Washington, April 6 - Raising the spectre of a renewed conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, a US study has warned that Islamabad may well turn to trusted Pakistani militant groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), to do its bidding.

For the past two decades LeT, the group behind the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people, has steadily emerged as one of Pakistan's most lethal and capable militant proxy groups, according to the study.

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Washington, April 6 - The US and Russia have cooperated to remove enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) to make two nuclear weapons from the Czech Republic, the White House said.

The 150 pounds (68 kg) of HEU "was securely transported to Russia, where it will be down-blended into low enriched uranium (LEU) for use in nuclear power reactors", White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement, describing the effort as part of a larger initiative to prevent nuclear terrorism.

"Unlike highly enriched uranium, low enriched uranium cannot be used to make a nuclear weapon," Hayden added.

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Washington, April 5 : Al Velshi, noted Canadian TV journalist of Indian descent, is leaving CNN after 12 years to join Al Jazeera America to host an as-yet-unnamed primetime business show.

This marks the first major hire for the new network, which will replace Current TV when it launches this summer the network announced Thursday.

Former Vice President Al Gore' s Current TV was sold to Al Jazeera for about $500 million in early January to make way for the network's US debut.

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Washington, April 5 : An ongoing car auction in the fourth largest US city of Houston offers collector car lovers and potential buyers a close look at more than 7,500 classic and exotic cars.

Mecum Auctions, which is returning to Houston for its second annual collector car auction, generates increasing excitement as the consignment list consistently grows, now more than 30 percent larger than last year's auction, according to event organizers.

A huge variety of collector vehicles, from investment-grade to entry-level, are being showcased at the three-day event that began Thursday, reported Xinhua.

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Washington, April 5 : Although economic growth and job creation are top priorities for global policymakers, their outlooks remain a major concern, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

"Following very weak economic growth since 2009, global growth is projected to be only around 3.5 percent this year, about 2 percentage points below the pre-Great Recession years. Over 200 million people across the world are unemployed, with youth and long-term unemployment at alarming levels in many countries," the IMF said in a paper released Thursday.

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Washington, April 5 : US fixed mortgage rates edged down slightly this week and remained near historic lows, according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey released by Freddie Mac.

The mortgage giant Thursday said the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) fell to 3.54 percent in the week ending April 4, down from 3.57 percent in the previous week, reported Xinhua.

The 15-year FRM, a popular choice for those looking to refinance, dipped to 2.74 percent from 2.76 percent in the previous week.

Both were elevated from the record lows of 3.31 percent and 2.63 percent respectively.

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Washington, April 5 - Terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) recruits from Pakistan's elite, contradicting "a lingering belief that Islamist terrorists are the product of low or no education or are produced in madrassahs", a media report said Friday quoting an exhaustive study.

Lashkar is "a group whose well-educated recruits defy the idea that poverty and ignorance breed extremism. A group whose fighters include relatives of a politician, a senior army officer and a director of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission", said ProPublica, an investigative news site, citing the study.

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Washington, April 5 - President Barack Obama has praised California's Indian-American Attorney General Kamala Harris not only for her legal acumen but also for her looks to set off a little storm in a tea cup.

"She is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you'd want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake," he said at an Atherton, California, fundraiser for his Democratic Party Thursday.

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New York, April 5 - Indian-American hotel owner Vikram Chatwal, who's reportedly been close with American actress Lindsay Lohan, since 2011, has been arrested in Florida on drug charges, according to a media report.

Chatwal, 41, was busted on April 2 at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) discovered an arsenal of drugs hidden on his person, in his crotch and in his bag, TMZ website reported citing a police report obtained by it.

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Washington, April 5 - A group of international journalists which claims to have exposed hidden dealings of politicians, con artists and the mega-rich in more than 170 countries has so far revealed only one name from India.

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Washington, April 5 - Even as it acknowledged that a US congressional delegation's visit to Gujarat had official sanction, the US said there was no immediate change in its stand on a visa to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but he is "welcome to apply".

"Visits like this do help support a deepening of business-to-business ties, of people-to-people ties, across India, in Gujarat," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters Thursday in response to a question.

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Washington, April 4 - There is growing mutual trust between China and the US, and China is firmly committed to seeking a new type of inter-power relationship, said Cui Tiankai, China's new ambassador to Washington.

Cui, who met US Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday, told reporters that he does not agree with the so-called deficit of trust between China and the US.

Instead, he believed mutual trust is growing, reported Xinhua.

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Washington, April 4 : The US has highlighted the growing use of local content requirements in several countries, including India, among key barriers faced by US telecommunications service and equipment suppliers in their dealings abroad.

Acting United States Trade Representative (USTR) Demetrios Marantis Wednesday also identified several other specific issues in its annual report on the operation and effectiveness of telecommunications trade agreements on which USTR will focus its monitoring and enforcement efforts this year.

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Washington, April 4 - Drawing from a trove of 2.5 million secret files, a group of international journalists has exposed hidden dealings of politicians, con artists and the mega-rich in more than 170 countries, including India.

Described as perhaps the largest cross-border journalism collaboration in history, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) claimed to have laid bare the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts and nearly 130,000 individuals and agents.

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Washington, April 4 - The US has announced a $5-million bounty for Joseph Kony, head of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel outfit.

At a briefing Wednesday, Stephen Rapp, the State Department's ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said that the US secretary of state will offer the money for information leading to the "arrest, the transfer or conviction" of Kony, Xinhua reported.

The bounty also includes other two leaders of the LRA -- Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen.

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Washington, April 4 - US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Istanbul, Jerusalem and Ramallah, on his third trip to the Middle East since he took office in February, an official said.

"The secretary will depart this weekend. His first stop will now be in Istanbul where he will consult with senior Turkish leaders on a variety of subjects including the situation in Syria," Xinhua quoted State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland as saying at a briefing.

She said Kerry will be in Jerusalem April 8 and in Ramallah April 9.

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Washington, April 3 : US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will return part of his salary in solidarity with those civilian employees of the Defense Department who must take pay cuts in the form of unpaid leave, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

Hagel will return as much as 14 percent of his salary via a legal mechanism to return money to the Treasury Department, even thought he is not subject to the pay cuts, Little said Tuesday.

As defense chief, Hagel earns an annual salary of about $200,000, according to the daily Politico.

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Washington, April 3 - New orders for US manufactured goods rose 3 percent in February, evidence of the ongoing economic recovery, the US Department of Commerce reported.

US factory orders increased $14.5 billion to a seasonally adjusted $492 billion in February, reported Xinhua.

New orders for durable goods, big-ticket items expected to last at least three years such as computers, cars and machinery, rose 5.6 percent to $232.2 billion in February.

New orders for non-durable goods, including food, paper products, petroleum and coal products, edged up 0.8 percent in February. (IANS)

Washington, April 3 : US President Barack Obama has announced an ambitious multidisciplinary program to create a map of the human brain that could help cure diseases such as Alzheimer's and epilepsy.

"We have been a nation of dreamers and risk-takers," said Obama Tuesday in the East Room of the White House before an audience including several of the scientists and businessmen taking part in the project.

"Computer chips and GPS technology, the Internet - all these things grew out of government investments in basic research," the president said, before introducing the BRAIN Initiative as "the next great American project".

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Washington, April 3 - Three brothers from India have received the prestigious Vital Voices Global Leadership Award from Vice President Joe Biden for their humanitarian working to end violence against women.

The three, Ravi, Rishi and Nishi Kant, who started the nongovernmental organization Shakti Vahini to fight injustice against women in 2001, received a "Solidarity Award" for their work at the annual Kennedy Centre event Tuesday.

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