The United States military forces on Thursday (US local time) conducted self-defence strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.
The Obama administration has asked Russia to "expel" fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden "without delay", even as it agreed with the Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two countries should avoid a diplomatic showdown over the issue.
China had made the request but declined to provide details.
The key Biden administration included the CIA's deputy director David Cohen and the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan, Tom West.
United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that based on what he saw, it appears that the deadly explosion at the Gaza hospital was done by 'the other team' and not the Israeli military, accepting the Israeli version of the story pinning the blame for the blast on the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.
'...to prevent this episode from disrupting ongoing cooperation.' 'The discovery of this plot had the potential to derail much of what has been achieved in the relationship during this administration's tenure -- I don't think that fact has been sufficiently appreciated in India.'
The US has also urged the two South Asian neighbours to avoid further military action.
United States President Barack Obama will convene a meeting of the UN Security Council next month on the threat posed by foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, the White House has said, amidst reports that another American jihadi has died in Syria fighting for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
A United States fighter jet Friday shot down an object, the size of a small car, flying with payloads at a height of about 40,000 feet off the northern coast of Alaska on the direction of President Joe Biden, officials said.
Cohn served as Trump's chief economic advisor since the beginning of the Administration. During his stay at the White House, he led coordination of Trump's pro-growth domestic and global economic policy agenda, including the passage of historic tax cuts and reforms in December 2017, the official said.
They also slammed the "violent rhetoric" against India's Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu and said free speech does not mean a license to incite violence or vandalise property.
US President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia's King Salman amid the Arab world's biggest diplomatic crisis in years over Qatar's alleged support to extremists, reports Lalit K Jha.
Two of the US Cabinet members -- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transport Secretary Elaine Chao -- have resigned over the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters. US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund has also announced that he would resign this month after he faced criticism for failing to prevent Trump supporters from storming the building.
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.
The 36-year-old desi speaks impeccable Arabic and quotes freely from the Quran during his speeches, reports Aziz Haniffa.
The US military has intensified its efforts to collect the remnants of the high-altitude surveillance balloon from China that floated over the United States over several days last week from Montana to South Carolina.
The White House press secretary said LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens.
The pressure on India to take a hostile attitude towards Russia and China was not subtle, but it was guarded, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan after Monday's 2+2 ministerial meeting in Washington, DC.
Transition sources said Trump is close to selecting 55-year-old Tellis to be the next US envoy to India to replace Richard Verma who was appointed US Ambassador to India by outgoing President Barack Obama in 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first-ever in-person meeting with President Joe Biden raised a number of issues involving the Indian community in America, including access for Indian professionals in the US and speaking about the H-1B visas, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden condemned Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territory on Friday.
"President Trump believes that Kim has an unprecedented opportunity to change the trajectory of our relationship and bring peace and prosperity to his country," Pompeo said.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to vote on Friday evening on a draft resolution on Russia's military operation in Ukraine as well as the escalating situation in the eastern European country.
The US National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation spied on five prominent Muslim-American activists, including an Indian-origin attorney, according to the leaked documents which showed use of objectionable religious slurs against these individuals.
Officials said the addition shows the measure was set on the basis of security and was not a 'Muslim ban'.
'Sullivan and Jaishankar welcomed the cooperation in recent weeks that resulted in deliveries of over USD 500 million in COVID-19 relief supplies from the US federal and state governments, US companies and private citizens across America for the people of India'
Immediately after India launched its surgical strikes, sources said, it had informed the US of its action.
United States Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has named her Chief of Staff, Domestic Policy Advisor and National Security Advisor -- an all-women team -- which she said has the experience to hit the ground from day one.
Canada has expelled an Indian diplomat as it was investigating what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called 'credible allegations' of the involvement of 'agents of the Indian government' in the killing of a Sikh extremist leader in Surrey in June, claims outrightly rejected by New Delhi as 'absurd' and 'motivated'.
The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic's origin.
'We have never before seen an Indian prime minister's visit to the United States so heavily business-oriented and so packed with meetings with the US business community.' Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.
'The attack killed 166 innocents, including six Americans. We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning!' he said.
The statement comes Days after Trump sought Imran Khan's help in the Afghan peace process.
Amid mass layoffs in the tech sector, the federal agency for immigration services has said it is wrong to assume that sacked workers holding the much-sought-after H-1B visas have to leave the country within 60 days, asserting they have multiple options to stay in the US. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
'Biden's promise of returning to 'normalcy' after Trump appears to mean that the same old politicians, who are responsible for the 'endless wars' in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, are being brought out of the woodwork after four years,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Lavoy said even before India places a request for something, the United States is ready and prepared.
Obama walks a tight-rope following a Chinese warning against meeting the Dalai Lama
India's unusual tough stand on the arrest of its diplomat Devyani Khobragade has forced the United States to initiate an "inter-agency review" to look into the lapses that happened in the high-profile case that triggered an uproar in India and strained bilateral ties.
The State Department and the White House too said that the US expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists operating from its soil.
The Biden administration expects the Modi government to continue to remain as its loyal camp follower even as Washington continues to act in self-interests, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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