The proposed Terrorist Expatriation Act would authorise the State Department to revoke citizenship of anyone who supports Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups or who helps in attacks against the US or its allies.

Identical bills were introduced this week in the House and Senate.

'We're fighting an enemy who doesn't wear the uniform of a conventional army or follow the law of war,' said Senator Joseph Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, who co-sponsored the Senate bill with Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts.

'Those who join such groups join our enemy and should be deprived of the rights and privileges of US citizenship and the ability to use their American passports as tools of terror.'

The bill would expand a 1940 federal law that authorises the State Department to strip Americans of their citizenship.

Under the 1940 law, Americans could lose citizenship for serving in the military of a country at war with the US, for treason or for voting in another nation's elections.

However, they can contest their loss of citizenship in court.

The Supreme Court narrowed the authority of the 1940 law by ruling Americans could lose citizenship only if they renounce it.

The 1967 ruling involved the case of a naturalised American born in Poland who voted in an Israeli election. The State Department took away his citizenship but he won it back in the Supreme Court.

The proposed act is likely to face a legal challenge if Congress approves it. Civil rights activists have warned of possible conflicts with the constitution's right of equal protection for American citizens.

From the Obama administration, only Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has so far promised to 'take a hard look' at the proposed legislation.

'Clearly, US citizenship is a privilege. It is not a right... And people who are serving foreign powers - or in this case, foreign terrorists - are clearly in violation, in my personal opinion, of that oath which they swore when they became citizens,' she said during a press conference. 'So we're going to take a hard look at this.'

'According to the latest information, the number of wounded increased to seven,' the source said adding that the number may rise further.

The explosive device was placed in a garbage dumpster near the platform, he said, adding that one of the hospitalised people is a police officer, who sustained grave wounds in the blast.

Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, have seen an upsurge of militant violence lately, with frequent attacks on police and officials.

The Kremlin has pledged to wage 'a ruthless fight' against militant groups but also acknowledged a need to tackle unemployment, organised crime, clan rivalry and corruption as causes of the ongoing violence in the region.

'India is still seen as the major state-based threat,' General David H. Petraeus, the head of US Central Command who has just returned from a visit to Pakistan said in an interview to Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank.

'In fact they've just completed an exercise, some 50,000 Pakistani military forces, similar to the old NATO exercises that we used to run in the days of the Cold War,' he noted when asked if he had seen a shift in the Pakistani army's thinking about its enemies.

'So there's no question about the image still in their mind of the threat that is posed by India to their security.'

'Having said that, the most pressing threat that emerged to their very 'writ of governance,' as they term it, came to be seen as that posed by the Pakistani Taliban-again, in particular over the course of the last year or eighteen months,' Petraeus said.

'The developments of the last year in Pakistan are significant in that you saw the people, the leaders, and the bulk of the clerics all recognize the very existential threat that was posed by the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-i-Taliban, and some of its allies,' he said.

The Pakistani Taliban's claim of responsibility for the failed Times Square bombing also highlights the potential threat 'between some of these organizations and transnational extremism at large,' the general said.

Formed in 2007, the Pakistani Taliban has almost exclusively targeted elements of the Pakistani state. But the attack on New York City suggests its ambitions are expanding.

'There is clearly a symbiotic relationship between all of these different organizations; Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, TNSM [Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi],'said Petraeus.

He added that it's not surprising that militants would look to wage attacks on American soil. 'There are a lot of organizations out there that are wannabe international terrorist organizations,' he said, 'because that's how you garner resources.'

'Well, it could be - there have been multiple plots that have involved the United States and Pakistan, citizens on both sides who have chosen to take these actions,' a State Department spokesman said Friday when asked if there was any connection between the two cases.

'I'm not aware that there's any specific connection, but clearly, we are looking to see, while this individual was in Pakistan, who he met with, what support, if any, was provided,' spokesman Philip J. Crowley told reporters.

'And that is the reason why we are working so closely with Pakistan on this investigation.'

Asked whether the US was in touch with India about the Times Square incident, Crowley noted the two countries have a regular dialogue on counter-terrorism issues, but could not say at this point if there was an Indian link.

'I mean, we have regular dialogue with India, including on counter-terrorism issues,' he said. 'I can't say at this point there's an Indian link to this case, but we do have dialogue with India on a regular basis on terrorism issues.'

Earlier, ABC News citing unnamed sources traced Shahzad's links to another Pakistani militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad and suggested he was a childhood friend of one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai massacre.

However, the television network did not identify the Pakistani mastermind.

The Pakistani Taliban are denying any role in the failed car bombing, but have praised Shahzad for a 'brave job done', ABC said noting the suspected bomber was also in contact with former Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud who was killed in a US missile strike in 2009.

'The Mehsuds had been family friends of Shahzad, who is a son of a former high ranking Pakistani military officer,' ABC News said quoting Pakistani sources.

Shahzad was reported to be in touch with a man named Mohammad Rehan, a suspected Jaish militant who helped him to travel to Peshawar and then to Waziristan and introduced him to Taliban.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

The blunt warning came from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who acknowledged Pakistan's increased cooperation in the war on terror, but said the US wants and expects even more from Islamabad.

