West Africa is in the midst of the worst Ebola outbreak in history. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that some 9,000 people have contracted the disease so far. Heath officials put the death toll at around 4,500, meaning that one in two people who get Ebola in this outbreak die. The odds are not good.
A senior lawmaker from United States President Barack Obama's Democratic party has compared intelligence leaker Edward Snowden with Mahatma Gandhi, saying the controversial whistleblower was engaged in a "non-violent" act of "civil disobedience".
United States President Barack Obama may cancel his scheduled visit to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as tension builds up between the two countries over fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, according to media reports.
From the Syrian civil war to the Ukrainian crisis to the terror unleashed by the dreaded Islamic State, there was no lack of news in 2014. In this five-part series, rediff.com presents a selection of the year's most enduring moments year from around the world.
'I went to slums in India which were quite destitute, where people were clearly really struggling, but typically there is a sort of sense of purpose.' 'People are hustling.' 'What that tells you is that if the country was so organised in a way to give these people opportunity, then they would make something of it.'
The plan hinged on two critical assumptions: India would not be able to replenish supplies quickly to launch a counter-attack. India could not respond in enough strength to dislodge the Pakistanis. Both assumptions would be proved wrong due to the ferocity of the Indian response, reveals former RAW officer Tilak Devasher in his new book, Pakistan At The Helm.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics on Friday determined to prove his doubters wrong after militant attacks, a row over gay rights and ballooning costs overshadowed preparations.
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Modi has plenty of opportunities to test out his strategy. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will visit India this month, and Modi will fly to Washington towards the end of September for a summit with US President Barack Obama.
The Korean summit, laden with symbolism in everything from the choice of location to the mango mousse for dessert, could just be the first round in a continuing dialogue, says Dr Rajaram Panda.
'Only he can bring change in India that all of us have been dreaming of since we saw America for the first time when our plane touched down at JFK airport.' Narendra Modi's friends in New York and New Jersey travel down memory lane and remember a simple man with great ambition. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com tracks down the Modi bhakts, who knew since his first visit in 1993 that he was destined for bigger things.
Barack Obama and Raul Castro vowed to set aside their differences in pursuit of what the US president called a "new day" for the relationship between the neighbours.
United States President Donald Trump's controversial immigration order on Wednesday faced intense scrutiny as a court of appeals grilled the Trump Administration whether the travel ban unconstitutionally discriminates against Muslims and questioned the arguments that curbs were motivated by national security concerns.
Aseem Chhabra on his friend, the firebrand Nepali journalist Kanak Mani Dixit, who was arrested last week. Aseem, who has known Dixit for 35 years, believes the charges are trumped up.
Images of the events that shaped the world last week.
29 years ago this August, Pakistan's dictator, the general who made jihad part of Pakistani State policy, died in a mysterious air crash. Did the KGB, the then USSR's dreaded espionage agency, assassinate Zia-ul Haq? Was India's RA&W responsible for blowing Zia's military aircraft out of the skies? Was it Zia's many enemies in Pakistan's military? Was it a box of mangoes as Mohammad Hanif speculated in his fascinating novel about Zia's death? Or was the assassin someone else?
29 years ago this August, Pakistan's dictator, the general who made jihad part of Pakistani State policy, died in a mysterious air crash. Did the KGB, the then USSR's dreaded espionage agency, assassinate Zia-ul Haq? Was India's RA&W responsible for blowing Zia's military aircraft out of the skies? Was it Zia's many enemies in Pakistan's military? Was it a box of mangoes as Mohammad Hanif speculated in his fascinating novel about Zia's death? Or was the assassin someone else?
29 years ago this August, Pakistan's dictator, the general who made jihad part of Pakistani State policy, died in a mysterious air crash. Did the KGB, the then USSR's dreaded espionage agency, assassinate Zia-ul Haq? Was India's RA&W responsible for blowing Zia's military aircraft out of the skies? Was it Zia's many enemies in Pakistan's military? Was it a box of mangoes as Mohammad Hanif speculated in his fascinating novel about Zia's death? Or was the assassin someone else?
Boston was selected on Thursday as the American candidate city that will bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
This visa issue had gotten so embarrassing that former Defence Secretary William Cohen, now a member of the US-India Business Council's board of directors, who was presiding along with Ambassador Nirupama Rao at the launch, had to prevail upon Secretary of State John F Kerry and get the visas okayed.
'We have never before seen an Indian prime minister's visit to the United States so heavily business-oriented and so packed with meetings with the US business community.' Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.
The pistol-wielding attacker, identified by Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae as a dual national, was later found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
Twenty-year-old Sheetal Jain is the daughter of a bar dancer and grew up in Mumbai's red light district. She is now in the US pursuing a course in drumming
'I was present at a meeting where he decided to permit the IAF to strike at Pakistan positions in Kargil, with the caveat that they should not cross the LoC.' 'Confident that the Indian Army would succeed, Mr Vajpayee was positioning himself to tell the world after the Kargil conflict was won that India did not violate the 'sanctity' of the LoC,' recalls Ambassador G Parthasarathy, who served as India's envoy in Islamabad in that eventful year, 1999.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks CNN's Becky Anderson.
Captain John M Cox, who spent 25 years flying for United States Airways and is now the chief executive officer of safety operating systems at Washington DC, talks to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa about the MH17 Malaysian Airlines flight which was shot down in Ukraine on Thursday night killing 298 people on board.
'The Modi-Xi and Modi-Obama meetings, with an interval of just 12 days, are juxtaposed superbly at a crucial point in the prime minister's life. Can Modi carve out a win-win situation with the superpower and the emerging superpower at the same time?'
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi assured the Secretary of State that his country is committed to the war against terrorism.
In a strong retaliation, India on Tuesday initiated a slew of steps to strip US diplomats and their families of privileges including withdrawing all airport passes and stopping import clearances for the US embassy, terming as "barbaric" the arrest and strip searching of India's Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade.
'Most of the agitations are staged by the Opposition to disturb the peace of the state.'
'Obama's visit to Hiroshima must generate a fresh debate in the international community about how to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons in international politics and how to disarm the world from these monstrous weapons forever,' says Sanjeev Shrivastav..
India isn't Israel, nor can it, or should be, says Shekhar Gupta.
Here's how you can make the most of your shoulders.
US President Barack Obama told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the two met on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Myanmar in November 2014, how he barely had two years left to his presidential term and so much to do. The wish list included getting his daughters to see a tiger in the wild and the Taj Mahal.
The OrcaPod is a prototype of what comes after boats, cars, trains and planes. It's India's foray into what Tesla founder Elon Musk calls the 'fifth form of transportation' and India's only entry at the ongoing Hyperloop competition by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The New Delhi-born Krishnamoorthi, a lifelong progressive, was always the front-runner in the race against Republican Peter DiCianni. They were vying for the seat vacated by Tammy Duckworth, who won Illinois's US Senate seat.
Here's a look at the events that shaped the world last week.
Barack Obama will still be in the Oval Office till the morning of January 20, but gosh, we are already beginning to miss him.
The US foreign and security policy establishment, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, apprehends that Trump may compel them to exorcise the 'unipolar predicament', and bring foreign and security policies to reflect the desires and priorities of the American public.
Pakistan, which has propped up the new Taliban leadership, would be keen to use its influence over the group to neutralise India's presence in the region.
