2 min readFeb 3, 2026 08:13 AM IST
First published on: Feb 3, 2026 at 08:12 AM IST

The foreign secretary, Romesh Bhandari, who was scheduled to leave for Sri Lanka on February 3, has postponed his visit and returned to New Delhi. Originally, he was to have left for Colombo for talks with the Sri Lankan government between February 3 and 5 after ascertaining the views of the various Eelam groups in the city. Bhandari told newsmen that the visit had been postponed due to “circumstances”.

Pope John Paul II in Delhi

Pope John Paul II called for an inter-religion collaboration on a joint struggle against hunger, poverty, ignorance, persecution, discrimination every form of slavery of the human spirit. Elaborating his call, the Pope said that there was a need for a joint endeavour in view of the fact that “today as Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, Parsees and Christians, we gather in fraternal love to assert this by our very presence here”.

Vajpayee on spy case

Bharatiya Janata Party president Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has alleged that the inclusion of his name in the chargesheet of the espionage case against Ram Swarup was “patently dishonest and motivated”. He asserted that to drag innocent names into heinous crimes like espionage was more in the nature of a political stunt than anything to do with national security. He had nothing to do with the case even as a witness, he maintained.

MP officials’ US trip

The US trip of Madhya Pradesh government officials and victims of the Bhopal gas leak disaster, who are flying to New York on February 3, is being financed from the fund set up for “gas relief” by the state. The trip, which has attracted adverse publicity because of the selection of only well-to-do persons, including a government doctor and an engineer, as gas victims, is expected to cost over Rs 2 lakh.