A team of senior officials of the external affairs ministry led by M. Ganapathi, secretary (West), reached the capital Male Friday afternoon and are in the process of meeting key political figures across the spectrum, government sources said in New Delhi.

“I have sent an envoy to Maldives to assess the situation,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters in New Delhi, adding that it was his sincere hope that the matter can be resolved through peaceful dialogue. “It will be our effort to use our influence in that direction,” he said.

The Indian team has already met Nasheed and conveyed that he should join in efforts to stabilise the situation. They are also expected to meet Maldives’s new president Mohammed Waheed Hassan and other important political leaders and impress upon them to expedite the process of a broad-based coalition government that could restore peace and stability to the island nation.

The Indian high commission in Male is also in constant situation with the rapidly evolving situation in the Maldives as Nasheed’s supporters took to the streets on the second consecutive day, demanding the restoration of democracy and calling for early elections.

In Male, Nasheed, surrounded by his supporters, also called for the immediate release of around 500 supporters arrested for allegedly burning down police stations and court houses during demonstrations on Wednesday, a day after he resigned amid a standoff between the executive and the judiciary and the police joining opposition protesters.

Nasheed has, however, claimed he was forced to resign “almost at gunpoint.” The new president has denied any coup attempt.

In talks with senior Maldives politicians, India’s effort will be to encourage a negotiated political settlement that helps the island country to return to stability as soon as possible. Instability is bad for everyone, specially for a country that depends on tourism as a key driver of its economy, sources said. Maldives, known for its luxury island resorts, depends on 1 million tourists who come annually and bring in $1 billion, contributing over 60 percent of the country’s GDP.

With a Maldivian court issuing arrest warrant for Nasheed, which the new government has not acted on, India has urged the new president to ensure that Nasheed is not arrested or harmed in any way. “Nasshed is safe. We have been assured that he will not be harmed,” said sources.

India has, however, ruled out any military intervention in
the present situation which it sees as “primarily an internal affair of the Maldives”.

The sources pointed out that unlike in 1988, when the then Rajiv Gandhi government sent troops to the Maldives at the request of then president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to prevent a coup externally induced by rogue elements from Sri Lanka, this time it’s an internal political affair and hence does not warrant military intervention.

Since the Feb 7 resignation of Nasheed, a former political prisoner and proactive human rights campaigner, India has taken the position that the present crisis in the island nation is an internal affair of the Maldives and should be resolved peacefully by the Maldivians themselves.

India is also of the view that the change of guard in the Maldives was not a “coup” but part of a constitutional transition of power.

With over 30,000 Indians residing in the Maldives, India is ready with a contingency plan to evacuate them if the violence on the streets spins out of control. “We are the nearest neighbour of Maldives. If there is any contingency, we are ready to help,” said the sources. India’s assessment is that the situation is relatively calm now and there does not seem to be any urgency for any contingency plan. “There is absolutely no basis for military intervention unless there is a legal basis for it,” said the sources.

On the diplomatic front, besides briefing the P5 ambassadors and Sri Lanka, India also plans to update SAARC countries on the situation in the Maldives and press for a democratic solution to the present impasse.

“It’s as if we were standing in the workshop itself, and at the next easel you can see that the artist was working step by step with Leonardo. When Leonardo made a change, he made a change,” the newspaper quoted deputy conservator Gabriele Finaldi as saying.

The copy sits in a dimly-lit room awaiting the finishing touches of a two-year restoration, during which its true origin was revealed.

Curators decided it needed a face-lift because it was going on loan to the Louvre in March. Following X-ray and infrared studies, they were surprised to find a landscape hidden beneath the dark paint behind the subject, according to the newspaper.

Conservators believe the artist could be Francesco Melzi, one of Leonardo’s favourite pupils. “When you look at the copy, you can imagine that this is what the ‘Mona Lisa’ looked like in the 16th century,” Finaldi said.

The ‘Mona Lisa’ is widely believed to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, a Florentine merchant’s wife, and the copy makes her look younger and more seductive.

Miguel Falomir, chief conservator for renaissance painting, said: “When the X-ray revealed the landscape, we saw it was in absolutely extraordinary condition.”

“It was the most surprising thing to emerge in the conservation workshop in the 14 years I’ve been at the Prado.”

