Washington: The landmark immigration bill, which offers a path to citizenship for more than 11 million - including over 260,000 Indians - undocumented immigrants and increasing H-1B visas today passed its first legislative test.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on the fifth day of its deliberations that included 300 amendments to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill - Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act - passed it by 13-5 votes.
The bill passed through the key Senate committee only after lawmakers reached a deal on H-1B visa expansion plan. The bill (No 744) now goes to the Senate for approval - which is expected to witness another round of negotiations and tough bargaining. It needs 60 votes to pass the 100-seat Senate.
Welcoming the passage of the legislation, US President Barack Obama said that it is largely consistent with the principles of commonsense reform he has proposed and meets the challenge of fixing the broken immigration system....
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12:16 PM, May 22, 2013
Washington: In a "major breakthrough", two influential American Senators on Tuesday reached an agreement on the contentious H-1B visa expansion plan, which Congressional aides said is a compromise between the demand of the tech-industry and the concerns of the labour unions. The deal reached between Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, covers eight amendments sponsored by the latter to make the process for granting H-1B visas more...
11:40 PM, May 21, 2013
Jammu: Attributing bird hits as one of the major causes of aircraft mishaps, the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday asked people not to throw waste in open, which attracts the avian population. "Birds strike is one of the major causes of aircraft accidents. People should not throw waste in open and keep their surroundings clean, so that the birds are not attracted," Wing Commander Amit Singh Gaharwar said at...
06:45 PM, May 20, 2013
Melbourne: Test opener David Warner will have a Cricket Australia disciplinary hearing on Wednesday over comments he made on Twitter in often angry exchanges with two journalists. Cricket Australia said Warner, who is set to play for Australia in the Champions Trophy and Ashes Test series in England, was alleged to have breached a section of its Code of Behavior relating to "unbecoming behavior." Warner used Twitter on Friday night...
03:39 PM, May 20, 2013
London: One person was killed and two others were critically injured on Sunday after a light aircraft crashed at Caernarfon Airport in Gwynedd in Wales, police said. A man in his 60s suffered "serious multiple lower limb injuries" and a boy had head and abdomen injuries following the incident, the ambulance service said. Fire crews cut another man from the wreckage, pronounced dead at the scene, the BBC reported. Police...
11:06 PM, May 19, 2013
Melbourne: Australia opening batsman David Warner will face a disciplinary hearing for his Twitter outburst against two senior Australian cricket journalists, the country's cricket board said on Sunday. The flamboyant left-handed batsman criticised News Limited journalists Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn in an expletive-filled tirade, which grabbed headlines in Australia. The 26-year-old has been charged with breaking the code of behaviour which pertains to "unbecoming behaviour, regarding comments posted on...
12:57 PM, May 19, 2013
New Delhi: "The Indian Premier League is a smouldering cesspit ... the sunniest of places for the shadiest people." - Robert Craddock ripped the million-dollar league apart in his column for the Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph after the spot-fixing scandal that has once again put a serious question mark on the credibility of the IPL. Writing in his column, Craddock began by taking on the aftermatch IPL parties, saying...
08:16 AM, May 18, 2013
Washington: Indian American software magnate Vivek Ranadive, who has become the first person of Indian descent to become the owner of a major US basketball team, plans to build the Sacramento Kings into a global brand. "It's going to be exciting," he told the USA Today after securing an agreement to buy 65 percent of the Kings from the Maloof family for a National Basketball Association (NBA) league-record valuation of...
11:14 PM, May 17, 2013
Guna: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday expressed doubt as to whether giving autonomy to CBI would serve the purpose. "There is a question mark on the issue," he told reporters in Guna. "Giving autonomy to CBI...may be like giving autonomy to a police inspector," Singh said. "Is the common man in favour of giving autonomy to an inspector?" he asked. The issue of CBI's autonomy has come to...
