As a defender of Tamil rights, Karunanidhi is in competition with the state’s Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. She has been proactive on this front, recently ordering a school football team home from Colombo, even going to the extent of suspending a sports official. Under her watch as Chief Minister, ordinary Sri Lankans (including Tamils) have been […]
If Pakistan’s former president, General Pervez Musharraf, returns to the country tomorrow — as he has promised, ending five years of exile — many Pakistanis will find it hard to reject him simply for his undemocratic past. Musharraf’s planned return may remain surrounded by uncertainty till the last moment, given that he has previously promised […]
The atmospherics surrounding Xi Jinping’s coming trip to Russia – his first visit to a foreign country as China’s new president – remind me of a slogan from my early childhood in the late 1950’s: “Russia-China, Friendship Forever.” The irony is that, even in that slogan’s heyday, Sino-Russian relations were deteriorating fast, culminating in spasms […]
The party, for Xi Jinping, is paramount. It should not only lead and unite the people, but also build socialism with Chinese characteristics. In there is a message for the Chinese people: The party is the only organisation that can look after you and ensure your well-being; it will continue to do so even it […]
In the early hours of March 4, 1924, a middle-aged man and his family left the Dolmabahce Palace in central Istanbul and headed to the train station. Their destination was Switzerland and then Paris, where the man, Abdulmecid II, died 20 years later, and was buried in Medina. Abdulmecid II was the last caliph of Islam, the […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping said here Tuesday that cooperation among BRICS countries will help make the global economy more balanced, improve global economic governance and promote democracy in international relations. Read Here – Xinhua
It is still, on occasion, good to be the king. It is not necessarily good to be the king of a Middle Eastern country that is bereft of oil; nor is it necessarily so wonderful to be the king during the turmoil and uncertainty of the Arab Spring. It is certainly not good to be […]
One way or another, the situation is Cyprus likely marks a major turning point in the eurozone crisis. It could be the beginning of true disaster for the zone, eventually leading to a series of sovereign debt defaults and possible exits from the euro area. It could also be the point at which we learn […]
The Tallinn Manual, the first attempt to lay down international ground rules for cyberwar, was published this week under the direction of NATO’s think tank, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence. Written by more than 40 academics, lawyers, and experts from NATO countries, the 282-page manual defines under which conditions a country can respond to […]
This month’s session of China’s National People’s Congress probably wasn’t one for the history books. Talk of reform continued, but the new government positions don’t go past a number of small-bore reforms that aim to centralize the management of a range of hot-button issues. Read Here – The Diplomat
looking beyond borders 