The US has launched two additional air strikes against militants from the Islamic State (IS) group in northern Iraq, the Pentagon has said. US drones and Navy fighter jets attacked targets near the Kurdish city of Irbil – a similar location to the first strike earlier on Friday. The Sunni Muslim group IS has taken control of swathes of Iraq and Syria. Tens of thousands of people from minority groups […]

It’s a tough time to be the top diplomat representing the world’s sole superpower. Israelis and Palestinians are at war. Iraq and Syria are convulsed by civil strife. Libya’s security situation is rapidly deteriorating. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine threaten to explode. Afghanistan is enmeshed in an election crisis. A nuclear agreement with Iran remains elusive. And at this crucial juncture, Secretary of State John Kerry has jetted off to […]

Washington:  The State Department has endorsed the broad conclusions of a harshly critical Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks that accuses the agency of brutally treating terror suspects and misleading Congress, according to a White House document. “This report tells a story of which no American is proud,” says the four-page document, which contains the State Department’s preliminary proposed talking points in response […]

The savoury chicken tandoori drumstick may soon become inexpensive in India as the ministry of external affairs (MEA) has suggested allowing free import of American chicken legs to start a dialogue on a bilateral investment treaty with the US. Chicken legs have no viable market in the US, where consumers prefer white meat like chicken breast and consider legs as ‘harmful’ red meat. So the unwanted frozen chicken legs are […]

“I will never apologize for the United States. Ever. I don’t care what the facts are.” – Presidential candidate George H.W. Bush in 1988, on the shooting down of Iran Air 655. Despite the fact that investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 has just begun, and that the US has released no concrete evidence, America’s mainstream media machine is in a frenzy to blame Russia for this […]

Chinese hackers broke into a US government network in an attempt to gain personal information on thousands of employees, US media report. First reported by the New York Times, the hackers in March allegedly targeted those applying for high-level security clearance positions. Secretary of State John Kerry called the incident an “attempted intrusion” that was still under investigation. The report has not officially been confirmed by the US homeland security. […]

India has summoned a top US diplomat to complain about spying after allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) targeted the governing BJP. Officials said the allegations were unacceptable and sought assurances from the US that it would not happen again. US whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday revealed that the BJP was among a group of foreign political parties targeted by the NSA in 2010. In opposition then, the BJP […]

Pic :Unusually bad winter weather had contributed to the economic slowdown, the US Commerce Department said US economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of the year, growing at an annual rate of 0.1%. The rate is the slowest for a year and a large fall on the 2.6% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) in the final quarter of last year. An unusually cold and disruptive winter, coupled […]

In Pic :The US is sending the USS Donald Cook, a guided missile destroyer, to the Black Sea. The United States is dispatching a warship to the Black Sea amid tensions between Ukraine and Russia, a Pentagon official said on Monday. “We have decided to send a ship into the Black Sea. We expect it will arrive there within a week,” said Pentagon spokesman colonel Steven Warren, without disclosing the […]

Editor’s note: Howard Hall is director of the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair in Nuclear Security. Natalie Manayeva is research assistant at the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security. Dean Rice is adjunct faculty at the University of Tennessee and former congressional policy/legislative aide on energy and national defense. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors. […]