Ambassador Howard Schaffer, a 36-year-old veteran of the US Foreign Service and author of the acclaimed book titled The Limits of Influence: America's Role in Kashmir, has said that President Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate in US history to mention Kashmir in a presidential campaign.
Republican United States Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the founder and co-chair of the newly reconstituted US Senate India Caucus, believes that the Caucus is 'really unique' because "it's the only country caucus that I am aware in the Senate."Cornyn addressed the packed audience of Indian Americans community leaders from across the country.
United States Congressman James Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, who hosted the 10th International Kashmir Peace Conference on Capitol Hill, believes the Kashmir problem between India and Pakistan also involves the issue of water. In his opening remarks, Moran lamented, "While the United States has been fighting a war in Afghanistan that we read about everyday, there has been another conflict -- one that is older and arguably more complex."
If peace and stability is to come to South Asia, links between Pakistan's military, Inter-Services Intelligence and the violent extremist jihadi groups the ISI created, must be severed, said Steve Coll, president and CEO of The New America Foundation and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars.
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.
According to the CNN, Senator Kennedy collapsed at the inauguration luncheon. However, channel did not give any details leading to the collapse of the veteran Democratic leader from Massachusetts.
"After talking to the Pakistanis, I don't have any great hopes that they are going to do what ultimately is needed for their own security, and that is to deal with people who are threatening their own sovereignty," Senator Karl Levin told reporters at a Capitol Hill news briefing on his return from the region.
Several US lawmakers pledged to support the Sikh community's efforts to serve in the US armed forces without compromising their religious principles.
Pakistan is producing more bomb grade uranium for new generation of nuclear weapons, even while being racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill whether billions of dollars in proposed US military aid could be diverted to its nuclear programme.
Republican Party leaders have denied extending an invitation to Narendra Modi to address Congressional leaders and Indian-Americans via video link next week.
The Obama Administration is awaiting the advent of the new government in India to engage New Delhi on the final implementation details of the US-India civilian nuclear deal, the Acting point person for South Asia at the US Department of State has said.
Here are glimpses of people practising yoga across the country.
India's Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar received a warm welcome at the first meeting of the newly reconstituted US Senate India Caucus, at the ornate Mansfield Room of the US Capitol, in the presence of more than two dozen Senators from across the political divide. She said the event was "a tribute to India, to the Indian American community in the United States, to the warm and strong ties between our two countries," she said.
United States Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, the new Democratic co-chair of the re-constituted US Senate India Caucus, feels that he has impossible shoes to fill, that of erstwhile Senator and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Dodd, one of the senior-most members of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, addressed an overflowing audience of Indian Americans from across the country in the ornate Mansfield Room of the US Capitol.
United States Congressman Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who was in the 1980s and 1990s India's bete-noire on Capitol Hill, after a considerable hiatus when he took a sabbatical against castigating India, seems to have had a relapse, this time at the urging of the Kashmiri American Council and the pro-Pakistan lobby.
Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry has said that he would soon be introducing a legislation in the US Congress to triple the non-military aid to Pakistan to avert an economic meltdown.
Rahul 'Richard'Verma, a partner with the top-notch international law firm in Washington, DC -- Steptoe & Johnson LLP -- who, until recently was the highest-ranking Indian American Congressional aide on Capitol Hill, has been appointed to the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
Floyd's death has triggered nationwide violent protests with a section of the protesters resorting to looting and rioting across the country, leaving behind a trail of destruction.
Calling on the world to embrace Yoga as a discipline in everyday life, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the occasion of the International Yoga Day today, asserted that the ancient Indian art was the most selfless of its kind, as it did not discriminate, did not ask for much, but simply functioned for the betterment of mankind and brought every society together.
A month after American President Barack Obama came out with 'Say no to Bangalore, yes to Buffalo' rhetoric, which now echoes in the corridors of Capitol Hill, American companies have launched a campaign against the new law that ends tax incentives to those firms which create jobs overseas.
