Ashish Kumar Sen

Western governments on Thursday condemned a Russian court's decision to extend the prison sentence for imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a ruling widely viewed as flouting the rule of law and evincing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's political ambitions.

An Indian court's decision to sentence an award-winning human rights activist and physician to life in prison on charges of sedition has caused an uproar among civil rights groups, who claim that evidence in the case was fabricated.

The Obama administration is stepping up efforts to press northerners and southerners in Sudan to reach a deal on an oil-rich province, warning that a failure to do so will lead to instability.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has alarmed human rights activists and non-Muslims in the south of his country by saying that strict Islamic law will be enforced in the north if the south secedes in a referendum next month.

The Obama administration on Thursday said it is committed to the strategic defeat of al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, noting that the terrorist group continues to launch attacks against the U.S. and its allies from havens in the region.

The Obama administration will identify Pakistan's continuing support for terrorist havens and the absence of good governance in Afghanistan as key factors that are undermining U.S. and coalition efforts in Afghanistan.

A first lady who has a problem showing a "full range of facial expressions" as a result of extensive cosmetic surgery? A soulful rendition of "Layla" by rock legend Eric Clapton to thaw frosty U.S.-North Korea ties? David Letterman: No. 1 weapon against religious extremism?

Richard C Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan who earned the nickname “Bulldozer” for his hard-nosed diplomacy, died in Washington on Monday evening after he underwent surgery for a torn aorta. He was 69.

A referendum to decide the fate of an oil-rich province of Sudan is unlikely to be held on time as northerners and southerners remain locked in an impasse over issues that include voting rights, demarcation of borders and oil revenue.

Anarchist, liberator, web terrorist, www messiah, predator or a man cornered? How exactly would you describe Julian Assange?

India’s ambassador in Washington, Meera Shankar, was subjected to a humiliating pat-down by security officers at Jackson-Evers International Airport in Jackson, Mississippi, last weekend. The incident was reported by the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson on Wednesday. Shankar travelled to Jackson on the invitation of Janos Radvanyi, chair in International Security Studies at Mississippi State University (MSU).

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for the release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and congratulating him on winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Two leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) continued to run the Pakistan-based terrorist group's operations while locked up in a Pakistani prison, according to a 2009 diplomatic message by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

World leaders focused attention on North Korea on Monday, as an International Criminal Court prosecutor opened a war-crimes investigation into the reclusive country's recent military strikes and as U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials conferred at the State Department.

The Sri Lankan government has appointed a senior army officer accused of war crimes in the conflict with Tamil rebels as its deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

Since her release from house arrest on November 13, pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s days have been jampacked with meetings and interviews. In a telephonic interview from Rangoon with Ashish Kumar Sen, The Tribune’s Washington Correspondent, Suu Kyi carefully chose her words as she held out an offer of reconciliation with the military rulers while admitting that it is too early to say if they had softened.

The Treasury Department on Thursday acted against three senior members of Pakistan-based terrorist groups that have been behind attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, including the kidnapping and beheading of a U.S. journalist.

A senior U.S. diplomat suggested that the only way to end Pakistani support for anti-India militant groups is to resolve the Kashmir dispute and reassess India’s role in Afghanistan.

While India’s Ministry of External Affairs reserved its comments on Wednesday, the second instalment of the US State Department cables, accessed and leaked by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, reveal a worrying web of rogue elements inimical to India active in Pakistan.

Chinese authorities are warning the family and friends of jailed democracy activist Liu Xiaobo against traveling to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on his behalf and have stepped up a campaign to discourage other governments from sending representatives to the investiture ceremony on Dec. 10.

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi wants to review the consequences of sanctions on her country, Myanmar, before she can determine whether these curbs need to be lifted or focused more sharply.

The Obama administration called on China Wednesday to rein in North Korea after its artillery attack on a South Korean island, as the Pentagon ordered the USS George Washington aircraft carrier strike group to the Yellow Sea for naval exercises with South Korean forces.

President Obama met with senior aides on Tuesday to discuss how to respond to the latest crisis over North Korea, after the North's military forces fired artillery against a South Korean island, prompting the South's forces to return fire.

China must respond firmly to a violation by North Korea of commitments made by Pyongyang during the course of six-party nuclear negotiations, present and former U.S. officials said on Monday.

The leaders of northern Sudan are trying to "extort" incentives from the Obama administration in exchange for holding an on-time referendum on the fate of Abyei, a senior southern Sudanese leader said ahead of a key meeting to break an impasse over the oil-rich province.

