International and Bilateral Issues:

After a series of delays at various levels, false-starts, slip-shod trial and error experimentation at the Indian and Sri Lankan capitals, the massive Indian Housing project for the displaced Tamils is set to take off.
The issues in question that confronted policymakers in Colombo and New Delhi was this: More than a year after Mr. Krishna laid the foundation stone for the project in Jaffna, a meagre number of houses have been built, as part of a $10 million pilot project.

The Iranian government on Saturday welcomed a U.S. Navy rescue of 13 of its nationals from pirates near the entrance to the Gulf, in a rare respite from months of rising tensions between Tehran and Washington.
It said the Iranian captain of the dhow had asked the USS Kidd for help.
But one Iranian media outlet, the Fars news agency, which is close to the hardline Revolutionary Guards, dismissed the incident as a suspect “Hollywood movie” meant “to justify the presence of a [U.S.] aircraft carrier in Persian Gulf waters.”

A copy of the world's most expensive book, John James Audubon's 19th-century masterpiece The Birds of America , is set for auction later this month and is expected to sell for up to $10 million.
The last full edition of The Birds of America , which went up for auction in 2010, sold for £7.3million at Sotheby's, breaking the world record for a single book.
The Birds of America is a big book — more than a metre high and running to four volumes — and was created by Audubon between 1827 and 1838.

For the first time in 83 years the United States Department of Justice announced a “major” change in the definition of rape towards one that took cognisance of male victims and also did away with ambiguities surrounding the question of consent.
Until now the legal understanding of rape came from a 1927 rule that defined it as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will,” a phraseology that excluded oral and anal penetration; rape of males; penetration with an object or body part other than the penis; rape of females by females; and, non-forcible rape.
Following the latest move by the DoJ rape is now defined as “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
With the 2010 statistic of 84,767 people raped in the U.S., it was realized that with relatively easy access to alcohol, some types of drugs, and the greater exposure of younger persons, the risk of being raped gone up.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill has called for political reforms in Russia in response to mass protests
Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets in December in what became the largest protests in 20 years. Another protest rally is planned for February 4, exactly one month before the presidential election that is expected to see Mr. Putin reclaim presidency for six more years.
Patriarch Kirill also warned protesters against allowing themselves to be “manipulated” as it happened in the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, when “we destroyed our country.”
About 70 per cent of Russians identify themselves with the Russian Orthodox Church

India has decided to send a truncated 15-member military delegation to China after Beijing expressed objections to hosting an Indian Air Force (IAF) official from Arunachal Pradesh, a decision officials described as a pragmatic compromise aimed at keeping a fragile defence relationship on track.
The talks, which took place almost a full two years after the previous round, were aimed at reinvigorating defence ties that were only resumed last June.
Exchanges had been suspended for a year after China refused to host the then head of the Northern Command, Lieutenant General B.S. Jaswal, in July 2010 on grounds that he was serving in “the sensitive region” of Jammu and Kashmir.
Beijing's visa policy to Indians from Arunachal Pradesh. The Chinese government has either issued stapled visas to Indians from the State, or as reported in this instance, not issued visas at all, citing its claim on the State as its own territory.
India has, in the past, has avoided sending officials domiciled in the State for defence exchanges with China in the light of Beijing's visa policy. Analysts here wondered whether the official's inclusion in the delegation suggested an attempt by India to judge China's response by selecting the officer, or if on the other hand he was inadvertently chosen for the tri-services defence exchange.