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Lanka takes key town, asks Tigers
G-20 Summit
Pakistan mulls visa section in Amritsar
Nepal asks India to release jailed Maoists
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Obama appoints 4th Indian
Laid-off worker kills Indian CEO, 2 others
Endeavour takes off to repair space station
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Lanka takes key town, asks Tigers
to surrender
With the fall of a northern stronghold of Poonaryn to the government troops after more than 20 years under the control of the Tamil Tigers on Saturday morning, President Mahinda Rajapaksa renewed a call to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to lay down arms and come to the negotiating table.
The announcement of the fall of Poonaryn was welcomed by all across the country. The President went on national radio to make the announcement and called on the Tigers to lay down arms saying, “it is the greatest service they can do to the Tamil people.” Troops fought pitched battles with the Tigers before entering the main town of Poonaryn on Saturday. No casualties on either side have been announced since these latest military successes. The fall of Poonaryn is also a major blow to the operations of the sea Tigers as troops are now in control of the entire coastal highway in the area. Troops are now poised to extend their operations to take control of the last two remaining LTTE strongholds of Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu. The ministry said troops were closing in on the town of Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) further south. “Pitched battles are still going on in the area,” the ministry said. “The terrorists are fast withdrawing” to the northwest. The ministry, however, has made repeated claims in recent months that Kilinochchi was about to fall. The air force deployed helicopter gunships to pound suspected Tiger strongholds in the Jaffna peninsula Saturday morning in support of ground troops in the area, the military said. There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, who had said security forces had moved deep into territory held by them in the northern parts of the country since mid-2007. The LTTE has been fighting since 1972 to carve out a homeland for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community. Tens of thousands have been killed in the conflict.
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Crisis can’t be resolved overnight:
Bush
Bhagyashree Pande writes from Washington The G-20 leaders had a "good and productive" meeting over a working dinner hosted by US President George W Bush, who said the crisis would not be resolved "overnight". At the dinner, Prime Minister Singh sat opposite the US President, Bush was sitting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of the G-20 - a symbolic recognition of their growing say on international matters as leaders of rapidly growing economies. Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, in the US for the first time as a leader, rubbed shoulders with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner - and out of shouting distance from US President George W Bush. Two seats away from Bush at the oval table in the state dining room was French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current leader of the European Union who pushed Bush to arrange the summit and even suggested it should be held in New York to recognise the US role in creating the crisis. Outside the White House, a coalition of groups protesting against the summit organised a 'People's Banquet' with a modest menu of free food that included beans and rice, cookies, sandwiches and bottled water. The dinner included fruitwood-smoked quail with quince, followed by thyme-roasted rack of lamb and eggplant fondue, sources familiar to the event said. With such good food, it's hard to imagine harsh words at the table. Then, too, the seating order will make sure that harmony prevails, the sources say. After the working dinner, White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement that the G-20 leaders had "a good, productive meeting." The sources say there were two more dinners organised at different venues-one for the finance ministers and the other for the Sherpas. The G-20 leaders, whose countries represent 85 per cent of world economy, are meeting amid a worsening global financial system, which demands urgent measures.
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Pakistan mulls visa section in Amritsar
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has promised to examine a proposal by the Sikh pilgrims to open a visa section at Amritsar to facilitate them. “Opening a visa section in Amritsar to facilitate Sikh yatris’ visit to Pakistan will be examined by the ministry of foreign affairs,” he said while responding to a suggestion by a delegation of Sikh yatris, who met him here. The delegation represents various Sikh organisations based in Pakistan, the US, the UK and India. Gilani also issued instructions immediately for the acquisition of land for Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib, the reformation and issuance of notification of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and building a road strip in Narowal district heading to Gurdwara Kartar Sahib on the Pakistan-India border. He said all efforts were being made by his government to make Sikh yatris feel at home during visits to their holy places in Pakistan. He added that the welfare and protection of the rights of minorities was part of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s manifesto and the government was determined to implement it.
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Nepal asks India to release jailed Maoists
The Maoist-led coalition government in Nepal has requested the government of India to release all Maoist cadres, who have been spending jail terms in India since the decade-long bloody warfare unleashed by the CPN-Maoist. Talking to journalists at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Friday upon his arrival from New Delhi after attending the 2nd BIMSTEC Summit, Nepal's Prime Minister and former rebels' supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, said he had a word with Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the summit to release his comrades who were lodged in Patna jail. “Manmohanji has given me a positive response in this regard,” he claimed. According to Maoist party source, about 20 Maoist cadres, who were arrested by the security forces before the Maoist party joined the mainstream politics following the April 2006 uprising, have still been serving terms in Patna jail.
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Obama appoints 4th Indian
Washington, November 15 Mukherjee, a Managing Director of Corporate Private Equity group at Blackstone, has been appointed as one of the team leads in Economics and International Trade. His appointment has been the latest one as three other Indian-Americans — Sonal Shah, Preeta Bansal and Nicholas Rathod — have already been inducted into Obama’s team. Mukherjee has been involved in the execution of a number of investments in a wide range of industries. He has received a BA from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude as a Harry S Truman Scholar and an MBA from Harvard Business school.
— PTI
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Laid-off worker kills Indian CEO, 2 others
Santa Clara (California), November 15 In the first case, the police said a laid-off worker returned to his former office in northern California yesterday and fatally shot three people. Jing Wu, 47, shot two men and a woman around 4 pm at the office complex in Santa Clara, just west of San Jose, the police said. Wu was an engineer at SiPort Inc., a semiconductor company. One of his victims was Sid Agrawal, the company's chief executive officer, the police said. The gunman remained at large Friday evening as dozens of officers searched for him. He drove off in a sport-utility vehicle, Lt Mike Sellers said. The police in O'Fallon, Missouri, said a gunman took his ex-girlfriend hostage Friday at a health clinic in suburban St Louis and killed her before the police shot him to death, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported. — AP
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Endeavour takes off to repair space station
New York, November 15 The shuttle twin booster rockets were fired at 7.55 pm which lifted the 2.04 million kg shuttle into the sky with blinding light and deafening roar. The NASA shuttle carries some 32,000 pounds of supplies and equipments necessary for two new sleeping compartments. It includes a second toilet, a water recycling system and a resistance exercise device. The mission’s four planned spacewalks primarily will focus on servicing the station’s two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints which allow the outpost’s solar arrays to track the sun. — PTI
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Jindal’s priority is to be Elton John to perform on New Year’s Eve Charlize Theron UN
Messenger of Peace Throwing light on diabetes
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