A host of issues ranging from demand for President's rule in Uttar Pradesh over "deteriorating" law and order to the plight of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka rocked Parliament on Tuesday.
The arrested man is Charles Gnanakone.
Sajith Premadasa, the 55-year-old leader of Sri Lanka's principal opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya, said on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the race of President to provide support to Alahapperuma.
The apex court, while noting that the petitioner intends to go back to Sri Lanka as and when he is released, directed that he shall be shifted to an appropriate transit camp as may be decided by the state.
The United States on Friday asked Sri Lanka to speed up its probe into allegations of rights abuses during the civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, resume talks with Tamil parties on power sharing and reduce the role of the military in the former conflict zone.
Former India cricketers Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh are all set for new innings in their career as the duo will be making their acting debut in Tamil cinema.
With the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam out of its way, Sri Lanka on Thursday assured India that it will implement a law for devolving powers to Tamil-dominated areas, as both the countries agreed on the need for a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict. The assurance was contained in a joint statement issued after National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo.
Over 67 Tamil Tigers and three soldiers were killed in fierce clashes in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials said in Colombo on Thursday.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, during the discussions he had with the Sri Lankan leaders including President Mahinda Rajapaksa as part of his two-day visit to Colombo, welcomed the Island nation's commitment for a devolution package in the embattled north. Menon, who concluded his visit on Saturday, 'urged early movement towards a peacefully negotiated political settlement in the island, including in the north', an Indian High Commission release said on Sunday.
'There is no clarity in the government's offer,' the LTTE said. 'It does not specifically address the concerns raised by the Tigers.'
At least 34 Indian fishermen have been arrested and their boats seized by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the country's waters, authorities in Colombo said on Tuesday.
India is ready to release more funds to Sri Lanka for rehabilitation of the displaced Tamils in the country in addition to Rs 500 crore allocated earlier, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday.
Elsewhere, the guerrillas abducted 21 students and later freed them.
If India is to follow a smart cultural diplomacy, it has unmatched advantages over both China and Pakistan, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
According to a Pro-LTTE website, the rebels claimed they thwarted an attack from the Sri Lankan Armed Forces at Muhamalai in Jaffna peninsula on Saturday morning.
Claiming there were "condemnable, inappropriate and malicious contents" in the serial, Tamil Nadu IT Minister T Mano Thangaraj said the trailer released in social media was aimed at discrediting and distorting the historical struggle of the Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka.
With Tamil Nadu's Members of Parliament insisting that India make its stand clear on the United States-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka in United Nations Human Rights Commission, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said efforts are on to achieve a "forward-looking" outcome which would avoid "deepening confrontation and mistrust."
India on Tuesday assured that it will take all measures to ensure safety and security of Sri Lankans in the country, saying the Centre was in "close consultation" with the concerned state governments regarding this.
It may not be desirable in the 21st century, in the context of the emergence of human rights as a powerful emotive factor and of India's rise as an important player on the regional and global scene, to place self-imposed restrictions on the way we deem fit to vote on human rights resolutions, says Satish Chandra
The delegation said it was suspending its role until the president and prime minister resolved their differences.
Over 12 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and three soldiers injured in separate gun battles triggered by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam's attempts to breach the de facto front line in northern Sri Lanka, the military said in Colombo on Wednesday.
Talking tough, the United States on Friday told Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to immediately end the war in the island's north and cautioned Colombo that its unity and reconciliation could be at stake if it continued with its current endeavours to end the ethnic conflict 'militarily'. The White House said it was taking 'very seriously' the allegations of violations of international humanitarian law by both sides.
India captain Rohit Sharma was named the 'Men's International Cricketer of the Year', while former head coach Rahul Dravid was conferred with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' at the Ceat Cricket Rating Awards 2023-24 here on Wednesday.
MDMK chief Vaiko, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said Tamils in Tamil Nadu and all over the world were 'terribly' concerned about the safety, security and normal life of the Tamil population in the island.
A look at some of India's key performers in the Under-19 T20 World Cup.
'With butterflies in our stomachs, but confident of our mission, we took off for Jaffna on the morning of 24 July 1987.' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe recalls a conversation with Air Vice Marshal Harpal Singh Ahluwalia (retd), then a wing commander and mission leader for the clandestine operation.
Besides heavy traffic congestion, the intermittent heavy rains led to inundation in several parts of the city and neighbouring districts of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengelpet.
Sri Lankan authorities are verifying with police in Thailand reports about the arrest of top Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam leader Kumaran Padmanathan, who allegedly financed the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Seven persons accused of being involved in smuggling activities for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels and the Maoist movement have been detained under the National Security Act (NSA). While three of them were involved in smuggling activities for the LTTE, the others were part of the Maoist movement, a release said.
S M Krishna's praise for the Sri Lankan government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission will diminish our credibility as an honest broker in the eyes of the Sri Lankan Tamils who are becoming increasingly bitter towards India, feels Satish Chandra.
The meeting is being attended by United States, Japan, the European Union and Norway.
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.
The Karuna factor is 'one of the main obstacles' to a negotiated settlement between the Government and the LTTE at the peace talks scheduled in Geneva Saturday,
In the endlessly entertaining and absorbing soap opera that is India-Sri Lanka relations, wait for the next episode, Aditi Phadnis reports.
"The results of these elections really open the way for President Rajapaksa to take important action to unify the country and get it back on a path of growth. It's a particularly important opportunity now to make progress on these important issues of reconciliation, power-sharing and accountability," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told media persons.
'We should expect a cold-blooded, transactional relation that requires a lot of engagement and mutual trust to sustain,' says Constantino Xavier, Fellow, foreign policy, Brookings India.
Calling the Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra a "unique and historic" movement, Rajasthan Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said Rahul Gandhi's march is much bigger than Lord Rama's padyatra from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka claimed on Wednesday that an inquiry had found no truth in reports that military guards had traded sex for food in welfare camps set up for Tamil refugees during the final phase of the country's war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
In an interview, Sri Lankan Tamil writer Shobasakthi talks about his one-time leader Prabhakaran, the organisation, and how the Diaspora views the present situation.
