Ashish Kumar Sen

Pakistan’s investigation into the Mumbai terrorist attacks has revealed “substantive links” between the 10 terrorists and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to a US media report.

American strategists think 26/11 could lead to greater Indo-US counter-terrorism cooperation.

NEW DELHI | The deadly terrorist attacks on Bombay last week threaten to reverse a gradually warming relationship between South Asia's two nuclear-armed rivals.

NEW DELHI | Ten terrorists who launched a wave of deadly attacks on Bombay last week wanted to create an Indian 9/11 and kill 5,000 people, according to a state official and information obtained from one of the captured gunmen.

NEW DELHI | Sporadic gunfire continued Saturday in the historic Taj Mahal hotel as one of the worst terrorist sprees in India's commercial capital drew to a close. By Saturday morning, the death toll had risen to 160, including five Americans.

NEW DELHI -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday blamed militant groups in neighboring countries [-] almost certainly Pakistan [-] for plotting a series of terrorist attacks in the country's financial capital of Bombay, as commandos fought to regain control of the city and the death toll exceeded 125.

India's armed services, working in tandem with police, elite commandoes and anti-terrorism squads, had been engaged in a bloody battle Thursday with terrorists who held hostages and who overnight transformed the bustling metropolis of Bombay into a city frozen by fear. Authorities said the death toll from the terrorist attacks, dubbed "India's 9/11" by the local media, stood at 125, including at least six foreigners, by Thursday evening.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, warning that a slowdown of growth in the developing countries will push millions of people back into poverty and have an adverse effect on nutrition, health and education levels, on Saturday said it was imperative that growth in these countries was not affected.

Anand Jon has dressed celebrities across America in his creations. Now the Indian-born designer faces the prospect of donning an unimpressive prison jumpsuit, probably for the rest of his life.

It will probably go down as the most-anticipated phone call in the history of US-India relations. On Wednesday, President-elect Barack Obama finally spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prompting a sigh of relief from those concerned that India may not be a priority for the incoming leader of the US.

India is likely to have many friends in a future Barack Obama administration. Even a cursory glance at the names doing the rounds for top positions in President-elect Obama's Cabinet reveals many individuals who are at the very least mindful of the importance of the US-India relationship.

Washington: In the days after Barack Obama's historic election as the 44th President of the United States of America and its first black leader, there is anticipation of a seismic foreign policy shift and nations around the globe are wondering what an Obama presidency means for them. US-India relations, jump-started by the historic March 2000 visit to India by President Bill Clinton, and then carried to dizzying heights under President George W. Bush are unlikely to slow down.

The Civil War has ended. The 21st century has just begun.

The importance of Obama's win, areas his administration is likely to focus on and what it will mean for US-India relations.

Karl Inderfurth, an assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration, is a key foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama, guiding him past the landmines of America's South Asia policy. He spoke to Ashish Kumar Sen on US-India relations. Excerpts:

President-elect Barack Obama has appointed an Indian-American, Sonal Shah, to his advisory board to assist in the smooth transition of power and many other Indian-Americans are also likely to play key roles in the Obama Administration.

History was made on Tuesday night as the United States of America decisively elected its first black president turning the page on an ugly past of racial prejudice and opening a chapter of hope and change. Barack Obama, a one-term Democratic senator from Illinois, trounced his Republican opponent, John McCain, by capturing key battleground states.

Voters waited patiently outside St.Mary’s Court polling station in Northwest Washington, D.C., in a line that snaked around the block soon after polls opened at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. In what may perhaps be a sign of the change coming to America, a tiny New Hampshire town voted 15-6 for Barack Obama, the first time it has voted for a Democrat since 1968. The town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, has a 60-year tradition of being first in the nation to vote and polls, which opened at midnight had a 100% turnout. Similar turnout was expected across the country.

As one curtain comes down on two years of intense and at times bitter campaigning, another will go up on a new era in US politics as millions of Americans will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect their 44th President. They will make history regardless of whom they elect. A victory for Democratic nominee Barack Obama will make him America’s first black President, while a triumph for Republican nominee John McCain will make him the oldest.

The 2008 US presidential election will be recorded in the annals of history as one of many firsts. On Wednesday night, Sen Barack Obama added two more to this expanding list when the Democrat presidential nominee aired a half-hour TV commercial - the first of its kind in the history of American elections - and for the first time in this election cycle campaigned with former President Bill Clinton, with whom he has had a strained relationship.

