The National Security Agency lost its authority to collect the phone records of millions of Americans, thanks to a new reform measure Congress passed on Tuesday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done the seemingly impossible by finalising the long-pending Land Boundary Agreement ahead of his Bangladesh visit, writes Prakash Bhandari.

Two senior United States Secret Service agents are being investigated over allegations that they crashed a government car into White House security barricades under the influence of alcohol, a media report said.

'What is the ISI doing and why can't they understand for their own interest that bringing stability to the region will help all the countries become prosperous, whereas a continuation of incitement will only lead to misery for all.'

The measures passed 236-191 votes immediately drew sharp reaction from the White House.

President Barack Obama met his National Security Council team at the White House to review potential holiday threats and discuss America's security posture in Pakistan in view of the horrific terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar that left 141 dead, mostly children.

The US House of Representatives averted a government shutdown on Thursday, narrowly passing a $1.1 trillion spending bill despite strenuous Democratic objections to controversial financial provisions.

Intelligence agencies believe attacks by militants during the Sochi Winter Olympics are highly likely, but will probably be aimed at "softer" targets elsewhere in Russia, such as public transportation or other civilian venues, US and European officials said.

The United States has increased security at all its major airports and railway stations, and has taken a number of measures, that include temporary closure of its 22 diplomatic missions, following a "very specific" Al Qaeda threat emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.

The United States Senate has passed the landmark comprehensive immigration reform bill that will provide a pathway to citizenship to some 11 million illegal immigrants, including over 240,000 Indians.

"We should make it clear to Pakistan that any LeT attack upon our homeland, they will bear responsibility for that because of their close relationship between ISI and LeT," Congressman Peter King said during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

A key United States Congressional panel has passed a legislative amendment that calls for investigations into racial and religious profiling of Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and those from South Asia at various United States airports.

Boston bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is being treated in a hospital with multiple injuries including gunshots, is out of danger, a United States lawmaker familiar with his health situation has said.

In a major milestone on Capitol Hill for the Sikh American community, a bi-partisan group of United States lawmakers led by California Democrat and Congresswoman Judy Chu and California Republican Congressman David Valadao on Wednesday announced the formation of an American Sikh Congressional Caucus in the US House of Representatives.

The United States has temporarily delayed a controversial new rule that would have allowed passengers to carry small knives inside the plane.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2011 had interviewed one of the two Chechen-origin Boston bombings suspects, who was killed after a massive manhunt, but apparently let him out of their sights after not detecting any terrorist activity.

United States President Barack Obama on Monday named former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his next defence secretary, and also nominated his counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan, who was involved in the planning of the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, as the new Central Intelligence Agency chief.

Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu to become a member of the United States House of Representatives, has been named to two key Congressional committees through which she would play an important role in the country's foreign policy and homeland security. Gabbard, 31, who represents Hawaii's second Congressional District, has been named as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Homeland Security Committee

The small Indian-American community -- constituting just about one per cent of the US population -- never had it so good as under the Barack Obama administration, with a record number of community members being roped in to head top administrative positions.

Senior United States lawmakers have demanded an inquiry into the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigations that brought to light the extramarital affair of former Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus, wanting to know when the top general's name popped up on FBI radar and whether national security was compromised.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has accused the Obama administration of contradicting itself and "doubling down on denial" about the true origins of the assault on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed American envoy to Libya.

There has been an "enormous growth in the radical right" in the United States over the last three years, believes Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a much-respected non-profit civil rights organisation based in Montgomery, Alabama.

If the ethnicity of those attending the gurudwara in Wisconsin, where six persons were shot dead two days ago, turns out to be the reason behind the massacre, then Americans should "immediately recoil against those kinds of attitudes," United States President Barack Obama has said.

A report by a United States Government's watchdog has revealed that some foreign flight students are still not subjected to terror database screening until after they've completed their pilot training.

A powerful House committee chairman has accused the Obama administration of jeopardising national security by providing classified information to two filmmakers producing a movie on the raid by Navy SEAL that killed Osama bin Laden.

Top Pentagon leaders have warned US lawmakers against including their "pet projects" in the annual defence budget, particularly at a time when it is struggling to save money in view of the tough economic environment.

A non-metallic explosive device that could have passed through airport security unnoticed like the one used in the failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound jet in 2009 by underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was recovered, the official said.

Deputy Speaker of New Jersey State Assembly and prominent Indian-American politician Upendra Chivukula is all set to run for the United States House of Representatives in the ensuing national elections slated for November.

Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act now requires to be passed by the House of Representatives before it is signed into law.

'The current period of implementation and consolidation will put the relationship on an even sounder footing when the leaders in both capitals determine it is time to quicken the pace,' US experts tell Aziz Haniffa.

Soon after Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta provided a classified briefing to the House leadership in the US Congress on the covert mission inside Pakistan that killed Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden, he was peppered with a volley of questions. He was quizzed about Pakistani duplicity, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence's perfidy about how it could have not known about bin Laden living right under their nose in Abbottabad.

The White House on Tuesday said that it was weighing whether to release pictures of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's corpse to put at rest speculation and disbeliefs in some quarters about the death of world's most wanted fugitive.

Several hundred people gathered in Times Square to protest against the planned congressional hearings on the "radicalisation" of American Muslims, which have been convened by Republican Congressman Peter King.

Ritu Jha speaks to some Indian students who have been at the receiving end of the Tri-Valley University scam in the United States.

A United States Congresswoman was 'gravely wounded' after she was shot in the head by a gunman, who went on a shooting rampage at a public event in Tucson in Arizona, killing at least six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge, and injuring 12 others. Democratic lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords, 40, a House Representative, was in a critical condition following a surgery late on Saturday night for a single gunshot wound to the head.

United States lawmakers have introduced legislations in the Congress which is aimed at stopping the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks by making it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants.

Cutting across party lines, United States lawmakers expressed their outrage at what they called "illegal" publication of classified American documents by WikiLeaks, and asked the Obama administration to use all legal means to shut down this whistleblower website.

The Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act was passed yesterday by a voice vote in the House of Representatives.

A criminal investigation is going on into the gate crashing incident by a Virginia couple at the White House in November last year, when United States President Barack Obama hosted a state dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the US Secret Service told lawmakers recently. "This continues to be under criminal investigation," Mark Sullivan, director of the US Secret Service said in reply to a question from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Activist Gopal Krishna makes a case that the Unique Identification Number project is a gross violation of fundamental human rights and points out that a similar project/law in Britain is going to be repealed.