The Pentagon's decision to deploy heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan is being hailed as a step in the right direction by military and civilian advisers in that war.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday urged the leaders of northern and southern Sudan to make some "tough compromises" to settle their differences on the status of an oil-rich region and allow a referendum to go ahead as planned.

Burma's military junta on Saturday released pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest to cheers from overjoyed supporters and cautious optimism from the international community.

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday said that anti-India militant groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were very popular among Pakistanis and advocated a more gradual approach to rein them in.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has advocated a gradual approach in trying to shut down anti-India militant groups fighting in Kashmir, noting the popularity of such groups among Pakistanis.

Former US President George W. Bush writes in his new memoir of his frustration with Pakistan’s reluctance to go after militants and hints that he ordered a campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan.

A spate of American military and civil aviation sales to India are being viewed with glee and hailed for the salutary effect they will have on a flagging US economy. The Indian Air Force’s decision to buy 10 Boeing C-17 aircraft won lavish praise on Monday from a top US senator who acknowledged that the deal would boost the economy of his home state.

The Obama administration has offered to take Sudan off a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism if the Sudanese government holds a credible and on-time referendum on southern independence.

Burma's military junta conducted the country's first election in 20 years on Sunday in a bid to seal, if not legitimize, its control over the biggest country in mainland Southeast Asia, while the muzzled opposition expected a continuation of human rights violations, U.S.-led economic sanctions and China's growing influence.

Hours before US President Barack Obama arrived in India, his former Republican Party presidential rival Arizona Senator John McCain said the United States must endorse India’s bid for a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council.

From schoolchildren and cabdrivers to business leaders and government officials, all of India has been swept up in a near mania in anticipation of President Obama's visit to the subcontinent, his first stop in a 10-day tour of Asia that begins Friday.

US President Barack Obama took the blame for what he described as a ‘shellacking’ handed out to his Democratic Party in mid-term elections on Tuesday that cost it control of the House of Representatives.

Burma's military junta is expected to cement its grip on power Sunday in an election widely considered to be illegitimate.

Nikki Haley, the daughter of Sikh immigrants from Amritsar, made history on Tuesday night by becoming only the second Indian-American Governor in the US history.From a state legislature to Governor of South Carolina in just a short span of six years in politics, she is being hailed as a new rising star on the American political horizon.

A disenchanted American electorate in a snub to President Barack Obama handed a bruising defeat to his Democratic Party and put the Republican Party back in control of the US House of Representatives in mid-term elections on Tuesday.

Mid-term elections that have shifted control of the US House of Representatives from the Democrats to the Republicans are unlikely to have any impact on relationship with India because of bipartisan support for these ties in Congress, according to analysts.

Change isn’t all that easy to come by, as Obama finds at home. Can the India trip provide another historic moment for him, and us?

Barack Obama’s mother instilled in him from a very early age an interest in other cultures. An anthropologist, Stanley Ann Dunham had worked in India and it was only natural that one of the cultures and traditions her son would learn about would be Indian.

As the United States President Barack Obama prepares to visit India early next month, he is facing pressure to throw US support behind India’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The Obama administration has ordered a review of U.S. intelligence about David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani-American involved in plotting the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, to find out whether intelligence agencies failed to share reports that may have helped prevent the attack.

The Obama administration is conducting an extensive review of what US agencies knew about David Coleman Headley prior to the attacks in Mumbai.

US President Barack Obama's itinerary during his three-day trip to India has been realesed by the White House.

Federal agents have arrested a Pakistani American who US officials say was plotting terrorist attacks on Washington’s metro transit system.

The Obama administration has assured India that a $2 billion military assistance package it has offered Pakistan will not be diverted against India. “They have assured us they will ensure the weapons are used for what they are intended for,” an Indian official said on the condition of anonymity.

Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's former right-hand man and once the international face of the Iraqi regime, was sentenced to death by the Iraqi supreme criminal court on Tuesday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday confirmed that he receives cash in bags from Iran, but he defended the process as "transparent."

The Obama administration will ask Congress for a $2 billion military assistance package for Pakistan, even as the US officials express frustration at that country's reluctance to go after militant groups that provide safe havens for Al Qaida and the Taliban.

Leaders of north and south Sudan must be willing to compromise when they meet in Ethiopia next week to discuss a way past obstacles to holding a referendum in January that is likely to result in the secession of southern Sudan, U.S. officials said on Friday.

