'I don't think Waheeda had the confidence that I could pull it off, so she said no.'
Xi is widely expected to continue in power for life.
Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state -- but China views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification.
India is a great power that determines its national interests and chooses its partners, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, describing as "completely unjustified" the "enormous pressure" on New Delhi due to its energy cooperation with Moscow.
He was a formidable musician but seemed utterly human, a Peter Pan who wore his genius with deceptive lightness. Sandip Roy remembers Ustad Zakir Hussain.
Salim Durani was the 'people's man', whose impact can never be quantified by the 29 Test matches that he played over 13 years between 1960 to 1973, or the 1200-plus runs he scored and 75 wickets he took with his mean left-arm spin.
On his maiden visit to Beijing, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during which the two leaders agreed to strengthen the all-weather friendship and the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
'Alongside economic growth and the Asian century, stress has become an Asian caravan.' 'But stress doesn't arrive in one's country as invitation to taste exhaustion. It comes dressed as a challenge.' 'Its evangelists ask: Are you man enough to shoulder stress?' points out Shyam G Menon.
Bangladesh is in turmoil, which is not good news for India, which shares a porous 4000 km border with it. There is a danger of fundamentalism growing there, and India has to move in to reset its ties with the new dispensation before China and Pakistan make capital out of it, alerts Ramesh Menon.
Kissinger's approach of balance of power, secret diplomacy and moderating ideology are the need of the hour. That is the greatest tribute to an intellectual who had a major impact on the world in his lifetime, notes Colonel Anil A Athale.
Tendulkar's sterling performances, his fascinating duels for supremacy with contemporaries -- Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Inzamam-ul Haq, Jacques Kallis among batsmen; Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Wasim Akram among bowlers -- embellished modern cricket and globalised the game, asserts Ayaz Memon who has observed the cricketing colossus from the day he made his Test debut in November 1989.
Terming the rape and murder case of a medic at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital as horrific, the Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the West Bengal government over delay in filing first information report (FIR) in the matter.
Ewing, a seven-foot center, was the number one pick in the 1985 NBA draft and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He also won two Olympic gold medals as a member of the US 'Dream Team'.
'The two sides agree to continue firmly supporting each other in safeguarding their respective core interests,' a joint statement issued at the end of Muizzu's talks with Chinese leaders said.
'You have to keep working hard.' 'The universe sees that in you and the higher power puts those opportunities in your way.'
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will be the chief guest at this year's Republic Day celebrations.
Uzbekistan lives comfortably in several centuries but is also a forward-looking nation, Deepa Gahlot discovers on a visit to this Central Asian country.
China on Monday said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's three-day visit from Tuesday is of great importance for deepening strategic partnership amid expectations that the two sides would sign some key pacts, including one to prevent incursions along the LAC.
I look forward to many years of success and friendship, working together to solve not only our problems, but world problems and problems of great danger and security, says President Trump in Beijing.
Justine Henin, a shy, petite Belgian with a fierce desire to win, and big-serving Russian Marat Safin were honored as the new inductees into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island on Saturday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday held formal talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama, a day after the two leaders pledged to push forward a new type of major-country relations between the world's two largest economies.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist party, attended the opening session of the National People's Congress, his country's parliament, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 5, 2022.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
'The entertainment industry is on the verge of a big, big, change over the next few months and years.'
China, governed by one-party system since 1949, will carry out political reforms to allow more involvement of people in decision-making process but will not ape western-style democracy, President Hu Jintao said on Thursday.
Xi made the remarks in a verbal message to Pakistani President Arif Alvi, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Here are some of the best moments from Day 2 of his visit.
'He was a practical person who ensured that he thought about the common man, animals, the fact that they have a life and they have to be respected.'
An initial probe has revealed that the 53-year-old singer, who was on a two-day tour to Kolkata to perform at two college programmes, was 'almost mobbed' by fan followers at the hotel where he had returned to after performing at Nazrul Mancha auditorium in the southern part of Kolkata.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Wednesday held a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Li Kaqiang, and discussed bilateral relations with the leader, who is tipped to become the prime minister of China next year.
This was the first general election in the valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the EC said in a statement.
Tokyo -- the songs Japan, Love In Tokyo and Sayonara from the 1966 Hindi film automatically pop up in the mind -- is buzzing and crowded like any other metropolis, discovers Deepa Gahlot. The modern apartment blocks are built cheek by jowl, so close together that one can open the window and borrow sugar from the neighbour in the next building. One of the fears of the Indian traveller is the unavailability of vegetarian food. Every city and town in Japan has an array of Indian restaurants that serve every variety of cuisine, right from Gujarati to Punjabi to Andhra and Kerala meals.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday vowed to continue their 'all-weather' friendship, as increasingly isolated Islamabad stepped up efforts to drum up support after the killing of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden by American forces in Pakistan.
Many believe that previous leader Tung was pushed out by Beijing, which had lost confidence in him. Tung suffered from dismal public approval ratings during his eight years in office.\n
The first agreement that was signed was for cooperation on visa application formalities for airline staff of the two countries. The second, a Memorandum of Understanding, was signed between Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Indian Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, for cooperation in the field of civil services. A third and final Memorandum of Understanding was signed for cooperation in space technology.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed in the midst of bombs and bullets even as he flagged concerns over a missile strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv.
The head of the European monetary authority stepped off the plane at Beijing airport, and was transported by a high-speed train faster than France's TGV, to the centre of Beijing.
Bush said that in its 60-year-old journey as an Independent nation, India has set an example for other countries.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang hosted a lunch for his visiting Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh immediately after crucial talks between the leaders at the Great Hall of People in Beijing on Wednesday.
