While the situation Sitharaman finds herself in may not be that good, how does it stack up against her three immediate predecessors Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram and the late Arun Jaitley?
The time is ripe to extend the confrontation with the Chinese to the maritime domain, says former RA&W officer Krishan Varma.
'What Kamala Harris' rise and rise underscores is that our old ways of identifying the Indian-American Diaspora need to change...' 'None of this detracts from her Indian-American identity, which makes us feel as if we are Americans too,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The worst affected is the electricity supply. A huge number of poles, some 6,000 to 8,000 poles have been damaged completely. That will take a lot of time for restoration.'
Hosts England lock horns with New Zealand at the Riverside with both sides knowing that victory would secure their passage.
This flight of capital began in early August due to risk-aversion created first by rising geopolitical tensions due to North Korean aggression and second by the US Fed's decision to shrink its balance sheet
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar conducted aerial survey of 12 inundated districts to take stock of the situation arising out of flood which has claimed 190 lives so far in Bihar.
The revived factionalism in the AIADMK, if not curbed now, has the potential to split the party vertically, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
'It doesn't look as if any sensible, worldly wise, person is in charge in China.' 'If at all anybody is in charge, it can only be a bunch of bumpkins of whom Xi has become a puppet,' observes B S Raghavan, the veteran civil servant.
The street-fighter attitude is what keeps Rane going even at 69. The expectation is -- at least in the BJP camp -- that he will be itching for a battle royale with the Shiv Sena in its bastions.
If the new governor can think out of the box even as he signals that he can bat for the RBI cadre and respect its institutional memory, that will go a long way in getting out of the current impasse.
Star striker Sunil Chhetri finally found his goal-scoring touch and scored twice as Mumbai City FC swamped Delhi Dynamos 2-0 to notch up their maiden win in four games in the Indian Super League.
The Indian Meteorological Department, meanwhile, warned of intense spell of 30 to 50 mm rainfall per hour with strong winds in Mumbai and suburban areas.
Out of 67 fishermen, 49 are from Tamil Nadu, 13 from Kerala, four from Assam and one from Andhra Pradesh, they said.
Previously, the oldest message in a bottle spent 99 years and 43 days at sea and was part of a similar science experiment, Guinness said.
Obama said that the country was starting to see a lot of the jobs that had left the shores in manufacturing, for example, now starting to come back, because "we put ourselves in a much more competitive position".
12 images from events that shaped the world in the week that was.
'Between now and 2021, Bengal's politics could change irrevocably,' predicts Kanchan Gupta, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
IMAGES from the English Premier League match played between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on Saturday
The South Central Railway as well as the East Coast Railway cancelled several trains while some were terminated midway, officials said, adding a few express trains were also diverted.
India, which has an Observer status for the past 10 years, will technically become the member by next year.
Cheap milk prices, rising fodder cost and the difficulties in buying new cattle and selling old ones on account of cow vigilantism have cast a triple shadow on this sunshine sector in Indian agriculture, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
Up to 700 migrants, including 40 children, are feared to have died this week while crossing the Mediterranean, based on the accounts that survivors told aid workers once they reached safety.
As the sprinter runs his last race, we veer off the trodden tourist trail in Jamaica and revisit his hometown, Trelawny Parish.
'Not only have we rescued 1,700 fishermen but on the morning of November 30, we evacuated 1,044 fishing folk, otherwise the missing numbers would have been much higher.'
Switzerland topped the list of countries offering the highest salaries.
Hurricane Irma gave Florida a coast-to-coast pummelling with winds up to 130 mph, swamping homes and boats, knocking out power to millions and toppling massive construction cranes over the Miami skyline.
The focus shifts almost immediately from celebrations to the challenges faced by the man who powered his party to 303 seats in the Lok Sabha.
'It is nobody's contention that uncomfortable questions regarding national security should not be raised. But that is a topic for another day and another time when the immediate threat has faded,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
Demand will boom in the US and China, but exporters say it will be difficult for India to tap these markets.
"A very easy solution to suggest is tax-payers must pay because the private sector has defaulted," Jaitley said, adding that bank recapitalisation, where the government puts in more capital in public sector banks to shore up their books, effectively amounted to that. "Therefore, I think let's try and make the private sector pay for their debts or allow somebody else to step in."
Though the "eye of the storm" is away from land, the cyclone's outer periphery would leave its impact on the coast.
European leaders on Thursday agreed to triple its naval search mission in the Mediterranean, restoring its funding to last year's level. The decision comes four days after up to 900 desperate people drowned trying to reach Europe from Libya.
The prime minister has been unstoppable as he transported the BJP to colossal success on a wave of muscular nationalism, majoritarian pride and charisma.
Trump said his new policy would tighten rules affecting travel and sending funds to the Caribbean island nation.
Two Indian-Americans running a grocery store in the state of Indiana have been shot dead by masked men, sending shock waves among the Sikh community in the United States.
The Pakistan maritime security agency apprehended 12 Indian fishermen and seized their two boats near the international maritime boundary on Sunday, a Porbandar-based non-government organisation claimed.
While the DMK fears that the Congress with its poor strike rate will pull it down in the 2021 state elections, like it did five years ago, the ruling AIADMK is worried that the BJP may ultimately do a Bihar on it, relegating it to second place in Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Old City of Nazareth in Israel is an ancient hub that is being rightfully revived, says Jael Silliman.
