Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was cornered by US forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora just months after 9/11 and could have been killed or captured, but the military top brass decided not to attack him with the massive force at their disposal, a Senate report says.
The rise of BRIC countries represents a fundamental shift in global economy and the developing world needs a legitimate seat at the table so that shared challenges are better addressed, a powerful US Senator has said.
Geithner said during their discussions this week, in Singapore and China, US President Barack Obama emphasised that the US and China must be at the centre of efforts to put the global economy on a more sustainable and balanced growth path.
Biden, 77, who served as vice president of the US for eight years from January 2009 to January 2017, would deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday.
'Riding around in an armed personnel carrier, as I did when I was there, and seeing the faces through the window of Afghans watching that monster vehicle go by, you get a sense of the disconnect that Afghans must experience,' US Senator John F Kerry said.
The ranking Republican on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Lugar, has bemoaned the fact that more than three years after the historic US-India civilian nuclear deal was signed, it still remains in limbo sans any implementation.
United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday welcomed as 'constructive action' his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreeing for a runoff after electoral authorities invalidated tens of thousands of votes in his favour, reducing his vote share in the presidential election to less than 50 per cent.
The growing relationship between Afghanistan and India has been driving the Pakistanis crazy and mounts their concern of being "surrounded," a former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Pakistan station has said, warning that Pakistan was unlikely to change its policy towards India.
Top Congressional leaders on Wednesday met Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reaffirming their support to the Tibetan cause.
A key United States Senator and architect of the Congressional bill, which doles out $ 7.5 billion to Pakistan in the next five years, said that 'no conditions' have been imposed on Islamabad in lieu of the non-military aid.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has categorically denied any links with the Taliban.The Daily Times quoted ISI Director General Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha as saying that the ISI is a professional agency and does not have links with any militant outfit, including the Taliban. Pasha's remarks came during a meeting with Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta, National Security Adviser Lieutenant General James Jones and other officials.
The voice vote comes a week after Senate passed the bill unanimously. The Bicameral Legislation now goes to US President Barack Obama for his signature.
Amid concerns that terrorists could obtain material related to nuclear weapons from Pakistan, a latest Congressional report has said that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had "sent emissaries to establish contact" with the maligned A Q Khan network.
Colorado-based Indian American businessman Vinai Thummalapally, who raised funds for President Barack Obama's presidential campaign, on Wednesday said he was proud to be nominated as the first Indian American to serve as United States' envoy to Belize.Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the confirmation hearing, Obama's nominee to the Central American state said he would work to strengthen US interests in Belize, if confirmed.
Less than a fortnight left for her first trip to India as the Secretary of State, Clinton had a breakfast meeting with more than a dozen top Congressional leaders from both Democratic and Republican parties on Wednesday, coming from both the chambers of the Congress -- the House of Representative and the Senate.
Appearing before the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tim J Roemer, a former Congressman from Indiana, told US lawmakers in response to a question that Kashmir is a 'sensitive and delicate' issue.
"I would like to say with respect to the Indians and Afghanistan that they have provided a very helpful role to the United States and to Afghanistan and to the region," Tim Roemer, the nominated US Ambassador to India, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
UnitThe ed States concluded the landmark civil nuclear deal with India on the premise that a strong and enduring partnership with New Delhi would enhance America's national security and economy, a top Senator said on Monday.
Addressing New York-based think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations, Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Islamabad might move some troops from its border with India to the "guts of Pakistan".
The United States looks forward to enhancing strategic partnership with India and is likely to make some announcements on it 'fairly soon'. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in his confirmation hearing, Robert Blake told American Senators that Obama is committed to strengthening the existing strategic partnership between the two countries. "President Obama has said that the United States sees India as a global power," he said.
Virtually supporting India's precondition for any peace talks with Pakistan, a top United States diplomat on Thursday said Islamabad needs to do more to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, which claimed over 170 lives including six Americans. Robert Blake, now tipped to become the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department, told a powerful Congressional Committee that Pakistan needs to do more on 26/11.
