Usa News

Amid questions raised by international rights groups over controversial US drone attacks, death of '2160 militants and 67 civilians' in the attacks have been reported by Pakistan. Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif raised the issue with US President Obama in their maiden meeting on October-23. However, US claims that drone attacks are precision proof and have killed many top terrorists.

An unprovoked shooting incident at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, caused the death of a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent and left several others injured. A suspect having high-powered rifle has been shot and arrested by the police, however, there is no confirmation of his death. The gunman is believed to be the lone shooter.

US authorities on Wednesday shut a sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel dug under the US-Mexican border. The tunnel, 2.4 miles long, sporting lights, ventilation and electric railway, linked a warehouse in Tijuana in Mexico to another in San Diego, California. The tunnel's discovery led to the seizure of 8.5 tons of marijuana and 327 pounds of cocaine, as per court records.

Michigan's Tom Lee claims he informed the FBI about Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan, 8-year before he was killed in 2011. The 63-year-old gem merchant says he was informed by a Pakistani intelligence agent about Laden. Lee, who reportedly made "numerous attempts" to claim his reward, has hired attorneys to help him collect the $25 million reward.

With a height of 1,776-feet (541-m), the new World Trade Center tower in New York was on Tuesday declared as the tallest tower in the US, surpassing Chicago's Willis Tower (442-m). Height of the needle (124-m) atop the skyscraper was also taken into account when measuring WTC's height. Dubai's Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world at 828-m.

Rolling back a 1994 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, Hawaii's governor approved a new law on Wednesday, which provides marriage rights to same-sex couples. The law, which takes effect on Dec-2, makes Hawaii the 15th US state to legalize gay marriage. The bill got final approval of Democrat-controlled state legislature on Tuesday.

Indian-American activist-academic Kshama Sawant is likely to become the first recognized socialist to be elected to a public office in the US. Pune-born Sawant, who studied engineering in Mumbai and economics in US, is leading her Democratic Party rival Richard Conlin by about 400 votes for a seat in Seattle City Council. The final result will be known on Nov-25.

US stocks reached new altitudes on Monday as the industrial averages of Dow Jones and S&P 500 extended their record highs, ticking above 16,000 and 1,800 respectively. The industrial average of Nasdaq Composite dropped 6.857 points (0.17%), to 3,979.111. The S&P earlier hit 1,802.33 and the Dow 16,030.28, their highest levels ever.

In an out-of-court settlement, an Indian-American Sikh, Gurpreet Singh Kherha, who was denied a job for keeping a beard by a car dealership in New Jersey 5-year ago, will receive $50,000 as compensation. Kherha had filed a discrimination claim against the dealership in 2008 and a lawsuit was filed in New Jersey State Court in February 2010.

Ending their 14-year old marriage, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch (82), who leads the 20th Century Fox and News Corp, has reached a divorce settlement with his wife Wendi Deng Murdoch. However, they have jointly stated that the settlement was amicable and will have a shared interest in their daughters' welfare. It was the third marriage for Rupert Murdoch.

Iran, US, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia reached a breakthrough deal on Sunday to curb Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief. It is being seen as the first sign of settlement between Iran and the West. Barack Obama stressed that Iran should meet its commitments within 6 months else US would turn of the sanctions relief.

According to Forbes, Apple with a brand value of $104.3 billion is the world's most valuable brand followed by Microsoft($56.7 billion), Coca-Cola($54.9 billion), IBM($50.7 billion) and Google($47.3 billion). US-based brands dominated with over fifty spots in the list of 100, far ahead of Germany(9 brands), France(8) and Japan(7). Unfortunately, no Indian company featured in the list.

Canada's CBC News on Wednesday reported that Canadian authorities allowed the US National Security Agency to spy in the country during the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario in 2010. The news website claimed that the documents shared by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reveal that the NSA used the US embassy in Ottawa for nearly a week-long spying operation.

America's National Security Agency (NSA) tracks the locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those belonging to Americans abroad, said a report by the Washington post. It added that a powerful analytic computer program called CO-TRAVELER crunches people's data. The newspaper has the details of the program given by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden.

According to reports, Canada had setup espionage posts in "approximately 20 high-priority countries", some of which were trade partners, at the request of America's NSA. A "top secret" NSA document leaked by Snowden was cited as the information source. Last month, it was reported that Canada had allowed NSA to spy during the G20 talks and G8 summit in 2010.

In a powerful rebuke to the Obama administration, a US federal judge has ruled that the US National Security Agency's once-secret mass collection of domestic phone records is most likely unconstitutional and violates privacy rights. The ruling came after a conservative activist, Larry Klayman, filed a lawsuit challenging NSA's collection of information.

New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has declared a state of emergency across New York as a major winter storm started to bring heavy snow, sub-zero temperatures, and high winds across the state. The governor has urged New Yorkers to avoid travelling and stay inside their homes until the worst of the storm has passed.

According to documents provided by whistle blower Edward Snowden, America’s NSA is trying to build a computer that will be able to break almost every kind of encryption used to protect business and government records. A $79.7 million program titled “Penetrating Hard Targets” reportedly includes a project to build a “cryptologically useful quantum computer”--a machine considerably faster than classic computers.

Over 1,700 flights were cancelled, and schools and government offices were closed in northeastern United States Friday due to heavy snowstorm and dangerously cold conditions. While most of the cities received heavy snowfall paralyzing road transportation, the towns of Boxford and Topsfield saw record 2-feet snow accumulation. Meteorologists said the temperature would drop to 11-17 degree Celsius below normal Saturday.

A 2009 US State department evaluation of practices in US embassies and missions abroad revealed that some local employees they hired earn less than $1 daily. The report said some employees were paid even lesser than the universal below-poverty level wage, and had to cut back to one meal a day or send their children to peddle on the street.