There's a serious fear that vote 'purges' could mar the US elections

On November 4 Americans will go to the polls to elect a new president. Their two main choices are Democratic Senator Barack Obama, who would make history as America’s first black president should he win, and Republican Senator John McCain, who at 72 would be America’s oldest president. Wendy Weiser directs work on voting rights and elections at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. During the run-up to the 2004 and 2006 elections, she masterminded litigation and advocacy efforts that kept hundreds of thousands of voters from being disenfranchised. In an interview Weiser says she is concerned about the rise in vote suppression efforts across the country and the inability of some states to cope with the huge voter turnout expected this year.

In a major blow to John McCain, President George W. Bush’s former secretary of state Colin Powell on Sunday formally endorsed Barack Obama’s presidential bid, calling the Democrat a “transformational figure” who will “electrify our country . . . (and) the world”.

Layoffs are now a fact of life, NRI whizkids look to home.

“Many thought this day would never come,” secretary of state Condoleezza Rice acknowledged minutes before signing the the US-India civilian nuclear agreement at the state department on Friday. It was a photo finish. The deal was carried over the finish line by the momentum generated chiefly by President George W. Bush and Rice.

Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee today signed the US-India civilian nuclear agreement here. The signing ceremony was held at the ornate Benjamin Franklin Room at the state department.

President George W. Bush on Wednesday allayed India’s concerns about nuclear fuel supply assurances, saying the legislation he was signing “does not change the fuel assurance commitments that the United States government has made to the government of India, as recorded in the 123 Agreement.”

The troubled US economy has claimed its first known victims. An unemployed Indian-American man, upset over losing his high-profile job to the global financial meltdown and finding himself a pauper from a millionaire overnight by the plunging US stock market, killed his wife, three sons and mother-in-law before committing suicide himself outside Los Angeles over the weekend.

The Great American Dream fades into the sunset

The bailout rejected, recession knocks

With presidential elections exactly a month away, it’s silly season once again in Washington. This was evident on Thursday, a day after the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill authorising civilian nuclear cooperation between the US and India.

Democratic vice-presidential hopeful Senator Joseph Biden on Thursday night warned that another terrorist attack of America, if it were to happen, would come not from Iraq but from the “al Qaeda planning in the hills of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

The United States Senate on Wednesday night overwhelmingly voted in favour of overturning a three-decade ban on nuclear commerce with India. The final vote tally was 86-13.

The US Senate on Wednesday debated on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement and considered two amendments that sought to ensure US nuclear exports did not help boost India’s nuclear weapons programme or contribute to a future nuclear test.

Snubbed by his own party in Congress the day before, President George W. Bush on Tuesday urged lawmakers to approve his financial bailout package and warned a failure to do so would mean a “painful and lasting” economic hardship for the United States.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is urging colleagues in the Senate to take up the US-India nuclear deal for a debate on Tuesday followed by a vote, which sources say could take place on Wednesday.

The GMAT exam, considered an impregnable format, finds it can be cheated on too

The House of Representatives in Washington on Saturday evening (Sunday morning in India) approved a civilian nuclear cooperation Bill that will lift a three-decade-old ban on nuclear commerce between the US and India.

A US senate bill resurrects India's Hyde Act fears, dirties the ground cleared for the nuclear deal ...

John McCain and Barack Obama sparred briefly over Pakistan in the first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi, on Friday night. McCain took Obama to task for threatening Pakistan with military strikes, a suggestion the Democrat promptly took umbrage at.

The House of Representatives on Friday (Saturday in India) debated a Bill on the US-India civilian nuclear deal but put off a vote even as a supporter of the initiative said delaying further action would be perceived in India as an insult to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The US House of Representatives was expected on Friday (Saturday in India) to debate and vote on a Bill that seeks to approve US-India civilian nuclear trade, even as efforts in the Senate appeared to have been stalled on Friday afternoon after a lawmaker blocked the deal from a vote.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Thursday announced that they had reached an agreement on the outline of a $700 billion bailout plan to rescue the troubled US financial system.

Complicating matters further for the smooth passage of the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, two lawmakers have introduced competing bills in the House of Representatives.

A bill passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday seeks to impose punitive measures in case India tests a nuclear weapon - provisions that sources describe as being harsher than those contained in the Hyde Act.

President George W. Bush met Pakistan’s newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari in New York on Tuesday and promised to help Pakistan improve its economy and security.

Having shepherded the U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement all the way up to Capitol Hill, President George W. Bush’s administration now hopes Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s September 25 visit to Washington will provide the momentum to push the deal over the finish line.

A US think-tank says Pakistan is close to completing construction of its second plutonium production reactor and is building a third. The Institute for Science and International Security says this may sharpen a nuclear arms race with India.

In an acknowledgement of the lead role the U.S. has played in helping end its nuclear isolation, India has promised to dedicate at least two sites for U.S. firms seeking to set up reactors under a civilian nuclear agreement. It has also committed to purchasing reactors from US firms.

The non-proliferation lobby is going all out to try and derail or at the very least, put the brakes on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, which appears headed toward a photo-finish in Congress.

As US lawmakers prepared to conduct a hearing on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement in what is the final step for the deal, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was busy urging lawmakers to swiftly approve it.

Friends and foes of the US-India civilian nuclear agreement have begun lining up as the deal enters its final stage-Congressional approval. Having cleared hurdles at the IAEA and the NSG, the agreement must now win the support of the US Congress, which is scheduled to end its session on September 26.

The Bush administration on Tuesday urged Congress to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from anti-terrorism funds to upgrade Pakistan’s ageing fleet of F-16s.

Tied down by lack of time, the deal awaits Congressional clearance.

Even as the Bush Administration is asking Congress to speedily approve a US-India civilian nuclear agreement, three Democrat lawmakers are urging colleagues on Capitol Hill not to rush.

Members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group privately agreed not to sell “sensitive technologies” to India, a decision that convinced opponents of the civil nuclear deal to eventually back the initiative, according to a report in the Washington Post.

In her first major interview since Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin all but proved her critics right as she fumbled through answers on questions of foreign policy. It is not likely, however, that her performance would put off her supporters, who relate to her social conservative beliefs.

U. S. President George W. Bush “secretly approved” orders in July that for the first time allow U.S. Special Forces to conduct ground assaults inside Pakistan without permission from the Pakistani government, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

President George W. Bush on Wednesday presented a complete package on the U.S.-India civilian nuclear deal to Congress saying he had determined that it poses no “unreasonable risk” to security and should be approved this year.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wants to get a complete “package” of the U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement to Congress for an up or down vote “within the next 24 to 48 hours,” a State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday.

If the Bush administration wants to get the US-India civilian nuclear agreement wrapped up before the end of the year it must assure Congress that a recent India-specific waiver given by the Nuclear Suppliers Group is consistent with the US Act that enables nuclear cooperation with India, according to a senior lawmaker.

An India-specific exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was won only after a flurry of phone calls from President George W. Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to leaders of a handful of countries opposed to the deal.

Republican V-P candidate Sarah Palin is catching flak. Did McCain get it wrong?

Did Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s ultraconservative running mate and champion of family values, have an extramarital affair with her husband’s business partner? If a US supermarket tabloid is to be believed, Sarah did. But it’s not often that The National Enquirer is taken seriously. This time, however, the situation is slightly different.

US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh welcomed the decision by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to lift the nuclear trade embargo on India, the White House said on Saturday.

Eight years after being denied a shot at the White House by George W. Bush, Senator John McCain on Thursday formally accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination promising Americans that “change is coming.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under fire for purportedly misleading Parliament over the US-India nuclear deal. The Bush administration on Thursday denied it had tried to cover up details of the agreement in order to protect the Prime Minister.

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama says Pakistan is diverting US aid to prepare for a war against India.

Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's presumptive vice-presidential nominee, lashed out at Democrats and the press on Wednesday night in what was arguably the most important speech of her political career.

The Bush administration has assured members of Congress that the US has the right to terminate nuclear commerce with India in the event of a nuclear test by New Delhi, according to a correspondence revealed this week.

The confetti had barely settled on the Democratic National Convention in Denver when Sen. John McCain unveiled what may be the biggest surprise of the 2008 campaign season: his choice of running mate.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has picked a female running mate in a bid to woo both female and conservative voters, two groups the Arizona senator has struggled with.

Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for presidency at a Denver football stadium packed with adoring supporters on Thursday night. Amid raucous cheering Obama declared: “With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for presidency of the US.”

In a historic session, the Democratic Party formally nominated Sen. Barack Obama as its presidential nominee in Denver on Wednesday night, making the senator from Illinois the first black presidential nominee of a major American political party.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday night dispelled speculation in the media that she is still smarting over her loss in the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries by telling her legions of fans that she is a “proud supporter of Barack Obama.”

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs on the hurdles that await the US-India nuclear deal, Pervez Musharraf's resignation, and developments in Kashmir.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has picked former rival Joe Biden to be his running mate.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has threatened to pull his party out of the ruling coalition with the Pakistan Peoples Party if his demand to reinstate sacked judges is not fulfilled soon.

As some countries in the Nuclear Suppliers Group expressed concern about a deal that allows nuclear commerce between the US and India, a Bush administration official says Washington is committed to securing a clean and unconditional waiver for India at the Vienna-based organisation.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday hailed Pervez Musharraf as a “friend of the United States” as the Pakistani president said he would resign rather than face impeachments charges.

