With the curtains drawn on the Italian hostage crisis, a somewhat relieved Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday flew to Maoist-infested Koraput where 37-year-old tribal MLA Jhina Hikaka was being held captive by a separate Maoist group since March 24.
Gandhi urged the prime minister to speak out "clearly, boldly and forthrightly" on behalf of the legacy that India has long represented.
He was a storyteller who made me feel the pulse of history, the stakes of human ambition, and the thrill of a well-told tale. Prem Panicker recalls his debt to Frederick Forsyth, who passed away on Monday.
Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has affirmed that Gaza's annexation was part of a military strategy and troops will remain in the security zones created in Lebanon and Syria indefinitely, Al Jazeera reported.
'Trump is likely being purposefully vague, hoping that this lack of clarity will pressure India, fearing the worst, to agree to scale back its imports of Russian oil.'
Will Russia's entry deter Trump on his warpath?, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
An Infosys employee is among those being held hostage by an unidentified armed man who stormed a downtown cafe in Sydney, the IT major said on Monday.
The temporary truce aims to ease tensions during the religious holidays. Further details on its implementation are yet to be disclosed.
Accusing the Odisha government of failing to fulfill promises made during recent hostage crisis, top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda on Sunday said rebels may turn violent if the administration resorted to suppression.
The two abducted Italians are safe and unharmed, the Odisha government claimed on Tuesday, a day after the Maoists named three negotiators to hold talks with the authorities on the six-day-long hostage crisis.
Gallant, who was a longtime rival from within the Likud Party, will be replaced by Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa'ar will replace Katz, as per Times of Israel.
'They try and extend the hostage situation as long as they can to remain in the national headlines.'
All You Want To Know About The 1999 Hijack.
Carter was in politics, but not a politician, certainly not a transactional politician, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
'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'
In his opening remarks at the virtual summit of Leaders of G20 countries, Modi made it clear that terrorism was "unacceptable" to everyone and the death of civilians, anywhere, was condemnable.
In days of smart, networked technology and no shame over collateral damage, what will blow up next -- cars, mobile phones, TV sets, refrigerators? And where?, asks Shyam G Menon.
'Netanyahu lured Trump into a trap by enticing him with a seductive scenario of massive lucrative business in Gaza's reconstruction.' 'Trump's imagination is running riot, completely disconnected from ground realities,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A gunman took 180 passengers on board a plane hostage at a Jamaican airport late on Sunday evening, but released all its passengers unharmed later, according to a CNN report.However, five crew members of the Canadian plane were still being held as hostages, airline officials said.A spokeswoman for the airport told CNN that the hostage crisis took place while a CanJet flight was taking off from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay to Halifax, Canada.
As the hostage crisis involving abducted Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon entered the eighth day on Saturday, mediators from the rebel side left for Tadmetla forests apparently to brief Maoists on talks they had with the Chhattisgarh government on their demands for releasing the IAS officer. N Baijendra Kumar, principal secretary to Chief Minister Raman Singh, told PTI that the mediators, who have held two rounds of talks with the government-appointed interlocutors.
Maoists on Monday unconditionally released the three abducted Bihar policemen in Lakhisarai district, bringing an end to the nine-day-old hostage crisis.
Maoists on Sunday morning released the three policemen they had abducted a week ago. The release of the policemen was confirmed by Rajni Devi, wife of Abhay Kumar Yadav, one of the abducted cops.Rajni Devi told rediff.com over the telephone that a Maoist leader visited her house on Sunday morning and informed her that her husband and his two colleagues had been freed."He assured me that my husband will reach home as he was released along with the other policemen," she said.
On August 1, Sheikh Hisham Al-Dulaimi had announced that he was pulling out of the negotiations because he could not arrive at any agreement with KGL. He represents the abductors.
Kamboj said the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to a large-scale loss of civilian lives, especially women and children.
Dulat, however, pointedly said engagement with Pakistan has always been "influenced by domestic politics".
The leaders also noted the "negative impacts" of the war in Ukraine with regard to global food and energy security, especially for developing and least-developed countries.
Even as France mourns the bloodiest terrorist attack for 20 years, let's take a look at some major standoffs witnessed in the past:
Talks between Maoist-handpicked mediators and those of the Chhattisgarh government commenced on Thursday to end the hostage crisis involving Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon who was abducted on Saturday, official sources said.
With the Maoists dropping the name of a hardcore ultra from the list of their 30 jailed associates and extending the deadline, the Odisha government on Monday expressed hope that Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikaka could be released on April 18.
Odisha government, grappling with the hostage crisis, on Tuesday said some demands made by Maoists like halt to combing operations, have been conceded as prospects of the release of the lone Italian national seemed to have brightened.
A top Maoist leader on Sunday said they would release Paolo Bosusco, the other Italian national still held captive by them, only after they feel that the Odisha government was serious about their demands.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi called his counterpart S M Krishna who assured that the Odisha government was taking all steps to secure early release of two Italians kidnapped by Maoists in the state.
Uncertainty prevailed over the fate of abducted Malkangiri District Collector R V Krishna following fresh demands made by Maoists, which were not acceptable, according to the Naxal-appointed mediators.The hostage crisis got complicated on Wednesday night after Maoists demanded that five other key activists should be freed immediately, apart from top leader Ganti Prasadam. Krishna was abducted by the left-wing ultras on February 16.
After 12 days in captivity, Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon was on Thursday released unharmed by Maoists bringing to an end the hostage crisis in Chattisgarh marked by some anxious moments just before he stepped out of the rebel stronghold.
A day after Maoists' mediators announced that abducted Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon will be released within 48 hours, the Chhattisgarh government said it was hopeful that the ten-day hostage crisis will come to an end today and the IAS officer would be freed by Wednesday. The breakthrough to ensure the safe return of the 32-year-old collector, who was abducted on April 21, came in the form of an agreement between the two mediators of the Chattisgarh government.