The Obama administration will ask Congress for a $2 billion military assistance package for Pakistan even as U.S. officials express frustration over that country's reluctance to go after militant groups that provide safe havens for al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The Afghan government's reconciliation effort with the Taliban is being hamstrung by a lack of participants who wield clout within the militant group and a "peace council" viewed by many Afghans as more eager to maintain the status quo.

US President Barack Obama has told Pakistani officials he will not visit their country during his trip to Asia next month, but will visit Pakistan only next year.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday called on the US to resolve the Kashmir issue saying that the recent events in the Valley had ‘endangered’ the stability of South Asia.

President Obama will visit Pakistan next year as his administration attempts to shore up its relationship with a key ally in which recent polls found both he and the U.S. share abysmal approval ratings.

With U.S.-Pakistani strategic talks set to start in Washington on Wednesday, the Obama administration is growing increasingly frustrated with Islamabad's reluctance to shut down a terrorist group that provides safe haven for al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan.

The mystery surrounding Osama bin Laden's whereabouts may finally be solved.

Ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to India next month, a new report acknowledges a fear prevalent among many prominent Indians and Americans that a rapid expansion of the US-India relationship has “stalled” and recommends a “bold leap forward.”

A top Pakistan Taliban leader who recently warned that terrorists would launch attacks in the U.S. and Europe "very soon" has reportedly been killed in a U.S. drone attack.

Pakistani police say they have disrupted a plot to assassinate the prime minister and other top officials after engaging in a shootout with Islamist militants on Wednesday.

Having survived 69 days underground, the last of the 33 miners trapped in a Chilean mine emerged from the bowels of the earth late Wednesday and were reunited with loved ones, capping a grueling, dramatic rescue made possible by a generous supply of U.S. equipment, manpower and ingenuity.

The U.S. has poured millions of dollars into a multinational effort to build a police force in south Sudan that it hopes will ensure a peaceful referendum in January in which southerners are expected to vote for seceding from the north.

The Pakistani government's decision to shut a key supply route for coalition convoys in Afghanistan also has cut off a source of income for Taliban militants and a trucking racket that reap big profits from a cross-border "protection."

Pakistan provided support and training for militants to fight in India in an attempt to focus world attention on Kashmir, the country's former president said in a recent magazine interview.

The closure of a key supply route for coalition forces in Afghanistan, a spate of attacks on NATO fuel tankers and criticism of U.S. drone strikes are fueling frustration in Congress over Pakistan's performance as an ally in the war against militants.

The CWG mess has given the India rising story a few nasty knocks.

An overwhelming majority of Pakistanis living in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) oppose U.S. drone strikes and military operations against al Qaeda and the Taliban in the lawless region along the Afghan border, according to a new survey.

Pakistani officials offer behind-the-scenes support and vital intelligence for U.S. drone strikes that target terrorists operating in their territory, even as they denounce such operations in public as a violation of their sovereignty.

A "peace council" established Tuesday by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to negotiate with the Taliban includes the man who is thought to have invited Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan and another who served as a mentor to the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Obama administration is encouraging the Indian government to find a solution that allows US firms to contribute to India’s nuclear energy needs, a US official said on Monday.

India's defense minister says U.S. export controls that restrict the sale of defense technologies to blacklisted Indian entities are a "matter of concern" and should be lifted soon.

North Korea's ruling Workers' Party is expected to unveil Kim Jong-il's third son as the successor to the ailing "Dear Leader" at a rare meeting in Pyongyang on Tuesday.

A human rights group and Darfuris who fled ethnic violence in their homeland are urging delegates from more than 30 countries, including President Obama, who are meeting Friday in New York to press the Sudanese government to ensure a free and fair referendum on the independence of southern Sudan on Jan. 9.

A top US counterterrorism official has warned that the Lashkar-e-Toiba can try and disrupt the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi next month.

Indian firms must opt for the nimbleness and creativity of co-creation

Activist and academic Raj Patel’s profile proudly notes that he has worked for the World Bank and the WTO, and protested against them both around the world.

Indian business gurus come of age globally

India's efforts to outshine the Beijing Summer Olympics with next month's Commonwealth Games are foundering under unsanitary quarters, construction delays, a record monsoon and an outbreak of dengue fever.

