Documents released by the US National Security Archive disclose how close Cuba came in 1962 to becoming Latin America's first nuclear power, and had planned to train Cubans how to use the nuclear weapons
Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko announced he will retire from international football after his country's elimination from Euro 2012 with a 1-0 defeat by England on Tuesday.
In the cacophony of debates on the wisdom of liberalising retail foreign direct investment, or FDI, one viewpoint was noticeably absent: whether and how this might affect India's strategic interests.
'It is time we Indians stop our internal bickering and present a united front to Chinese machinations,' advises Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The Russians? had risen to great heights of sacrifice and heroism and won a victory against Hitler and Nazism at such a tremendous cost in spite of being weighed down by the tyranny and oppression of Stalin.'
As traders obsessively follow US presidential elections, expect a surge in case of a change of guard in the Oval Office.
'The aim of Russian policy is to reform European security, stop NATO expansion and in a more general sense -- set up the new rules of relations between the great powers.' 'From this perspective. the invasion of Ukraine is quite pointless.'
Two powerful US Senators have urged President Joe Biden not to impose provisions of the punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act against India for buying the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
'Pakistan has power -- they have the power of terrorism and the reluctance of the world to act against them.'
Rajesh Khanna's life can be viewed as a paradigm of stardom's tragedy. He found both success and failure hard to handle.
Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar became the first Indian to receive the Crans Montana Forum Award.
Ahead of the India-China border talks, an official Chinese daily today said both countries need to learn a lesson from the 1962 war that even though Beijing may like peace, it will firmly defend 'its' land.
As a Chinese spacecraft was put on its path to attempt the country's first docking mission, a feat achieved by Soviet Union years back, questions were raised about its relevance and whether it was appropriate for China to spend heavily on space technology when "money is needed elsewhere".
IITs are ready for and deserving of the autonomy they seek, being the only remaining institutions of excellence in India that are relatively untainted by the general institutional decay we see all around, says Shashi Shekhar
'I cannot be confined to just one or two kinds of music.'
At least 73 people were killed and 1,000 injured in a riot at a soccer match in the Egyptian city of Port Said on Wednesday, the worst disaster in the country's soccer history, government officials said. Here is a look at some of the major disasters in soccer stadiums in the last 30 years:
The MoMA will host a film festival for the legend, starting today.
'From now on, every time Modi takes a foreign dignitary in his arms, the Indians will remember how he was taken aback when an Indian indulged in hugplomacy,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Moscow erupted in street celebrations on Sunday as the World Cup hosts booked a place in the quarter-finals, defeating Spain on penalties at Russia's flagship stadium.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's impassioned support has made Russia a favourite to host a the 2018 World Cup. However, questions abound over the availability of infrastructure to host the event.
Nearly eight out of 10 Chinese, who took part in a national poll said they believe China should stay on the path of political reform while according top priority to stability to avert a collapse similar to that of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1991.
Factbox on former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who died on Wednesday at the age of 89.
Describing the second world war as the 'greatest tragedy' of the 20th century, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday slammed attempts to equate United Soviet Socialist Republic and Nazi Germany as its initiators.
Biden's lengthy remarks on Afghanistan contained no condemnatory references to the Taliban, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's systemic dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.
Rather than talking endlessly about lost and marginal opportunities, India's climate envoys need to start thinking bigger, says Mihir S Sharma.
'It is no accident that politicians strive to control sports bodies, and get their names associated with popular sports, sometimes by renaming stadiums after themselves,' observes Devangshu Datta.
'Transformation of Ukraine into some kind of permanent strategic challenger, which Russia would have to contain and deter, spend a significant part of political and strategic resources on it.'
Despite taking strong military action against militants in recent months, the Pakistani establishment has maintained relationship with those extremist groups as a hedge, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.
The days of a thousand cuts are over. These mini wars will remain under the threshold of undeniable war, but will escalate closer to that threshold when their big brother pushes in. Chinese aggression has changed the matrix, the strategies, and surely the objectives too, warns David Devadas.
'Frankly, India has no role to play.' 'This is a showdown between the US and NATO on one hand and Russia on the other.' 'That said, the outcome of this titanic struggle in Central Europe will remould the world order and affect India profoundly,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said the Obama Administration is not cutting and running" from Afghanistan.
How history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. The era of arms control is back. It was indeed tragic that all the arms control pacts between the United States and the former Soviet Union could not prevent the qualitative and quantitative improvements in the nuclear arsenals of the two super powers during the Cold War. And what is now being attempted by the two sides almost verges on the farcical, notes Harsh V Pant.
American analysts and their camp followers in India are talking absolute rubbish when they try to establish that India is facing a Hobson's choice in regard of Donbass, called upon to take sides between Russia and the West, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The current Indo-Pak crisis over Kashmir is a godsend for the US. With tensions running high, Pakistan is in no position to militarily help the Taliban. Once this realisation dawns on the Taliban, they are likely to be more amenable to a compromise on American terms, says Colonel Anil Athale (retired).
Watch the live coverage of the 'Mars Orbit Insertion'.
'Once positions are hardened and troops start building defences, it is difficult for soldiers to step back.'
'Castro told us: "Give me a thousand Gurkhas and I shall keep my neighbour under control!"' 'We pretended that we did not know which neighbour he meant.'
'The credit (for the nuclear bomb) goes to me and my team because it was a very difficult task, which was next to impossible. But given the US and European pressure on our programme, it is true that had the Afghan war not taken place at that time, we would not have been able to make the bomb as early as we did,' Khan told the Aaj News Television.
In its sheer audacity, the initiative with Russia has the potential to transform world politics in the same way as the 1972 Nixon visit to China and 'Shanghai Declaration' changed world dynamics, says Anil Athale.
"You can never win the war in Afghanistan," said 'Colonel Imam', who ran a training programme for the Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union's occupation from 1979 to 1989, and then helped to form the Taliban. "I have worked with these people since the 1970s and I tell you they will never be defeated. Anyone who has come here has got stuck. The more you kill, the more they will expand," Imam told The Sunday Times.
