RUSSIAN President Vladmir Putin on Thursday proposed a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan next month when NSA Ajit Doval called on him in St Petersburg. The Putin-Doval meeting came nearly three weeks after Modi travelled to Ukranian capital Kyiv and held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Doval is in St Petersburg to attend a conclave of national security advisors of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-IndiaChina-South Africa) nations. The ..

PAKISTAN authorities in an overnight swoop arrested several leaders of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, including its chairman and around a dozen lawmakers, as National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday promised action against those responsible for the crackdown. The Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers had clashed with police, pelting it with stones, and injuring several police officials, including a senior officer during a rally of the party on Sunday. The Government had also ..

Scientists identify antibody to counter all COVID-19 variants..

CHIEF of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Saturday held extensive talks with Maldives’ Chief of Defence Force Major General Ibrahim Hilmy, focusing on a reset of military ties that came under severe strain after President Mohamed Muizzu assumed office in November last...

ELON Musk’s satellite-based internet service provider Starlink backtracked on Tuesday and said it will comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court justice’s order to block the billionaire’s social media platform, X. Starlink said in a statement posted on X that it will heed Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ order despite him having frozen the company’s assets. Previously, it informally told the telecommunications regulator that it would not comply until de Moraes reversed course. “Regardless of the illegal treatment ..

BUILDING on “new anchors” of partnership identified under the India-Singapore ministerial roundtable framework, the relations between the two countries is poised for an even bigger take-off, the MEA said on Monday ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Singapore. Prime Minister Modi is slated to visit Singapore on September 4-5 at the invitation of his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong. Prior to that he is scheduled to visit Brunei on September 3-4 which seeks to further strengthen bilateral ..

INDIA has recorded trade surplus with as many as 151 countries such as the US and Netherlands, while the country has a trade deficit with 75 nations including China and Russia during the first half of this year, according to think tank GTRI. The GlobalTrade Research Initiative (GTRI) said that India does not need to worry about the trade deficit from importing crude oil and coal, however, it must focus on reducing the industrial goods imports, especially from countries like China, as these threaten ..

RUSSIA battered much of Ukraine on Monday, firing scores of missiles and drones that killedfourpeople, injured more than a dozen and damagedenergyfacilitiesinattacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as “vile.” Thebarrageof over 100missiles and a similar number of dronesbeganaroundmidnight and continued through daybreak in what appeared to be Russia’s biggest onslaught in weeks. Ukraine’s air force said swarmsofRussiandronesfired ateastern,northern,southern, and central regions were followed ..

WITH the Metro resuming services,buses and tax is plying regularly and university students enjoyingcarefreeeveningstrolls in the gardens of the historic Curzon Hall - life seems to be returning to normal in Dhaka. Businesses have resumed but it’s not business as usual in the capital city of Bangladesh. Till three weeks ago, the streets of the capital were floodedwithanti-Government protesters, many public squares choked by the agitating masses reaching a dramatic climax on August 5 - - the fall of ..

DESCRIBING the deity of the ancient Dhakeswari temple here as a “mother to all humans”, a priest of the revered shrine said several Hindus, Muslims and others from the local community had come together to guard it soon after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina Government in Bangladesh. The centuries-old temple in old Dhaka has many mosques in its vicinity. PTI on Friday visited the Sree Sree Dhakeswari National Temple, one of the prominent ‘shakti peethas’, and interacted with priests and members of ..

TWO astronauts marooned in space may sound like the plot of a Hollywoodblockbuster,but for two NASA crew members, it is nowareality. Commander Barry Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams are currently in limbo on the International Space Station (ISS). They arrived in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft – the first testof thespaceshipwithastronauts. Wilmore and Williams were supposed to stay on the ISS for around eight days and return on the same spacecraft. But there is now debate about the safety of Starliner ..

THE Government of India has been promoting UPI as a global payment platform.Now merchants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are accepting payments viaUPI in Rupees to attract Indian customers. One of the biggest retail companies in the UAE, Lulu has started giving customers the option to accept payments through UPI in all its stores in the country. Indian citizens can easily make payments using the UPI app just like in India. The amount paid will be deducted from their bank account in India. So Indian ..

BANGLADESH’S deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday demanded “justice”, saying those involved in recent “terror acts”, killings and vandalism must be investigated, identified and punished. In her first public statement after her ouster on August 5, 76-year-old Hasina said several lives have been lost in violence in the name of agitation since July. Hasina resigned and fled to India last week after weeks of deadly protests involving students against her Government over a controversial quota ..

INDIA expects that the landmark international treaty to fight cybercrime will be a very strong force to fight the threat through international cooperation, according to its delegate to the negotiations for the landmark pact. The 193 members of the world organisation reached a consensus for a comprehensive treaty to fight cybercrimes, ranging from terrorism and hacking to financial fraud and child porn after more than two years of negotiations. “We anticipate that this treaty will establish a very ..

FORMER Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has revealed that she could have remained in power if she had “surrendered” the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island and “allowed America to hold sway over the Bay of Bengal”, media reports said. Disclosing the contents of her undelivered speech in India, where Hasina flew on August 5 amid violent protests in her country, the 76-year-old leader said that she resigned so that she does not have to see a “procession of dead bodies”. These revelations are part ..

AN ISRAELI airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City early on Saturday, killing more than 80 people, Palestinian health authorities said, in one of the deadliest strikes in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli military acknowledged the strike, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school. Hamas denied using the school as a command centre. The strike on the Tabeen school in central Gaza City also wounded 47 people, the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency ..

A PASSENGER plane crashed into a gated residential community in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state on Friday, killing all 61 people aboard and leaving a smoldering wreck, officials and the airline said. Officials did not say if anyone was killed on the ground in the neighbourhood where the plane landed in the city of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometres northwest of the metropolis of Sao Paulo. But witnesses at the scene said there were no victims among local residents. The airline Voepass said that its plane, an ATR ..

NOBEL laureate Mohammad Yunus is set to take oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim Government on Thursday, as he made a fervent appeal to everyone to stay calm and “refrain from all kinds of violence” to make the best use of “our new victory”. As authorities scrambled to bring the law and order situation under control, Army chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman on Wednesday announced that the interim Government will take oath around 8 pm on Thursday. He said the advisory council may have 15 members. Gen ..

BANGLADESH President Mohammed Shahabuddin on Tuesday dissolved the Parliament to make way for the formation of an interim administration, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following massive protests against her Government. “The President dissolved the Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament) under an executive order,” a Bangabhaban (presidential palace) spokesman told PTI. “The decision to dissolve the Parliament was taken following the President’s discussions with chiefs of ..

     Bangladesh President orders immediate release of jailed former PM Khaleda Zia  NEW DELHI,AMID the political unrest in Bangladesh that saw Sheikh Hasina resign as the Prime Minister and flee the country on Monday, Pr..

As violence gripped Bangladesh amid ongoing student protests, Sheikh Hasina resigned as country’s Prime Minister and left the country in a military helicopter and landed at the Hindon airbase in India. Several reports cited that Hasina will be leaving for London soon. Later, Bangladesh Army stepped in to fill the power vacuum, ending one uncertain chapter and opening another in the nation’s restive history. As news of Hasina’s departure spread, hundreds broke into Hasina’s residence, vandalising and ..

LARGE-SCALE international assessment data suggests a negative link between excessive use of technology and student performance, yet less than one in four countries have banned smartphone use in schools, according to the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report. The report on “Technology in education” published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has flagged that assessment data has found that mere proximity to a mobile device distracts students and has ..

ISRAELI strikes killed 18 people in Gaza on Sunday, including four who were sheltering in a tent camp for displaced Palestinians inside a hospital complex, while a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian killed two people in a Tel Aviv suburb. Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing of two senior militants in separate strikes in Lebanon and Iran last week. Those killings brought threats of revenge from Iran and its allies and raised fears of an even more ..

THE United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history onThursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free. Gershkovich, Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist with dual US-Russia citizenship, arrived on American soil shortly before midnight for a joyful reunion with their families. President Joe Biden and Vice President ..

THE Israeli military said on Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July. Israel targeted Deif in a July 13 strike that hit a compound on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, but the military said for weeks it was working to determine if he died in the blast. Hamas has denied he was killed. More than 90 other people, including displaced civilians in nearby tents, were killed in the strike, Gaza health ..