'There seem to be no reason why Assad should have launched such an attack when he was gaining acceptability,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Governments encouraged motorists to switch to diesel in the belief that its superior fuel economy would outweigh the higher pollutants per litre burned.
Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who suffered a heart attack in May, has been registered by the club to play in this season's Portuguese league.
India had 14 out of the world's 20 most polluted cities, the World Health Organization reveals.
She lived for two-thirds of her life in India, adopted its national cause and customs, and took an Indian passport. She served a prison sentence in Lahore as part of Gandhi's protests against an Imperial power which happened to be her motherland. Freda Bedi delighted in confounding accepted definitions of identity.
'The bullet train is not modernity itself. It is the product of modernity.' 'It is this modernity that we would be fortunate to be able to import from Japan.' 'It occurs to me that we seem to believe that by acquiring the toys we will become a modern nation,' says Aakar Patel.
Darryl D' Monte, the distinguished enviromental journalist, discusses how the media covers floods in Mumbai or Texas, but ignores Assam or Bangladesh.
Wednesday night saw a few surprise results while a debutant club makes a mark
The foreign ministers of the European Union will on Monday decide whether to impose tough sanctions against Russia in the wake of voting by the people of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula to join the Russian Federation.
'Sharapova has been a US resident since early in her career, which does bring in a question of how or why she is using a drug that is not licensed there'
'They are not affected by ISIS' sentiment of avenging the suffering of the global ummah.' 'They have a huge ummah of their own in India, a huge Muslim population.' 'And because of that, they have to take into consideration the political and social conditions of Muslims in India.' 'They have to express themselves in a more political way and not through terrorism.'
Putin spoke to the citizenry in the annual nationwide Q&A session as part of PR exercise for the Russian government.
The impending default on the IMF loans leaves Greece sliding towards an exit from the euro.
'In the last 55 years India and Pakistan have gone to wars, but nobody spoke about scrapping the Indus Waters Treaty.'
'When workers in other industries enjoy protection, why should sex workers not receive similar protection?' 'Sex work should be treated as work and brought under the work schedule of the labour department.' 'We will only end up giving immunity to the pimps and brothels to buy or sell human beings. This will in turn increase trafficking of young women and children.' Rashme Sehgal reports on the debate over legalising prostitution, a bugle in whose favour has been sounded by the new chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Lalitha Kumaramangalam.
FII stance, progress of monsoon, crude oil and rupee movement are likely to dictate the trend.
Even as the polity find ways and means to address the genuine concerns and fears of the society, the Sri Lankan State apparatus would have to unravel these mystery-questions with convincing answers, and a road-map to the future, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
President Xi Jinping's visit may put relations between India and China on a new trajectory
'The true fruits of the attack on black money, what Raghuram Rajan did for the banking system, and what technology is doing for us will come in FY19, which, not surprisingly, is the year running up to the next Lok Sabha elections.'
The need of the hour is to strike a balance between the capability of the conventional and the prospect of the renewable to give a realistic shape to the Prime Minister's vision, says Rajiv Mishra.
Temporary workers not only lack job security, they get less pay and an inferior overall package.
Here's a collection of images of the past week.
Sadly, for hundreds of millions in India, that inequality from their birth and the utterly inadequate schooling and health care they receive thereafter mean that the lottery is stacked against them.
We mourn the passing of Admiral J G Nadkarni, who passed into the ages on Monday. The admiral -- one of the finest officers to head the Indian Navy and a most remarkable human being -- was one of Rediff.com's earliest columnists. His assessment of why India won the 1971 War is a classic and we republish the column today to celebrate his brilliant mind and salute an office and gentleman, the likes of who we will not see again.
In India we have to be careful not to copy any level of dependence on the financial sector and infatuation with the get-rich-quick syndrome, says Jaimini Bhagwati.
The 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty ended flat at the mark of 29,008 and 8,767 respectively.
'It is important to note that American officials were trying their best to use the Taliban for their oil games till December 1997 when Mullah Ghous was invited to America. State Department officials did not show any interest in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden even at that time.'
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last week, in 14 images
A vilification campaign against Rosneft has begun in right earnest, says M K Bhadrakumar.
According to a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent, think tank dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive and tangible measure of progress, India ranks 143rd
'Why can't a person who has supervised military intelligence head RA&W?' 'Why can't one who has overseen national security planning become our NSA or chair the National Security Advisory Board?' asks Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
India's Abhinandan Basu is among the 100 top tattoo artists in the world list.
Formula One teams say they will race in Russia, despite the crisis in Ukraine and downing of a Malaysian airliner, unless the country's debut Grand Prix in October is called off or they are ordered not to go.
Australian photographer Warren Richardson has won the Photo of the Year 2015 award at the 59th annual World Press Photo Contest, results of which were announced on Thursday.
Ten of the 16 sides also reached the same round two seasons ago and, as usual, the big five leagues dominate with 13 clubs hailing from either the English, Spanish, German, French and Italian leagues.
Top 20 images of all the events of the week that was.
Needs funds for Odisha plant expansion, to cut high debt.
Making it easier to do business is a key element of our strategy, says Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar.
'Whichever option India chooses, it should be clear to the government that the China-Pakistan nexus poses a clear and present danger to national security,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
2017 is full of long weekends! You won't regret planning your next trip to these wonderful cities.