Lebanese PM in Moscow to meet Putin
AFP, Beirut
Lebanon’s prime minister-designate Saad Hariri will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, the eve of the FIFA World Cup, Hariri’s office said.He will then attend the football tournament’s inaugural match on Thursday, pitting Russia against his longtime backer, Saudi Arabia.
4 Indian soldiers in Kashmir firing
AP, Srinagar, India
Indian and Pakistani forces fired along the highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir early Wednesday after Pakistani firing killed at least four Indian paramilitary soldiers and injured three others on border patrol, Indian officials said.
Pakistan denied initiating the firing, saying its soldiers only responded to the Indian “unprovoked” firing. Islamabad also summoned an Indian diplomat to protest a civilian’s killing.
Paris hostages freed, suspect arrested
AP, Paris
A four-hour hostage standoff in central Paris ended with police moving in, arresting the armed suspect and freeing the people held in a ground-floor office, France’s interior minister announced late Tuesday. “All the hostages are safe and sound,” Gerard Collomb said in a brief statement. At least two people had been held.
Lightning kills 10 in West Bengal
Xinhua, New Delhi
At least 10 people were killed and several others injured after lightning struck them at different places in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, officials said Wednesday.
The lightning struck Bankura, Hooghly, West Midnapore, Birbhum and North 24 Parganas districts on Tuesday.
Sirisena inducts 7 ministers from Jaffna
PTI, Colombo
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today inducted seven new ministers in his government, including a Tamil who is the only elected representative of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party from Jaffna, the capital of northern district.
Two state ministers and five deputy ministers were sworn-in by Sirisena at a function at the Presidential Secretariat, amid an internal bickering within the unity government.
Angajan Ramanathan, of the Sirisena-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party from Jaffna, was appointed as a deputy minister.
