Pakistan depends on China to bolster ageing Navy fleet

Pakistan depends on  China to bolster ageing Navy fleet

Is the Pakistani Navy in trouble? Reports say that Pakistan’s naval modernization plans aren’t taking off. No discernible progress is being made on efforts to modernize and expand the surface and sub-surface fleet, says Defense News. Pakistan is trying to beef up the security of its deepwater port of Gwadar, and the fear is that […]

Is Sri Lanka buying Pak, not Indian war planes?

Is Sri Lanka buying Pak, not Indian war planes?

During the Pakistan Prime Minister’s January state visit to Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are reported to have sealed a ‘landmark deal’ for the purchase of eight Pakistan-China built fighter planes. (Pakistan Aeronautical Complex/Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (PAC/CAC) JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft). This defence deal, would make Sri […]

Is India playing the ‘Sikkim game’ in Nepal?

Is India playing the ‘Sikkim game’ in Nepal?

Are certain Nepali politicians  shallow ambitions helping India’ to subjugate Nepal in the same way it swallowed Sikkim ? Conspiracy theory?  Well, this is a theme being played by a section of media in Nepal. The Nepalese feel that India is giving more than just tacit support to the unrest in the Terai region that borders Bihar, […]

Pakistan’s hangmen strive for grisly record: from 0 to 300 in 365 days…

Pakistan’s hangmen strive for grisly record: from 0 to 300 in 365 days…

Karachi : Pakistan may achieve the infamous milestone of becoming one of the world’s top executioners, with almost 300 inmates already put to death this year and thousands more waiting. Pakistan’s independent Human Rights Commission says 295 people have been hanged in the country — a new record — since December last year, while Amnesty […]

Pope Francis to Central Africa: ‘No to hatred and violence!’

Pope Francis to Central Africa: ‘No to hatred and violence!’

Pope Francis is the first Vatican prelate ever to visit conflict zones. He walks the talk of peace in Bangui , the capital of the volatile Central African Republic, a place fraught with sectarian violence and division: Christian versus Muslim. “Allah ho Akbar, God is great” the jubiliant crowds called out in Arabic to Pope […]

Viki-leaks: Italian Journalists vs the Vatican

Viki-leaks: Italian Journalists vs the Vatican

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Vatican to drop charges against Italian journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi. The journalists are due to face a trial Tuesday over claims they pressured a source to “obtain and publish confidential information” in their respective books alleging corruption, according to a statement by the Vatican. […]

Miffed with bossy big brother India, Nepal ties rakhi on China hand

Miffed with bossy big brother India, Nepal ties rakhi on China hand

New Delhi: It’s a first. Nepal appears to have stood up to what it sees as the Modi government’s bullying tactics, and has bought petrol fuel from China after 40 long years. India’s strategic establishment was scrambling this evening to counter Nepal’s biggest diplomatic swerve away from New Delhi in years after Kathmandu inked a […]

Russia’s ‘priest out of the closet’ faces tough times ahead

Russia’s ‘priest out of the closet’ faces tough times ahead

For a decade, Orthodox priest Artyom Vechelkovsky taught at a religious seminary in the city of Samara. He says that his colleagues knew that he was gay, but accepted him and valued his work. But in the current climate of rising antigay sentiment in Russia, church officials suddenly decided to dismiss him, according to a […]

India and Africa need each other for mutual gain

India and Africa need each other for mutual gain

Fifty four African countries will participate in the third India-Africa Forum Summit to be held in New Delhi later this month. The IAFS is expected to result in a deeper engagement between India and Africa. Today, India and Africa need each other more than ever before. Out of 189 countries, only 63 are expected to […]

India’s shocking absence from Women, Youth summit

India’s shocking absence from Women, Youth summit

ANKARA: Where’s India? No women? No youth? Strange! India has gone unrepresented in the key engagement groups of G20 on women and youth. The host country Turkey is baffled. The efficient and in-your-face Narendra Modi government failing to provide names of delegates to champion the national cause in such an elite gathering- now isn’t that a telling […]

Chinese dragon devours world’s forests for fancy chairs

Chinese dragon devours world’s forests for fancy chairs

While China clamps down on logging within its borders, illegal Chinese loggers are merrily felling the world’s forests  for the sake of teak floors and fancy chairs, says a report on ‘global post’. In late July, 153 Chinese nationals were handed life sentences for illegal logging in Burma’s northernmost Kachin state, a region abundant with […]

New Word: ‘Homonegative’ & Buddhists have less of it!

New Word: ‘Homonegative’ & Buddhists have less of it!

A new study in the Journal of Homosexuality has shown that, of all the world’s religions, Buddhism is the least homonegative. “Homonegativity” is defined as “an aversion to homosexuality as a social practice or way of life.” Although attitudes toward homosexuality have become more liberal, particularly in industrialized Western countries, there is still a great […]