'We've made it very clear that if, heaven-forbid, an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences,' Clinton said in an interview to CBS' '60 Minutes' programme to be broadcast Sunday.

Faisal Shahzad, a naturalised American citizen who was born in Pakistan and says he had terrorist training there, has confessed to planting the car bomb that fizzled out in Time Square last week. Investigations have also uncovered his possible links to the Pakistani Taliban and a Kashmiri Islamist group.

Pakistan's attitude toward fighting Islamic terrorists has changed remarkably, Clinton said suggesting Ialamabad was earlier playing a double game with lot of lip service but little action.

'We've gotten more cooperation and it's been a real sea change in the commitment we've seen from the Pakistan Government. [But] We want more. We expect more,' she said in the interview excerpts of which were released on Friday.

Since the relationship with Pakistan turned around, the results are encouraging she said. 'We also have a much better relationship, military to military, intelligence to intelligence, government to government than we had before.'

'I think that there was a double game going on in the previous years, where we got a lot of lip service but very little

produced. We've got a lot produced.

'We have seen the killing or capturing of a great number of the leadership of significant terrorist groups and we're going continue that,' Clinton said.

But Defence Secretary Robert Gates has offered to step up assistance to Pakistan though he doubted Islamabad's capacity to expand its crackdown on insurgents with security forces stretched battling militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

'With their military operations in the west, they've started to be pretty thinly stretched themselves, as well as taking a substantial number of casualties,' he told reporters on a trip to Kansas, Missouri Friday.

But the US was 'willing to do as much ... as they are willing to accept,' Gates said. 'We are prepared to do training, and exercise with them. How big that operation becomes is really up to them.'

Citing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, Gates said, 'They (Pakistani leaders) are also very interested in keeping our footprints as small as possible, at least for now.'

Meanwhile, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes also said Friday the US had been working with Pakistan and would keep assisting a Pakistani 'offensive - the largest offensive they've undertaken in some years - in order to root out extremists within their borders, including the Taliban.'

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

'The suspicious package is not dangerous', a New York City police spokesman was quoted as saying Friday by Xinhua.

Police said the package that forced evacuation of the Times Square was examined by the bomb squad, which found it to be just a lunch cooler with beverages inside.

This was the second time in less than a week the usually-crowded New York City's entertainment centre was evacuated because of a suspicious package. The previous evacuation turned out to be for a failed car bomb last Saturday.

The cooler was spotted by New Yorkers at about 1 p.m. (local time) Friday outside the Marriott Hotel at West 45th Street on Broadway. The bomb squad was called to the scene, which examined the cooler and found it was safe, the spokesman said.

Last Saturday, a SUV loaded with gasoline, fireworks and propane tanks failed to explode in the same area. Some of the fireworks were, however, set off, causing smoke, officials said.

A 30-year-old American citizen of Pakistan origin, Faisal Shahzad, was arrested two days later on suspicion of being involved in the attempt, they said.

The package was found near 45th Street and Broadway, officials said.

The evacuation comes six days after the failed bombing in Times Square for which Pakistani-origin Faisal Shahzad has been arrested. He had allegedly left a SUV packed with explosives in Times Square.

Madhav Bora, 36, and Abhijay Mising, 20, who underwent guerrilla warfare training in Myanmar, were members of the ULFA 28th battalion - the potent striking unit of the separatist rebel group.

According to a BSF statement, the rebels allegedly involved in extortion and murder cases, deposited a .22 mm pistol, a 9 mm pistol and some live rounds.

Both the surrendered militants have been handed over to the Assam police for further action.

Raju, 35, was nabbed from a forest area in Maoist-infested Sonbhadra district, some 300 km from Lucknow.

'Raju had links with the gang of dreaded Munna Vishwakarma and operated in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and other states. Acting on a tip-off, we managed to nab Raju,' Superintendent of Police P.P. Singh told reporters in Sonbhadra.

According to another police officer, Raju was wanted by the state police in around 10 criminal cases.

Police are interrogating Raju to gather more information about the movement of Maoists in Uttar Pradesh and its adjoining states.

Kasab, who was awarded the death penalty for his role in the 26/11 terror attack, will continue to remain in this jail and the state government has no plans to shift him anywhere else, Minister of State for Home Ramesh Bagwe told reporters.

A high-level meeting of the police, home department and jail officials besides security experts was held at the jail Friday morning after which it was decided that Kasab would not be sent to jail in Pune or Nagpur.

After his arrest, Kasab was in the custody of the crime branch and when he was remanded to judicial custody, he was shifted to Arthur Road jail, which is a prison for undertrials.

Given the threat perceptions and the significance of the case, the government later, at a cost of Rs.5.2 crore, fortified the prison to make it bomb proof.

In view of security considerations, the government even constructed an air-conditioned special courtroom within the jail itself where Kasab's trial was held.

Kasab was also lodged in an oval cell in the same jail premises under a multi-level security ring till the trial finally ended Thursday.

However, the officials said that the final decision to shift Kasab from Mumbai is likely to be taken only after the Bombay High Court confirms the death penalty.