Free Republic

With new leadership in the House, the Obama administration thinks it may have a better chance of securing immigration reform, Valerie Jarrett says at a Monitor breakfast. The White House is holding out hope that immigration reform can still pass this year, bucking the conventional wisdom that the issue is all but dead for now. “We have an opportunity with a new team in place in the House to act,” said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, at a breakfast Friday hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. On Thursday, House Republicans elected a new majority leader, Rep. Kevin...

The White House believes that the election of a new House leadership team has opened up an opportunity to pass immigration reform this summer, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett said Friday. Jarrett said the change necessitated by Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) surprising primary loss gives new life to immigration reform. -snip- But Jarrett said in discussions with business leaders in recent days that “nobody has said to me they thought his defeat was because of immigration reform.” In recent days, Jarrett shared a dinner with News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and a breakfast with the Business Roundtable to discuss the topic....

President Obama's longtime senior adviser Valerie Jarrett confessed to breaking bread this week with conservative media titan Rupert Murdoch, a new White House frenemy of sorts on immigration reform. The two dined at the posh Blue Duck Tavern on Tuesday night in Washington's Foggy Bottom, and Jarrett described the evening as “very enjoyable.” “Good policy sometimes makes strange bedfellows,” she told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor Friday, adding that she was impressed by Murdoch's passion for passing comprehensive immigration reform. He is an immigrant himself and he understands from a business perspective how important immigration...

News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch Rupert Murdoch said his "heart sank" after he learned of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's stunning Republican primary loss last week, because he believes Congress needs to tackle the issue of immigration reform this year. Murdoch, the chair of News Corp., has an op-ed in Thursday's Wall Street Journal in which he argued immigration reform "can't wait." After Cantor's loss, immigration reform was almost universally pronounced dead as a possibility this year, as it was perceived to be one of the issues on which Cantor lost favor with his Republican constituents. But Murdoch,...

Rupert Murdoch, the head of NewsCorp (the corporate owner of Fox News), penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal today in which he strongly advocates for immigration reform, an issue believed to have cost Eric Cantor his reelection at the hands of the tea party. And, in fact, Murdoch opens his op-ed by saying, “When I learned that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had lost his Republican primary, my heart sank.”

SPOTTED: Rupert Murdoch, eating dinner with Valerie Jarrett at the Blue Duck Tavern in D.C. Among the topics they discussed: immigration reform.

American workers are struggling to find jobs and illegal immigrants flooding across the border are straining the country's resources, but Rupert Murdoch believes amnesty legislation "can't wait." A day after dining with President Barack Obama's top adviser Valerie Jarrett, Murdoch, the Chairman of the group that owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, pushed for amnesty and an unlimited number of high-tech guest-worker visas in a Wednesday op-ed in the Journal. Murdoch said his "heart sank" when he learned that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) was ousted last week in a primary election that was widely viewed as...

An Indian teenager is worshipped as a god because he has a 7ins ‘tail’. Arshid Ali Khan, 13, has become a divine symbol in the state of Punjab. Locals have hailed him a reincarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman - and refer to him as Balaji. However, Arshid has to use a wheelchair and he is considering having the ‘tail’ removed. He said: ‘This tail has been given to me by God. I am worshipped because I pray to god and the wishes of people come true.....

Saab believes co-developing Tejas Mark II would end need for Rafale More than two years after India's ministry of defence (MoD) chose to buy 126 Dassault Rafale fighters for the Indian Air Force (IAF), the world's biggest fighter contract swings in the wind. With no deal in sight after 28 months of haggling with Dassault, two of the losing vendors -Eurofighter and Saab - believe they could yet come out tops. Eurofighter GmbH, whose Typhoon fighter narrowly lost out to the Rafale, still retains a senior executive in New Delhi. This is to allow Eurofighter - the official runner-up -...

PARIS--Japanese defense contractors for the first time displayed their wares at the Eurosatory international exhibition, taking advantage of the Abe government’s move in April to lift the three-decade ban on weapons exports. But Japan still faces a number of diplomatic and technological hurdles before it can become a major arms exporter. About 1,500 defense companies from 58 countries will exhibit their latest weapons and other defense equipment at the Eurosatory in Paris through June 20. The trade show is expected to draw 58,000 military officials and industry participants from 90 countries. Participant companies displayed large items, such as tanks and...

