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Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:43 pm (PST)
Source: http://atimes.com

China's ongoing tussles with the United States over issues including Taiwan, Tibet and trade are in a sense nothing new. For more than two decades, Sino-US relations have periodically gone through rough patches over these and related causes of disagreement. What is new is China's much-enhanced global clout in the wake of the world financial crisis, which is coupled with a marked decline in America's hard and soft power.

Ramtanu Maitra
12 March 2010
Source: http://www.vijayvaani.com

It is a certainty that one of the key subjects of discussion between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin [who visits India in March 11-12], will be the changing situation in Afghanistan. There is little doubt that in the capitals of both nations, the return of the Taliban to share power with a weakened President Karzai has set off alarm bells.

India's nuclear-accident liability law: An anti-market bill that weakens safety
Low accident liability and legal immunity mean reactor builders will have perverse incentives for malpractices
Brahma Chellaney Mint March 11, 2010
Source: http://chellaney.spaces.live.com

The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill is an unparalleled piece of legislation: It aims to make foreign builders of nuclear reactors in India immune from legal action, however culpable they may be for a catastrophic accident. And it caps their liability at a ridiculously low Rs500 crore ($109 million) despite the billions of dollars in profit they are set to make. Yet, the government set the parliamentary process for the Bill’s consideration in motion under unusual circumstances—it circulated it to members on 8 March when Parliament was in turmoil over the women’s reservation issue.

By M K Bhadrakumar
Source: http://www.atimes.com

Be it a baseball struck in a neighborhood sandlot game or in high-wire diplomacy, an elementary principle of physics holds good - what goes up must come down. In a way, the sheer dynamics of the nosedive of the United States' AfPak diplomacy in the four weeks since the London conference on Afghanistan on January 28 can be attributed to gravitational pulls.

sanyasis exemplify the purpose of human birth as Hindus - to understand the nature of the self. This knowledge or this understanding reveals to the individual the boundaries and the boundlessness of the self. sanyasis know the limits of not only the body but also the mind. Paradoxically, it is the limited mind which gives us the sense of limitlessness too and the sanyasi in saffron robes best represents this stunning paradox.