The Pakistan Peoples' Party-led coalition government has sent an unambiguous message to the United States that any mess with the newly elected democratic dispensation by President Pervez Musharraf will not be tolerated. The PPP leadership, however, held out a categorical assurance to the Bush administration that the new government would not create a situation leading to the unceremonious exit of Musharraf.
Despite the devastating terror attack on Mumbai, the US-India Business Council has decided to take its largest ever trade delegation of American commercial nuclear executives to India in January next year.
In a day of dramatic developments, the Indian diplomat is indicted on two charges, but she will leave the US. 'I will come out of this vindicated,' Dr Khobragade tells Rediff.com.
'It is not possible that Kashmir will go totally to one country.' 'I don't see borders being changed anytime even in the distant future.'
His remarks came in response to the India-US joint statement issued after the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.
Analysts suggest that with the Indo-US nuclear deal in limbo, New Delhi could be balancing foreign policy with an eye to the polls. They say that India's sharp response to the US State Department's 'advice' on Iran was one such move. While some felt the response was a case of dangerous over-reaction, others said it was merely an act of diplomacy where relations with other countries, particularly the US, are balanced to suit India's interests.
'It's a fact that the Government of India was misleading Parliament and the people. We were saying what the letter is saying. We were saying all along that these are the conditions, but the government is even now saying that 'we have the right to test'. It's like saying that I have the right to murder, it's only that I will have to suffer the consequences. The consequence of murdering somebody is death penalty, so is India prepared to accept the death penalty?'
A CPI-M member in the Lok Sabha,on Wednesday asked the government to condemn a United States State Department statement that India tell Iran to 'meet the requirements of the UN Security Council' on its nuclear programme during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads upcoming visit.
The US administration will take the final call in a meeting in coming weeks.
The latest request from Washington had suggested that the official who would be permanently posted in the US embassy in Islamabad to deal with nuclear issues should have direct access to the National Command Authority Secretariat, The News reported on Monday.
Just days after his organisation was declared a terror outfit by the US, Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed, who orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, addressed a seminar at the Lahore High Court spewing venom on India and America.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has not issued any certificate to the Congress on the progress made by Pakistan in taking action against terrorist groups, his spokesperson has said.
US States Department spokesperson Mark Toner said he could not agree that nobody knew about human rights violations in PoK before Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the same.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom -- a Congressionally mandated body -- has urged the US State Department "to reaffirm its past decision to deny a tourist visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been invited to attend a conference in New Jersey this August celebrating Gujarati culture."
'Trump's new discovery is that Pakistan and its army are virtually god's gift to mankind.' 'They are required to facilitate a relatively orderly American exit from Afghanistan,' points out Ambassador G Parthasarathy, who served as India's high commissioner to Pakistan.
The EU too urged Pak to ensure "safe and secure conditions" for the polls.
The United States ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, was wounded on Thursday.
'I have taken a loan of Rs 35 lakhs.' 'Even if my university allows me to stay, I feel cheated.' 'Thousands of Indian students in the US will be forced to return to India if their college/university courses go fully online.
Pakistan's ungoverned spaces are a problem in the war on terror and militants operating there are able to do hit-and-run raids across the border in Afghanistan, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said. "If you look at South Asia, there is a problem -- a kind of coming together of the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan with the difficult-to-defend Afghan border," Rice said.
In a move which could speed up the extradition of India-born surgeon Jayant Patel from the US to face manslaughter charges in Australia, one of the 14 charges against him has been dropped.
The Bush administration wants to learn more about the work of Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan and his network activities even as Islamabad maintains the matter related to him as "a closed chapter".
The US loses around $1 to 1.6 trillion annually due to corruption at the public services and private enterprises, estimated David M Luna, director, Anti-corruption & Governance Initiatives.
US State Department's report said that this has resulted in many investors retreating slightly from their once forward-leaning support of the BJP-led government
Since 2011, India has remained on Tier 2 of the State Department reports on human trafficking.
The report praised the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre for implementing an inclusive and secular platform that included respect for the right to religious freedom.
The Bush administration has been firm in its support for the US-India civilian nuclear agreement and it continues to be so, a US State Department official said. Gonzalo R Gallegos, director, Department's Office of Press Relations, made this observation when asked about more information on the reports that the nuclear deal between the two countries is close to dead.
When asked if India should be test-firing a nuclear capable missile at a time when Washington is trying to dismantle the nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea, McCormack replied: "It's not the first time they've test-fired missiles.
In its Annual Human Rights Report for 2006, the State Department also said 'attacks against religious minorities and promulgation of anti-religious conversion laws were (areas of) concern'.
The state department, in its annual report on terrorism, said terrorist activities along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir are on the decline, but Pakistan-based militant outfits like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other terrorist groups continue to plan attacks in the Valley.
The United States has welcomed President Pervez Musharraf's decision to lift emergency rule on December 16, calling it a positive and significant step to steer Pakistan back towards democracy. "It's a positive and significant step. We look forward to the elections taking place in early January," US State department spokesman Sean McCormack said in his briefing.
A US count of Pakistan's F-16 fleet has found that all the jets are present and accounted for, a report claims.
If Amit Shah is likely to take to the home ministry like a duck to water, Nirmala Sitharaman's handling of finance will show whether she will justify the confidence which Modi has placed in her.
Iran's decision to keep India out and welcome China to the scene is a huge strategic setback for India, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The list, posted on a website link launched by the US regulator, includes ABB, HSBC, Nokia, Unilever, Cadbury, Total and Siemens among others.
Despite making "some progress" in tackling the menace of trafficking, India needs to do more in designating and empowering a national agency to carry out an effective law enforcement response to the crime.
Dismissing speculations that the India-United States nuclear agreement was 'dead', the Bush administration has said that Washington will continue to work towards making the landmark deal a reality. "We are still very supportive of the deal. We still would like to see it move forward, but the Indian government and the political system is engaged in a debate, and we'll see what the outcome out of that debate is," US States Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"What is required is to convince the NSG of the non-proliferation benefits of the deal," Stratford, director at the Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs in the US State Department, said.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, says a Financial Times report, had ordered the Bank's HR chief to give Shaha Riza, a lady official of the bank with whom Wolfowitz was romantically linked, a huge pay hike and promotion.
Geelani was operated at Tata Memorial Hospital on Monday and the doctors had successfully removed the malignant tumour from his only surviving kidney.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry, a cycling enthusiast, today broke his leg in a bike accident in France and will return home for further treatment.
