Section: Daily News & Analysis (India)
Amid maritime disputes, China confirms building second aircraft carrier
China on Thursday confirmed it is building a second aircraft carrier, as neighbours worry about Beijing’s new assertiveness to claims in the South China Sea. Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said the carrier had been designed in China and was being built in the port of Dalian. Foreign military analysts and Chinese media have for months...
Russian court jails blogger for five years for ