The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August.
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