LOOKEAST REPORT Eminent diplomat Arundhati Ghose, who was India’s ambassador to the UN and played a decisive role in India’s negotiations on Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), passed away late on Tuesday night at the age of 76. She was suffering from cancer and breathed her last at around 12:30 am at her residence in…
Read moreChinese authorities are renovating one of the world’s largest centres of learning for Tibetan Buddhism to prevent overcrowding and fires, a state-run newspaper said on Tuesday, denying Tibetan rights groups’ charges of demolition and evictions. Groups including the British-based International Campaign for Tibet say demolition work began last week at Larung Gar in Garze, a…
Read moreReports state that Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea on Sunday after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement, diplomats said. Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast…
Read moreK P Oli resigned as Nepal’s Prime Minister on Sunday ahead of a no-confidence vote, plunging the country into a fresh political turmoil after last year’s crippling Madhesi protests against the new Constitution. He accused Nepali Congress and Maoists of hatching a conspiracy against his government by tabling a no-trust motion and said he is being punished for the…
Read moreJudith D’Souza, an Indian woman kidnapped last month from Kabul in Afghanistan, has landed in India after being rescued. “I am happy to inform you that Judith D’Souza has been rescued,” Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted this morning. 40-year-old Judith, who works for the Aga Khan Development Network as a senior technical adviser, was kidnapped on…
Read moreLOOKEAST REPORT The family of Indian aid worker Judith D’Souza, who was rescued following her abduction in Kabul in June, expressed gratitude to the Indian government. Judith will reach New Delhi by this evening, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said. “We are thankful to the Indian government for getting my sister back. We are also…
Read moreHTET KHAUNG LINN The Arakan Army (AA) was formed in 2009 in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) stronghold of Laiza, on Myanmar’s northern border with China, where the Arakan ethnic rebels received training and arms. They have fought alongside the KIA, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Kokang’s Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MNDAA)…
Read moreBALADAS GHOSHAL The spate of terrorist attacks and the attendant violence witnessed in the last couple of months, including the recent attacks in Dhaka, Kishoreganj and Ektarpur in Bangladesh, and Nice in France, brings home the truth that something perverse is happening within Islam and Muslims alone can fight that scourge. Analysts attribute the growth…
Read moreAn Indian air force plane carrying 29 people went missing on Friday on a flight to a remote island chain in the Bay of Bengal, the defence ministry said. The Russian made AN-32 was on its way to Port Blair, the capital of India’s Andaman and Nicobar chain of islands, from the southeast city of Chennai…
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