The copy has belonged to the museum at least since the 1666, first as part of the royal collection and then as a state treasure. It was first thought to have been produced by a Flemish hand after da Vinci’s death. Then it was believed to be a later Italian copy.

The Art Newspaper, which first published the remarkable discovery, said: “This sensational picture will transform our understanding of the world’s most famous picture.”

“The Indian Army believes a major Sino-Indian conflict is not imminent, but the Indian military is strengthening its forces in preparation to fight a limited conflict along the disputed border, and is working to balance Chinese power projection in the Indian Ocean,” he added.

India and China fought a limited war in 1962 and still dispute each other’s territory. Despite improved relations, irritants persist between the two Asian giants, often leading to major hiccups.

The official also said that India had expressed support for a strong US military posture in East Asia and US engagement in Asia.

He said the US wanted its relations with Pakistan to remain positive, but their interests sometimes differed as Islamabad viewed New Delhi as an existential threat.

Clapper said the US relationship with Pakistan was a “challenging relationship but an important one”, as the interests of the two countries were “not always congruent”.

Noting that Afghanistan remains a hot spot, Clapper said: “During the past year, the Taliban lost some ground, but …Taliban’s senior leaders continued to enjoy safe haven in Pakistan.”

Asked by panel vice-chairman Saxby Chambliss about what was being done about safe havens of terrorists in Pakistan, Clapper said they were talking to Islamabad about it.

“Al Qaeda will increasingly rely on ideological and operational alliances with Pakistani militant factions to accomplish its goals with Pakistan and to conduct transnational attacks,” he said.

“Pakistan military leaders have had limited success against Al Qaeda operatives, other foreign fighters and Pakistani militants who pose a threat to Islamabad,” Clapper said.

“We judge Al Qaeda operatives are balancing support for attacks in Pakistan with guidance to refocus the global jehad externally against US targets,” he said.

Clapper said India had significantly increased its engagement with Afghanistan in 2011, but New Delhi was unlikely to send troops or heavy equipment to Kabul because it did not want to provoke Pakistan.

India’s increased engagement is aimed at helping the Afghan government sustain its sovereignty and independence during and after International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces draw down.

“We judge that India sees its goals in Afghanistan as consistent with US objectives and favours a sustained ISAF and US presence in the country.”

CIA Director David Petraeus said that while Pakistan had conducted operations in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Swat, they had not pressured the Haqqani Network or Mullah Nazir’s group nor those in Balochistan.

Nations were free to adopt policies that suited their requirements, but the policies should not lead to protectionism, he said, adding that possible protectionist moves in the US were self-defeating and unacceptable.

In his State of the Union Address last week, Obama giving a call to bring American jobs back home offered tax breaks to those keeping jobs in the US and penalising those outsourcing jobs.

“My message is simple. It’s time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I’ll sign them right away,” he had said.

“Protectionism ultimately does not help the country that resorts to protectionism. There is no denying the fact that despite some aberrations, uninterrupted flow of goods and services and removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers have yielded results for all…,” Mukherjee said.

“Therefore, I do believe there is merit in giving up protectionism and I do hope that countries will not resort to it.”

Pitching for foreign investment in the infrastructure sector which needs $1 trillion in the 12th Five-Year Plan, Mukherjee asked US investors to access the Indian debt market through a mechanism of regulated entities with a sustained long-term interest rate.

Meeting leaders of Fortune 500 companies here, he assured them that India has evolved a transparent and stable regulatory regime in various sectors. “India is a very good destination for investment because infrastructure requirement is huge, whether it is power, highways, etc.”

The finance minister also sought to dispel apprehensions that suspension of reforms in retail FDI will hit India’s image as an attractive destination for investment.

The decision on opening FDI in multi-brand retail is just on hold and efforts are on to evolve consensus on the controversial decision, he said.

Initial tests, however, indicated that the bomb — as currently configured — would not be capable of destroying some of Iran’s facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them, RIA Novosti said.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said more development work would be done and that he expected the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon.

“We’re still trying to develop them,” Panetta was quoted as saying.

Unnamed US officials said they would ensure the weapon would be more effective against the deepest bunkers, including Iran’s Fordow enrichment plant facility.

