Sri Lanka offered virtual amnesty to Tamil Tigers who surrender to troops on Thursday, but rejected an appeal by US-led donors to declare a 'no-fire' period and initiate a political dialogue with the beleaguered rebels.
A new book by former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi claims that former chief election commissioner T N Seshan proposed an immediate halt to the general election process after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991 and even offered to become home minister. Gandhi, who was joint secretary to then president R Venkatraman, writes that Seshan was the one who broke the news of the assassination to the president and arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhawan "super-fast" that night. According to Gandhi's account, Seshan told Venkatraman that he felt the election process needed to be stopped and that he was ready to take on the role of home minister if necessary. However, Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra assured the president that the situation was under control and that there was no need to pause the election process. Seshan's suggestions were ultimately ignored, but he did manage to postpone the second and third phases of polling.
On the night of July 5, the Tigers launched their first kamikaze operation. Miller took the wheels of the explosive-packed truck, smiled at everyone as he turned the ignition key and drove it slowly towards the Sri Lankan military camp. A few moments later all of Jaffna heard a thunderous explosion that brought the complex crashing down in clouds of dust. Miller had given birth to a deadly tactic that Prabhakaran would employ time and again with devastating consequences to Sri Lanka -- and India. A fascinating excerpt from M R Narayan Swamy's must read new book, The Rout Of Prabhakaran.
Bhai returns to the big screen after 18 months.
Naval gunboats intercepted the Tiger boats leading to the battle, which lasted for six hours, it said.
The defence ministry said the students carried the grenade, which exploded accidentally and caused their deaths.\n
Karuna Amman, a former lieutenant of slain Liberation Tiges of Tamil Eelam chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and now a federal minister favours tapping of moderates among the Tamil Tigers who are "sincerely interested" in a just and peaceful solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.
The latest fighting came a day after heavy clashes in the east of the island where 20 people were killed.
Gonzalo Peillat scored a brace as Hyderabad Toofans ended Tamil Nadu Dragons unbeaten run with a 4-0 win in the men's Hockey India League in Ranchi on Saturday.
As many as five major films released last Friday, and four among these had a south connection.
The security forces captured and destroyed the four bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the jungles of Thoppigala in Batticaloa district during an offensive late Friday night and early Saturday.
The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday allowed nearly 1.30 lakh Tamil civilians housed in refugees camps in northern part of the island country to visit their relatives, as authorities lifted restrictions on their movement.
Targeting the 'support network' of the Tamil Tigers, the United States on Wednesday designated a US-based charity group as a 'front' of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and ordered freezing of its assets. The Tamil Foundation has been designated under 'Executive Order 13224', which "targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism," the US Department of Treasury said in a press statement.
Air Force spokesman, Group Captain Ajantha Silva confirmed that the air force had bombed some targets in the LTTE-held areas in the Eastern province, but refused to divulge what they were.
"A member of the LTTE is monitored from the moment he lands on Indian soil and is unaware that he is being tracked by the police. We allow him to wander for a while before catching him red-handed with the material as well as his contacts."
Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers will play the Tamil Nadu Dragons in the first semi-final of the HIL on Friday, while JSW Soorma Hockey Club will take o Hyderabad Toofans in the second semi-final.
The navy engaged a flotilla of Tamil Tiger boats off the island's northeast and sank one boat, killing 15 rebels.
Over five Sri Lankan Air Force personnel were killed and two MI-24 helicopters damaged in a pre-dawn attack by Tamil Tiger rebels on an air base at the North-Central Anuradhapura district in Sri Lanka, the military said. ''First a group of LTTE cadres infiltrated the Anuradhapura SLAF Base and launched the initial attack around 3.20 am. Later, at least two LTTE light aircrafts carried out an air attack on the base, destroying two MI-24 helicopters,'' military spokesman said.
With a 50 per cent increase in the last four years, Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number (785) of tigers in the country, followed by Karnataka (563), Uttarakhand (560), and Maharashtra (444), according to the data.
The army attributed the killings to factional fighting within the LTTE.
'The war ended in 2009 and I believe the new generation of Tamils don't know what was going on there.' 'I felt it was my duty to tell our story.' 'Since 2009, it seems like we are sleeping.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he will hand over his social media accounts to women achievers from different walks of life to mark International Women's Day on March 8. In his monthly "Mann Ki Baat" address, Modi said these successful women will talk about their work and experience on his social media accounts. He also renewed his appeal to people to take measures to deal with the growing problem of obesity and encouraged people to visit research laboratories or planetariums to mark National Science Day on February 28. Modi highlighted India's progress in space science and artificial intelligence, and emphasized the importance of celebrating and respecting the indomitable spirit of women. He also spoke about the diversity of India's wildlife and the importance of conservation efforts.
The latest clash came as the Red Cross pulled its staff away from frontlines dividing Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tigers elsewhere in the island's north amid an escalation of fighting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on a 'safari' at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka on Sunday, as part of programmes to mark 50 years of 'Project Tiger'.
The Times accessed confidential United Nations documents that record nearly 7000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up till the end of April. UN sources told the paper that the toll surged from this point onwards, and an average of 1000 civilians were killed each day till May 19, the day after the LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran himself was killed by the armed forces
Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi offered to host the talks after the government said it was no longer insisting negotiations must be held within the island
As many as 18 soldiers were killed in Puloly in two similar attacks early in December.
Sri Lanka's National People's Power of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Friday swept the parliamentary elections by winning a two-thirds majority, and also dominating the Jaffna electoral district -- the heartland of the nation's Tamil minority.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Saturday witnessed the conditions of tens of thousands of displaced Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka as he appealed to a triumphant government to 'heal the wounds' left by three decades of ethnic conflict. The Secretary General visited the camps in Vavuniya district today, where more than 300,000 people are staying, after escaping from the battle lines between government forces and Tamil Tigers.
Sri Lanka has asked the Nordic truce monitors not to accede to the rebels' 'unreasonable' demand to remove members in the peace mission who belong to states of European Union, which had outlawed LTTE as a terror organisation.
Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Trudeau's statements, asserting that they contained outrageous claims of genocide relating to past conflicts in the country.
India defenders Harmanpreet Singh and Udita stole the show as they emerged as the most costliest players in the auction of Hockey India League.
The Sri Lankan forces fast closing in on LTTE last bastion in island nation's north have captured one of the command bunkers used by elusive Tamil Tiger supreme Velupillai Prabhakaran in thick forests of Dharmapuram town in Mullaittivu.
A former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam child soldier-turned-politician was acquitted by a court in Sri Lanka on Wednesday in the 2005 murder case of a senior ethnic Tamil lawmaker at the height of the country's bloody civil war.
A United Nations human rights expert has claimed that gruesome footage from the final days of Sri Lanka's civil war is authentic and proves war crimes took place there.
India's tactical and operational response demonstrated its ability to prosecute tri-service operations, even without a formal tri-service doctrine or the higher command structure needed to coordinate it, points out Ajai Shukla.
'It would have made (Producer) Ramesh Taurani very happy if I taken two Bombay stars, but the reason why I kept mentally rejecting the regular sort of casting was to discover this excitement, you know, can I crack it?'
India has lost 1,059 tigers since 2012 with Madhya Pradesh, which is known as the 'tiger state' of the country, recording the highest number of deaths of striped felines.
Asking Sri Lanka to end the indefinite detention of 11,000 people for suspected links with the Tamil Tigers, a global human rights body on Tuesday said the lack of transparency on the issue raises concerns about possible torture of those in custody.
Journalist and author Chitra Subramaniam has demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) make public its findings from the "box of evidence" received from Switzerland regarding the Bofors payoffs. Subramaniam, author of 'Boforsgate: A Journalist's Pursuit of Truth', expressed concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the evidence, questioning who opened the box, when it was opened, and what it contained. She also raised doubts about the official narrative regarding the alleged bribe in the Bofors case, suggesting the sum of Rs 64 crore may not reflect the full extent of the corruption. Subramaniam also alleged that the CBI planted stories about Hindi film actor Amitabh Bachchan to derail the investigation and launched a political vendetta against the Bachchans. She recalled that Bachchan had come to her home and asked if she had seen his name. The CBI has recently requested assistance from the United States in the case, seeking information from private investigator Michael Hershman, who claims to have crucial details about the scandal. The Bofors scandal, a major bribery case involving the Indian government and the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors in the 1980s, pertains to allegations of a Rs 64-crore bribe in a Rs 1,437-crore deal for the supply of 400 155mm field Howitzers.
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