'The surge of Saudi nationalism is the last thing Washington wants,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The US State Department and other lobbies who denied Modi a visa when he was chief minister of Gujarat, says one organiser of the Madison Square Garden event, will get a clear idea of what kind of "force" is behind Modi in America. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com meets the people behind the event in New York and finds out what's in store for Sunday's show.
The United States has deployed an additional 300 military personnel to violence-hit Iraq to augment the security of American embassy in Baghdad, its support facilities and the Baghdad International Airport.
Since the change in administration in the US, Indian leaders have publicly and privately identified with American objectives in Afghanistan.
Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant claimed that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi Shia air force recruits in Tikrit, posting some gruesome photos online to support their claim.
American whistleblower Edward Snowden, currently sheltered in the transit zone of Moscow airport, has sought asylum in 20 countries, including India.
Fighting sex trafficking and forced labour became Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat's life mission. The winner of the US State Department's 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report Heroes Award speaks to Rediff.com
'India's real concern is that cash-strapped Pakistan is keeping its military hardware well oiled on American money,' says Rajeev Sharma.
Pakistan has been consistently saying that Dawood is not living in Pakistan
The Obama administration has christened his vision of Indo-US ties that has overcome the "hesitations of history" and working for the betterment of the global good as "Modi Doctrine".
A day after India stepped up security for the United States embassy and other American institutions, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Fridaysaid the decision was not based on "reciprocity but on threat perception".
Unfazed by the outrage over the arrest and subsequent treatment of senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, the India-born US prosecutor Preet Bharara defended the action against her and confirmed that her maid's family has been "evacuated" from India.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade has moved a federal court here to dismiss the visa fraud case against her, saying there is lack of personal jurisdiction since she had been accorded full diplomatic immunity by the US Department of State.
United States President Barack Obama has hailed the "historic understanding" reached between world powers and Iran over the framework of a deal on its contentious nuclear programme, even as Israel warned that it would threaten the Jewish state's survival.
'Pakistan's main objective will be to shepherd India toward resumption of talks, preferably with American monitoring.'
Despite putting unprecedented security measures in place for Euro 2016, France remains deeply concerned over the jihadists' ability to strike a soft target. Millions of foreign visitors and the world's press are set to descend on the country for a month of sporting action from Friday -- creating endless nightmares for its overstretched security services. "From the point of view of preparation, we have done as much as possible. Everyone has been mobilised: police, paramilitaries, many soldiers," a senior counter-terrorism official told AFP, on condition of anonymity. But, he said, "to be totally honest, I'm worried." President Francois Hollande acknowledged the threat on Sunday, though he tried to put a brave face on it. "This threat will last for a long time, unfortunately, so we must do everything to ensure that the Euro 2016 is a success," he told France Inter radio. Hollande's government introduced a state of emergency in the wake of last year's jihadist attacks in Paris, allowing police to raid homes and place people under house arrest with minimal oversight.
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 US president acknowledged that it was former prime minister Manmohan Singh who had scripted the nuclear deal, Congress leader Anand Sharma, was part of the delegation that met the former, tells Rashmi Sehgal.
Three hate crimes have deepened the fear among South Asians that Trump's rhetoric encouraged violence against them, but there is no evidence that Indians have been specifically targeted, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'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.
The US has taken the first step to open channels of communications with a leader it had so far refused to engage with, at least openly.
Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in the United States, a court has issued summons against him, a copy of which is available with Rediff.com, for his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots case when he was the chief minister of the state.
The United States has lifted most of its sanctions against Iran after a UN watchdog reported that Tehran had complied with a nuclear weapons deal.
The question really is whether the US can be persuaded to embark on a path of calibrated and stronger sanctions on Pakistan.
This visa issue had gotten so embarrassing that former Defence Secretary William Cohen, now a member of the US-India Business Council's board of directors, who was presiding along with Ambassador Nirupama Rao at the launch, had to prevail upon Secretary of State John F Kerry and get the visas okayed.
A group of community leaders met Dr Devyani Khobragade on Monday at the Indian consulate in New York and offered the support of the people.
The State Department says it informed the Indian embassy in Washington, DC in Deptember about the troubles that awaited diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested on the charges of alleged fraud in New York on December 12. A media statement issued by M Sridharan, the Counsellor (Press, Information and Culture), at the embassy clarifies the sequence of events.
In defiance of the United States, two Latin American countries -- Venezuela and Nicaragua -- offered asylum to Edward Snowden, leaker of the United States secretive surveillance programme.
The Pakistani-origin gunman who carried out the massacre of 14 people in California along with his Pakistani wife may have been radicalised as he was in touch with extremists, officials said.
In an investigative story, the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday said that the officials of National Security Agency are "angry" on the assertions being made by the White House that Obama was not aware about its surveillance of foreign leaders.
'Jaish aided by LeT attacked Parliament knowing mobilisation of Indian military assets would be the consequence.' 'That mobilisation happened, necessitating a military response from Musharraf who moved troops guarding back doors out of Tora Bora, facilitating Osama's escape.'
India witnessed religiously motivated killings, arrests, riots and coerced religious conversions and the police in some cases failed to respond effectively to communal violence, according to the US State Department report on International Religious Freedom.
'At a time when the entire India-US relationship needs to be defined by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, a fresh look at the liability issue has become urgent,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, former Governor for India at the IAEA.
'Even if someone other than Trump had become president, the US distancing from Pakistan and coming closer to India was already set in motion.' 'With Trump openly declaring his intent to take on Islamic extremism, the days of US political correctness are over,' says Colonel (Dr) Anil A Athale (retd).
Several eminent officials and experts from both India and the United States have told American lawmakers that a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre would be detrimental to the basic rights of the religious minorities in India.
Will the unpredictable North Korean leader provoke conflict on the Korean peninsula?
Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz brings to New Delhi a newfound Pakistani confidence, stemming from its leverage in Afghanistan, says Ajai Shukla
Nine American and Israeli victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks have demanded a compensation of $688 million (around Rs 4,233 crore) from the Pakistan-based perpetrators of the terror assault, including Jammat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed.
'... For the India-US relationship to continue its positive trajectory, it will require India to adapt to a different approach.' Nisha Desai Biswal -- who as the Obama administration's point person for South Asia was in the inner circle of all the Obama-Modi Summits -- tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar why she is hopeful that India and the US are on an irreversible forward course.
She acknowledged it would have been better if she had used government email for her official work.
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