While many Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Australia, are diplomatically boycotting the Winter Olympics over China's human rights record, Putin will join a number of Beijing-friendly leaders at the Games.
Sadaf Khadem beat a French boxer, Anne Chauvin, in the bout, which took place in western France on Saturday.
'Indian diplomacy in West Asia under the present government has been a success story -- and with Saudi Arabia in particular,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
An independent United Nations-appointed panel probing the killing of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will on Thursday release its sensitive report on her assassination in 2007
'Qatar has been funding and supporting terrorist organisations.' 'It has used its media to spread lies and create unrest in neighbouring countries.'
The Centre will soon send two ships to strife-torn Yemen to evacuate Indians, including Keralites
'Were they two yaars of yesteryears brought together again by fate?' 'Were they two crafty spies hoodwinking each other?' wonders B S Prakash.
The flawed Indian policy toward Afghanistan is missing the woods for the trees. The Modi government doesn't have a 'big picture', observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's systemic dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
'Another rejection of mediation between India and Pakistan will leave Mr Trump disappointed.' 'In that case, he is likely to point out the war-like situation on the border and press for direct talks which have been stalled on account of continuing terrorism from Pakistan,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'A top Russian diplomat, Ambassador Alexander Aksenyonok told me in Sochi, Moscow is keen on a political settlement in Syria "as early as possible -- which is also our exit strategy",' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
It is no surprise why Left parties have chosen to impose him on the UPA as the consensual candidate.
If things work out, it will be a great leap forward in the Indian-Iranian economic ties in the new phase of Iran's reintegration with the world market following the lifting of sanctions, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Biden's promise of returning to 'normalcy' after Trump appears to mean that the same old politicians, who are responsible for the 'endless wars' in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, are being brought out of the woodwork after four years,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The National Security Advisor and Intelligence Bureau chief worked their sources in Saudi Arabia and Syria to persuade the ISIS terrorists to talk to the Indian government.
Pakistan is making efforts at multiple levels for the Taliban government to have a soft landing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Did Trump hint at US military intervention in Qatar?' asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Cricket will be part of the 2024 Olympics if Rome wins the bid to host the mega event, Italian cricket board chief Simone Gambino has said.
'The whispers and the murmurs had reached even the king's private quarters.' 'Of a royal surgeon wielding a chain-saw like a carpenter; a chemist with a cannister of acid; the royal chief executioner instructing someone about the fine art of handling swords...' 'All this being supervised by Mohammed's closest confidant.'
The win clinched Egypt a long-awaited spot in Russia for the 2018 World Cup finals, where the Arab world's most populous country will compete on football's ultimate stage for the first time since Italy in 1990.
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Indians must remember that Pakistanis hate losing to India, at war or in cricket, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
If push comes to shove, Trump is probably planning to order the US army to clear his path for a second term. What if the armed forces refuse to obey their commander-in-chief?, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Unless the Taliban goofs up in a big way, which seems highly unlikely, we are looking at a regime that will be around for quite a long while and present a level of governance that the puppets of the richest and most advanced countries failed to provide, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The hardliners in Delhi are in for a big disappointment,' predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The announcement came barely a day after the UNHRC condemned the Trump administration for its policy of separating children from the families at the US-Mexico border.
The US has been, historically, a sleeping partner in India-China relations. Today, any attempt by the Modi government to make a bilateral move to improve relations with Beijing could upset Biden's apple cart, notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Driven from its self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State is down but not out. Where once they confronted armies, the extremist Islamist group's adherents have now staged hit-and-run raids and suicide attacks. In some cases, the group has claimed responsibility for atrocities, including the bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people. Its involvement is not always proven, but even if the link is ideological rather than operational, Islamic State still poses a security threat in many countries.
The battle to manage the international environment over Kashmir has just begun, but what is expected to help is the lifting of internal controls. All eyes are now on that exercise. Aditi Phadnis reports.
With the release of the film's trailer, we revisit how the crisis was actually handled.
The resolution failed to be adopted on Thursday as it could not garner two-thirds support in the General Assembly.
Kushner, in a meeting with the Russian envoy to the US Sergey Kislyak, discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between the then transition team and the Kremlin using Russian diplomatic facilities in the US, The Washington Post reported.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria has claimed his successor Ahmed Javed knew Sheena Bora murder case accused Indrani and Peter Mukerjea socially, and that Peter also knew the then joint commissioner of police (law and order) Deven Bharti on "first name terms". Maria, who investigated some high-profile cases like the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and also headed the probe in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, made the revelation in his memoir Let Me Say It Now released on Monday.
'He is the man,' US President Barack Obama had said at a G-20 gathering, enhancing Lula's stature. Six years later, has Brazil's impressive economic growth turned to sand? Will a President, who enjoyed an 80 per cent approval rate in his country, be arrested? Ambassador B S Prakash, India's former envoy to Brazil, explains what has gone wrong in one of India's BRICS partner nations.
The bond between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Karachi-born Mohammad Bashir aka 'Chacha Chicago' blossomed during the 2011 World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan and has only grown stronger since then. Such is the attachment that Bashir has flown to Manchester from Chicago (approximately 6000 kms) for Sunday's high-octane Indo-Pak contest without a match ticket.
Trump said military action against a defiant North Korea is certainly an option, but hoped that he does not have to use it.
India-Israel relations are at a crossroads. Simply chanting old hackneyed mantras on terrorism, secularism, democracy, et al, won't suffice. There is danger of stagnation setting in, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The statements made by the opposition parties after the preemptive air strike on terror camps have made only people of Pakistan happy, he claimed.
'How can we forget the hoax perpetrated on the UN and on all of us when it was stated in the security council, no less, that Iraq had nuclear weapons?' recalls Ambassador B S Prakash.
'What has India got out of Howdy India in substantive terms?' asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Imran cannot escape responsibility for providing a mask to the Pakistan army to engage in unlawful activities and to wage aggression after India retaliated to the terrorist attack,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
