The aftermath of Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan has led to an argument that there was no religion as Hinduism in Chola times.
Instead, there was only Saivism, Vaishnavism, etc, and that the Cholas were Saivites, and hence not Hindus, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Indian and Chinese troops remained engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in several disputed areas.
China has been using Pakistan to counter India by arming it with nuclear weapons, missiles and conventional weapons, says K Subrahmanyam
The army rescue teams have been operating throughout the night along with the teams from civil defence, police and the NDRF, trying to remove the debris from the affected area.
'No aeroplane in the world has been designed to switch off its engines above 14,500 feet.' 'Thanks to a lot of practice, we were able to execute a flawless landing at DBO at 0900 hours on 31st May, creating history.'
Fear and uncertainty have returned to haunt the residents in areas along the Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir, where heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan Rangers has triggered migration.
A top Lashkar-e-Taiyba commander was among the three militants killed in two ongoing fierce encounters in the Zachaldara forest area of northern Kashmir's Kupwara district, according to a police spokesman.He said the Army and the police surrounded the forest areas of Bahnipora and Satkoji in the Kupwara district on Tuesday afternoon.
For the first time in the last 26 years, a shutter of the Cheruthoni Dam was opened on Thursday.
'It is the impression in Kashmir that if ever a realistic resolution of the problem/dispute is sought to be seriously attempted by New Delhi, the BJP is the best bet,' says Mohammed Sayeed Malik, the distinguished observer on Kashmir.
At any time, there is a need to operationally deploy two aircraft carriers in the vast Indian Ocean, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
'If one puts the context of what Xi Jinping said at the UN about not wanting a 'hot or cold war with any country', one realises that his speech was quite bizarre.' 'The world does not expect such statements from China, a nation aspiring to be a superpower.
As per the agreement reached by the two sides, India and China will withdraw the forward deployment in a phased and coordinated manner, the defence minister said.
In a boost to relief efforts in the flood-ravaged Kashmir Valley, the Jammu-Sringar National Highway on Tuesday reopened for traffic after remaining closed for 13 days due to landslides triggered by incessant rains.
Tawang wears its history -- and also its present -- with ease. The flourishing town, with restaurants selling everything from noodles to dosas and locals returning home to new business prospects, shows little sign of the tension building up at the border about 40 km away to the north.
The shelling from across the border started in Nowshera sector around 12.30 pm, ending over 12-hour-long lull in the border skirmishes which intensified after India's pre-emptive strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror camps at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan on Tuesday.
'We will not accept these misadventures by the Chinese.'
There is no let-up on Pakistan's part to send terrorists from across the border and 600-800 terrorists were waiting to infiltrate, a top army officer has said.
'India is not going to accept whatever the Chinese say. That is not going to happen.'
The Defence Ministry on Saturday said it would probe allegations of the Army spending Rs 1.17 crore on golf carts from special funds. Referring to the Comptroller and Auditor General slamming chiefs of the Army's Northern and Western Commands for alleged misuse of special financial powers during April 2002 and August 2007, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju said that "irregularities, if any, will be addressed."
Karachi is considered the safest place by the Taliban to hide in Pakistan. According to a Newsweek report, the Taliban is hardly worried by US' plans to send in more troops to Afghanistan, and believes that as far as they do not foment terror, they can live safely in the city.
Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was the eastern commander of the LTTE before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, and Daya Master, who surrendered to the army recently, were taken by the government to Puthumatalan to identify Prabhakaran's bullet-ridden body. "The body is of Prabhakaran's, there is no doubt about this," said Karuna, now a federal minister
Velupillai Prabhakaran met with a violent death as he ignored pleas to shun violence and join the mainstream, by rejecting recent overtures from the Sri Lankan government for a peaceful settlement, a former close confidant of the slain LTTE chief said. "The body is of Prabhakaran's... there is no doubt about this... Though I am bit saddened that he is no more but the fact is he never listened to anyone," Karuna said.
President Maithripala Sirisena's new Cabinet was also sworn in and Rajapaksa was named the new minister of finance and economic affairs.
Fresh from their success in capturing the last urban stronghold of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Mullaittivu, the Sri Lankan troops are training their guns on elusive Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran who, defence officials feel, is very much in the northern Wanni region, which comprises of Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu.
Army, paramilitary and police forces continue going into harm's way with outdated bulletproof jackets (BPJs), and helmets designed for motorcycle riding, not for the impact of a nine-millimetre bullet.
The first priority for the new Tibetan administration in Dharamsala should be to look at Tibetan recruitment in the PLA, suggests Claude Arpi.
Militants attacked an outdoor market on Sunday in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
'We must be careful because China has not given its design in Eastern Ladakh.'
We do not know, because there has been no discussion, no transparency and most likely no real thinking on this matter at our end, observes Aakar Patel.
The US intends first to cripple the Afghan government financially through sanctions, freezing of assets, denial of access to international banking, etc, and then proceed to do pretty much what it wants to do with scant regard for Afghanistan's sovereignty, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
When China protested strongly over the August decision on J&K -- not once but twice -- we ignored it. And to compound matters, we simply turned our back and walked over to the 'Quad' alliance with the US, upgrading it to ministerial level, and thereafter began following the American footfalls on Taiwan and COVID-19 to taunt and humiliate Beijing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
This test fire is the second time in less than a month and followed the sixth and most powerful nuclear test by North Korea to date on September 3.
At least 52 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres and five soldiers were killed as heavy fighting raged today for control of the key Northern Sri Lankan city of Killinochchi, with government forces pressing fighter aircraft to pound Tiger bunkers on the outskirts
The defence minister conducted an aerial survey of northern glacier Siachen and interacted with troops at the base camp.
What we have in the Congress is a useful glue to hold a non-cultural, unified Opposition together. That is the sacrifice the Congress must be willing to live with if showing the BJP the door is what the collective Opposition wants, observes Shyam G Menon.
'Any conventional conflict could trigger a nuclear war with results that neither India nor Pakistan could survive easily.' >A revealing excerpt from Shuja Nawaz's The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship And A Tough Neighbourhood.
UltraTech currently has 19% market share with Shree Cement commanding 22% of the market
'The Chinese -- up to the highest leadership -- will avoid a conflict because they know they will be badly licked.' 'The reputation they have painstakingly built over the last two-three decades of being a global power will be destroyed.'
The French armed forces conducted second air raid against Daesh (IS) in Raqqa in 24 hours.
