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Nepal Maoists' chief Prachanda Friday asked former US president Jimmy Carter to intercede with Washington to take his party off the US list of terrorist organisations. Carter met the top leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which is outlawed in the US, marking the first public interaction between the rebels and an American citizen of his stature. 'I told Carter we would like to establish amicable diplomatic relations with the US,' Prachanda said after the nearly hour-long meeting. 'We are ready to hold talks with Washington at any level.' The Maoist chief also said Carter wanted to know...

Approximately 300 Maoist rebels, called Naxalites, attacked an Indian police post at Rani Bodli in the central-western state of Chhattisgarh the night of March 15. Armed with guns, grenades and homemade firebombs, the attackers overwhelmed the 79-man post, leaving approximately 50 policemen dead and making off with weapons and ammunition. Eleven days before the Rani Bodli attack, Indian parliament member Sunil Mahato was assassinated in neighboring Jharkhand state -- an operation in which Maoists were allegedly involved. ... The Naxalite insurgency is located primarily in eastern India in a "red corridor" comprising the states of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka,...

The Maoists launched a co-ordinated assault Maoist rebels have attacked a security post in central India, killing 50 police officers, police say.The attack, one of the worst in decades of insurgency, happened in the rebel stronghold area of Dantewada, in Chhattisgarh state. The Maoists, who have fought a 30-year insurgency, say they are fighting for the rights of landless farmers and neglected tribes. Thousands have died in their campaigns in central and southern India. Co-ordinated assault The rebels attacked the security post - manned by 75 policemen - in Bijapur just before dawn on Thursday. Under cover of darkness,...

The question of Maoist weapons has become contentious The leader of Nepal's former Maoist rebels says they still have thousands of combatants not confined in camps and weapons not stored away in containers.The remarks by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who still uses his war name, Prachanda, appear to fly in the face of the registration and confinement process. The first stage of the process, being supervised by the United Nations, began in January and has just been completed Concern over public displays of weapons by the Maoists has risen recently. Under November's peace agreement, the Maoists' army moved into 28...

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Former rebels were set to join the country's interim parliament on Monday in the Maoist communists' first step toward entering mainstream politics after agreeing to end their decade-long insurgency, officials said. The former rebels were originally allotted 73 seats but 10 more were added during the weekend, giving them 83 members in the 330-seat interim Parliament to be formed Monday. That would make the ex-rebels the second largest group in the legislature. It would be the rebels' first foray into the political mainstream since entering peace talks and signing a peace accord with the government last year...

Amidst confusing reports regarding his participation in an international ‘leadership summit’ to be organised by a leading Indian national daily in New Delhi, Maoist supremo Prachanda has finally decided to visit the Indian capital. At a press meeting organised by the Newa National Liberation Front, a Maoist wing, at the Maoist contact office in Kupandole, Kathmandu, on Thursday, Maoist leaders said chairman Prachanda would attend the summit "India: The Next Global Superpower?" slated for November 17-18, which will be hosted by The Hindustan Times daily. They said senior Maoist Dr Baburam Bhattarai would accompany Prachanda to New Delhi. The Hindustan...

Mob Rule at Columbia By Captain'sQuartersBlog.com www.captainsquartersblog.com | October 6, 2006 When Democracy for America invited me to participate in a panel debate about the war in Iraq on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 at Macalester College, I wondered whether the staunchly liberal setting would result in some sort of donnybrook due to my defense of the war. I needn't have worried; Macalester proved itself polite, classy, and welcoming, if predictably unenthusiastic about my point of view. No one chased me from the dais, and no one interrupted our debate. Unfortunately, Columbia University didn't demonstrate the same class and etiquette...

Veteran CBS newsman Bob Schieffer, who received the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media at the University of South Dakota, says the United States has never needed a vigorous free press more than now. "I cannot remember a time when it's been more challenging for journalists," said Schieffer, 69, who has covered Washington for more than 30 years and hosts the CBS interview show "Face the Nation."

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP ADDRESS TO THE QUADRANT MAGAZINE 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER, FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, SYDNEY Thank you very much Paddy McGuinness, Chief Justice, Justices, Your Eminence, Your Grace, my Parliamentary colleagues and ladies and gentlemen. I’m finally succumbing to Peter Garrett’s advice and its great to embrace an evening of culture and poetry and all of that after overdosing on my Philistine sporting pursuits over the weekend in almost the four corners of the Earth, from one side of the country to the other. But it really is an enormous pleasure for Janette...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces have arrested a senior Al Qaeda terrorist and personal associate of the group's new leader, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said Thursday.

HYDERABAD: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were frequent visitors to Andhra Pradesh prior to 1996 and they even trained the Maoists on guerrilla warfare, highly-placed sources in the police department have revealed to TOI. Expert fighters from the LTTE reportedly visited a camp held in the Nallamala forests in November 1996 to train Maoists. Though it was their last visit to the state, the sources said that since then the LTTE and CPI (Maoist) have developed a friendship that continues even today. They continue to share ideas, tactics and even literature. However, they have stopped exchanging weapons...

NEW DELHI, Aug 30 (Reuters) - India will use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to search for Maoist rebels and their camps in inaccessible regions of the central state of Chhattisgarh, a top security official said on Wednesday. This has been a long-pending demand of several of the 13 states that are facing Maoist violence -- termed as the country's most serious security challenge by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The rebels, who say they are fighting for the rights of landless labourers and poor peasants, regularly carry out guerrilla attacks on security personnel and government sympathisers from hideouts in forests that...

12 August 2006 EVEN a year ago, it would have been hard to associate Nepal with democracy. But today, democracy is on the march in the Himalayan kingdom. Dear readers, without doubt Nepal is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Known as the home of the mighty Himalayas, the world’s only Hindu country is taking major strides on the path to democracy and people’s involvement in the decision making process. Following King Gyanendra’s retreat in the long tussle with the political parties, the national unity government of Prime Minister GP Koirala has been taking decisive steps to...

KATHMANDU: The top two leaders of Nepal's Maoist party are currently in eastern India, media reports in Kathmandu said. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist as well as supreme commander of the rebels' guerrilla army, the People's Liberation Army, and his deputy, architect-turned rebel Baburam Bhattarai, arrived in Siliguri town in West Bengal Friday evening, Nepali newspapers said on Saturday. After a brief halt in Jhapa district in eastern Nepal, on the India-Nepal border, where they held consultations with party leaders, the rebel leaders headed for Siliguri. Accompanying them are senior leader of the...

Nepal to seize royal lands, king to be "normal citizen" by Deepesh Shrestha Sat Aug 5, 2006 Nepal plans to seize lands owned by King Gyanendra and other royal family members and distribute them to the poor as it moves toward treating the monarch like a "normal citizen," a minister said. Legislation limiting the amount of property the king can hold will be drafted once an inventory of royal properties is completed, Land Reforms Minister Prabhu Narayan Chaudhary said on Saturday in Kathmandu, the capital of the impoverished Himalayan nation. "The seized royal property will be nationalized and handed over...

St. Petersburg, July 17: Opening the first ever India-Russia-China summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin today said the three neighbouring nuclear powers have "practically identical" views on major global problems and expressed satisfaction at the coordination of efforts by them. "Our approaches on key world problems are very close or as the diplomats say, practically identical," Putin said opening the trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Putin expressed satisfaction that the three powers of the same region "manage to coordinate their efforts on the international scene." Hosting his Indian and Chinese colleagues in the ornate...

The Indian government is experimenting with new ways of fighting back against Maoist fighters, who now operate in almost half of the country's 28 states. In the past year, the Chhattisgarh state government has introduced new anti-terrorism training for the police - and is backing a civil militia called Salwa Judum. The BBC's Jill McGivering spent three days travelling with Maoist fighters in the jungles of Chhattisgarh. Villagers train to counter Maoists Villagers joined the civil militia to defend themselves from Maoists Driving through Chhattisgarh at dawn, we saw a group of villagers by the road, shouldering sticks as...

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's Maoist rebel leader held ground-breaking talks on Friday with the government, which agreed to dissolve parliament and set up an interim administration to include the rebels. Rebel chief Prachanda said after nearly 10 hours of talks with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and political party leaders that an interim constitution will be prepared within three weeks and later a new interim government will be formed. "I am proud ... because the decision we have taken is a historic one," he told reporters. Maoists also promised to dissolve their parallel governments around the countryside. Prachanda was speaking...

Nepal’s political landscape, over the last several weeks, has experienced cataclysmic changes. Particularly in the wake of second mass movement, this country seems awakening from a deep slumber. Centuries old institution of monarchy, that once used to command spontaneous respect, has been a redundant object of widespread vilification. The king once revered as the incarnation of Lord Bishnu has been reduced to a nondescript entity. The exceptional diminution of the king has left both his relatives and supporters susceptible to growing obloquy mixed with political vendetta. Under the massive pressure of popular uprising the king was bound to reinstate the...

KATHMANDU, May 23 (Reuters) - A Nepali Maoist leader on Tuesday urged the constitution be thrown out, parliament dissolved and an interim government including the rebels formed before elections are held to map the nation's future. "We are going to have a new constitution. But how can you have that without abrogating the old one?" asked Krishsna Bahadur Mahara two days after arriving in the Nepali capital to lead a three-member team in talks with a caretaker government. The talks are to pave the way for a meeting between reclusive Maoist chief Prachanda and Prime Minister Girija Prasasd Koirala, appointed...