01:42 AM, May 17, 2013
Yangon: Two passengers have been injured when a plane landing in Myanmar shot past the end of the runway when its brakes failed. The Facebook page of Myanmar state radio and TV reported that a Fokker plane of Myanmar Airways carrying 55 passengers went 200 meters past the end of the runway at Monghsat in northern Shan state on Thursday before it hit a fence and stopped. It said a...
09:44 PM, May 16, 2013
Kathmandu: All 22 people, including eight Japanese tourists on board a Nepal Airlines aircraft on Thursday escaped with minor injuries after the small plane skidded off the runway while trying to land and plunged into a river in northwestern Nepal. The accident occurred as the Twin Otter airplane on a flight from Pokhara skidded off the runway while trying to land at Jomsom Airport in a mountainous region and crashed...
04:22 PM, May 16, 2013
In spite of the liberalisation of the Indian economy which has opened up so many avenues of quality employment, an IAS berth still appeals to a large number of young Indians. For a select few like Manjunath, it becomes the be all and end all of their lives. Is there need for greater sensitisation of IAS aspirants? Can counselling play a role? IAS officer Dr Raja Sekhar Vundru joined IBNLive...
05:33 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Indian navy's first Boeing P8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft landed at INS Rajali Naval air station in Arrakonam, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. Two more aircrafts are expected later this year and a total number of eight such have been ordered from Boeing. All the deliveries are expected to be completed by 2015. "The Indian Navy would be only the second operator of this aircraft after...
04:04 PM, May 15, 2013
Kolkata: Violence broke out on Tuesday at an anti-chit fund rally, held by Democratic Students Organisation (student wing of Socialist Unity Centre of India) in Kolkata. Police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the participants of the rally, who were trying to hold a law violation programme. There are reports of injuries on both sides. More details are awaited. ...
03:35 PM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: An Army helicopter, on air maintenance operations, crashed on Monday morning in the icy heights of Siachen glacier but both the pilots survived the accident and were being evacuated for treatment, army sources said. The advanced light helicopter (ALH) 'Dhruv', flown by two pilots of the Army Aviation Squadron, crashed in the northern glacier at around 8:00 am, the sources said. They said of the two pilots, one...
02:22 PM, May 13, 2013
New Delhi: An Army helicopter, on air maintenance operations, crashed on Monday morning in the icy heights of Siachen glacier but both the pilots survived the accident and were being evacuated for treatment, army sources said. The advanced light helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, flown by two pilots of the Army Aviation Squadron, crashed in the northern glacier at around 8:00 AM, the sources said. They said of the two pilots, one...
01:49 PM, May 13, 2013
Islamabad: Despite a bloody campaign marred by Taliban attacks, polling began in Pakistan on Saturday amidst threats of violence, pitting a former cricket star against a two-time prime minister once exiled by the army and an incumbent blamed for power blackouts and inflation. The vote marks the first time in Pakistan's 65-year history that a civilian government has completed its full term and handed over power in democratic elections. Previous...
07:24 AM, May 11, 2013
New Delhi: Compulsory military training to all youths is against democratic ethos of the country and is highly undesirable as some of the trained men could join the ranks of radical forces, Defence Minister AK Antony told the Lok Sabha on Monday. In a written reply to the House, he also said the government is not in favour of making military training compulsory as under the democratic set up of...
12:03 PM, May 07, 2013
In their book Flight of the Buffalo, corporate gurus James Belasco and Ralph Stayer beautifully state the politics of change when they say, "change is ...
12:59 AM, May 07, 2013
Madrid: A historic jet plane crashed into a hangar and exploded in a fireball at an air show southwest of the capital on Sunday, severely injuring its pilot who later died in the hospital, officials said. A spokesman for Spain's Defense Ministry said the pilot, Ladislao Tejedor Romero, 35, an experienced jet pilot and assistant to Defense Minister Pedro Morenes, died of his injuries in the serious burns unit of...
09:00 AM, May 06, 2013