Gregory Meeks, speaking to nearly 150 Indian Americans who had come to Capitol Hill as part of a Task Force to express outrage over the Mumbai terror attacks, couldn't contain his euphoria over the swearing in of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American President and the indirect connection to Mahatma Gandhi
Reflecting the immense respect he has for his idol Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama will replicate on his special luncheon menu the food served to the civil war-era US president after his inauguration in 1861. Soon after being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Obama would have his first lunch hosted by the joint congressional committee on inaugural ceremonies at the historic Statuary Hall at the US capitol.
President Donald Trump needs to do better in caring for every single American, the triumphant US women's soccer captain Megan Rapinoe said, as she hit back at him after he lectured her to win the World Cup title before she talked.
American auto industry's Big Three appear close to securing a bailout, with Wall Street Journal reporting that the White House and top Democrats have agreed in-principle for a $15 billion rescue plan -- less than half the amount sought by GM, Ford and Chrysler.
'Governments, democratically elected governments, are custodians for a short- specified time.' 'Parents don't let baby sitters decide the course of their child's future.'
Pelosi told the assembled gathering and many lawmakers who year after year have approved unanimous resolutions condemning the Chinese repression of the Tibetans that "the welcoming of India of the Tibetan refugee community is a testament to the close ties between the Indian and Tibetan people."
Rahul 'Richard' Verma has been appointed to the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Verma, a partner with the international law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP, based in Washington, DC, was until recently the high-ranking Indian-American Congressional aide on Capitol Hill.
In yet another sign of deepening relationship between India and the United States, the Friends of Indian Caucus in the US Senate is holding a rare Congressional reception for the new Indian Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar.
Even before Capitol Hill shocked the world's financial markets this week, the global economy was already mired in difficulties. And whether or not some version of the bail-out package gets passed in the near future, extricating it will be a real struggle.
'How could any Indian-American heart not have skipped a beat to hear President Barack Obama speak of a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers, shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this earth?'
There's a strong sense inside the Democratic leadership that if you care about India, now is the time to stand up for it, says Graham Wisner, counsel at the top international lobbying firm Patton Boggs.
Welcome to the crazy, crazy world of selfie-takers!
Being a historic first and endowed with qualities making for inspirational leadership also raises expectations to fever pitch. The nation would demand from Obama far more than they would from others, and within a much shorter time.
Whatever be Kamala Harris's preference for her identity, many Indians in the US will rally around her as she is the first person with Indian blood in her veins to get close to the White House, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Forty-six years after the late iconic civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King--who was inspired by Mohandas Gandhi-- delivered his 'I have a dream' speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Barack Hussain Obama, whose campaign theme was 'Yes, we can," was sworn in at 11.56 am on January 20th as the nation's 44 president and the first ever African American chief executive on the steps of the west front of the Capitool in the presence of over an unprecedented crowd.
Barack Obama will be sworn in as America's 44th and first black President on Tuesday, bringing a message of hope to a nation hungry for change after eight years of George W Bush regime.The 47-year-old would be sworn in by US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at noon today (2230 IST) at the Capitol Hill.Braving severe cold, an estimated two million people from all over the country have thronged Washington to be a witness to the historic occasion.
"Some of the fears are exaggerated," and added, "some of the training turns out to be sort of cadet level. Some exchanges don't lead to a lot. I think we just need to have a realistic sense of what this is," Boucher added.
In "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership", James Comey will "explore what good, ethical leadership looks like and how it drives sound decisions", according to Pan Macmillan, which has acquired the publishing rights in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth excluding Canada.
Dr Patel, in his presentation to the lawmakers, said that according to projections from the American Medical Association, 45 percent of physicians would decrease or stop accepting Medicare patients if the annual decrease in reimbursements were to take effect. He pointed out that Medicare reimbursements have remained the same from 2001 to 2008, and will decrease by 5 to 10 percent annually in the near future.
The only male protestor among the three had told a correspondent before being handcuffed and hauled away by police, "We are Christians and patriots."
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