FIFA boss Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize for his stewardship of soccer's governing body, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired by Swiss broadcaster RTS on Monday.
The extraordinary admission on Tuesday came the same day as Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining 10 counts, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.
United States President Donald Trump is set to approve the release of a controversial memo accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation of abusing its surveillance tools during its probe into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election, setting up a clash with the intelligence agency.
'Le Carré's spies were nothing like the exotic Kim of Kipling or the caricature that is James Bond.' 'Driven by a simple patriotism, held back by incompetence and politics, his characters use deceit and treachery to win their morally Pyrrhic victories,' notes P Rajendran.
New Delhi should resist any temptation to act as spoiler and instead should cooperate with its SCO partners in reaching a regional consensus behind the formation of an interim government in Kabul, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Nuclear powered India and Pakistan are constantly skirmishing in Kashmir, the outgoing US National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, said identifying some of the Russian actions, Syria along with North Korea and South Asia or a pandemic flu as some of the less probable but catastrophic scenarios globally.
Some of the best photographs, clicked across the globe in January.
The aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Admiral Gorshkov, expected to join the Indian Navy later this year, is already late by five years and its price has risen three-fold, from $947 million (about Rs 5,735 crore) in 2004 to $2.3 billion (Rs 13,928.8 crore) today.
'Here, after all, was a fine specimen of intelligence in the field that Adam Smith gave formal structure. And successful RR surely was as RBI chief.'
'As the tanks roll down Delhi's Rajpath and the C-17s fly overhead, there could be a lot brewing in Hyderabad House,' says Surya Gangadharan.
The navy's plan to build three Russian Talwar-class frigates has a less than wholesome odour.
The trainee pilot managed to eject safely from the aircraft, which caught fire.
With a massive final push, which began mid-November, Syrian forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad took over the last remaining rebel strongholds in the historic city of Aleppo on the night of December 12. They only won a ruined city and ruined lives.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
China has not limited the 'battle' to the diplomatic field alone; the People's Liberation Army has become aggressive on the ground too. The recent 'fights' in Northern Sikkim and Ladakh are part of the pattern, asserts Claude Arpi.
A five-member JIT from Pakistan reached Pathankot on Sunday to carry out a probe into the attack at the IAF base at Pathankot.
Images from Sunday's English Premier League matches.
India is also likely to push for a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Zone and is sharing details of the study it conducted in this regard.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday claimed that evidence has been tampered with at the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in pro-Russia separatists-held eastern Ukraine.
Along with HAL, Boeing intends to involve the Mahindra Group in building Super Hornets in India.
The American, Russian and Chinese reactions to the Uri attack indicates how tough it will be for India to 'isolate' Pakistan internationally,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The US said it has strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile systems and electronic jammers to contested features in the Spratly Islands region of the South China Sea.
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last week, in 13 images.
Senior United States intelligence officials said Russia trained and equipped separatists responsible for the shooting down of MH17 with a surface-to-air missile over Ukraine, but noted that the rebels may have targeted the plane presuming it to be a Ukrainian military jet.
The remarkable story of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space, will be seen in a film featuring Aamir Khan.
After 186 days in space on the International Space Station, it is time for European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake, American Tim Copra and Russian Yuri Malenchenko to return to Earth. But their return is fraught with danger.
Slated to be in India on December 8, Carter would travel to Japan, Bahrain, Israel, Italy and Great Britain before returning to the US on December 16. This is for the first time that an outgoing American Defence Secretary has included India in his itinerary for the final overseas trip.
The Russians had appealed their exclusion from the Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the doping scandal from the 2014 Sochi Games.
Rajeev Srinivasan on why there is the strong possibility that this whole thing is an elaborate charade and how the mainstream might have just played into Trump's showman hands.
'Will this surgical strike of ours put an end to Pakistani terror?' 'And if not, what will we do when the next terror strike happens?' 'Will there be another surgical strike or will we have to do something bigger?' 'How big does it have to be to get Pakistan to totally stop?'
In a significant development in the war against militant group Islamic State, Iraqi forces have retaken control of Ramadi from the Islamic State with the United States also hailing their victory.
Now the the job of searching out and destroying enemy submarines in the waters off India's coast will fall to the navy's new fleet of a dozen Boeing P-8I aircraft, reports Ajai Shukla.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite films from the recent Toronto International Film Festival.
'Whichever way you look at it, it is a blow to the JeM and to the Pakistani army in general; the attack has taken place in mainland Pakistan and not in PoK.'
Even as France mourns the bloodiest terrorist attack for 20 years, let's take a look at some major standoffs witnessed in the past:
'It's a threat to whoever you want, and it includes China, and it includes Russia and it includes anybody else that wants to play that game. You can't do that. You can't play that game on me'
The readed groups' income plummeted from around $80 million (Rs 532 crore) each month to $56 million (Rs 372 crore).
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
'General Sam Manekshaw looked from left to right and said, "Gentlemen, I have come to have a look at you. I am taking a good look at your faces. When I come back after the war is over, some faces may not be here".'
As we prepare to cruise into the New Year, Rediff.com gives you a glance back, through photos, into all the sporting moments that made the last 12 months memorable.
