India will soon meet Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to seek a definitive rate of discount on crude oil similar to what Russia has provided so far, sources said. Multiple officials and industry executives said Iraq, which is India's biggest oil supplier, wants to discuss the level of discounts expected by Indian refiners. India's focus on snapping up ever-increasing volumes of Russian crude oil has led to a corresponding decline in imports from the Middle East. Flows from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have suffered as a result.
Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com captures glimpses from one of Mumbai's famous heritage buildings, the newly renovated David Sassoon Library and Reading Room.
The enduring legacy of trade routes lies in shared stories and religious diversity. Can the India-Middle East-Europe Economic corridor harness this legacy to empower nations, asks Arundhuti Dasgupta.
'There is a view that there is a Pakistan angle to this.' 'Pakistan has a large presence in Qatar and would want India to be blacklisted.'
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrives to address the United Nations General Assembly.
In Morocco, an important member of the Arab League but where much of the population identifies as Amazigh, there has been some bemusement at the Arab embrace, including jokes that people from other Arab countries should finally accept the Moroccan dialect.
International Tea Day is a good occasion to brew a special pot of chai.
Soleimani, 62, was killed in a US airstrike carried out near the Baghdad international airport on Friday.
The pro-Iran militia did not say who was responsible but Iraqi state television reported it was a US air strike.
Standing amid the rubble left by the now defeated Islamic State terrorists in Iraq, Pope Francis on Sunday said that hope is 'more powerful than hatred and peace more powerful than war'.
Democratic Left Front politician Nanayakkara was among the 42 members who declared independence in Parliament from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) coalition.
Samawa is the capital of Muthanna and lies deep in Iraq's Shiite heartland and such attacks there are rare.
Qatar inaugurated the fourth of eight 2022 World Cup venues, the Al Rayyan Stadium, when the country hosted the Amir Cup final between Al-Sadd and Al-Arabi on Friday.
The Government also defended the President's decision to enforce a state of emergency, that had given him sweeping authority to act in the interests of public security and preserving public order, including suspending any laws, authorising detentions and seizing property, saying it was declared after attempts were made to attack the President's Office and other public property.
If India is to urbanise successfully, it has to focus on Tier 2 cities with a population of one-five million, observes T N Ninan.
'The war against ISIS is what earned the Kurds global recognition of being some of the best fighters that overshadowed regular armies,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The United States has deployed an additional 300 military personnel to violence-hit Iraq to augment the security of American embassy in Baghdad, its support facilities and the Baghdad International Airport.
The government on Tuesday said four youth from Maharashtra have disappeared after leaving for Mosul from Baghdad in Iraq.
Oil prices jumped nearly $3 a barrel and gold and safe-haven bonds rallied on Friday after the killing of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike by the US in Baghdad.
An Al Qaeda splinter group seized control of Mosul, the second biggest city in Iraq, on Tuesday, putting security forces to flight in a spectacular show of strength against the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government. On Wednesday, the Islamist insurgents seized the city of Tikrit, their second major gain after capturing Mosul on Tuesday. Tikrit, the hometown of former leader Saddam Hussein, lies just 150km north of the capital Baghdad, BBC reported.
The MEA said Indian nationals residing in Iraq are advised to be alert and may avoid travel within Iraq. The DGCA asked airlines to take all precautions in airspace over Iran, Iraq, Gulf of Oman and waters of Persian Gulf.
The increase in tension has alarmed the world. Peace, stability and security in this region is of utmost importance to India, the MEA said.
Gen Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike on Friday. Trump alleged that Soleimani has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilise the Middle East for the last 20 yrs.
Images that capture what it was like living through 2021.
There has been indication that the US President may visit India in the next few months.
Amid escalation in violence in Iraq, India on Sunday asked its citizens not to travel to the troubled-torn country and set up a 24-hour helpline to offer assistance to those living there.
A string of bomb attacks and shootings in Iraqi capital Baghdad and other cities on Monday have killed at least 93, reports say.
The suicide car bombing on Sunday, which ripped through a crowded shopping area and sparked fires in nearby buildings, also wounded more than 200 people, security and medical officials said.
Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant claimed that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi Shia air force recruits in Tikrit, posting some gruesome photos online to support their claim.
The external affairs minister said that the dreaded terror outfit Islamic State had killed all the Indian nationals.
Iraq on Wednesday asked the United States to carry out air strikes on militants who attacked the country's oil refinery and seized territory in the north.
Forty Indian in the in violence-hit Iraqi city of Mosul could not be contacted, the external affairs ministry said on Wednesday amid reports of abduction.
Sixteen Indians stranded in violence-affected areas of Iraq have been evacuated even as one of the 40 abducted Indians has fled from the captors in Mosul town which is under the control of the militants.
Algeria won the Africa Cup of Nations for the second time on Friday when a freak second-minute goal by Baghdad Bounedjah gave them a 1-0 win over gallant Senegal in the final.
As the American troops gear up to fly out of Iraq by this month-end, we take you through the streets of Baghdad to show how the war-torn country has turned over a new chapter in history.
About 2,200 Indians in non-conflict zone in southern Iraq have expressed their desire to leave the for home and they will be in India in the next 36 to 48 hours even as 200 others reached in New Delhi early on Sunday morning.
Forty people were killed and 45 wounded in two suicide blasts as worshippers were leaving a Shiite mosque in Baghdad after the weekly Friday prayers, a security official said.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran wrote Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone, based on his days as the Washington Post's correspondent in Baghdad. It was made into a movie, starring Matt Damon.
The United States on Thursday formally ended their nine-year mission in Iraq, which began with the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, with a low-key ceremony in Baghdad.
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