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US Assistant Secretary Lu's India visit to deepen strategic ties: Official

The ongoing India visit of Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu is to deepen strategic partnership with India, the State Department said has Wednesday. Lu is leading a US delegation to India from September 5th to 8th. This is to deepen the US-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. This delegation will meet with Indian officials. They will discuss ways in which the US and India can expand our cooperation to support a free, open, connected, prosperous, and resilient Indo-Pacific, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at a news conference. We also understand that Assistant Secretary Lu will engage in roundtable discussions with senior business executives about how India can realize its full economic potential over the next 25 years and became a central hub in global supply chains as well, he said in response to a question.

Vladimir Putin is weaponising energy, alleges US after export cut threats

Russian President Vladimir Putin is weaponising energy, the White House has alleged, a day after he threatened to cut off all energy exports to the West if the US proceeded with its gas cap. Putin on Wednesday threatened to completely cut energy supplies to the West if it tries to cap prices of Russian exports. He also vowed to press on with Moscow's military action in Ukraine until it achieves its goals. This shows that Putin is, again, weaponising energy, by his very words, also by his actions. But the President (Joe Biden) and our partners in Europe predicted this playbook. We saw this coming, and we have been preparing for months. We have talked through the different processes of how this price cap could look, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday during her daily news conference. The US and European Union, she said, have set up a task force to work on ways to increase alternate sources of natural gas to Europe and help reduce Europe's demand for Russi

Resilient US dollar soars to 24-year high vs yen, 37-year peak vs sterling

A Northern California sheriff's deputy has turned himself in to law enforcement after he was accused in the fatal slaying of a husband and wife in their home early on Wednesday, authorities said.

US: Northern California sheriff's deputy in custody after slaying double

A Northern California sheriff's deputy has turned himself in to law enforcement after he was accused in the fatal slaying of a husband and wife in their home early on Wednesday, authorities said. Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, called authorities in the hours after the shooting and said he wanted to turn himself in, officials said. Police stayed on the phone with him until the off-duty deputy was taken into custody by the California Highway Patrol. Police were called to a home in Dublin a city in the East Bay about 35 miles (56 kilometers) from downtown San Francisco around 12.45 am. The 911 caller said two people had been shot inside the residence and the suspect, later identified as Williams, had fled in a vehicle. Law enforcement officials said they were searching for Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. He is considered to be armed and dangerous. Williams apparently knew the couple but investigators we

India's digital revolution offers investment opportunities to US, says FM

India's digital revolution offered investment opportunities for the United States, the South Asian country's finance minister said on Wednesday

2 suspects, including a teen, arrested in Texas drive-by shooting case

Two suspects, including a teen, have been arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting in Fort Worth last week that left a 17-year-old and a 5-year-old dead, police said Tuesday. Anthony Ray Bell-Johnson, 21, and a 16-year-old male juvenile have been charged with capital murder. In a statement, police said the pair were arrested and jailed over the Labour Day weekend. Police were not releasing the identity of the teen because of his age. It was unclear from jail records if either suspect had an attorney. Killed in the August 28 shooting were Rayshard Scott, 5, and his cousin, Jamarrien Monroe, 17. Police say a car drove up to a house in far north Fort Worth at about 2:15 pm, and a person or persons in the vehicle opened fire on the front yard. Tijuana West, Jamarrien Monroe's mother, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she was upstairs when she heard what sounded like fireworks. It happened so fast, she said. I was just trying to figure out where my babies were. She said sh

Piyush Goyal applauds PM Modi's management skills at Stanford University

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who is on a six-day visit to San Francisco and Los Angeles highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's management skills at Stanford University

US authors Strout, Everett among Booker Prize finalists

American authors Elizabeth Strout and Percival Everett are up against writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. Strout's symphony of everyday lives Oh William! and Everett's powerful novel about racism and police violence, The Trees, are on a shortlist announced Tuesday for the 50,000 pound (USD 58,000) prize. The other contenders include Zimbabwe's NoViolet Bulawayo, for animal fable Glory; Irish writer Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These; and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lanka's Shehan Karunatilaka. British fantasy author Alan Garner the oldest-ever Booker nominee at 87 is on the list for Treacle Walker. Former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, who is chairing the judging panel, said several of the books are inspired by real events and address long national histories of cruelty and injustice, in Sri Lanka and Ireland, Zimbabwe and the United States. Set in different places at different

Ro Khanna introduces standalone bill in US House for CAATSA waiver to India

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna has introduced a stand-alone bill in the US House of Representatives that gives India specific waivers from the punitive CAATSA sanctions. CAATSA is a tough US law that authorises the administration to impose sanctions on countries that purchase major defence hardware from Russia in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections. The law was brought in 2017 and provides for punitive actions by the US government against any country engaged in transactions with the Russian defence and intelligence sectors. In October 2018, India signed a USD 5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of the S-400 air defence missile systems, despite a warning from the then-Trump administration that going ahead with the contract may invite US sanctions. The S-400 is known as Russia's most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system. The resolution, which has also been endorsed by ...

