Caste-related violence involving an influential community in India's Gujarat state left eight people dead earlier this week. The Patel community is demanding quotas in educational institutions and government jobs. Politician and writer Shashi Tharoor explains why India needs a new debate on affirmative action.

Europe reeled from fresh shocks in its escalating migration crisis Friday, with reports that 150 people drowned in the Mediterranean and news that far more bodies had been found crammed in an abandoned refrigeration truck in Austria than first thought. Damage to the vehicle’s side raised the possibility that victims had struggled to escape.

In 2010, Jef Otte wrote a post titled 'Interview with a porn star: Angela Aspen on HIV, Youth Ministry and why pornos have plots'.

The Oval Tavern is where all the old-timers love to hang out at the P Sara Oval. Everyone has a cold one as they appreciate Kumar Sangakkara's silky smooth off-drive.

“Thank you” said all political party leaders to the voters, for voting them. But none has won outright at this election to form a government of its own. The single largest party that got enough to form a government, the UNP, publicly projected as the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG), nevertheless can sustain themselves with 107 seats out of 225 in parliament, though not with an absolute majority. In fact this would be the first time a hung parliament could allow a government to function without much trouble over numbers.

The overall pace of life in Sri Lanka can vary from the charmingly tepid to the surreal, but it rarely gets close to being lively. Even Colombo for that matter, which despite its avant garde aesthetics, and constantly bean-stalking landscape, slips into a miss-the-bus-rather-than-run-after-it tempo as the day wears on. Getting attuned to the capital’s innate beat is how it must have been to get used to facing Tom Moody’s military medium-pace, which contrasted with his javelin-thrower like hulking physique.