Increasingly isolated on the global stage, the World Cup has so far helped Vladimir Putin send a defiant message to his opponents that Russia is succeeding despite Western efforts to hold it back.
Thirty-four years after he traveled to space, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih that he looks forward to Gaganyan, India's first manned space mission in 2022.
... and ONE man could be the reason for that, say scientists.
'The Vladivostok visit marks a subtle reversal of trend discernible in the revival of India-Russia relations pioneered by Modi during the past couple of years,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Prime Minister Khan, in his address, said Pakistan will never fight any other country's war in future and his government's foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation.
China's troubled moon rover Yutu or Jade Rabbit has come back to life from a troubled dormancy although experts are still trying to figure out the cause of its abnormality, officials said on Thursday.
'His negotiations with Idi Amin and his men for compensation for the Indians, who left Uganda, were particularly tough. Apparently, Amin warned him that the body of the British negotiator, who came earlier, was found in a roadside gutter... As Jagat Mehta's special assistant during the last two years of his tenure as foreign secretary, I saw for myself how his conviction, courage and patriotism enabled him to fight against heavy odds, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has appealed to India, China and the US along with five other nations to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, saying the international community should complete the "unfinished business" of achieving a world free of atomic weapons.
The Cuban government has announced nine days of mourning and has set Castro's funeral for December 4.
India's plan to buy futuristic tanks and infantry combat vehicles -- estimated to be worth Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 100,000 crore each -- will certainly intimidate Pakistan which already feels threatened by our vast tank strength.
The Indian Air Force is probing the incident, an IAF source said.
India's new high commissioner in Islamabad goes to Pakistan at a time when the country is set to face much internal tumult.
List of French Open women's singles champions
Aseem Chhabra lists his 10 favourite non-Indian shows streaming in India -- classics as well as recent shows.
'It's amazing that a country that claims to be the world's largest democracy is getting into the business of micro-regulating personal and professional lives in this fashion,' says Devangshu Datta.
We are spectators who have no voice and no power to influence the giant changes being imposed on all of us, says Aakar Patel.
With a decelerating economy that weakens India's hands on geopolitical issues, it will be interesting to know which way this trip will go.
'One of his most famous scenes is set in a prison in Delhi where the British try to subvert Karla, the legendary Soviet spy who is being transferred back to Moscow and is being temporarily detained by the Indian agencies.' Ambassador B S Prakash salutes John le Carre.
'Lingering border disputes and fierce geostrategic competition in South Asia between China and India are likely to temper any cooperation Beijing might hope to achieve with New Delhi in the SCO,' says P K Vasudeva.
Now the the job of searching out and destroying enemy submarines in the waters off India's coast will fall to the navy's new fleet of a dozen Boeing P-8I aircraft, reports Ajai Shukla.
'It is crucial today to realise where we have reached in this 15 year-period in order to fully and properly assess the profundity of what General Rawat has said,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The US women's gymnastics team, anchored by all around world champion Simone Biles, won the team gold medal at the Olympics on Tuesday by the widest margin ever.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
'Some have speculated that it has to do with Doklam and the 2019 elections.' 'That Modi asked Xi not to embarrass him by sending the Chinese army into Bhutan again, this time rolling over our resistance,' says Aakar Patel.
Taking on the government in Parliament a second time in three days Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the government on the issue of net neutrality.
Contradicting perceived proximity to the Soviet Union in the Cold War era, India under the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had toyed with the idea of supporting anti-Russian civilian groups in Pakistan if the then Zia regime was thrown out by Moscow, a recent declassified Central Investigation Agency document has claimed.
'Les Bleus' will be inspired by the two-decade anniversary of their only World Cup win in 1998, while double winners Uruguay's modern generation are desperate to recreate the black-and-white-era glories of their 1930 and 1950 trophies.
What does the Taliban chief's death means for various stakeholders?
While Africa, Asia and North America will not be represented, dashing any hope of a revolutionary breakthrough in the eventual destination of the trophy, at least one of this year's finalists will not have reached the title decider for half a century, if at all.
'As a nation we came up short, but that did not deter Kalam. He made it his life mission to exhort the young to greatness.'
The Russian government and security services will overcome security threats and can guarantee safety at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
'The BJP portrays a make believe world.' 'The Tripura victory is being seen by some as a result of bahubal and money power -- but that would be a very simplistic explanation.' 'Money and muscle power can play a role up to a point, but the BJP's victory is remarkable because it replaced a party that was in power for 25 years.'
He said both countries are opening new areas of cooperation in the energy sector, telecommunications and science and technology and they have set up funds to facilitate investment in high technologies.
'If the dimensions of the strategic partnership worked out by India and the US seem like a grand alliance targeted at you-know-who, China had better realise that it has fathered it,' says B S Raghavan, a long time observer of China.
The BJP chief and former chief minister of UP, who is on a five-day visit to the United States, reiterated his resolve on Tuesday at a major Afghan policy speech at Capitol Hill, jointly organised by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies; US India Political Action Committee and American Foreign Policy Council
'His secularism merely declared the equality of all religions in India under fundamental rights.'
Sri Lanka crushed Afghanistan by 68 runs to win the gold medal in the men's Twenty20 cricket event at the Asian Games on Friday.
'The irresistible Cuban cigars, which acquire their unique flavour as they are rolled on the thighs of Cuban women, have always been the ultimate temptation for cigar connoisseurs in the US.'
China's first moon rover is back to work after a "nap" and has succeeded in sending back the first images of the national flags on itself and the lander, space authorities said on Sunday.
The journey of Afghan cricket from the refugee camps to World Cup is nothing short of a fairytale.
