Police release new photo of suspect in Infosys techie Swathi’s murder

The Chennai police released on Thursday a photograph of the main suspect in the murder of Infosys employee Swathi Santhanagopalakrishnan, who was hacked to death at a railway station on way to work last week.

Though officials have rounded up 20 people, they have yet to make a breakthrough despite releasing CCTV images of the suspect earlier. The Madras high court has asked police to solve the case by Thursday.

A police spokesperson said the suspect -- the new photo showed a man wearing a checkered shirt and carrying a backpack -- did not speak to the 24-year-old Swathi before attacking her at Nungambakkam railway station.

“The fact that he did not speak to her does not rule out that he was known to her,” an official said, adding the murder weapon --- a sickle --- was sent for forensic tests. Officials said the image was sent to a lab in Hyderabad for enhancement.

An eyewitness told a Tamil news channel that Swathi did not make a sound when the man attacked her.

Swathi was employed with Infosys’ branch at Mahindra World City at Singaperumalkoil, around 60km from Chennai. Her murder has triggered outrage in the civil society and among political parties.

After the high court’s intervention, the state government transferred the investigation from the Government Railway Police to the city police on Monday.

Her father has said the people at the crowded station remained mute spectators even as Swathi was attacked.

SOurce: http://www.hindustantimes.com

China pulls up chief negotiator for limited global support for anti-India position at NSG

The Chinese leadership has pulled up Wang Qun, its lead negotiator and Director General of the Arms Control Division at the Foreign Ministry, for failing to drum up significant global support for China's position in Seoul which blocked India's entry into the NSG .

Highly placed Western and Chinese sources said that Wang Qun had told Beijing that at least one third of the NSG nations would endorse China's position. However, the position was totally in the reverse, with as many as 44 nations backing India and China only having the support of four nations.

Beijing now fears that the fallout of the NSG outcome could have an impact on a crucial verdict expected soon from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in a case brought by the Philippines concerning China's territorial reclamation activities in the South China Sea .

As things stand, Beijing's stance flies in the face of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of which it is a signatory. China's big fear now is India could use the same ploy that Beijing used in Seoul at the NSG plenary and back The Hague Court's decision which is likely to go against China.

Highly-placed sources said that the global support for India's position at the NSG could well be leveraged by New Delhi to back the enforcement of The Hague Judgment - a scenario which could isolate China and could even trigger its exit from UNCLOS.

Informed sources said the focus now shifts from the NSG to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague where a judgment is expected, which when enforced, could force China to give up land in favour of the Philippines.

China has launched a worldwide propaganda campaign enlisting academics, legal experts, diplomats and foreign governments stating that such legal proceedings are invalid. But this position of China's is contrary to the rules laid out by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of which China is a signatory. China claims that it has the support of 60 nations who believe that arbitration at The Hague is illegal.

China's worry now is that post its inability to generate global support for its anti-India position on NSG at Seoul, its position at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague could meet the same fate, and this time, it could have to pay a very heavy price.

High-level sources said that Seoul's outcome has "shocked China". The government thought that its emerging superpower status would guarantee the support of at least 15 nations against India.

Western sources said China is "very sensitive"to possibilities of being isolated, and the developments and outcome at Seoul "came quite close to isolation".


China is paranoid about what might happen once the Permanent Court of Arbitration gives a verdict against Beijing and in favour of Philippines.


Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

US navigation operations in South China Sea not an act of provocation: White House

Strongly refuting Chinese allegations, the US has said that its freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea is not an act of provocation, two days after an American navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the area.

The US, on the other hand, reaffirmed concerns of the international community, particularly of the countries in the region, against Chinese movements and actions in the resource- rich sea.


However, the White House yesterday refused to describe the situation in the South China Sea as headed towards tension.

"I would not describe it that way. I think that there are concerns about China's activities in the South China Sea, (which) are well documented. Our concerns that we have raised both publicly and privately with Chinese officials at a range of levels," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday.


The freedom of navigation operation that was carried out by the US forces earlier this week is relatively routine, the presidential spokesman said.

"We have done that at least a couple of times just in the last four or five months. It is not intended to be a provocative act. It is merely a demonstration of a principle that the president laid out on a number of occasions, which is that the US will fly, operate and sail anywhere that international law allows," Earnest said, adding that th ..


A US navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Tuesday. The guided missile destroyer, USS William P Lawrence, passed within 22-kilometres of Fiery Cross Reef, the limit of what international law regards as an island's territorial sea. The reef is now an island with an airstrip, harbour and burgeoning above-ground infrastructure.

Chinese authorities monitored and issued warnings to the US destroyer when it passed.

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