'Hedging has become inevitable in the emerging global scenario and we too should have our share of hedging. But it has to be combined with firm positions and sturdy alliances wherever necessary,' says T P Sreenivasan.

Pamela Constable, veteran Washington Post foreign correspondent and author of Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War With Itself, said it was striking how bleak the prognosis for Pakistan seemed to be, with even the media playing to the lowest common denominator. She was speaking a panel discussion on the Future of Pakistan at the Brookings Institution.

Frank J Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute of George Washington University, has told the United States Congress that the endemic corruption found in every level on India's law enforcement apparatus is a major impediment to India-US counterterrorism cooperation. Cilluffo said despite the plethora of anti-terrorism initiatives between Washington and Delhi, as well as a host of other mechanisms for cooperation, "a trust deficit encompasses ties".

Delhi's new catch-phrase these days is, 'capacity-building in Africa'.

A group of teenagers in western New York has been arrested for allegedly harassing worshipers and firing a shotgun outside a mosque.

As India scalps its third nuclear deal this month, the vindication and the victory cannot hide the fact that the all-powerful Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which met in Christchurch, New Zealand last week, failed to dissuade China from supplying two nuclear power reactors to Pakistan in pursuance of two that had earlier been supplied.

Indian lawmakers have warned US that withdrawing troops from war-ravaged Afghanistan from July next year without defeating Taliban and Al Qaeda would be devastating for the region as well as for America. Once US forces withdraws from Afghanistan, the entire region including parts of Pakistan would emerge as a more strong safe haven for the terrorists and it would considered as a victory for their ideology.

Like many other immigrants in the United States, the Sikhs have endured decades of prejudice. In the post-9/11 backlash, they were mistaken for Muslims, beaten up, threatened, robbed and discriminated against in hundreds. Some times, they were attacked just because they looked different.

The conference on NPT review will kick off on Tuesday and the Iran-West showdown over Tehran's nuclear programme is likely to dominate the proceedings. India, which is not a signatory to the NPT has decided to stay out of the conference.

Professor Marvin Weinbaum, Scholar-in-Residence at the Middle East Institute, who has served in several US administrations as an expert on South Asia, particularly in the State Department's Policy Planning Bureau and Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told Congress on Thursday that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, responsible for the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, could surpass or replace Al Qaeda as the number one terror network worldwide.

Instead of ignoring Delhi, the West would be better served if it ceases to pander to Pakistan for short-term gains. Not supporting the only secular liberal democracy in the region will only embolden the radical Islamists in the long-term, writes Harsh V Pant.

As one surveys the changing face of mulilateralsim today, we see mutation and multiplication. The underlying reality is that the world is multipolar and with more poles, you tend to get more constellations.

A personal tribute to a guru, a great economist and a nation-builder

China experts feel Indian defence strategy treats China, not Pakistan, as priority target, which they also believe provides for a partial border war, writes D S Rajan.

"Pakistan must be dissuaded from using terrorism as a state policy, and part of the US engagement with Pakistan should be focused on that result," says Ed Royce, senior Republican lawmaker.

'I think the most important force in Pakistan is the army. We would like democracy to succeed and flourish in Pakistan. But we have to recognise that the power today rests virtually with the army,' PM Dr Singh says in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria

Looking back 20 years from now, the month just gone by will loom even larger in history books.

Dr Siddiqui is currently the vice president, Science and Regulatory Affairs at the Washington, DC-based CropLife America, where he is responsible for regulatory and international trade issues related to crop protection chemicals.

Telecommunications icon and entrepreneur Sam Pitroda, who is the chairman of National Knowledge Commission, tasked with building excellence in India's education system to meet the challenges of the 21st century, has said India faces serious problems in its higher education system and that unless it is alleviated expeditiously, the Indian march to become a major global player could be adversely impacted.

Sam Pitroda, chairman of India's National Knowledge Commission, believes the United States' model of a liberal arts education is applicable in the revamping of higher education in India and that such a model is very much in the works.He noted during a conference on Higher Education Policies in India, China and the United States, "Too much focus on engineering and medical education has created a situation where liberal arts really did not get due recognition," he said.

Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan, allegedly involved in proliferating nuclear technology to countries like North Korea and Iran, has now been accused of plagiarism.

Research shows the US Fed doesn't get its predictions right as often as we would like to believe. With India and China in an upbeat mood, the dark days of last September are slowly fading in memory.

Amrita Chowdhury, Newly Returned Indian, discusses her debut novel, .

The reverse immigration could end up as a big loss to the US, which has so far relied heavily on the immigrants to give it a technological edge over the rest of the world, according to a study conducted by Indian-American Vivek Wadhwa and released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Bribery gets all the bad press, but lobbying is the real danger, because it affects everybody--whether they want it to or not.

If Pakistan continues to dilly-dally in bringing the perpetrators to justice and closing down the terrorist camps that operate within its borders, influential US lawmaker Ed Royce says he will lead the fight in the United States Congress to cut the massive military and security assistance to Pakistan.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and the Afghanistan expert at the much-respected Washington think-tank, has said that the United States is urging India to exercise restraint against perhaps launching punitive attacks against Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. It should convince India that Washington's concerns are genuine and not governed by its own vested interest vis-a-vis its global war on terror.

'I am inclined to believe that there must have been some low-level rogue element in the Pakistani government who looked the other way while the training and logistics support were being provided,' Muqtedar Khan told rediff.com 'Otherwise, it is very difficult for anybody to carry out such a sophisticated operation.'

Manoj K Jain is an infectious disease physician, a writer, and a national leader in health-care quality improvement. Memphis-based Jain, 45, also writes for publications including The Washington Post.

Community bucks the trend in swing states even as CNN exit polls put McCain in the lead

If the amount of disinformation that spreads so rapidly in the US is disturbing our own lack of appreciation of our rich heritage is almost as troubling.

Award-winning journalist and co-screenplay writer John Bowe picked a controversial topic for his book Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labour and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, about how outsourcing, subcontracting, immigration fraud, and the relentless pursuit of 'everyday low prices' have created an opportunity for slavery to regain a toehold in America.

The life and times of the famed Leftist revolutionary Che Guevara.

Immediately following his election, DeBenedittis closed down the day-labour centre that had been sustained by public funds and was located in a residential neighbourhood. In this, he had the backing of most members of the Town Council.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has announced his intention to appoint Anoop Singh as Director of the Asia Pacific Department. Singh, an Indian national, who is currently Director of the IMF's Western Hemisphere Department, will succeed David Burton. He holds graduate and post graduate degrees from the Universities of Bombay, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics. Singh has also been special advisor to the governor of the RBI.

Wishful thinking often masquerades as assessment. Iran should not be different. Driven by short term gains, India is rolling out red carpet welcome to Ahmadinejad.

The special qualities of Professor G V Loganathan and Minal Hiralal Panchal and 30 other faculty and students of the Virginia Tech university community, who were killed a year ago on April 16, were read aloud in a remembrance ceremony attended by thousands on the Virginia Tech Drillfield in Blacksburg, Virginia.

In a rare honour Dr Ravi Gupta, assistant professor of Religion at Center College in Kentucky, has been selected as one of the five young people representing different religions to meet with the Pope and to hand him a present symbolising Hinduism. Gupta will give the Pope an incense burner in the shape of the sacred Hindu symbol, Om.

Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council for Relations, is a long-standing expert on India, Pakistan, and South Asia, specialising in security and governance, international conflict, theories of international relations, and the US foreign policy in the region.

On this third anniversary of the tsunami, let us remember and salute the Indian armed forces for their admirable devotion to duty and for flying the Indian tricolour high.