The US and India have their work cut out at the Nuclear Suppliers Group where they are seeking to win the approval of all member states for India-specific exemptions from nuclear trade restrictions.

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards admitted on Friday that he had an extra-marital affair in 2006 with a woman who produced videos for his campaign, but denied he was the father of her child, as had been reported in a supermarket tabloid.

The Bush Administration appeared to have ditched its longtime ally Pervez Musharraf even as Pakistan president faces impeachment in Islamabad.

A prominent US lawmaker has asked the Bush administration to put off action on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement until next year unless it can assure the Congress that it is seeking an exemption from the nuclear suppliers group (NSG) that is in compliance with the Hyde Act and would suspend the deal if India tests a nuclear weapon.

It is doable but the N-deal faces some hurdles in Washington.

New Delhi needs the N-deal fast. In election-bound US, the odds, at best, point to a photofinish.

US officials have concluded that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) provided “logistic support” to militants who attacked the Indian Embassy in Kabul last month, according to US media reports. The findings back up claims by New Delhi.

Former undersecretary of state R. Nicholas Burns, who till recently served as President George W. Bush's point person on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, is optimistic that the deal can still be wrapped up before Bush leaves office in January but says the onus is on the Nuclear Suppliers Group to speedily approve the deal.

US President George W. Bush telephoned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday and the two leaders reiterated their commitment to moving ahead with the civilian nuclear deal.

President George W. Bush's administration is confident India-specific safeguards will be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency while a former director general of the agency expressed support for the U.S.-India civilian nuclear deal.

For the Indians in the US, it's striking a chord—Obama is 'one of us'

I became the proverbial stalker, and they behaved as victims would: not take my calls or e-mails.

In an exclusive interview, the US presidential hopeful speaks on a range of subjects: the nuclear deal, Mahatma Gandhi, his ability to reconcile Islam with modernity, and how he wouldn't have put all eggs in the Musharraf basket

Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, on Monday offered his “deep condolences to the people of India” on Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw's death.

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday made their first joint appearance after a hard-fought contest at a campaign rally in a New Hampshire town not ironically named Unity. In keeping with the theme of the day, Obama picked a senior Indian American Clinton aide to serve as an adviser on his presidential campaign.

Washington: On a recent summer morning, CNN was telling its viewers that Senator Barack Obama had spent yet another day urging Americans not to be afraid of him.

Four prominent members of the US Congress have asked the Bush administration to urge the government in Islamabad to make rogue scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan available for interrogation by US officials.

India was admonished on Wednesday by a longtime friend in the US Congress for continuing its relationship with Iran.

Among the bills presented by Pakistan to the United States for its help in the so-called "war on terror" is one for the upkeep of its air defence radar.

An American web mini series that portrays attractive young women as part of a "group of dangerous Indian beauties" is creating ripples in the expatriate Indian community.

Hollywood actor Mike Myers’ “The Love Guru,” panned by movie critics even before it hit theatres in America, is also getting a thumbs down from a Hindu group. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) declared the movie to be vulgar and crude, but not anti-Hindu.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has issued a stern warning to Pakistan over Islamabad’s strategy of offering a truce to militants operating along the lawless Afghan border. Rice said on Wednesday that Washington had made it “very clear” that any deal with terrorists will come back “first and foremost” to “haunt Pakistan.”

As deadlines come and go, administration officials here, frustrated at attempts in India to block a civilian nuclear agreement, say they are committed to pushing the deal until January 20, President George Bush's last day in office.

Why Indian children do so well in US spelling contests?

A US sports magazine, Golf Digest, has issued an apology to the Sikh community for using an image of Guru Arjun Dev in its May edition. Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) complained after the magazine featured an article titled “The Golf Guru” which answers readers’ questions about general topics associated with golf.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday suspended her historic 16-month-long presidential campaign and endorsed one-time rival senator Barack Obama on a hot and steamy Washington afternoon.

A scathing Senate intelligence committee report says President George W. Bush and his administration “misrepresented the intelligence and threat” from Iraq on the eve of invasion in 2003.

Hillary Rodham Clinton will end her presidential campaign on Saturday and endorse rival Barack Obama, according to her aides.

Barack Obama late on Tuesday declared himself the "Democratic nominee for the post of the President of the USA ," but his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, refused to concede.

Jason Rae was no average five year old. In November of 1992, as his parents headed out to the polling station, the young boy exhorted them to “vote for Bill!” Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton went on to become president.

Senator Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have ended their two-decade-long association with a black Chicago church, an acknowledgment that racially divisive preachings from pastors there had become a liability for his presidential campaign.