US hopes China, India will take advantage of Russia oil price cap: Official

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said he was hopeful that China and India would join the coalition of countries seeking to impose a price cap on Russian oil or simply use the cap

Ex-Miss America Mund's entry pushes GOP Rep out of North Dakota House race

Former Miss America Cara Mund's entry into North Dakota's US House race has led the Democratic candidate to drop out, citing pressure from his own party to step aside. Mund entered the race in August as an independent, citing her support for abortion rights as a major reason. Tuesday was the deadline for her to submit 1,000 petitions to qualify for the ballot. North Dakota's only House seat is currently held by GOP Rep. Kelly Armstrong, who won his second term in the deeply conservative state in 2020 with 69% of the vote. Armstrong opposes abortion rights. Haugen opposes abortion rights and said Sunday that his stance cost him support in the party, the Bismarck Tribune reported. He said he didn't see a path to winning. Democratic-NPL Party Chairman Patrick Hart said in a statement that he doesn't "tell anyone what to do, but that he supports Haugen's decision to drop out. Haugen, a University of Mary graduate adviser in Bismarck who has long worked as a paramedic, faced no opposit

Internet service providers drop legal challenge to privacy law in US

One of the strictest internet privacy laws in the United States has withstood a legal challenge, as a group of telecommunication providers has dropped its bid to overturn the Maine standard. Maine created one of the toughest rules in the nation for internet service providers in 2020 when it began enforcing an opt-in web privacy standard. The law stops the service providers from using, disclosing, selling or providing access to customers' personal information without permission. Industry associations swiftly sued with a claim that the new law violated their First Amendment rights. A federal judge rejected that challenge, but legal wrangling continued. The groups, which include the country's biggest telecommunications providers, filed to dismiss the lawsuit on Sept. 2, said Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey. Frey said the state's privacy law held up despite the efforts of an army of industry lawyers organized against us, and now other states can follow Maine's lead. Maine's Legislatu

Joe Biden blasts 'extreme' GOP members in Labour Day battleground trips

President Joe Biden excoriated MAGA Republicans" and the extreme right on Monday, pitching personal Labour Day appeals to union members in two key swing states that he hopes will turn out in force for his party in November. The middle class built America, Biden told a workers' gathering at park grounds in Milwaukee. Everybody knows that. But unions built the middle class. Later Monday, he flew to West Mifflin, outside Pittsburgh returning to Pennsylvania for the third time in less than a week and just two days after his predecessor, Donald Trump, staged his own rally in the state. The unofficial start of fall, Labour Day also traditionally starts a political busy season where campaigns scramble to excite voters for Election Day on November 8. That's when control of the House and Senate, as well some of the country's top governorships, will be decided. Trump spoke Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre, near Scranton, where Biden was born. The president made his own Wilkes-Barre trip la

Judge grants Trump's 'special master' request for materials seized by FBI

A federal judge has granted former US President Donald Trump's request to appoint a "special master" to review materials that FBI agents seized from his Mar-a-Lago residence last month.

University students among 2 dead, 5 injured in Norfolk, Virginia shooting

Two people were killed and five others were injured in a shooting in Norfolk, Virginia, police said Sunday. Officers responded to a report of gunfire around midnight. When they arrived, they found four women and three men with gunshot wounds, police said. Zabre Miller, 25, and Angela McKnight, 19, later died at a hospital, police said. Several Norfolk State University students were victims of the shooting at an off-campus location, the university said on its Facebook page. Initial indications are that our students were innocent bystanders of a shooting at an evening house party, the university wrote in the post. NSU also said police secured the campus, and there was no present danger. Detectives were continuing to investigate Sunday, police said.

Tropical storm Danielle strengthens; soon to emerge as a hurricane in US

Tropical Storm Danielle picked up strength in the and was forecast to become the first hurricane of an unusually quiet storm season later on Friday. The storm is not currently a threat to any land. The storm's maximum sustained winds were near 65 mph (100 kph). Additional strengthening is forecast, the US National Hurricane Centre said. The storm is centred about 925 miles (1,485 kilometres) west of the Azores and is moving east near 2 mph (4 kph). The hurricane centre said the storm is expected to meander in the Atlantic over the next few days. The tropical storm comes amid what had been a calm hurricane season. It is the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic has gone from July 3 to the end of August with no named storm, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach had told The Associated Press earlier.

Trump, allies threaten democracy, says Joe Biden at Independence Hall

President Joe Biden warned that equality and democracy are under assault in the US as he sounded an alarm about his predecessor, Donald Trump, and MAGA Republican adherents, labelling them an extremist threat to the nation and its future. Aiming to reframe the November elections as part of a battle for the nation's soul the work of my presidency," Biden used his Thursday night prime-time speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to argue that Trump and Make America Great Again allies are a challenge to nation's system of government, its standing abroad and its citizens' way of life. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic," Biden declared. He said they are determined to take this country backward' they promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence. The explicit effort by Biden to marginalise Trump and his adherents marks a sharp turn for the president, who preached his desire to

US to halt entry on humanitarian parole for Afghans; set focus on new model

The United States will discontinue the use of a humanitarian parole to admit at-risk Afghans and will instead focus on resettling certain Afghan evacuees who qualify for immigration programs

US requests UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine for Sept 7: French envoy

The United States has requested a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine to be held in the afternoon on September 7, the French Ambassador to the United Nations Nicolas de Riviere said

China could use US oil to support Ukraine's invasion, say GOP lawmakers

A group of GOP lawmakers has expressed concerns that US oil to Unipec America, a company operated by the Chinese Communist Party, could be used by China to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine. To ensure the Biden administration is properly managing the sale of critical assets, the lawmakers are once again calling on Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm to provide an immediate briefing and all documents and communications related to the SPR sale. "We are continuing oversight of the US Department of Energy's depletion of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). According to DOE, the Biden administration recently sold almost a million barrels of SPR oil to Unipec America, a subsidiary of Sinopec, a company owned by the Chinese Communist Party," said House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer and Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Ranking Member Nancy Mace. "In addition to concerns with Hunter Biden, the President's son, ..