The historic Indo-United States civilian nuclear agreement is on the right track, even as New Delhi has to complete a few formalities in this regard, said a top US diplomat. "It (nuke deal) is going very well, Senator. There are still a couple of steps that the Indians have to take to fully implement that agreement," Ambassador Robert Blake, the Obama nominee for the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said.
The Barack Obama administration's top diplomat for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has admitted that the United States is getting battered by the Taliban in the information war in the Federally Administered Tribal Area and the Northwest Frontier Province in Pakistan. He warned that the 'success' in the US-led assault on these militant groups would ring hollow if there is no propaganda victory against these extremists."We are losing that war," he said.
Ruling out sending American troops to Pakistan to assist the country's offensive against Taliban, Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee today said Islamabad would have to develop a "homegrown" policy to fight extremists.
The United States will help India and Pakistan "find a new way forward" only if they stop "pointing fingers at each other," a visiting top Senator said on Monday, even as Islamabad asserted that a "calm eastern border" is essential to focus on its war against terror in Afghanistan.
Foreign Service Officer Robert Orris Blake, Jr, who is currently the United States' Ambassador to Sri Lanka, before which he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in New Delhi from 2003 to 2006, is the top contender for the post of the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, currently held by diplomat Richard Boucher.
The Kerry Lugar bill that would give a whooping US $ 7.5 billion non-military aid to Pakistan, which US President Barack Obama last week termed as a "down payment" and "investment" into America's future, would be introduced in the US Senate on Thursday.
Pakistan's security forces and its intelligence agency have facilitated the rise of the Taliban, with whom they have an "ambiguous" relationship, a former top American army official, now headed to become the country's representative to Afghanistan has said.
The US move came after the Justice Department said that hackers working with the Chinese government targeted firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world.
Worried at the emerging reports from Pakistan, the United States has announced that it would provide immediate assistance to $8 million for "unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs" in Pakistan, including through international non-governmental organizations.
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.
Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry has said that he would soon be introducing a legislation in the US Congress to triple the non-military aid to Pakistan to avert an economic meltdown.
Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry said on Wednesday that Pakistan has become the "ground zero of terrorism" and "security threat" to the United States.
Influential United States Senator John Kerry who heads the congressional committee responsible for the American foreign policy has said that Pakistan's president, army chief and the Inter-Services Intelligence are showing encouraging signs of transformation and taking the terrorists head on.
Hillary Clinton was publicly sworn in as United States Secretary of State by Vice President Joe Biden at a ceremony held at Foggy Bottom. Hillary's husband and former US President Bill Clinton and her daughter Chelsea were also present at the ceremonial swearing-in ceremony on Monday, which included several former Secretaries of States and Congressional leaders. She is the 67th Secretary of State. Hillary replaces Condoleezza Rice of the previous Bush administration.
Two missile strikes targeting suspected terrorist hideouts inside Pakistan in the first few days of his presidency indicate that new United States President Barack Obama is going to be tough on Islamabad when it comes to the war against terror, US media reports have suggested.This is the first tangible sign of President Obama's commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups there, even though the Pakistanis broadly oppose such unilateral US actions.
'As America's second post-9/11 President takes office, a single country has become ground zero for the terrorist threat we face,' Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in an opinion piece published in The Washington Times.
The US Senate is likely to approve the vote on nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State after a Republican lawmaker, who a day before voiced concern over foreign donations to her husband Bill Clinton's foundation, on Wedensday said he would vote in favour of the former First Lady.
Over the last few weeks, bipartisan support for India against China has been increasing.
The Obama Administration has cautioned Pakistan that it would be held accountable for the security in the border regions of Afghanistan and that its performance in the fight against terrorism would be linked to the financial aid to it. "President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will increase non-military aid to Pakistan and hold them accountable for security in the border region with Afghanistan," the White House said in its foreign policy agenda document.
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