Fordow is buried in a mountain complex in Iran surrounded by anti-aircraft weapons, which makes it a very difficult target for air strikes.

In early January, Fereidoon Abbasi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, said Fordow was safe from any kinds of threat by the enemies.

Tehran says it began the project in 2007, but the UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), believes design work started in 2006.

The existence of the facility only came to light after it was identified by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009.

“The United States supports a meeting between Japan, China, and ourselves, as Foreign Minister Gemba recently proposed,” Clinton said at a press conference after the meeting which “covered global issues like Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the situation in Afghanistan”.

Echoing Clinton, Gemba citing the Japan-US-India trilateral dialogue “as a specific example of collaboration” said: “On India, as the secretary suggested, we affirmed that Japan and the United States are deepening strategic relationship with India”.

The meeting, at officials’ level, was co-chaired by Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell. India was represented by Jawed Ashraf and Gautam Bambawale, joint secretaries in charge of Americas and East Asia respectively.

Later in a press release, the Indian embassy said at their first ever trilateral dialogue the three sides “exchanged views on a wide range of regional and global issues of mutual interest.

“These discussions mark the beginning of a series of consultations among our three governments, who share common values and interests across the Asia-Pacific and the globe,” the embassy said.

“All sides welcomed the frank and comprehensive nature of the discussions, and agreed the talks help advance their shared values and interests,” it added.

The group agreed to meet again in Tokyo in 2012 to continue their deliberations.

Driven by Tokyo and finalised during then foreign secretary Nirupama Rao’s visit to Japan in April 2010, the dialogue is also part of New Delhi’s effort to go beyond the stated Look East policy and engage North Asia as well.

The trilateral has been in the making for a long time, but the first meeting came at a time when China is becoming increasingly assertive in East Asia and the US is seeking to ramp up its engagement with the Asia-Pacific region that includes some of the fast-growing economies in the world.

Meanwhile, Hemant K. Singh, former Indian ambassador to Japan, and Karl F. Inderfurth, former US assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, who have been part of the track II trilateral meetings said in a commentary that “relations between the three (nations) are in a transformational stage”.

The Washington trilateral “provides an opportunity to begin the process of operationalising Indo-Pacific cooperation as a seamless construct in areas such as maritime security cooperation, counter-terrorism, counter-piracy, counter-proliferation, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance”, they said.

Quoting his official biographers, it said his birth in 1941 in Baekdu Mountain was apparently prophesied by a swallow and heralded with a double rainbow and a new star in the heavens.

Kim travelled by private train for state visits – a decision believed to be connected to his apparent fear of flying, a phobia he was believed to share with his father.

His private train journeys were as luxurious as befitted a leader of North Korea, despite the millions left behind starving due to famine.

One Russian emissary who travelled across Russia by train with Kim described how live lobsters were airlifted daily to his train, the newspaper said.

Kim ordered the kidnapping of Shin Sang-ok, the South Korean film director, and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee in 1978 in order to build up North Korea’s film industry. They made seven films before escaping to the West in 1986.

Kim apparently produced a patriotic 100-part documentary series on the history of his North Korean homeland as well as writing a book entitled “On the Art of Cinema”.

Film was not his only passion.

Kim also apparently composed six operas and enjoyed staging musicals, again according to his official biography.

He was hailed as a demigod style guru in North Korea, although South Korea portrayed him as a vain playboy with a penchant for bouffant hair, jumpsuits and platform shoes designed to make him look taller.

He reportedly spread the myth across North Korea that he could control the weather with his moods, as if by magic.

There have been reports that he would refuse to consume anything not produced in North Korea – although he made an exception of French wine as reflected in the 10,000 strong collection of bottles in his cellar, the newspaper added.

Kim Jong-il, the 69-year-old supreme leader of nuclear-armed North Korea, died Saturday during a train journey, the country’s official KCNA news agency announced Monday.

He died “from a great mental and physical strain at 08.30 Dec 17, 2011, on train during a field guidance tour”, the agency said. His youngest son Kim Jong-un was made the “great successor”.

The case, which has been going on in Tomsk court since June, seeks ban on a Russian translation of “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

It also wants the Hindu religious text banned in Russia and declared as a literature spreading “social discord”, its distribution on Russian soil rendered illegal.

