New Delhi: US President Joe Biden's administration is preparing to impose sanctions on Russia in the coming weeks over the poisoning and jailing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the SolarWinds hack, CNN reported citing officials. Discussions about the response to the devastating security breach of at least nine federal agencies and dozens of private...
Tehran: Iran officially has begun restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities, state TV reported. The move is a bid to pressure European countries and US President Joe Biden's administration to lift crippling economic sanctions and restore the 2015 nuclear deal. The state TV report gave little detail beyond confirming that Iran had made good on its...
London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled his four-stage roadmap that will "cautiously but irreversibly" ease restrictions in England by June end, even though he stressed that the threat of Covid-19 is still "substantial". Scotland, Wales and Northern Island will frame their own timelines. Addressing the House of Commons, Johnson said that they cannot have a "zero-Covid"...
Beijing: China urged the US to stop "smearing" the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and it’s one-party political system, lift sanctions on trade and halt Washington’s backing of "separatist forces” in Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In his annual speech at the Lanting Forum, focusing on China-US ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said...
Kathmandu: In a blow to Nepal's Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, the Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of Parliament after it was dissolved by him. The order came in response to several cases filed with the court charging that Oli's decision to dissolve the legislature was unconstitutional. The court said a meeting of the reinstated Parliament...
Islamabad: Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have resumed in the Qatari capital Doha after weeks of delays, escalating violence and a change in US diplomatic leadership as the Biden administration began. Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem tweeted the resumption of the talks, which were the outcome of an agreement between the Afghan armed...
Sri Lanka has ordered 13.5 million Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines in addition to the 5,00,000 doses gifted by India, and the country may not use Chinese vaccines in the second phase of immunization, a government spokesman said. Ramesh Pathirana, who is also the Minister of Plantations, said Sri Lanka was likely to go only with the...
Colombo: In an effort to avoid confrontation with India, Sri Lanka has cancelled a scheduled speech of Prime Minister Imran Khan in Parliament. According to a report titled 'Sri Lanka avoids clash with India by cancelling Khan's Parliament speech' by Dar Javed published in Colombo Gazette, the Colombo government cannot risk its relations with India when...
By Sayantan GhoshIn 2016, after the arrest of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar along with other leaders including Anirban Bhattacharya and Umar Khalid, I wrote an article on the need for sedition law in India. The student leaders were arrested because they allegedly raised anti-national slogans inside the JNU campus and were booked...
