Maoist leader Kishanji, who has opposed talks with the government, made a sudden turnaround on Monday, offering a 72-day ceasefire saying there would be no left-wing violence if the security forces stopped their operations in Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.

‘‘The deadline begins on February 25 (to be observed as martyr’s day by the Maoists) and ends on May 7, during which there will be no violence from either side,’’ said Kishanji. Incidentally, this is the period when trees would shed leaves in the forest and make it difficult for the Maoists to move around unseen. It ends just a month before the annual date for onset of monsoon in Bengal.

The News:
http://timesofindia. … icleshow/5605076.cms

The government of Israel is ready to restore the de jure recognition it has offered to Somaliland in 1960 as it eyes the Red Sea and the Horn, an Israeli spokesman says.

According to a local source, Golisnews, Mr. Yigal Palmor, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman is quoted on the Israeli newspaper of Haaretz Daily saying his government was ready to recognize Somaliland again. He cited Israel was the first state to recognize Somaliland in 1960 when it received its independence from Great Britain.

However, Mr. Palmor admitted Somaliland government has not contacted the Israeli government to seek ties.

The News:
http://somalilandpre … ecognize-somaliland/

Outgoing Croatian president Stjepan Mesic earlier this month threatened to intervene militarily in the event that Bosnia’s Serb entity, Republika Srpska, attempts to secede and establish itself as an Independent State. He was responding to repeated separatist noises on the part of the Republika Srpska’s aggressively nationalistic prime minister, Milorad Dodik, who makes no secret of his hostility to the state of Bosnia-Hercegovina and his designs against its territorial integrity, and whose atrocity denial and friendship for convicted war-criminals indicate a dangerous contempt for the norms of civilised behaviour.

Mesic has warned that if Dodik announces a referendum on secession – as the first step toward the Republika Srpska’s unification with Serbia to form a ‘Great Serbia’ – he would send the Croatian Army south across the River Sava to cut in half the Bosnian Serb entity, which ‘would then have to disappear’.

The News:
http://www.bosnia.or … body.cfm?newsid=2676

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania recognizes the Republic of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state and has decided to establish diplomatic relations, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mauritania.

“After intensive communications between the Foreign Ministries of the Republic of Kosovo and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and meetings at the foreign ministers of both countries, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, on 12 January 2010, has taken the decision to recognize Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state,”confirms the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, through a press release.

The News:
http://www.newkosova … vo-independence.html

Martinique and French Guyana said no to a greater autonomy from French. According to final numbers of the referendum voted yesterday in the French overseas departments, have voted against the passage from article 73 to 74 of Constitution 78,9% of inhabitants of Martinique and 69,8% of inhabitants of French Guyana.

The News:
http://www.ansa.it/w … html_1652766332.html