With Pakistan's possible suspension from the grouping expected to dominate the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Delhi on Thursday for Kampala where hot issues like climate change, human rights and terrorism will also be on the agenda.
Amid the political controversy over India's participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet in Sri Lanka, the Congress top brass on Friday met to take a call on whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should attend the event.
For many years now, India has given the Commonwealth short shrift so its support for the Commonwealth trade initiative signals a renewed interest in the body.
With some countries like Britain and Canada seeking to bring alleged human rights violations in the Sri Lankan civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam under the scanner during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting summit, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday asked member nations not to turn the Commonwealth into a "punitive and judgmental" body and desist from introducing bilateral agendas.
In a major relief for travellers from Asia and Africa, the UK has scrapped its controversial 3,000-pound "security bond" for some "high-risk" foreign visitors, including those from India.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday expressed satisfaction over External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit.
In the UK, he will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
The hotel has currently turned into a high security zone with guests living there moved out to other facilities of the Taj group.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is open to meeting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and said he will do so in time while his government goes ahead with steps to engage with him and his government.
The aim of the scheme was to reduce the number of people from some "high risk" countries - including India, Pakistan, and Nigeria - staying in the UK once their short-term visa had expired.
Swedish Prime Minister Lofven lauded India as 'global power' and said the two countries are a 'perfect match'.
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday made a historic visit to Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north and met newly-elected Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran and members of the Tamil community who narrated "harrowing" stories to him about alleged rights violations.
In the 2009 election, P Chindambaram the Sivaganga seat by a narrow margin. Then the Congress was in alliance with the ruling DMK. This time his son Karti is battling the seat with the alliance. India abstention at the UNHRC on an anti-Lanka resolution will further fuel Tamil anger against the Congress party. This leaves the finance minster sulking and his son facing an uphill political debut, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sushma Swaraj's suave moves helped Narendra Modi pull off a diplomatic coup, helping regain her standing.
Human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated in the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam haunted Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the CHOGM summit with UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday giving the island country an ultimatum to conduct a credible probe into the war crimes by March, failing which he would seek an international investigation.
'His negotiations with Idi Amin and his men for compensation for the Indians, who left Uganda, were particularly tough. Apparently, Amin warned him that the body of the British negotiator, who came earlier, was found in a roadside gutter... As Jagat Mehta's special assistant during the last two years of his tenure as foreign secretary, I saw for myself how his conviction, courage and patriotism enabled him to fight against heavy odds, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
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