The government has approved the raising of three squadrons of the iconic American-made Apache attack helicopters for the Indian Army. This marks a big win for the Army in its epic war with the Indian Air Force (IAF) for the control of helicopter gunships. "The Army will get 39 Apache attack helicopters at an estimated cost of over $2.5 billion after the first tranche of 22 of these gunships, currently being negotiated with the US, is delivered to the IAF," disclosed an exultant officer at Army Headquarters. All future acquisitions of attack helicopters will thereafter be for the Army, an...

A University of California report has exposed the injustice that prohibits a genetically engineered additive to rice. Without it the death of millions of children has occurred, notably in Africa and India. The researcher opinion lays the blame for the international prohibition of producing golden rice through genetic engineering to powerful forces that hide behind environmentalism. California, of course, is one of the world’s major rice producers, ready to supply the vitamin enriched product, especially for export.

In the four months to date for 2014, warships from the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) Task Force 150 (CTF 150) have seized in excess of 2,000 kg of heroin being trafficked in dhows via the Indian Ocean. The most recent seizure was of 1,032 kg by an Australian warship on 26 April - African’s highest drug seizure ever – and 130kg by a Canadian warship on 7 April. In 2013, warships operating with CTF 150 seized more than 2,000 kg of heroin being shipped via the Indian Ocean. The heroin appears to be of Afghan origin, and is generally of...

This is the story of an IT worker who was replaced by a worker on an H-1B visa, one of a number of visa holders, mostly from India, who took jobs at this U.S. company. Computerworld is not going to use the worker's name or identify the companies involved to protect the former employee from retaliation. For purposes of this story, the worker has been given initials -- A.B. (They're not the person's real initials.) At A.B.'s company, about 220 IT jobs have been lost to offshore outsourcing over the last year. A.B. is telling the story because, initially, there...

Last month, Rishi and Suvir Mirchandani traveled to sunny Los Angeles. The Fox Chapel Area High School students weren't taking a vacation. They were there to compete in one of the world's most rigorous science competitions, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Rishi, 17, a junior, ended up with a third-place award in the mathematics section of the fair for his work on the most efficient way for traffic to travel along a network of roadways. Younger brother Suvir, 15, got the $1,500 Web innovator award from GoDaddy for his project to allow paralyzed people to interact with a...

Women’s helpline authorities order probe, seek legal action against the accusedPatna: Authorities in Bihar are flummoxed after a man lost his wife in a gamble for a bottle of liquor. The saga came to light after the woman contacted the Women helpline over the weekend. She told the authorities how a man had been calling her on her cell phone claiming that he was her new husband. The victim is a resident of Bihta town in Patna district. “She [the victim] told us how a local man had been calling her on her mobile [phone] for some time claiming to...

The Haqqani Network, the terrorist group that the U.S. command in Afghanistan says is its most formidable enemy — worse than the Taliban or al Qaeda — has operated for a dozen years across the border in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area with little to fear other than sporadic drone strikes. Now, even the drone strikes have stopped for the family-run gang that held Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five years. ... The Haqqani network maintains a safe haven in North Waziristan, Pakistan, across Afghanistan’s southeastern border. The Pakistani Army has consistently refused to launch a military operation in North...

Several people have been injured after Sikh groups brandishing swords clashed at India's Golden Temple as special prayers were held to mark the deadly military offensive there in 1984. Reports said the fight at Sikhism's holiest shrine was over who would speak first at the ceremony and that a scuffle broke out over a microphone. Footage showed men running down temple steps lashing out with their swords. Reports said at least three people had been taken to hospital with injuries. The Indian government says 400 people and 87 soldiers were killed during the 1984 military raid to flush out Sikh...

NEW DELHI: A MiG 29K naval combat aircraft has suffered damage while landing on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya during operations in Arabian Sea off the coast of Goa, a Navy official said today. The Russian-origin aircraft had taken off from the Naval airbase INS Hansa in Goa yesterday and was landing on the aircraft when it carried out a 'hard-landing' causing damage to the nose-wheel undercarriage, the official said. The pilot of the aircraft is safe and the further details of the damage are being assessed, they said. The Navy has ordered a Board of Inquiry (BoI) into the...

BJP dismisses Gaur’s comments as an expression of his personal views, and not the party’sA lawmaker from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party has described rape as a social crime, saying “sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong”, in the latest controversial remarks by an Indian politician about rape. SNIP A regional politician from Modi’s own party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Thursday that the crime of rape can only be considered to have been committed if it is reported to police. SNIP Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong,” said Babulal Gaur, the home minister responsible for law...