Subcontinent
Lanka talks fail to solve crisis:
A crucial meeting among Sri Lanka’s political party leaders on Sunday failed to reach a breakthrough to resolve the political turmoil that has engulfed the island nation for several weeks, opposition lawmakers say.
Sri Lanka has been in crisis since Oct 26 when President Maithripala Sirisena abruptly fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe says he still has the support of a majority in Parliament.
On Sunday, Sirisena chaired the meeting attended by Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe and other political leaders. Talks came two days after the parliament passed the second no-confidence motions against Rajapaksa who has so far refused to accept the results of the motion and continues to perform as prime minister.
Ajith Perera, a lawmaker from Wickremesinghe’s party, told reporters that Sunday’s meeting failed to reach a breakthrough.
He said it is illegal for Rajapaksa and his government to stay in power after two no-confidence motions were passed against them. “They are hanging on to power illegally,” he said.
Sirisena
Parliament turned violent when the noconfidence motions were taken up last week, with rival lawmakers exchanging blows, injuring several. (AP)
68 held around Indian temple:
Indian police arrested 68 people taking part in protests around a controversial Hindu temple ahead of a Supreme Court ruling Monday on whether it should be given more time to let women enter.
The Sabarimala temple in the southern state of Kerala has become a major battleground between Hindu radicals and gender activists.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims have thronged to the hilltop shrine since it reopened Friday amid unprecedented security.
“We arrested 68 devotees after overnight protests around Sabarimala,” V.N Saji, assistant commissioner of Kerala police, told AFP.
The region has been increasingly tense with Hindu organisations and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposing the Supreme Court order to let women in the temple. There have been several protests and strikes. (AFP)
Attacks kill 5 Pakistani soldiers:
Pakistani officials say five soldiers have been killed in two separate attacks by suspected militants.
Two intelligence officials say a roadside bomb exploded Sunday in the suburbs of Quetta as a paramilitary vehicle was passing, killing three soldiers and wounding another four. Two other officials say a rocket-propelled grenade hit a security vehicle in North Waziristan, killing two
In this Oct 31, 2018 photo, a group of Afghan National Army soldiers watch others participate in a live fire exercise at the Afghan Military Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan. When US forces and their Afghan allies rode into Kabul in November 2001 they were greeted as liberators. But after 17 years of war, the Taleban have retaken half the country, security is worse than it’s ever been, and many Afghans place the blame
squarely on the Americans. (AP)
soldiers and wounding another two.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. (AP)
No one claimed responsibility for either attack. Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan, where ethnic Baluch separatists have been waging a low-level insurgency. Both areas have seen attacks by Islamic extremists. (AP)
No pact struck with US – Taleban:
A three-day meeting between the Taleban and the US special envoy for Afghanistan to pave the way for peace talks ended with no agreement, the militant group said a day after the diplomat declared a deadline of April 2019 to end a 17-year-long war.
Afghanistan’s security situation has worsened since NATO formally ended combat operations in 2014, as Taleban insurgents battle to reimpose strict Islamic law following their overthrow in 2001 at the hands of US-led troops.
Leaders of the hardline Islamist group met US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad at their political headquarters in Qatar last week for the second time in the past month, said spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. “These were preliminary talks and no agreement was reached on any issue,” he said in a statement on Monday. (RTRS)