The New York Times in a news story on Saturday said that American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked terrorists for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan -- including targeting American troops -- amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.
By 2022, there is a plan to make an mRNA-technology vaccine, for which it has tied up with Canadian firm Providence Therapeutics.
In is 24-minute long message, he also called on Saudi citizens -- the second biggest contributor to IS - to "rise up" against their government as he dismissed the kingdom's newly formed Muslim coalition against the caliphate.
Speaking to around 60 journalists in three different sittings, the Congress vice-president, who is known to be media shy when it comes to his personal life, has opened up on a range of topics.
He gave the time-line while taking note of the adjournment of the House till Friday after it took up the confidence motion moved by Kumaraswamy in the backdrop of rebellion by a section of ruling Congress-Janata Dal (Secular).
The RJD chief rapped the BJP for "sensing an opportunity to destabilise the Grand Alliance government in Bihar" and asserted that the coalition was "intact".
The notices were sent to Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was dropped as minister in the recent cabinet rejig and is said to be extremely unhappy over it, B Nagendra, Umesh Jadhav and Mahesh Kumatahalli.
'The handling of the pandemic, under this totally constitutional and legal three-level dictatorship, has begun to show its downside,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Winning an election may be a breeze for the BJP but the aftermath of victory isn't always painless.
'Emboldened by the BJP victory, the upper castes feel they must assert themselves and regain dominance over the rural power structure.'
"The victory margin will be huge since there is an alliance between Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party. Bharatiya Janata Party did not fulfil its promises and now to divert attention, it is using the security forces. It has been a failed government," Dimple Yadav said.
The crisis in Maharashtra government after Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's resignation is expected to draw to a close with the intervention of Union Agriculture Minister and NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday.
Foreign ministers from 22 countries on Thursday gathered in the London to discuss ways to coordinate their efforts to combat the Islamic State by halting the flow of recruits to the jihadist group and cutting off its funding.
The truce, even if it is not permanence peace, will come under stress and test during the pending polls to rural local bodies in nine revenue districts and urban polls across the state, including those for 16 municipal corporations, starting with Chennai, the oldest and largest, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Party chief H D Kumaraswamy told media persons, "If my party does not get majority, we will not form an alliance with anyone. I would rather sit in opposition than being a part of a coalition government."
Without strategising together, Jayalalithaa's successor, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and M Karunanidhi's son-cum-successor, M K Stalin, have used tough-talking on seat-sharing with allies, to replace charisma that they purportedly lacked, during the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled for April 6, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Your strike rate is very important when it comes to seat-sharing.'
In both the states where the Bharatiya Janata Party came second is trying to turn the tables on the Congress to form the government.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi met disgruntled Karnataka MLAs led by M B Patil in the national capital but the talks remained inconclusive.
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United on Tuesday asked an embattled Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, an accused in the land-for-hotels scandal, to "come out with facts in public against the accusations" but stopped short of demanding his resignation.
'When economic policies were attacked by people on his own side, he went ahead despite all the criticisms in the coalition, within the party and the Sangh Parivar.'
'It has a natural inclination to foster as much competition among civilian politicians as possible.'
Indications are that Modi will have words of encouragement for Stalin, and the meeting is likely to be much less acrimonious than critics of either would want it to be. notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Apart from outlining its future plans for the development of Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led party also referred to poll promises made by the rival Grand Alliance, including approving 10 lakh jobs, and sought to know from where would they manage Rs 5 lakh crore additional money that will be required for fulfilling their 'lofty' announcements.
'We demand immediate release of all public representatives of mainstream political parties and innocent citizens,' the resolution said.
With the two latest resignations, 16 MLAs -- 13 from the Congress and 3 from the JD-S -- have quit while two Independent MLAs -- H Nagesh and R Shanker -- have already withdrawn support.
BJP received chunk of the funds at Rs 437.04 crore, while Congress got Rs 26.65 crore.
He was the chief of the hardline political party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami.
'This election was the first opportunity where Kashmiris told the world they do not agree with the Centre's policies and are unhappy about their disempowerment.'
Pandey had hit the headlines recently for his vocal condemnation of the non-cooperation meted out to the Bihar police team that had visited Mumbai to probe the death of Patna-born actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Amid the growing strain between the Congress Party and its ally the Trinamool Congress over the choice of Pranab Mukherjee as the United Progressive Alliance's presidential candidate, the latter has said it would quit the ruling alliance only if asked to do so.
With the Trinamool Congress turning on the heat on the issue of rail fare hike, the Samajwadi Party on Friday offered solace to the Congress, saying its outside support to the coalition will continue.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghanistan forces came under fire from across the Pakistan border before they called in a deadly air strike on two Pakistani military posts that left 24 soldiers dead, media reports quoted Afghan and western officials as saying.
Despite sustained campaigns by the media and government, ragging appears to be going on unbated in India with 88 cases and 12 deaths being reported in the last one year, according to a new study.
A dozen Turkish tanks have rolled across the Syrian border to clear a town of Islamic State militants.
Pakistan's beleaguered President Asif Ali Zardari is ready to resign and call an early general elections if parties in the ruling coalition wanted him to take such a step, according to a media report on Thursday.
A day after Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar asked senior coalition partner, the Congress, to speed-up seat-sharing talks for the Mumbai municipal polls, due next month, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday downplayed the "ultimatum" given by the Union agriculture minister.
Five persons, including a leader of the Awami National Party, were killed and 10 others injured on Friday when a powerful bomb went off in a busy market on the outskirts of Quetta city in southwest Pakistan. The bomb went off at Kuchlak Bazar on Friday morning near the venue of a rally organised by the ANP, which is part of the ruling coalition at the centre.
The Congress legislators, led by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, demanded that the governor should summon one-day session of the assembly for a floor test.
"Very shortly we will come out with a concrete plan," Rao told reporters after meeting the Trinamool Congress president.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances