Australia will join the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, as other allies weighed similar moves to protest China's human rights record.
Zhang made the remarks in response to India's enhancement of its military readiness through the Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh, according to a report posted on the Chinese defence ministry's website on Friday.
Bangladesh's interim government on Sunday said it will seek Interpol's assistance in repatriating deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India, and other 'fugitives', to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity.
'I fear that India will need to remain vigilant so that the honour and dignity of the mothers, sisters and daughters of our Hindu brothers are not at stake. The entire country will have to stand with its minority Hindu brothers with full strength'
Recent attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh have ignited political debate in West Bengal, with the ruling TMC and opposition BJP utilizing the issue to advance their respective agendas. While the TMC emphasizes communal harmony and calls for international intervention, the BJP criticizes the TMC's inaction and links the situation to its push for the Citizenship Amendment Act. The issue has also brought other opposition parties into the fray, with all sides highlighting the interconnectedness of the region's socio-political fabric.
Australia is considering not sending any government officials to the Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing next year amid growing calls from lawmakers for an official diplomatic boycott, the Sydney Morning Herald said in a report on Thursday.
Iran's win over Wales and the U.S. team's goalless stalemate against England set up a tantalising final round of Group B matches.
Hossain said they will "always try to maintain good relations" with India.
Separately, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the rapidly unfolding situation in Bangladesh. It is learnt that Jaishankar also apprised Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on the developments.
'Are we to believe that coordinated moves by the Canadian and US authorities are no longer taking place?', asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The veteran diplomat said Hasina has stayed in India before after the assassination of her father and Bangladesh independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who later became the country's prime minister. Rahman was assassinated in August 1975.
In an escalating diplomatic row, India has asked the United States to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country, a move which may be a precursor to reviewing immunity and benefits enjoyed by them as a protest to the treatment meted out to India's deputy consul general in New York.
Pakistan summoned a senior US diplomat here and lodged a strong protest over America's alleged "interference" in its internal affairs, according to media reports on Friday.
The 'deliberate attack' on a Hindu temple in Canada sparked strong condemnation in India on Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the Canadian government to ensure justice and uphold the rule of law.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri arrived in Dhaka on Monday on a day-long visit to hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart, amid strained bilateral ties since August following the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
As Prabhakaran was leaving his house, Rajiv Gandhi called his son Rahul and asked him to fetch his (Gandhi's) bulletproof jacket. He put the jacket on Prabhakaran's back and remarked with his usual charming smile: "Take care of yourself."
India has been rejecting China renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country and assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.
'Our border guarding forces have also been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation.'
India on Monday summoned a senior diplomat of the Pakistan high commission and lodged a strong protest over the killing of an 'innocent' Indian fisherman by the Pakistani side, official sources said.
Many were hoping that with Vajpayee's NDA gone, there would be a return to the Congress normal. Nobody was prepared for the opposite. Sonia Gandhi was sceptical. This became the only issue over which Manmohan Singh took on his party bosses and risked his government. Politically, it was riskier than the 1991 reform, recalls Shekhar Gupta.
'He is convinced that this will help him in the next election.' 'But as we know, the best laid plans of mice and men can go awry.'
At least 30 suspects have been detained in Bangladesh's Chattogram city for their alleged involvement in the killing of a lawyer and attacking security personnel following the arrest of a prominent Hindu community leader. The violence erupted after Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, spokesperson for Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was denied bail and sent to jail in a sedition case. The lawyer, Assistant public prosecutor Saiful Islam, was killed during clashes between security personnel and Das' followers. The interim government has condemned the violence, urging people to remain calm and has ordered an investigation into the killing and appropriate legal measures.
Banerjee, referring to violence-hit Bangladesh, said she would keep the doors of West Bengal open for people in distress from the neighbouring country and offer them shelter.
It said the actions not only impact India-Canada relations but also encourage a climate of violence and criminality in Canada to the detriment of its own citizens.
Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has launched a scathing attack on the interim administration, accusing Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus of running a "fascist regime" that persecutes minorities and allows terrorists to operate freely. Hasina, who is currently in India, made the remarks in a virtual address to overseas Awami League supporters, vowing to bring Yunus and his allies to justice for alleged atrocities. Her comments come ahead of a visit by India's Foreign Secretary to Dhaka, where he is expected to raise concerns about the safety of minorities in Bangladesh.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog on Monday appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately halt his controversial judicial overhaul, warning that the move has put the country's security, economy and society under threat.
China's national health commission said 39,452 new cases were reported on Monday, including 36,304 local asymptomatic cases, as authorities scrambled to contain the fresh surge in infections.
As news of Hasina's departure spread, hundreds broke into Hasina's residence, vandalising and looting the interiors, providing dramatic expression to the anti-government protests that have killed more than 100 people in the last two days. At the centre of people anger is the Hasina government's controversial quota system reserving 30 per cent jobs for families of veterans who fought the 1971 liberation war. With volatile crowds taking to the streets -- some clambering on Hasina's father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's statue and smashing it with hammers in a lasting image underscoring the fickleness of history -- Army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman announced that the 76-year-old prime minister has resigned.
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.
The US is currently Earth's most powerful country and a certain latitude of understanding -- a world view -- is popularly expected from its leadership. From a country identified with freedom, constitution, debate, democracy and the likes of Abraham Lincoln even as it had the most powerful military around, the US, following Trump's actions, seemed repositioned as militarily powerful with other qualities secondary, observes Shyam G Menon.
A senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader has blamed an 'ecosystem of former diplomats, bureaucrats, politicians, and think tanks' for creating a 'bogeyman' to mislead the Indian establishment into believing that Indo-Bangla relations would deteriorate without the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League.
Even a whiff of an incident like the violent 1989 shirt-ripping attack on Krishnamachari Srikkanth by a Karachi spectator would be ruinous. It would set back the ties further, derail an ongoing tournament, and harden Indian attitudes on playing Pakistan anywhere at all, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, was speaking to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, just after India had abstained from a vote on the United Nations General Assembly resolution.
Ministry of External Affairs officials summoned the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena at its office in South Block in Delhi and lodged a strong protest against a US State Department official's remarks on Kejriwal's arrest.
'Everyone in Dhaka today is aware that that they need good relations, normal relations with India, but the question... but it's premature to think about that now, right now it is a crisis moment'
Donald Trump's exaggerated opinion of his dealmaking capacity can get him into trouble, observes R Sriram.
'We should be mindful that the religious minority community in one country is the majority in another (and) so treatment of the minority community in our respective countries will be an important variable in our relationship'
The National Security Strategy document should flag all major issues concerning security strategy and provide guidelines to concerned departments to work out suitable action plans. Since the global and regional geopolitical canvas is dynamic, the NSS document should be deliberated at length before formulation and should be reviewed periodically, recommends Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Gauri wasn't very happy about living the Bombay life. With no friends in the city, she wanted her husband's films to flop so they could go back home, to Delhi.
United States President Barack Obama ordered tighter security at American diplomatic posts around the world following the attack on the consulate in Libya that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Chris Stevens and the the embassy in Cairo. Security threats to US diplomatic missions overseas have always been a concern. Rediff.com takes a look at the dark history of American embassies and consulates abroad.
