An acute equipment shortage and an army that has only been trained to fight against India has left the Pakistani army highly ineffectual in its counter-insurgency efforts against the Taliban, said South Asia expert Stephen Cohen.

It is hard to believe that barely two months ago Manmohan Singh was having quintuple heart bypass surgery. The Indian prime minister appears robust, if a little tired, as he pursues a punishing schedule that yesterday involved taking time out from campaigning in hotly contested parliamentary elections to fly to London for the Group of 20 summit.

United States President Barack Obama's decision to deploy more troops in Afghanistan indicates the deterioration of the war on terror as well as the escalating crisis in Pakistan, according to many military analysts and intelligence officials.They also fear that America's long-time ally might be on the verge of imploding due to its internal crises.Obama approved the order to deploy 17,000 troops in Afghanistan which beefs up the US troop strength by 50 per cent.

Obama is likely to sign the bill into law, as early as early next week. The momentous occasion for Obama came late Friday night when the Senate passed the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act by 60 to 38 votes, hours after the House of Representatives approved the similar version of the $ 787 billion stimulus package by 246 to 183 votes.

The United States Senate on Tuesday passed Barack Obama's economic recovery plan, the $829 billion stimulus bill, which the President said would create four million jobs and was vital for reviving the crisis-hit economy. Amid strong Republican opposition, the bill was passed by a roll call vote of 61-37. The House of Representative has already passed it.

Detroit's bailout request is an opportunity for the president-elect to prove himself.

All kinds of people have tremendous expectations of Obama in the years ahead. If he manages to live up to anywhere close to the hype and hope, he could one day be declared a great president --and find himself on a piece of US currency.

A skinny African-American man, with goofy ears and Hussein as a middle name is going to become our 44th president. It is a win for all of us-- African-Americans, whites, Latinos, Asians, men, women and children, old and young, straight and gays. We should rejoice at this historic moment.

The incident occurred when Shashank and his friends were going inside their flat after returning from an outing. Shashank went out to take his bag from the car when he was shot at by a man who is suspected to be an Afro-American, he said quoting Shashank's friends.

From an economic summit to a Detroit bailout, Obama or McCain will have to jump right on the U.S. economic crisis

"In order for McCain to win, he's got a very steep hill to climb. He's got to win all of the toss-up states, 64 electoral votes. Then he needs to strip away Ohio and Indiana with 31 electoral votes to get him to 252. And then he needs to either win Colorado and Virginia, which gets him to 274, or win one of them plus Pennsylvania, which would get him to 282 or 286. It's a steep uphill climb," said Karl Rove, the 'architect' of President Bush's electoral wins in 2000 and 2004.

The move by Islamabad comes as it is also approaching Western and Gulf donors for rescue packages at a time when its foreign exchange reserves fell to a six-year low of less than $8 billion. Experts have said Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves, in real terms, are barely adequate to cater for imports for one-and-half months.

The best places to celebrate Navratri across America

Contributing Photographer Jay Mandal was at the Oval Office for a shoot recently when its resident took charge of the proceedings

"People are confused about this war," said Daud, negotiating the office vehicle he was driving through downtown Karachi's chaotic traffic.

'Procedural procrastination' was Chinese strategy to delay India waiver, NSG diplomats say

Amit Mistry, an alumnus of Rice University, has been selected as the Materials Research Society/Optical Society of America Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow for 2008-2009.

Each time an Indian life was lost, the top officials in Delhi reiterated their resolve not to be deterred by terrorists. A high level meeting of officials ensued to take stock of the security of the Indian personnel in Afghanistan. We, then, moved on. But does that approach suffice? Is anyone listening out there in the Hindu Kush? Isn't a comprehensive relook of policy warranted?

A sculptor from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, wanting to make it big in films as an actor is a rare thing to happen. Lekha Washington, who had completed her first solo exhibition as a sculptor when she was barely 18, wanted to do something creative after she completed her Masters in Film Making from the famed institute.

Most stunned, however, is likely US Senator Hillary Clinton, whose bid for the Presidency appears to have suffered a mortal wound.

Obama has refused to debate Hillary Clinton,with no moderator, before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

'The most nauseating part of the book pertains to the Gujarat riots. Advani rejects the settled truth that the post-Godhra violence was State-sponsored.'

Barely a month after carrying out successful tests of Interceptor missiles, India is in talks with a leading American aerospace firm to apparently seek collaboration to develop a robust ballistic missile defence (BMD) system.

The risk of a collision between the Federal Reserve and the markets grew on Friday after Fed governor Randall Kroszner made it clear that the US central bank was not planning to cut interest rates at its next policy meeting, but was largely ignored by investors.

Dozens of children were released from the facility as a result of the litigation and as a result of the deal.

The untold story of how an epic loser engineered what may be the greatest brand makeover ever.

The headlines in the South China Morning Post, among other regional newspapers this morning, are focused on the failure of the US-China trade talks.

"If it was not for Pakistan, we would not have an Iranian nuclear programme."

'America's latest post-Cold War tryst with neo-con global political evangelism in Iraq is nearing the end of the trail.'

What distinguished Shashi from the other senior Indians in the UN Secretariat even in the early years of his career was that he was not paranoid about asserting his international personality to the point of erasing his Indian identity

United States foreign policy experts have rated Pakistan just behind Somalia as the country most likely to become the next stronghold of Al Qaeda.

What is unfolding in the Gulf and the Middle East is nothing short of a remaking of that region in geopolitical terms. The Iran nuclear issue is a mere smokescreen.

'Polls have shown that about 70% of Afghans are waiting to see which side to pick - the US/NATO forces or the Taliban.'

Are you going the US to study? How much money do you need to carry with you?