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 palatable to high-tech companies.
As a result of this agreement, the Republicans are now expected to vote in favour of the Senate immigration bill, in particular those provisions related to the H-1B visas. It as a "major breakthrough" for the Senate immigration bill, which is currently being voted by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Hill reported.
The Immigration Reform Bill as being discussed in the Senate Judiciary Committee requires employers filing visa petitions to first offer a job to an "equally qualified" US worker. The amendments introduced by Hatch if passed would impose this requirement only on "H-1B-dependent" companies but clarifies the definition of such companies.
"The Schumer-Hatch deal accepts the original intent standard for non-H-1B companies but only for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) positions. For all other professions, there would remain a strict prohibition against displacing workers within 90 days of visa petitions," The Hill reported....
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11:40 PM, May 21, 2013
Washington: The US on Monday welcomed India's generous bilateral assistance to Afghanistan but remained non-committal on reports about Kabul seeking supply of military equipment from New Delhi. "We welcome efforts by Afghanistan's neighbours and other regional actors to promote Afghanistan's stability and economic development," State Department spokesperson Patrick Ventrell told reporters. He was responding to questions on the India visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai during which according to media...
09:56 AM, May 21, 2013
Kabul: A suicide bomber in a car attacked a convoy of foreign troops in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people including six Americans, Afghan and foreign officials said, in one of the worst attacks in the Afghan capital in months. Forty people were wounded in the blast at around 8 am (0330 GMT) during the morning rush-hour. It caused heavy damage to mud-built houses in the vicinity. The...
06:44 AM, May 17, 2013
Islamabad: Suspected militants attacked NATO supply trucks in Pakistan's restive northwest on Thursday, killing two drivers, officials said. Two armed men riding a motorcycle targeted a truck in Jamrud area of the lawless Khyber tribal region and killed its driver, officials told the media. Another NATO supply truck was attacked on the outskirts of Peshawar and its driver shot dead, police officials said. No group claimed responsibility for both attacks....
03:00 AM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: Ahead of its President's visit here from May 20, Afghanistan on Thursday said it was looking for enhanced defence cooperation with India, from where it was expecting supply of lethal and non-lethal military equipment. Afghan President Hamid Karzai will visit India on May 20-22 during which he will apprise the Indian leadership of the recent developments in the war-torn country, Afghanistan Ambassador to India Shaida M Abdali told...
06:50 PM, May 16, 2013
Kabul: Two members of Afghanistan's NATO-led force were killed on Thursday when a suicide car bomber attacked their two-car convoy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, the force said in a statement. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said four ISAF civilian contractors were also among the dead but it did not provide information on their nationalities. ...
05:10 PM, May 16, 2013
Reyhanli: Turkey accused a group with links to Syrian intelligence of carrying out car bombings that killed 46 people in a Turkish border town, and said on Sunday it was time for the world to act against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The two car bombs, which ripped through crowded shopping streets in Reyhanli on Saturday, increased fears that Syria's civil war is dragging in neighbouring states, despite renewed...
06:40 AM, May 13, 2013
Reyhanli: Twin car bombs killed around 43 people and wounded many more in a Turkish town near the Syrian border on Saturday and Turkey said it suspected Syrian involvement. The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighbouring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending fighting in which more than 70,000 people have been killed. The bombs ripped into crowded streets in the early afternoon in Reyhanli,...
06:56 AM, May 12, 2013
Bangalore: More than 1900 detonators were recovered on Thursday by the CISF from Kolar district of poll-bound Karnataka after a bus was intercepted along the state's border. The seizure was made when a bus coming from Pummur in Andhra Pradesh was intercepted at Baipelly checkpost and two unattended bags were found inside the vehicle. The CISF troops, deployed as part of poll duties in the state, immediately took the bus...
05:54 PM, May 02, 2013
Brussels: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged NATO on Tuesday to prepare for the possible use of chemical weapons by Syria on the same day that a senior Israeli military intelligence official said Syrian President Bashar Assad had used such weapons in March 2013 in his battle against insurgents. It was the first time Israel had accused the embattled Syrian leader of using his stockpile of nonconventional weapons. The...
07:28 AM, Apr 24, 2013
Washington: Amidst Congressional debate on the comprehensive immigration reform, a top US Senator has accused big Indian IT companies - TCS, Infosys and Wipro - of abusing the H-1B visa system. "There are some specific abuses of H-1B," Senator Richard Durbin, said during a Congressional hearing on immigration reform by the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, during which the lawmakers discussed threadbare the H-1B visa issues. In fact, Senator...
01:32 PM, Apr 23, 2013
Washington: A day after twin bomb blasts rocked Boston, a senior Republican Senator received a poison-laced letter, source of which is being investigated. The envelope addressed to Roger Wicker, a Senator from Mississippi, was tested positive for ricin, a highly poisonous substance, The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. Following this, the authorities have increased security for the Senator. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ricin is...
08:09 AM, Apr 17, 2013
Washington: An envelope addressed to Sen Roger Wicker of Mississippi tested positive on Tuesday for ricin, a potentially fatal poison, congressional officials said, heightening concerns about terrorism a day after a bombing killed three and left more than 170 injured at the Boston Marathon. The letter was discovered at a mail processing plant in Prince George's County in suburban Maryland, said Sen Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Wicker's office issued a statement...
05:12 AM, Apr 17, 2013
Kandahar (Afghanistan): Terrorist killed six Americans, including a young female diplomat, and an Afghan doctor in a pair of attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday. It was the deadliest day for the United States in the war in eight months. The violence - hours after the US military's top officer arrived for consultations with Afghan and US-led coalition officials - illustrates the instability plaguing the nation as foreign forces work to...
12:58 PM, Apr 07, 2013
A bipartisan group of senators is closer to a deal on immigration reform to resolve the problem of 11 million illegal immigrants, including some 260,000 Indians, according to a media report. The "Gang of Eight", as the group of four Democratic and four Republican senators negotiating the deal is called, had moved closer to an agreement on a visa programme for future low-skilled workers, Politico, an influential news site focusing...
11:40 AM, Mar 30, 2013
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a show of unity on Monday, shortly after the US military ceded control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan, ending a longstanding irritant in relations between the two countries. ...
07:48 AM, Mar 26, 2013
Four members of a family were found dead in a flat in Wadala in south central Mumbai on Monday, police said. Police said that preliminary reports suggest that they died after consuming poison and that it was possibly a case of suicide. However, police have not ruled out a murder angle as no suicide note was found from the house. ...
02:45 AM, Mar 19, 2013
He is jailed for violating the terms of a restraining order brought against him by his estranged wife, Rachael. ...
07:05 PM, Mar 06, 2013
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday termed terrorism as the common enemy of Afghanistan and Pakistan and sought firm anti-terror support from Islamabad. ...
01:47 AM, Mar 05, 2013
Two people were on Sunday arrested from an inter-state bus terminus in Chandigarh after four detonators were allegedly recovered from their possession. ...
06:31 AM, Mar 04, 2013
