A nonproliferation hawk, who vehemently opposed the US-India civilian nuclear deal, former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher will take over as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

Meira Kumar set to become Speaker

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.

Several US lawmakers pledged to support the Sikh community's efforts to serve in the US armed forces without compromising their religious principles.

"India is one of our most important allies and creating an exchange program between members of the US Congress and Representatives of India's Parliament will only deepen our ties and lead to greater understanding between our countries," McDermott said.

Pakistani's President Asif Ali Zardari, asked on NBC's 'Meet the Press' program where Osama bin Laden was, told the interviewer, "You'll have been there for eight years. (So) You tell me.You lost him in Tora Bora, I didn't, I was in prison."

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was obviously so impressed by her meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari that she ventured into the White House briefing room after sitting in on the meetings between President Barack Obama and the two leaders, to express her optimism that a solid alliance had been formed committed to crushing the Taliban and other extremist elements destabilising the region.

Holbrooke declared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, "We do not think that Pakistan is a failed State. We think it's a State under extreme test from the enemies who are also our enemies and who have the same common enemy -- the United States and Pakistan. It just isn't (a failed State). But it is a State under enormous social, political and economic pressure. And India is always a factor."

Obama Administration's top diplomat for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, who has already visited New Delhi twice to brief Indian leaders of President Obama's AfPak strategy, on Tuesday said that due to elections India had not gotten fully engaged in the regional approach that is an integral part of the US strategy.

Avtar Singh Makkar, the president of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, seeking permission to visit the Taliban-dominated Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, to assess the condition of the Sikh families residing in those areas. Makkar's request comes in the wake of reports about the residences of Sikh families being razed for the non-payment of jazia.

The payment of $1,90,000 to a high-profile lobbyist firm in Washington, BGR Holding, was made by RIL in the first quarter of 2009, and is the first instance of any lobbying by the Indian company with the US lawmakers.

Asking India's Reliance Industries and other energy firms doing trade with Iran to choose either Tehran or Washington, US Senators have moved a bill aimed at penalising such companies.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday virtually accused the Asif Ali Zardari-led Pakistan government of surrendering to terrorists.Mincing no words over the Barack Obama administration's anger over the Zardari government's striking a deal with the Taliban in Swat Valley, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists."

Pakistan's rogue nuclear scientist A Q Khan is world's greatest proliferator, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today.

'The high profit margins in this kind of crime make it little wonder why gangsters and terrorists have turned to piracy.'

Two nonproliferation hawks, who vehemently opposed the US-India civilian nuclear deal, will soon man the White House and State Department and lead the charge to push President Obama's non-proliferation agenda to seek a worldwide ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and a strengthening of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that is bound to bring pressure to bear on India that has been loath to sign the CTBT and has maintained the NPT is discriminatory.

The appointment of veteran diplomat Peter Burleigh as charge d'affaires at the American embassy in New Delhi was a Department decision and not on the recommendation of Richard Holbrooke, Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, as had been rumored because of their earlier longtime working relationship, senior Administration sources have told rediff.com.

A bill has been introduced in the United States House of Representatives to triple non-military aid to Pakistan, amounting to a whopping $1.5 billion, as part of the new Af-Pak policy. Planned for the next five years, the aid can be extended for another five years. However, the bill puts conditions on Pakistan's military, linking the aid with their success in fighting against terrorism. US President Barack Obama announced the Af-Pak policy last Friday.

United States President Barack Obama has ended years of 'veto power' wielded by Pakistan in Afghanistan over India's active involvement in the country post-Taliban, a US expert on South Asia has said. Because of Pakistan's stiff resistance and opposition to involve India in any way in Afghanistan that the Bush administration was literally prevented to take any move to include New Delhi as part of its regional strategy on Afghanistan, said Deepa Ollapally.

Recognising New Delhi as a reliable and valuable partner, top American officials have told a group of Indian chief executives that Washington values India's human resources and wants to take the economic ties between the two countries to a new level.

Former Indian Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran will headline a major conference this week on the expectations and consequences of the US-India Nuclear Agreement, hosted by The Brookings Institution,

Undeterred by the strong protest lodged by Beijing on a Tibet resolution introduced in the United States Congress, the American lawmakers have said that China is not serious in resolving the Tibet dispute.

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who wrapped up three days of intensive discussions with the hierarchy of the new Obama administration at the State Department, White House, and Pentagon, and also met with the leadership in the US Congress, apparently has every reason to be satisfied that the transformed US-India relationship is ready to be launched to the next level of the partnership.

President Barack Obama has nominated Rahul 'Richard' Verma, currently a partner with the top-notch international law firm in Washington,DC -- Steptoe & Johnson LLP -- as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, and sources told Rediff India Abroad that considering that he has been a much respected Congressional staffer, his confirmation process before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the coming weeks would be a shoo-in.

The new Obama Administration on Wednesday assured India that it will proceed with the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal, signed during George W Bush's tenure, and said the two countries needed to ramp up cooperation in counter-terrorism and global issues such as climate change.

Among key Congressional leaders, the Foreign Secretary met included Jim McDermott, co-chair of the India caucus at the Congress; Howard L Berman, Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs; and Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Member of the powerful Senate Committee on International Relations

On the eve of the first high-level talks between India and the new Obama Administration in Washington, with the arrival of Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, who will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior US officials later today (Monday), outgoing Ambassador Ronen Sen has dismissed concerns over the momentum of the relationship under the new dispensation in DC.

Indian Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon will arrive in Washington on Sunday and will be holding meetings with top Obama Administration officials on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues. Taking the Indo-US relationship to the next level - from what was accomplished during the Bush Administration - is going to be the main focus of this first high-level Indo-US interaction after Barack Obama was sworn in as the USPresident on January 20.

US President Barack Obama will meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon next week in Washington to discuss a host of issues, including the global economic crisis, Sudan conflict and situation in Afghanistan and West Asia

US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said the attack on Sri Lanka cricketers in Lahore is a reminder of the threat of militancy not just to Pakistan, but to the entire world.

Presenting the interim Budget for 2009-10 in Lok Sabha, acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee claimed in Parliament on Monday that every effort has been made to fulfil promises made to the common man.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also managing the finance ministry, presented the Interim Budget for 2009-10 in Parliament on Monday. Following is the text of the entire Budget Speech:

Following is the trascript of President Pratibha Patil's address to the joint sittingof Parliament on Thursday.

The chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, US Congressman Howard Berman, has said that he is closely reviewing all American assistance being provided to Pakistan and that "to the extent we are going to provide security assistance, it should be focused on counter-terrorism, not rekindling an arms race in South Asia."

Sounding the call, Ed Royce from California, who is Ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Nonproliferation, said those involved in planning these attacks should be transferred to face trial before the international community in The Hague.

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

This would make him the highest-ranking Indian American ever in the US Department of State. Over a month ago, Verma was appointed as one of the leads of the Agency Review Team overseeing the US Department of Defence for President-elect Barack Obama's Transition.

The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama has two options to deal with the fallout of the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai: (1) To support, and to garner international backing for, Pakistan's democratically elected leadership in order to enable it to act firmly against terrorist groups on its soil or (2) To designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism under United States law.

Describing Mumbai attacker Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab's confession as "doctored", Pakistani authorities have reportedly said the evidence provided by India on the terror strikes is "insufficient" and no action can be taken based on it.

Ravi said that a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs had been fixed with the agenda of proroguing them, to have a fresh session in February with the Presidential address on the first day.