Delaying the Jan. 9 referendum on whether to divide Sudan into two countries would create instability and renew violence in the African nation, Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir, president of southern Sudan, warned Monday.

A proposed book-burning by an evangelical pastor in a Florida college town this weekend has inflamed sensitivities from Afghanistan to Washington, D.C., and added a new irritant to U.S. relations with Muslims abroad.

A bill approved last week by the Indian Parliament that holds suppliers of nuclear reactors and raw materials liable in the event of an accident is raising concerns that it will scare away foreign businesses from India's lucrative energy market.

A draft U.N. report accusing the Rwandan army of massacring Hutus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1990s is corroborated by findings of an international human rights group.

The United Nations’ refugee agency is expressing concern that Western European countries are forcibly deporting Iraqi citizens back to Iraq.

The Obama administration on Wednesday put the Pakistani Taliban on its international terrorism blacklist and announced a $5 million reward for information on the group's leaders Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali Ur Rehman.

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday night announced an end to the US combat mission in Iraq, not with a declaration of victory but rather a somber admission that the US had paid a “huge price.”

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States is warning that militants will exploit the aftermath of devastating floods unless the international community moves quickly to alleviate the massive humanitarian crisis of 20 million dislocated people.

US rages over a ‘mosque’ planned two blocks from Ground Zero.

USAID Administrator Raj Shah was forced to cut short a visit to a flood relief camp in Pakistan this week after his security detail detected “suspicious individuals” in the area.

Pakistan's worst floods in 80 years are increasing worries in Washington that the disaster will undermine the South Asian nation's political stability and jeopardize U.S. gains across the border in Afghanistan.

A Saudi Arabian court has ruled that a convicted man's spinal cord should be severed so he is paralyzed as part of the kingdom's Islamic-law-oriented retribution for similar injuries he is said to have inflicted upon another man in a fight.

The Obama administration on Thursday pledged an additional $60 million in aid to Pakistan as the South Asian nation grapples with the devastation caused by its worst floods in 80 years.

Muslims around the world see the ground zero mosque debate raging in the U.S. as a litmus test of American tolerance, and generally appreciate President Obama's involvement.

Ages before the technoboomers, there came the first pioneers. Riding out West armed with just grit, they built their El Dorados from scratch.

Brazen public executions by the Taliban this month in provinces not traditionally part of their stronghold underscore the militants' resurgence in Afghanistan.

The Obama administration on Friday slammed a decision by Burma’s ruling junta to hold the country’s first elections in two decades on Nov. 7, saying the vote will lack credibility because the military has shut out most of the opposition, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

India's decision to set a deadline for BlackBerry to share encrypted data or face a ban is symptomatic of a clash between nations - both democratic and undemocratic - and the boundary-less world of information technology.

The recent execution-style slaying of 10 medical aid workers, six of them Americans, by the Taliban in Afghanistan will hurt poverty-stricken Afghans the most and underscores the vulnerability of humanitarian groups, charities working in the region say.

Indonesian police on Monday arrested the spiritual leader of an al Qaeda-linked group that is accused of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings and of plotting to assassinate the country's president.

Islamist charities affiliated with terrorist groups are competing with international efforts to provide relief to those affected by the floods in Pakistan, according to international relief workers.

The Al-Qaida’s core in Pakistan and its affiliates in Africa remain the biggest threat to the United States of America, according to a new US government report.

Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's former right-hand man and once the international face of the Iraqi regime, says President Obama is "leaving Iraq to the wolves" by withdrawing troops from the country.

Relief workers in Pakistan say that Islamist charities affiliated with terrorist groups are competing with international efforts to provide relief to the millions of Pakistanis affected by massive floods.

Nine years into the war in Afghanistan, the American people and their elected representatives still do not have a clear sense of U.S. goals in the region, a senior House Republican says in a letter to President Obama.

Pakistan's worst flash floods in decades, which have left more than 1,500 people dead, have provided an opportunity for the Obama administration to repair the tattered image of the U.S. with a crucial ally.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday added two Iranian groups and seven Iranians to its terrorism blacklist for their support of terrorists in Afghanistan and the Middle East under the guise of providing development assistance or social services.

The U.S.-led international coalition is losing the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan because it has failed to win over the Afghan people, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in a grim assessment of the war this week.

A flood on WikiLeaks reveals Pakistan’s worst-kept secret: the ISI-Taliban affair.

In Pakistan, President Obama is about as popular as President George W. Bush was before he left office, a new Pew poll shows.