Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's tightrope walk with the Naxals continues. Just days after announcing programmes and reforms in the Jangalmahal area to wean people away from the ultras - she has set the stage for talks with Naxals by announcing the release of two top Naxal leaders - Chandi Sarkar and Pradip Chatterjee. The government has also decided to release 50 other political prisoners. Mamata Banerje said,...
09:42 AM, Jul 21, 2011
Lahore: Former premier Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks that Pakistan should 'leave Kashmir alone' could harm peace talks between the two countries. "This is not a political statement. Such statements complicate matters. The Indian Prime Minister should not have made such a statement and there was no need for it," Sharif, the chief of the main opposition PML-N, said during an interaction with reporters....
07:13 PM, Jul 02, 2011
Islamabad: India and Pakistan begin peace talks on Thursday, an important safety valve between two nuclear-armed countries which the United States hopes will help stabilise the region as it prepares to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. But after many false starts, hopes were being kept deliberately low for the two days of talks between Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart, Salman Bashir. "We have realistic expectations," an Indian...
01:38 PM, Jun 22, 2011
Washington: The United States has said it has not diluted its stand on peace talks with the Taliban, even as it has established 'preliminary contacts' with the terror outfit. "Those are firm redlines because without renouncing violence, without accepting the Afghan constitution, and without cutting their ties with al-Qaeda, these Taliban extremists have not rot really renounced extremism. Those are the basics for reconciliation," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said....
09:06 AM, Jun 21, 2011
Yangon: For the first time in nearly a decade, Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi celebrated her birthday in freedom on Sunday, with supporters freeing symbolic caged birds as more than 50 state security agents watched from across the street. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate turned 66, and received one gift at Yangon's international airport - the arrival of her youngest son, Kim Aris, who lives in Britain and...
09:06 AM, Jun 20, 2011
Guwahati: Archbishop of Guwahati Thomas Menamparampil has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his initiatives to bring peace among ethnic communities of the North East. The Archbishop's name has been nominated by a popular Italian magazine 'Il Bollettino Salesiano' which also published a four-page story on Menamparampil in its June edition titled 'A Bishop for Nobel Prize'. "I had not expected the nomination, but was overwhelmed...
01:29 PM, Jun 13, 2011
Defence Secretaries of India and Pakistan meet for talks on the Siachen Glacier after a gap of three years.
10:56 AM, May 30, 2011
![Shiv Visvanathan]( "Shiv Visvanathan")
His Holiness the Dalai Lama once commented on George Bush by saying, "He brings out the Muslim in me." Put with all the delicacy and ...
06:31 PM, May 20, 2011
Melbourne: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's Gold Medal for "exceptional courage in the pursuit of human rights". According to a Foundation statement on Wednesday, veteran Australian broadcaster Mary Kostakidis praised WikLeaks as an "ingenious and heroic website that has shifted the power balance between citizen and the state by exposing what governments really get up to in out name". Acknowledging that "exposing secrets can...
12:39 PM, May 11, 2011
United Nations: Four UN peacekeepers have been shot and wounded in southern Sudan while on patrol close to the disputed town of Abyei. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the Zambian peacekeepers were evacuated for immediate medical treatment after Tuesday's shooting and their condition was not immediately known. He said the identity of the attackers has not been determined. The patrol was heading from Diffra to Abyei and the attack took...
07:52 AM, May 11, 2011
Guwahati: With Assam elections round the corner, political parties, especially the Congress, are trying to play up the peace talks with the ULFA. ULFA chairman and founder Arabinda Rajkhowa was granted bail and earlier this year hold talks with the Government, a development not many had anticipated. Now, as Assam goes to the polls, the Congress is playing up the ULFA peace card to win votes. But peace broker Hiren...
08:25 AM, Apr 01, 2011
Is it possible to view any India-Pakistan clash just as a game of cricket and not a war without weapons? Tell us your opinion.
02:17 PM, Mar 29, 2011
New Delhi: In its race to join the club of international powers, India has reached another milestone - it's now the world's largest weapons importer. A Swedish think tank that monitors global arms sales has said that India's weapons imports had overtaken China's, as the South Asian nation pushes ahead with plans to modernise its military and gain international clout. "India has ambitions to become first a continental and (then)...
08:20 PM, Mar 13, 2011
Oslo: Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, the Internet and a Russian human rights activist are among a record 241 nominations for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Tuesday that the 2011 field includes 53 organisations and tops last year's 237 nominees. Known nominees also include Afghan rights advocate Sima Samar, the European Union, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, Russian rights group Memorial...
10:57 AM, Mar 02, 2011
Beijing: Against the backdrop of growing Indo-US ties and China's burgeoning trade relations with India, Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has said Beijing has a "greater responsibility" to play a balancing role to bring about stability in South Asia. "China is a country which is economically moving in the right direction. Therefore, China can play an extremely important role in building regional stability by balancing the forces," Gilani told China's...
05:19 PM, Feb 20, 2011
Guwahati: In an apparent bid to scuttle United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) leaders' peace initiative with the Centre, the Paresh Barua faction of the outfit on Saturday threatened to resort to "armed struggle" against the "arrogant" policies of the Congress and urged people to boycott meetings of the ruling party. In an e-mail sent to PTI in Guwahati, ULFA Publicity in-charge Arunodoy Dohotia alleged that the Congress has always...
01:13 PM, Feb 19, 2011
Guwahati: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said the recent discussion with the ULFA leadership in New Delhi was a "good beginning" and gave him hope for the future of Assam and the northeast. "I was happy to meet representatives of the ULFA recently in New Delhi. The discussion was a good beginning and has given me hope for Assam and North East," he said after presenting the Fakhruddin Ali...
08:45 PM, Feb 18, 2011
Mumbai: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Friday said "secular ethics" and dialogue would ensure that the 21st century is peaceful. "Although the development of science and technology was taking place since 18th century, the 20th century was witnessed as a century of blood. However, the 21st century will be a century of dialogues to bring world peace," he said addressing neurosurgeons and scientists from around the globe at the...
07:07 PM, Feb 18, 2011
Dhaka: Eminent people from across the world have formed "Friends of Grameen", vowing to protect the micro-credit pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus from "politically orchestrated" attacks. Over 50 charities and public figures, including former World Bank president James Wolfensohn, former chief justice of India JS Verma and French-born American actress Yeardley Smith have joined hands to form the voluntary body. Former Irish president Mary Robinson has also joined the...
04:18 PM, Feb 18, 2011
Prof Mohammad Yunus, founder of the pioneering microcredit institution 'Grameen Bank', thwarted the allegations of fraud against him. ...
10:58 AM, Feb 17, 2011
