World News

Colombo, Nov. 4 -- Sri Lanka's top military commander general Sarath Fonseka was on his way back home on Wednesday without having to appear for the much publicised questioning session with the US' department of homeland security (DHS).

Beijing, Nov. 5 -- China is trying to bring the bilateral relationship back on track by blaming recent Sino-Indian tensions on the Dalai Lama and the media.

Twenty-five years after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India, the US-based Sikh organisations have moved away from demonstrations to a ?justice awareness campaign?.

While tensions between India and China spill over with visa controversies on both sides, Beijing has now blamed the Dalai Lama for trying to damage ties.

A private company purportedly owned by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his son Bilawal has allegedly purchased land valued at Rs 2 billion for a fraction of its worth, according to a media report here on Tuesday.

Relations between Fiji's military government and its biggest South Pacific neighbours Australia and New Zealand were poised to worsen on Wednesday after the island state expelled their senior diplomats.

Since Sept. 1, there have been nearly 3,000 deaths and 29,000 hospitalizations across America mostly due to the H1N1 virus, better known as the swine flu. The pandemic has been declared a national emergency, with millions of people in search of a potentially life-saving vaccine--and few able to find it.

Chief of defence staff, general Sarath Fonseka, is again making headlines. Headlines that have left the government worried and in the turbulent middle of another diplomatic spat with the US.

A group of about 20 armed attackers stole 5,000 children's bicycles from a manufacturing company in Mexico City, after threatening and locking up company workers.

Thirty-five people died on Monday in Rawalpindi as a suicide bomber blew himself up in a high security zone, continuing a wave of terror that has been unleashed in Pakistan as its military fights militants in the South Waziristan area.

An annoyed Colombo on Monday said that the US government should drop plans to question the country?s top military commander on alleged war crimes committed during the last phase of the war against the separatist LTTE.

The Indian embassy has discussed Indian ?constraints? in competing in the Chinese markets in straight talk in a rare open letter to a government-run magazine this week.

New York, Nov. 1 -- For director Mira Nair, making a film on a legendary aviatrix who died in 1937 is personal. Her latest film is also her most ambitious: Amelia, which releases in the US on Friday, is her first biopic, and shot across Canada and southern Africa.

Istanbul, Oct. 31 -- Turkey's newest and most modern airport terminal has an Indian connection. The Bangalore-based GMR group is a part of a consortium that has completed a new terminal for the Sabiha Gokcen International airport in Istanbul, Turkey. The terminal, which has been completed in a record of 18 months, was inaugurated on Saturday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has questioned Pakistan's commitment to hunt top al-Qaeda leadership hiding in Pakistan and accused it of failing to track them down.

Former French President Jacques Chirac will be tried for abuse of public funds in an affair dating from 1983 to 1995, when he was mayor of Paris, French media reported on Friday.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday ordered the police to carry out an investigation into the recent death threats received by the editor-in-chief of Sunday Leader newspaper, Frederica Jansz. This followed representation about this threat to Rajapaksa by Jansz.

While many in Pakistan are looking with interest at the visit of Hillary Clinton, there are some who dismiss it as ?mere window dressing.?

President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday held extensive talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on bilateral, regional and international issues, including the current situation in Pakistan.