Speaker Karu Jayasuriya declares it doesn’t have majority In a watershed floor test in the Sri Lankan Parliament, a majority of lawmakers on Wednesday voted for a no-confidence motion against disputed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. “I hereby declare that the appointed government has no majority in this House,” Speaker Karu …

Committee to submit report to government to alleviate woesof victims The Assurances Committee of the Legislative Council on Wednesday directed the Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner to get the surface and the groundwater of endosulfan-affected areas tested to verify whether they are the still contaminated with the chemical. Chairing a review …

Talks end; company to allow them to report for duty from Friday Employees of Yamaha Motor India Limited, who had abstained from work from September 21, will be allowed to report for duty from Friday. A decision to this effect was arrived at in a meeting convened by the district …

‘Letter of Comfort’ given by Paris is good enough, says Attorney-General The Centre admitted in the Supreme Court on Wednesday that there was no sovereign guarantee from the French government on the deal for 36 Rafale jets in case the manufacturer, Dassault Aviation, defaults. Sovereign guarantee is a promise by …

In northeast China, temperatures have already begun to plummet, announcing the early arrival of winter. In Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, the sight of bare trees and grey skies is now routine. “It has already snowed once in October, and we expect many more snowfalls in the coming weeks,” …

A car, completely Indian, for Rs. 6,000 — taxes of course, excluded. Is it just a restless young man’s dream or the flash of a genius? None would know, not even Mr. Sanjay Gandhi, the 21-year-old son of the Prime Minister, unless and until he gets going with his project. …

The Admiralty announces [on November 11 at 11-50 p.m.] an intercepted German Naval wireless message, issued through the medium of the warship ‘Strassburg’ to all warships, destroyers and submarines in the North Sea and Baltic, quotes the Armistice terms and adds that the blockade which was instituted in defiance of …

Quad members still face the challengeof defining its common agenda As officials from the ‘Quadrilateral’ grouping of India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. meet in Singapore on Wednesday, their challenge will be to accurately describe their common agenda. The Quad is billed as four democracies with a shared objective to …

A meeting of OPEC and its allies in December will decide the future course of oil prices The fickle nature of the global petroleum market has been on display over the last few days as prices reacted to statements and counter-statements by producers and consumers. Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia …

Making sense of fast-changing political developments in the run-up tothe general election Ideology may be dead in the Indian political landscape, except in some crannies of the Left parties. Fast-changing developments, where alliances are being forged to take on a bigger adversary, are without any long-term allegiances. These have produced …