'Is there any truth to the rumour that the Income Tax authorities have traced a money trail to a senior politician down in South India?'
Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said that the Pakistani forces are fully prepared to give a befitting reply to any 'misadventure' from India.
Notwithstanding the recent arrest of high-value Taliban leaders in Pakistan in which the Inter Services Intelligence played a key role, top US Senators and officials have indicated that they continue to remain suspicious about the real intentions of the Pakistani intelligence agency in view of its links to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other terror outfits.
The United States is worried over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear assets and believes that they are 'vulnerable', as the army continues to consider India as a prime threat.
He said that while Pakistan public opinion favouring Al Qaeda and the Taliban have declined precipitously in the past year, "on the other hand, despite robust Pakistani military operations against extremists that directly challenge the Pakistani government authority, Afghan Taliban, Al Qaeda, and Pakistani militant groups continue to use Pakistan as a safe haven for organising, training and planning attacks against the United States and our allies in Afghanistan."
Senior Republican Senator John McCain has joined the group of lawmakers urging Congressional leadership to invite India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
Two top United States lawmakers have introduced a legislation in the House of Representatives to designate India as a special global partner of America
Colorado-based Indian American businessman Vinai Thummalapally, who raised funds for President Barack Obama's presidential campaign, on Wednesday said he was proud to be nominated as the first Indian American to serve as United States' envoy to Belize.Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the confirmation hearing, Obama's nominee to the Central American state said he would work to strengthen US interests in Belize, if confirmed.
Philippines boxing icon Emmanuel 'Manny' Pacquiao says he took all kinds of drugs as a teenager but fully supports President Rodrigo Duterte, whose vicious anti-drugs campaign has led to the killing of more than 3,000 people, mostly users and pushers, in three months.
Dr Rajiv Shah, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to head the US Agency for International Development -- the country's top non-military foreign assistance programme -- has told US lawmakers that "the mission of USAID is my passion," and that "it is with enthusiasm and humility" that he seeks confirmation to lead the agency first established by President John F Kennedy in 1961
"There are elements in Pakistan that have not yet been the focus of the Pakistani counterinsurgency efforts," Gen Petraeus said in reply to a query raised by Senator Claire McCaskill, who expressed concern over the inability of Pakistan authorities in taking "substantial action" against the LeT.
Software czar Bill Gates engaged in a large number of social projects in India, has told US lawmakers that the northern parts of the India face difficult challenges.
Manisha Singh, an erstwhile senior staffer of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a former political appointee during the George Bush Administration, has landed a top job as the executive director of the Barer Institute based at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle.
Curtis, who was the lead panellist at a conference at The Brookings Institution titled, The US-India Nuclear Agreement: Expectations and Consequences,' said, "During the Bush Administration, US officials broke the habit of viewing India solely through the India-Pakistan lens. Washington developed a greater appreciation for the Indian democratic miracle and viewed our shared democratic principles as the bedrock for a broader strategic partnership."
President Barack Obama has nominated Rahul 'Richard' Verma, currently a partner with the top-notch international law firm in Washington,DC -- Steptoe & Johnson LLP -- as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, and sources told Rediff India Abroad that considering that he has been a much respected Congressional staffer, his confirmation process before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the coming weeks would be a shoo-in.
Ninety-six years after women won the right to vote in the United States of America, a woman stands a chance of winning the US presidential race. Hillary Clinton -- former first lady, former US senator, and former secretary of state -- has become the first woman to capture a major-party nomination for president, taking another step in a journey that once seemed impossible, but over the last eight years has seemed inevitable. Like everything about her campaign, it was harder than expected.
A Pakistani parliamentary panel on Monday urged the government to ban Indian television channels beamed by cable networks if restrictions on Pakistani channels are not eased in the neighbouring country. The panel reiterated an earlier recommendation for banning Indian channels if restrictions on Pakistani channels were not eased by the neighbouring country. Pakistani cable networks beam nearly all top Indian entertainment channels, which are very popular with viewers.
The nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan has figured during a Congressional hearing on the New START treaty between the United States and Russia.For the past two days, during hearings on the New START treaty held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lawmakers wanted to know from top US officials and experts about other nuclear weapon countries like India and Pakistan and how it can motivate the two countries to reduce their nuclear stockpile.
Influential United States Senator John Kerry who heads the congressional committee responsible for the American foreign policy has said that Pakistan's president, army chief and the Inter-Services Intelligence are showing encouraging signs of transformation and taking the terrorists head on.
Appearing before the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tim J Roemer, a former Congressman from Indiana, told US lawmakers in response to a question that Kashmir is a 'sensitive and delicate' issue.
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,".
More than a year after he was nominated by President Barack Obama, the US Senate, defying the powerful pro-gun lobby National Rifle Association, voted to confirm Dr Vivek Hellegere Murthy as the first Indian American US Surgeon General and the youngest ever at age 37, in a cliff-hanger of a 51-43 vote.
Given Congressional objections, we have told the Pakistanis that they should put forward national funds for that purpose," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
The White House has ruled out sending Ahmed Abu Khatallah, a key suspect in the attacks at the United States consulate in Benghazi in September 2012, to the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center and asserted that he would be tried through the federal court system.
Trump had said that North Korea changed its approach towards the summit after Kim had his second meeting with President Xi Jinping in China.
Congressman Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat, and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who last week slammed the Congressional passage of the massive economic and military largesse to Pakistan to the tune of $1.5 billion annually over five years, as the House dutifully fell in line with the Kerry-Lugar bill passed by the Senate last week tripling the aid to Islamabad, has denounced the Pakistani military's hostility to this aid because it contains some cond
"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.
Congressman Mike Honda of California, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus, believes the ability of the Indian-American community to mobilize is an increasingly potent indication of its clout, and that it can translate into an effective weapon in the coming presidential elections.
Although Pakistan faces an 'existential' threat from terrorists within its borders, many of its leaders are still hung up on India as that country's principal enemy, the chief of United States Central Command has informed the US Congress.This observation was made by Army General David Petraeus, who was addressing the Senate Armed Services Committee to sell President Barack Obama's comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, which he unveiled last week.
In a major development, US House of Representatives has voted to train and arm Syrian rebels so that they can take on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
Blair's assessment came at Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee when panel chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein asked him to weigh up the possibility of an attempted attack in the United States.
The statement by Lt General Michael Maples, Director, Defence Intelligence Agency of the US Army, in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee comes a day after the State Department said Pakistan needs to do more in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack to justice.
Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry said on Wednesday that Pakistan has become the "ground zero of terrorism" and "security threat" to the United States.
Overriding strong objections from Islamabad, the United States has conveyed to Pakistan that missile strikes to take out high value militant targets inside its territory would continue. This decision of the new US administration was made known by the Defence Secretary Robert Gates in his testimony before the Senate armed services committee, where he also outlined that Pentagon was preparing to send two more army brigades to Afghanistan.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who just couldn't stop praising Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , told Congress Thursday that Kayani has purged the so-called 'rogue' elements from the ISI who are in cahoots with the Taliban.
The Al Qaeda network is not located in Afghanistan, but clearly headquartered in Pakistan, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress Thursday, and warned that if the Taliban takes over Afghanistan again, it would mean the return of al Qaeda to Afghanistan to plan and plot attacks against the US reminiscent of 9/11.
Saying that the challenges the United States faces in Pakistan are far greater to that in Afghanistan, Senator John F Kerry, the chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, warned that if Pakistan, "a nuclear-armed nation of 170 million people" becomes a failed state, it would pose 'an unimaginable peril to itself, its neighbors and the world.'
The US House of Representatives averted a government shutdown on Thursday, narrowly passing a $1.1 trillion spending bill despite strenuous Democratic objections to controversial financial provisions.
