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Jubilation gave way to despair at Vellore Jail after the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the release of convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
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.
Rahul Gandhi is neither Congress president, office-bearer nor Congress leader in Parliament. This technical leeway provides adequate cover for Shiv Sena-Congress ties taking a nosedive, says Rasheed Kidwai.
DMK General Secretary's sought removal of the PP alleging he has not been impartial.
The UNHRC agreed to defer the report on Sri Lanka's alleged human rights violations.
Maithripala Sirisena, who scored a stunning victory, was on Friday sworn-in as Sri Lankan president, bringing the curtains down on the 10-year rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa, marking a smooth transition of power.
Maithripala Sirisena, the Sri Lankan president-elect, will be sworn-in on Friday evening following his stunning victory in the tightest-ever presidential race that ended the 10-year-rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Polls opened at 7 am local time and would close at 5 pm with some 12,845 polling stations being set up throughout the country for 15.9 million voters, who will choose a successor to President Maithripala Sirisina.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has accused Sri Lanka of sabotaging a UN-mandated probe into the country's nearly three decades-long brutal civil war, drawing a sharp reaction from Colombo as it dismissed the charges.
Gill was suffering from end-stage kidney failure and significant ischemic heart disease. He was recovering from peritonitis.
Sri Lanka, under global pressure over its human rights record, on Thursday launched a six-month census to count the number of casualties during the final phase of the brutal civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009.
The governor's comments drew sharp reaction from former chief minister and senior Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who said Malik should check his own reputation in Delhi.
The film has run into trouble with pro-Tamil outfits.
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Like General Patton, possibly the greatest exponent of the art of war, Vajpayee had the ability to be always on the offensive,' assesses Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'For the Tamil Nadu protestors to openly ask popular film actor Vijay Sethupathi not to don Murali in 800 is a travesty in every sense. It may have given them a cause to tell the world, and the governments in New Delhi, Colombo and Chennai, that the Sri Lankan ethnic issue was still alive in the state -- more so, during the current run-up to two major events in the first half of 2021,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Centre on Thursday expressed its unhappiness over reported Sri Lankan plans to dilute key provisions of the 13th Amendment to its Constitution and termed the island nations's move as "unacceptable".
Nalini had submitted that she had spent 25 years in jail though the legal requirement was only 20 years to be eligible for early release.
The actor said he took the decision after founders of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Vaiko and Thol Thirumavalavan respectively, and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi leader T Velmurugan asked him to consider withdrawing from the programme.
The Supreme Court on Thursday extended the bail of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case by four months and asked the Chief Justice of Karnataka high court to constitute a special bench to decide her plea expeditiously within three months.
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya questioned the president's decision to suspend parliament till November 16, saying it will have "serious and undesirable" consequences on the country.
Skeletal remains of 80 bodies have been dug out of a mass grave in a former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stronghold in Sri Lanka, fuelling speculation that the bodies are of Tamil civilians who disappeared during the war with the rebels.
Sasikala may be set to take over the reins of Tamil Nadu, yet she faces a period of immense turbulence.
Forty suspects, including the driver of a van allegedly used by the suicide bombers, have been arrested in connection with the attacks which shook Sri Lanka.
-- Seven suicide bombers believed to be members of an Islamist extremist group carried out the series of explosions. -- Police have so far arrested 24 people - mostly members of an Islamist extremist group - in connection with the blasts
Maithripala Sirisena, Sri Lanka's president-elect, was a low-profile cabinet colleague of longtime president Mahinda Rajapaksa until he switched sides to become joint opposition candidate and emerge as the proverbial dark horse in the presidential polls.
He was seen as one of former PM Rao's trusted aides and advisers.
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday made a historic visit to Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north and met newly-elected Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran and members of the Tamil community who narrated "harrowing" stories to him about alleged rights violations.
'Collateral damage during operations needs to be avoided.' 'Such an objective can be achieved more easily should stone throwers not gear up to en masse oppose security forces.' 'With the conditions being quite sensitive at this stage, the death of one of these boys could easily serve the terrorists in instigating violence,' notes Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Brushing aside opposition from the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and other parties in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa but did not give him any assurance on which way India will vote on a the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution for an independent international probe into rights abuses during the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
An internal communication of the home ministry states that the Naxal movement is fast spreading to the southern states, and if immediate action is not taken it could blow up into a full-fledged menace, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Sandhya Ravishankar describes the thorny relationship between the two political titans of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, both now part of the ages.
Pakistan's external spy agency is trying to push its South Indian agenda
With the arrest of another Sri Lankan national for alleged spying for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, central security agencies have stepped up surveillance of vital installations including defence and foreign consulates in southern parts of the country.
'They were the leaders of my country and the children of Mother India, but they didn't die as martyrs.' 'They were killed, most unfortunately, by a well planned enemy plot, and they were victims of political violence,' states Sudhir Bisht.
US hands over evidence linking Pak national in consulate terror conspiracy
Seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.
At a crowded beachfront mass, Pope Francis canonised Sri Lanka's first saint on Wednesday.
Fishermen staged a unique protest on Friday at the Rameswaram jetty demanding that their boats be returned by the Sri Lankan authorities.
Authorities also released photographs of six suspects, including three women, wanted for their involvement in the attacks and sought information regarding them from the public.
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