'They asked me if I was a devout Muslim and if I could recite the Kalma.' Flying Officer Jawahar Lal Bhargava knew his game was up. 'They threatened me with dire consequences if I didn't tell the truth.'
Putin is looking beyond the current regime in Kyiv. Of course, if the Western military assistance to Kyiv continues in any form, Washington knows that Russia will regard it as a hostile act and there will be severe consequences, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The minister, who was formerly a British Army officer, tried to save the man's life but he tragically died after being stabbed outside one of the gates to the Houses of Parliament.
The 15-year-old, who was not identified, will serve at least five years in jail for inciting terrorism and will not be released until he is considered not to be dangerous.
Two Pakistani currency notes of denomination of Rs 500 each, two identity cards, one small knife and a paper with 'CMA Lahore Cantt' written on it were recovered from the arrested person, a BSF officer said.
Soldiers fighting the enemy will receive state-of-the-art assault rifles, other soldiers will get 'Make in India' rifles.
10 features of Microsoft's Windows 8.1 OS that will cheer users of the latest OS.
Three members of a Sikh gang, including a woman, were today convicted of slashing the throat of Lt Gen (retd) Kuldip Singh Brar, the hero of the 1984 Operation Blue Star, in London last year.
Neetu Chopra, who travelled solo across India on a scooter covering 7,600 km in 42 days, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar why girls should not be scared to dream.
Senior officers admit the BJP's revival, and the mainstreaming of the Hindutva narrative that has accompanied this political shift, have complicated communal relations within the army.
Bharati Dutt witnessed life-changing events that shaped India on the threshold of freedom. Her memories are an account of how ordinary Indians saw India change.
He said Brexit was an "incredible opportunity" and "whatever" the UK did after it left the European Union was "OK with me".
About 200 people from various interfaith groups joined the memorial and candle light vigil held in honour of Parminder Singh Shergill, an Iraq war veteran, who was shot dead by local police on January 25 at Lodi, California.
'...by combining religious and political missions -- to destroy the Babri Masjid and establish Ram Rajya.' 'Hindutva was successful in creating synergy with the aspirations of devotees,' Dhirendra K Jha, author of Ayodhya: The Dark Night, tells Kanika Datta.
Juan Martin Del Potro, world number 165, was feeling "so alive" that by the time the match hit the mid-way point of the second set, Stan Wawrinka did not know what had hit him.
The Gurdaspur SP's jeweller friend Rajesh Verma said the militants who had abducted them were in constant touch with a "commander sahib" and called him at regular intervals.
Sreehari Nair reviews Ayyappanum Koshiyum.
There's a certain amount of drama to the profession. Sample these taglines: 'We can see the unseen'; 'I can plant my detective in your guest bedroom.' One agency has even ensured that all its phone numbers end in '007'.
'The greatest threat faced by India does not come from Pakistan, it comes from terrorism... It is easier to secure the borders of the US; it is not so easy to make India's borders secure,' Pulizer Prize-winning journalist Mark Mazzetti tells Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya.
'I would recommend every young Indian reads Shashi Tharoor's book to get a perspective of our colonial past in the present day mesmerising euphoria of the global village in spite of Donald Trump, says Shivanand Kanavi.
If Han Kang wrote only about cruelty and suffering, readers might respect her writings and her conscience, but her novels would not be as loved as they are by readers across the world, says Nilanjana Roy
Crimson Peak is not for everyone, but the mood is set very early on, says Raja Sen.
Attacking the note ban move, Yechury said the PM's assertion that it will impact terror funding has not yielded any result.
Will the Aam Aadmi Party repeat its magic or are Delhi voters going to reprimand it for party chief Arvind Kejriwal's maverick 49-day chief ministership in the upcoming state assembly elections? Search for the answer led me to party ideologue Yogendra Yadav, who appears to have some justification and back-of-the-envelope calculations to suggest that his party stands a chance, despite rival Bharatiya Janata Party's surge in other recent state polls.
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
Despite a lot of lip service to national unity, functional relations between the Han Chinese immigrants and the Uyghur regional majority have not developed on equitable basis, says R Hariharan
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore reports from Bhopal and Manikhedi Kot, Etkhedi Kot and Kejra Dev, about the October 30-31 escape and encounter in which 8 prisoners were killed, a case that has many questions and few answers.
Three Indian Air Force officers captured as Prisoners of War by Pakistan during the '71 War made a daring escape from a Rawalpindi jail. M P Anil Kumar recounts that heroic story.
Senior Congress leader and former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh feels that Sonia Gandhi should retain the leadership of the party for now, as Rahul Gandhi still has things to learn.
