US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked by US Congressmen if the US had explore the possibility of northwest India for counter terrorism capabilities in Afghanistan. Blinken's remarks on India assume great importance, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
In a further blow to the encounter case of Ishrat Jahan, the National Investigation Agency has clarified that convicted terrorist David Coleman Headley, who is currently lodged in an American jail, never mentioned the 19-year-old during any of the interrogations.
'A couple of more such happenings in the coming weeks can push Kabul into total anarchy, and a Syria-like conflict may ensue,' warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Tehran senses that the Modi government is inexorably gravitating toward the US-Israeli-Saudi axis, jettisoning India's traditional independent Gulf policies,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
When then ISI director Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha visited Washington, DC for a meeting with CIA Director Michael Hayden, he admitted that the planners of the Mumbai attacks included some 'retired Pakistani officers' and that the attackers had 'ISI links, but this had not been an authorised ISI operation.'
While the denial rate has dropped slightly to 21 per cent in 2019 from 24 per cent in 2018, the National Foundation for American Policy has said it is much higher for Indian IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro and very low for American companies like Amazon and Google. For instance, the denial rate for TCS and Infosys in 2019 was 31 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, whereas for Wipro it was 47 per cent and 37 per cent for Tech Mahindra. On the other hand, the denial rate for the new H-1B petitions in 2019 was just four per cent each for Amazon and Google. The denial rate for Microsoft during the same period was six per cent, and Facebook along with Walmart was just three per cent each.
"Few nations are more vital to the future of American security and prosperity than India," Garcetti told the committee.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will be summoning US Ambassador Richard Verma to convey India's "displeasure".
Five years after Operation Neptune Spear took out Osama bin Laden, US President Barack Obama relives the historic night with television channel CNN's Peter Bergen at the Situation Room of the White House.
Rediff.com takes a look at some personalities who are likely to win the prize this year.
New Delhi should resist any temptation to act as spoiler and instead should cooperate with its SCO partners in reaching a regional consensus behind the formation of an interim government in Kabul, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan would want to take full advantage of the situation to direct Taliban trained terrorists into the Kashmir Valley, alert Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
India has denied seeking any assistance from the United States on the Chinese border incursions in Ladakh, asserting that New Delhi is capable enough to take care of its own territorial integrity.
BWith a distracted president brooding in the White House, Pompeo seems to think his day has come. He seems to be pushing a personal agenda before a target audience in America, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The government is in no mood to buy the privacy and security argument pitched by WhatsApp, whereas the American firm says traceability will undermine end-to-end encryption and the private nature of the app, creating potential for serious abuse.
Politicians, bureaucrats hold different opinions about the delaying of the 2+2 summit.
The Biden administration has come under criticism from several quarters, including from members and supporters of the Democratic party, for not releasing surplus COVID-19 vaccines to India when the country is experiencing its worst-ever public health crisis.
Could Mumbai have been saved from terror on November 26, 2008? Perhaps, had the intelligence agencies of India, United States and Britain worked together.
The White House has rejected a revelation by a prominent US journalist who claimed that an operative of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence had revealed the hideout of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden who was later killed in a raid by American commandos.
Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Thursday said that the bodies of four people -- two adults, a teen and an infant -- were found on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border near Emerson.
'Narendra Modi is a beginner on the national scene. Intelligence and security will be new for him on a national scale. He will succeed if he crosses the bureaucratic barriers. If he entangles himself in these barriers, then I highly doubt he will succeed,' former R&AW agent R K Yadav tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
Three people were killed and over 20 others injured in a bomb blast outside the house of the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed in Lahore on Wednesday, the police said.
The proposals aims to impose new restrictions to prevent abuse and misuse of H-1B visas, besides ending the provision of granting extension for those who already have a green card.
'Frankly, India has no role to play.' 'This is a showdown between the US and NATO on one hand and Russia on the other.' 'That said, the outcome of this titanic struggle in Central Europe will remould the world order and affect India profoundly,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"This is a humanitarian crisis. A crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul," Trump said in his maiden prime-time address from his Oval Office.
The girl from the north east who now walks for the best names in international fashion today was content wearing hand-me-downs from cousins those days.
Trump's accusation of the leadership once again maligns people he appointed to their roles, including FBI Director Christopher Wray whom he nominated after firing former FBI Director James Comey in May.
A day after an FIR was filed against 35 persons on board US ship 'M V Seaman Guard Ohio,' detained for straying into Indian waters carrying weapons and ammunition, a multi-agency investigation, including officials from Research and Analysis Wing and Intelligence Bureau, has begun, sources said on Tuesday.
Brigadier Usman Khalid also persuaded the doctor to conduct a fake polio campaign, which led to the terrorist's assassination.
The US spent $1.5 million a day since 2001 fighting the opium war in Afghanistan. After hundreds of airstrikes failed to curtail the Taliban's $200-million-a-year opium trade, the US military quietly ended the campaign when the Trump administration officials engaged in direct peace talks with the Taliban, notes Atanu Biswas.
The debris from China's disintegrating Long March rocket entered the Earth's atmosphere on Sunday and reportedly fell into the Indian Ocean area close to the Maldives, the country's space agency said, ending an anxious week as people and the governments wondered where and when the space junk would fall.
India will need to watch carefully and understand the new round of instability and uncertainty in Pakistan, while charting the course of its future diplomatic initiatives, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
It is the first-ever visit by a head of the Indian Army to South Korea.
Rediff.com tries to recap the debate and presents the highlights from the event.
"I think it's clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups," General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the leaders on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power there last week.
With Donald Trump the appeal has to be to his business instincts in which his personal interests seem to play a significant role, says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said troops from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) 'violated' the consensus arrived at during military and diplomatic engagements on the ongoing standoff in eastern Ladakh, and carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo.
Daniela Greene returned to the US just a month after tying the knot with Denis Cupert; was immediately arrested and sentenced to two years in federal prison