In view of the case, Indians settled in Moscow, numbering about 15,000, and followers of the ISKCON religious movement here have appealed to Manmohan Singh and his government to intervene diplomatically to resolve the issue in favour of the scripture, an important part of Indian epic Mahabharata written by sage Ved Vyas.

The ISKCON followers in Russia have also written a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi, calling for immediate intervention, lest the religious freedom of Hindus living here be compromised.

“The case is coming up for a final verdict on Monday in Tomsk court. We want all efforts from the Indian government to protect the religious rights of Hindus in Russia,” Sadhu Priya Das of ISKCON and a devotee of a 40-year-old Krishna temple in central Moscow, told IANS.

The court, which took up the case filed by the state prosecutors, had referred the book to the Tomsk State University for “an expert” examination Oct 25.

But Hindu groups in Russia, particularly followers of ISKCON, say the university was not qualified as it lacked Indologists who study the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent.

The Hindus pleaded with the court that the case was inspired by religious bias and intolerance from a “majority religious group in Russia”, and have sought that their rights to practice their religious beliefs be upheld.

The prosecutor’s case also seeks to ban the preachings of Prabhupada and ISKCON’s religious beliefs, claiming these were “extremist” in nature and preached “hatred” of other religious beliefs.

“They have not just tried to get the Bhagavad Gita banned, but also brand our religious beliefs and preachings as extremist,” Das said.

The ISKCON devotees have taken up the matter with the Indian embassy in Moscow too for an early diplomatic intervention before things get worse and the court passes an adverse verdict banning the Bhagavad Gita and Krishna consciousness teachings.

In the Nov 1 letter addressed to Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji, ISKCON’s New Delhi branch Governing Body Commissioner Gopal Krishna Goswami, said the prosecutor’s affidavit claims Lord Krishna “is evil and not conforming to Christian religious view”.

Goswami also urged Manmohan Singh to accord priority to the matter during his Moscow stay and take it up with the Russian authorities.

Indian diplomatic corps officials at the embassy here, who were unwilling to be named, told IANS that they have been following up the case since the time it was brought to their notice earlier this year.

They had also taken up the matter at the appropriate levels in the Russian government to get the case either withdrawn or get the defence to fight the case to obtain a favourable verdict.

Officials at the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, who were part of the Indian delegation accompanying Manmohan Singh, confirmed to IANS the case and the letter they received from ISKCON in this regard.

“This matter is receiving the highest attention and the Indian embassy officials in Moscow have been instructed to follow up the case with the Russian authorities,” they said.

In a statement announcing Powell’s appointment and a separate appointee, Obama said: “These fine public servants, both bring a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their new roles.”

“Our nation will be well-served by these individuals, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

Powell, who joined the foreign service in 1977 after teaching at a school in Dayton, Iowa, has also served as US ambassador to Ghana and Uganda, besides Pakistan and Nepal.

Her stint in Pakistan between 2002-2004 came as the US was first seeking Islamabad’s cooperation in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban after the Sep 11, 2001, attacks. Her other overseas assignments included service in New Delhi, Calcutta, Ottawa, Kathmandu, Islamabad, Lome, and Dhaka.

Her Washington assignments have included: Refugee assistance officer, principal deputy assistant secretary for African affairs, acting assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement activities, and the national intelligence officer for South Asia at the National Intelligence Council.

She’s currently serving as director general of the foreign service and director of human resources at the State Department. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa.

The Senate must confirm Powell’s appointment.

The deal was among five pacts signed after delegation-level talks between visiting Indian Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The agreement was signed by Indian Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma, who is part of the prime minister’s delegation, and Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Director M.A. Dmitriev here in the presence of Manmohan Singh and Medvedev.

India had in the mid-1990s signed an agreement with Russia for buying 50 twin-seater Sukhois off-the-shelf that were delivered beginning 1997.

In 2000, the two sides had signed another deal for licensed production of 140 Su-30MKIs by defence public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). In 2007, a protocol was envisaged for manufacture of a further 40 Sukhois.

“The present protocol envisaged manufacture of an additional 42 aircraft by HAL, taking the total Sukhois for the IAF to 272 planes,” Sharma told IANS.