After extending billions of dollars to protect themselves from the economic turmoil, the US moved to arrest the trend of exorbitant pay among the nation's big entities like Citigroup, Bank of America and American International Group.
As the negotiations in Copenhagen appeared to have entered a deadlock, the Obama Administration has insisted on "transparency" of any operational agreement on climate change at the ongoing summit meeting in the Denmark Capital.
"Read my lips," said Richard Holbrooke, special US representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, "I am not working on that problem," when asked by a Pakistani journalist if the Obama administration was 'serious to appoint any adviser to resolve this issue,' since as the latter contended, "We all know that deep down, there is no solution of Afghanistan and the South Asia problem, without resolving the Kashmir issue that is controlled by Indian government."
The Obama administration has praised Pakistan for the high-profile arrests it has made in the recent past, in particular those of the top Taliban leaders.
Ficci is also concerned that outsourcing, relaxation of export-controls on dual-use technology are other issues that can 'hinder' the burgeoning relationship.
US President Barack Obama has privately met his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the White House.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said the Obama Administration is not cutting and running" from Afghanistan.
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.
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.
In a bid to rein in exorbitant executive compensation, the US government has appointed a pay czar who will oversee pay practices at seven companies including Citigroup, which have received "extraordinary" Federal assistance.
For the eclectic mix of India Americans -- from senior White House officials to politicians and community activists to medical professionals -- invited to the first state dinner hosted by the Obamas in honour of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, it was a 'memorable' and a 'magical evening' full of fun and great entertainment that would be forever etched in their memory, reports Aziz Hanniffa.
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
"President Obama, Vice President Biden, and I are committed to making the most of this promising moment by deepening the areas of cooperation that exist between India and the United States," Hillary said.
In a brief speech, United States President Barak Obama has welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "Yours is the first official state visit of my presidency.Its fitting that you and India be so recognised," Obama told Singh at the ceremonial welcome at the White House.
"I think it's the importance of our relationship with India on a host of issues. Obviously, counter terrorism is important," Gibbs said at his daily news conference.
US Congressman Ed Royce, a ranking Republican on the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, has warned the Obama administration against undoing all the Bush administration's hard work in developing closer ties with India, by coveting China at the expense of New Delhi.
Lifting of restrictions on these dual use technologies is one of the major areas of focus of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he meets US President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday.
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 Obama administration has said that too much is being read into the joint United States-China statement issued by President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao in Beijing. The statement had irked the Indian administration on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US, as New Delhi perceived it as an attempt to interfere in the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.
Amid concerns in India over the reference to the Indo-Pak ties in a US-China joint statement, the Obama Administration on Wednesday said its relationship with China is not at the "expense of" India and that nothing much should be read into the document.
'You'll see during the course of this visit, we'll have some important deliverables to announce in the area of energy and climate change,' US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake on the prime minister's journey to Washington, DC next week.
Geithner said during their discussions this week, in Singapore and China, US President Barack Obama emphasised that the US and China must be at the centre of efforts to put the global economy on a more sustainable and balanced growth path.
During his presidential campaign, Obama had pledged to make comprehensive immigration reform a top priority in his first year as President.
The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to expand and reorient its fight against Taliban and Al Qaeda and wants its army to pursue the militants into north Waziristan.
The Obama Administration has sought an "assurance" from India on nuclear non-proliferation to take forward the Indo-US civilian nuclear trade between them.
"The President told China's leaders during his trip last year that he would meet with the Dalai Lama, and he intends to do so. The Dalai Lama is an internationally respected religious and cultural leader, and the President will meet him in that capacity," Bill Burton, the White House Deputy Press Secretary said.
United States Vice President Joe Biden has said that the Obama administration is committed to end its combat mission in Iraq by August this year and remove all of its troops from the country as scheduled by the end of 2011.
Clinton has blamed her presidential election loss on the "unprecedented" events of Russian cyber hacking and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe into her use of her personal e-mail server.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a legislation that would triple economic assistance to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year, authored by its chairman Congressman Howard Berman, California Democrat, despite being vehemently opposed by the pro-Pakistan lobby and the Obama Administration.
The Special US Envoy on Climate Change, Todd Stern, in a letter informed the UN Framework Conventional of Climate Change Secretariat about the Obama administration's decision in this regard, which is part of the voluntary commitment made by economies including India and China during the Copenhagen Climate Change summit.
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.
A key United States Congressional committee has called for a public hearing on the rights and freedoms of religious minorities in India to be held early next month.
Senior diplomatic observers and administration sources have told rediff.com that in the weeks following the formation of the new Indian government, the Obama administration will press for India to resurrect the composite dialogue with Pakistan that lie comatose after the Mumbai terror attacks.
Seeking to put in place stricter norms for big entities that pose a threat to the whole system, the Obama Administration has also proposed setting up financial services oversight council.
This is Clinton's first visit to the country since taking charge in the Obama Administration.
'Here in Delhi, the Modi government is supposedly looking at 'options' to hit back at Pakistan in any whichever way it can, while in Washington, the Obama administration is looking for ways to strengthen US military cooperation with Pakistan,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A Pakistani journalist claims to have been receiving life threats from an American agency for critically writing against the Obama administration and for reporting its secret operations in the country.
Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said "India's rhetoric was as strident as we ever heard China's, so we need to build a climate partnership with India, too; working from the same principles, but respecting the massive differences."
