'There seem to be no reason why Assad should have launched such an attack when he was gaining acceptability,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Four Indians and an American, were killed during the five-hour long siege that ended early Thursday morning.
In a turnaround, Pakistan asked for "more evidence and information" from India on the Mumbai attack case and asserted that talks cannot take place without Kashmir being on the agenda, barely three days after the two countries agreed to re-engage.
'Modi loves to keep others guessing and basks in the media glare, both traits that are politically helpful but are inimical to stable relations, especially in the fragile Indo-Pak equation.'
'It seems likely that the February 2019 crisis is over.'
Instead of ramming through change, Mr Parrikar has tied his own hands by placing reform at the mercy of numerous committees, says Ajai Shukla.
'They have started an institute, the Academy of Training and Sensitisation, for prison officials near Vellore.' 'This institute has been started by the Union home ministry and it is meant for all the four southern states.'
As Venezuelans continue to flee the starvation, crime and the horrific inflation that continues to mark the worst crisis it has ever faced, Radha Biswas looks back at a devastated country she continues to love deeply.
On her 101st birth anniversary, November 19, four letters that reveal a different side to inarguably India's toughest prime minister.
A news report in daily Pakistan Today quoted an unnamed JIT member to say that the attack was nothing but 'vicious propaganda' against Pakistan as Indian authorities did not have any evidence to back their claims.
Uzma, accompanied by Indian mission officials, crossed the Wagah Border near Amritsar.
'I pack my water, biscuits, books and tent, and take my place in the queues.' 'Every time I get close, cash runs out.' 'Deserted shops, my dry bank, the empty ATMs -- this entire gigantic shitstorm is now more real and easier to process,' says Mitali Saran.
If you don't have power in a game you are masters of, the world will walk all over you, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Authorities also released photographs of six suspects, including three women, wanted for their involvement in the attacks and sought information regarding them from the public.
The moderator, at times, had a tough time in controlling Kaine and Pence.
'The rise of IS and intolerant Wahabism are the real dangers to Indian democracy and pluralism, not the RSS,' says Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay.
Modi will reach Bangladesh capital of Dhaka on Saturday morning.
Syria has appealed to the UN to try to "prevent any aggression" against it and said US military action would amount to "support for Al Qaeda and its affiliates," even as President Barack Obama today lobbied with war-weary American lawmakers to convince them for a strike.
The United Kingdom votes on June 8. A quick guide to the post terror election.
In a major breakthrough in China's worst terrorist attack at the Kunming railway station, police on Monday captured three militants from the restive Xinjiang province who fled the scene of slashing rampage that killed 33 people and injured 143 others.
Egypt's defiant Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday vowed to bring down the military-backed government as it called for a massive anti-regime rally, a day after over 525 people were killed in the deadliest crackdown by security forces on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
India on Wednesday commemorated the sixth anniversary of the Mumbai attack with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders paying homage to the victims, recalling the "horror" over which the country still felt "endless pain" for the loss of 166 lives.
Ultra-nationalist and schooled in their country's historical grievances, Russian soccer hooligans see themselves as fighting the Kremlin's geopolitical battles in miniature when they clash with foreign fans at the Euro 2016 tournament.
'One big problem for the RSS is, while they spread their ideology of hard, Hindu-ised Indian nationalism, the absence of their own pantheon of modern nationalist giants. They missed out on the freedom movement quite comprehensively, in some ways comparable to the Muslim League and latter-day Communists. They have to find heroes elsewhere.' 'They borrow who they can from the Congress, like Madan Mohan Malviya and Sardar Patel, and then steal the entire lot of revolutionaries, from Bhagat Singh to Netaji, never mind that many of them were extreme leftists.'
'Power is always transitory, and you should be the same person whether you have it or not,' the head of the number one law firm in India tells Pavan Lall.
Four Italian marines, who were witness to the killing of fishermen off Kerala coast allegedly by two of their colleagues, have refused to come to India for deposing as witness, which will further delay the case.
Modi's minimum government, maximum governance will go a long way?
Italy on Thursday said the trial against its two marines, who allegedly killed Indian fishermen off Kerala coast last year, will be fast and fair and India will honour its commitment given to Rome.
Egypt launched air strikes in Libya, in an escalation of Egypt's battle against IS' growing militancy
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's decision to cancel his planned trip to the United States next week was mutually agreed upon, US President Donald Trump has said stating that such a meeting would be "fruitless unless Mexico is going to treat America fairly".
Whether it was the Bofors gun in 1986 or Italian helicopters in 2012, a leak or disclosure at the source overseas is like dynamite, and usually impossible to refute. They acquire a life of their own in the hands of the media, says T N Ninan.
The man behind Aligarh Muslim University 200 years on.
'Today we can't confirm whether Chau is dead or not.' 'What is the guarantee that the Sentinelese killed him?'
'Why has the rhetoric gone down on the Indian side, Durrani wondered aloud.' 'I said because almost total normalcy and peace had returned on the ground in Kashmir,' recalls Shekhar Gupta. 'The general gave me that career spook's laser look. And he said: "That situation on the ground can change in no time".' 'This was precisely when the Pakistanis began their first incursions into Kargil.' 'Durrani had been retired for five years.' 'But once the ISI boss, you are always in the know.'
Naresh Chandra was most certainly among the greatest patriots two generations of Indian strategists have seen.
'Forensics experts say in all such unexplained deaths of scientists and engineers involved in the nuclear programme, fingerprints are absent, as also other clues that would assist the police in identifying the culprit(s).' Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com reports on a petition that demands a Special Investigation Team probe the mysterious deaths of India's nuclear scientists.
In the backdrop of arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, alleged founder of Indian Mujahideen, condemned convict in German Bakery blast case, Himayat Baig has approached the Bombay high court seeking reinvestigation into his case by a neutral agency or a court-appointed Special Investigation Team.
Markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday on account of Holi and Good Friday, respectively.
The US president said new sanctions would be imposed, adding 'America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail'.
In a blow to Italy's attempt to internationalise the case of two Italian marines being tried in India for killing two fishermen, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked Rome to resolve the issue bilaterally.
