Venkatesh Varma appointed new ambassador to Russia

Senior diplomat D Bala Venkatesh Varma has been appointed as India’s next ambassador to Russia, considered a highprofile posting due to expanse of strategic cooperation between the two countries. Varma, a 1988 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently serving as Indian envoy in Spain. He will succeed Pankaj Saran who has been appointed deputy National Security Adviser. “Varma is expected to take up the role shortly,” an external affairs ministry statement said. Saran has been India’s envoy to Russia since January 2016.

Bengal CID files charge sheet in Kolkata carcass meat case

The West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID)  has produced a charge sheet against 12 accused persons in the carcass meat racket case, close to four months after their arrest, a senior CID officer said. The charge sheet has been produced in a case registered at South 24 Parganas district’s Budge Budge police station on April 19, where the accused persons have been slapped with charges of selling noxious and adulterated food and criminal conspiracy.

Sri Lanka to question ex-president over editor’s abduction

Sri Lanka’s ex-president Mahinda Rajapakse is to be questioned over the 2008 abduction of a newspaper editor, police sai, as authorities investigate the former leader and his family over allegations of murder and fraud.Investigators believe a group of military officials behind the abduction of the Nation news editor Keith Noyahr was also responsible for the assassination of another newspaper editor fiercely critical of Rajapakse.

The Criminal Investigations Department has told Rajapakse he will be questioned at his home in Colombo on Friday, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera shared with media in Colombo.Noyahr’s abduction, which prompted widespread criticism, came after he published an article criticising a top military commander.He was picked up from outside his home near Colombo as he returned from work, and was released — battered and bruised — in the streets of a suburb of Colombo a few hours later. Noyahr has since moved to Australia.