Unless the Taliban goofs up in a big way, which seems highly unlikely, we are looking at a regime that will be around for quite a long while and present a level of governance that the puppets of the richest and most advanced countries failed to provide, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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.
With the two armies again in a face-off at multiple points, there is apprehension of renewed clashes.
In a significant move coinciding with the visit of a top United States official probing war crimes, the American embassy in Colombo on Thursday posted pictures of places where civilians had died allegedly during Sri Lanka's final war against rebel Tamil Tigers four years ago.
The terrorists now knew that I was the only one in the room, that I was injured and that I could not continue this battle for long.
Unlike Wagah, where India and Pakistan mount an elaborate daily drama of military ritual watched by tourists on both sides, the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea is barren and desolate, a terrain bristling with hostility, discovers Nikhil Lakshman.
Xi Jinping is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
India has experienced hands and will emerge with flying colours, declares Inspector General Gurdip Singh Uban (retd).
The historic peace talks are aimed at ending their decades-long conflict and come weeks before Kim is due to meet United States President Donald Trump.
'Captain Vikram Batra, PVC and his unit 13 Jak Rif did stand out because of the sheer magnitude of the task allotted to them but also the exceptional professionalism with which it was executed and completed,' recalls Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Klitschko and his brother Vitali, also a former world heavyweight champion and now the mayor of Kyiv, have both taken up arms against invading Russian forces.
Unless India agrees to open its military facilities to nuclear inspectors, sale of uranium by Australia to that country will be a breach of the federal government's obligations under the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. "Australia would be in breach of the so-called Rarotonga Treaty, if India does not change its stand," Donald Rothwell of Australian National University said. The Rarotonga Treaty bans uranium sales to most countries.
South Korea proposed that athletes from the two Koreas march together at the Games' opening ceremony and other joint activities between the two nations during the Winter Olympics.
Chances are any such disruption will not occur on the major shipping lanes but on some edge of the ocean between India and China. Even if there is no actual disruption, the costs of averting one can be punitive. The setting for this is provided by the energy shortage both countries face, says Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
MH-60 Romeo Seahawks would add lethal capabilities of the Indian Navy, which experts say is the need of the hour given the aggressive behavior of China in the Indian Ocean region.
'China's moves are of direct significance to India, which will closely monitor Chinese naval activity in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean not least because of Chinese maps depicting claims over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.'
Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta will move to Pentagon to become new US Defence Secretary to replace Robert Gates while his top military commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus is to takeover as the new CIA Director.
The United States was in direct contact with members of the Sunni insurgency, including former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, says Time magazine.
With security arrangements around the PCA stadium in Mohali, ahead of the much-awaited India-Pakistan World Cup semi-final, the place resembles a military outpost.
With BRIC nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, calling for ceasefire in Libya, a top Pentagon official on Wednesday said that the onus for this lies with the Gaddafi forces, which needs to pull back its troops from cities and stop attacking civilians.
More than 110 Tomahawk missiles from US and British ships and submarines hit about 20 Libyan air and missile defense targets, Vice Admiral William Gortney, director of the joint staff, told reporters at Pentagon
'If the Russian forces do capture Kyiv and set up some sort of provisional government, they might run into an insurgency, for which the geography is just right, it could prove costly for them.' 'In that event, the whole exercise could turn out to be counter-productive -- and costly in both foreign policy and domestic terms.'
As the United States withdraws its forces from neighbouring Afghanistan, the Obama administration has armed Pakistan with 14 combat aircraft, 59 military trainer jets and 374 armoured personnel carriers, an internal Congressional report has said.
'This letter is not a complaint, it's more indignation, because we do not like being used as political tools by people of various parties.'
Why omit the Tiananmen massacre from the history of China's Communist party, asks Claude Arpi.
Gunbattles broke out between the Thailand military and protesters inside the Red Shirts rally base in central Bangkok on Wednesday morning.
Rogue military leader and Red Shirt supporter Gen Khattiya Sawasdiphol, also known as 'Seh Daeng,' was pronounced dead on Monday.
The highly-anticipated summit, which began early Tuesday, is the third engagement between Xi, 68, and Biden, 78, since February.
An international tribunal in the Hague has ruled in favour of the Philippines.
After a series of counter-attacks by troops of Muammar Gaddafi, the outgunned and loosely organised rebels were on Sunday pushed out of the eastern oil town of Brega, as the Arab League supported a 'no-fly' zone to halt the advance of the Libyan military to the opposition stronghold of Benghazi. The army loyal to Gaddafi has cleared 'armed gangs' from Brega, the Libyan state TV was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera channel. "Brega has been cleansed of armed gangs," it said.
The SpyLite aerial system will help our soldiers in border flashpoints like Doklam and in encounters with terrorists in Kashmir.
South Korea Defense Ministry spokesman Kwon Ki-joon, said that "several projectiles" flew about 1,000 kilometers.
The decision was taken after its staff found that parts of the fence on the Iraq-Kuwait border had been breached.
The Obama administration continues to be gravely concerned over the plight of Tamil civilians caught up in the crossfire between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan security forces but has no plans to launch a massive military evacuation by the US Pacific Command till there is a halt in the hostilities in the conflict zone, senior administration officials revealed.
Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of US forces in the Pacific, told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level defence forum in Singapore, that PLA navy had started "reciprocating" US navy's tactics of sending ships and aircraft into the 200-nautical-mile zone off China's coast.
'We have unleashed a nastiness and viciousness in ourselves that had been bottled up before.' 'This government has helped uncork it, possible forever, and to my mind that is its most significant achievement.'
The political wing leader of the LTTE women's force, who crossed into the government-held areas from the no-fire zone in northern Sri Lanka in the guise of a civilian, was arrested from a refugee camp. Subramaniam Shivathai alias Thamilini, who came to the refugee camp with other civilians from Mullaitivu, during the last phase of the military operation was arrested at a welfare village in Vavuniya, a media report said.
According to media reports, the US has about 2,800 military dogs, the largest canine force in the world.
Elusive Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony are believed to be hiding in deep bunkers in the rebel-held Pudukudiyyirippu area and come out occasionally to tell the civilians not to leave their homes.
However, Denmark said it is difficult to conclude on the real intention behind this.
