With nearly 15 Israelis held hostages by terrorists in Mumbai, the government has sent a team of paramedics, medics and other professionals to India to assist with rescue efforts amid an offer by Tel Aviv to help New Delhi in dealing with terror attacks and its aftermath.
"India, the second largest populated nation in the world and the biggest democracy with a booming economy, including hi-tech, could play an important role in the Middle East peace process," Abbas told PTI in an interview a day before leaving for New Delhi.
They have launched a political party -- Shivtei Israel (Yachad), in this southern Israeli city to contest the forthcoming municipal elections. More than 5,000 Indians have registered as party members, out of a total of about 10,000, in the city amid efforts by party leaders to muster support of other fringe groups comprising Moroccans, Tunisians and Ethiopian Jews.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday arrived in Beijing along with her family to attend the Olympics opening ceremony. Sonia, 61, is accompanied by her MP son Rahul, daughter Priyanka, son-in-law Robert Vadra and two grandchildren.
At the secret talks in Beijing last week, China had demanded that the Buddhist leader take "concrete steps" to curb "terrorist" activities of Tibetan Youth Congress based in India and not to support "plots to fan" violent activities and not to support any argument and activity to seek "Tibetan independence".
Pressing the international community to speak up for the Tibetan people at this "critical" stage, the Dalai Lama on Wednesday prodded China for progress in the ongoing talks over the grim Tibet situation as the two sides met in Beijing for the second day of the secretive parleys.
China on Tuesday hoped that the "contact and dialogue" with envoys of the Dalai Lama could make "positive progress" as the start of the fence-mending talks between the two sides in Beijing remained shrouded in secrecy. The Tibetan government in exile said at Dharamsala on Monday that its envoys had reached Beijing to hold the second round of talks for two days from Tuesday, but there was no official word yet from China either on the venue or schedule.
The delegation, a virtual mini-India with sprinkling of youngsters from every part of the country, comprises 'distinguished young persons' under diverse categories, including Chinese language and studies, National Service Scheme, academics, panchayati raj, media, culture and sports. He said that possibility of exchange of young entrepreneurs and civil society volunteers between the two sides was also being explored.
The Olympic torch made its way through the Tibetan capital Lhasa amidst tight security on Saturday, three months after the deadly riots hit the remote Himalayan region during anti-China protests spearheaded by monks.The 9.3 km relay kick-started from Norbulingka, known as the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lama, with 156 torch bearers, including 75 Tibetans, and wound its way through the streets in Lhasa as the security personnel kept a close vigil.
Jet Airways is in talks with Chinese carriers for code-sharing deals to other destinations after it became the first Indian private air carrier to operate a service to China by launching its Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight. The flight connecting the economic hubs of India and China was formally launched in Shanghai on Monday.
The minister handed over to Sichuan Province Vice Governor Huang Xiaoxiang the supplies brought by an Indian Air Force aircraft to Chengdu as part of the $5 million aid announced by India. Huang said the provincial government and the people were grateful to India for offering help during difficult times, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
"An open and inclusive architecture, which is flexible enough to accommodate the great diversity that exists in Asia, is needed," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told students and scholars at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing. "We cannot transplant ideas from other parts of the world," Mukherjee said a day after holding wide-ranging talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.
India and China are understood to have discussed the latest row over Sikkim on Thursday, during talks between their Foreign Ministers, dominated by the festering boundary issue, with the two sides agreeing to use existing mechanisms whenever necessary to maintain peace and tranquility along the border.External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is on a four-day official visit to China, met his counterpart Yang Jiechi and discussed issues of mutual concern.
The number of dead and missing in China's worst earthquake in recent decades is nearing 90,000, as visiting United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon flew into the disaster zone on Saturday and pledged the world body's support for the relief work. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao briefed the UN Secretary General on quake relief efforts and said China would carry out reconstruction as soon as possible. Wen told Ban that the quake had claimed more than 60,000 lives in Sichuan province.
Russia and China on Friday signed a US$ one billion deal under which Moscow would build a nuclear fuel enrichment plant and deliver uranium to Beijing as the two strategic partners condemned the United States for its proposed missile defence plans.
The death toll in the devastating earthquake in southwest China on Friday crossed 55,000 with nearly 25,000 people still missing, as Beijing, struggling to provide shelter to lakhs of survivors, braced for a new threat from the swelling 'quake lakes' in the already battered region. 'Quake lakes', which were formed after landslides and mudflows blocked rivers, continued to pose a threat to several villages in the temblor-battered areas.
Beijing's words of appreciation were conveyed to India's Ambassador Nirupama Rao by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during her visit to the Foreign Office to write in the condolence book opened for foreign diplomats on Monday as the country began a three-day national mourning in memory of the earthquake victims.
An IAF IL-76 plane carried the first consignment of tents, cutting machines, blankets, water purifiers, generators and other relief material to Chengdu, capital of worst-hit Sichuan Province on Saturday afternoon. The 36-tonne consignment, part of the $5 million humanitarian assistance pledged by India, was transfered to the affected areas immediately after its arrival, the Indian Embassy said in Beijing.
At least 500 bodies have been pulled out after the emergency workers reached Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck on Monday. The report from the official Xinhua News Agency did not say if the 7,700 believed dead in Yingxiu town of Wenchuan county were in addition to an already reported death toll of more than 12,000.
Thousands of Chinese troops and medical teams have been dispatched to the worst-affected Sichuan province. The Sichuan provincial seismological bureau said more than 1,180 aftershocks up to magnitude six on the Richter scale have been recorded as of 5 am (local time) on Tuesday.
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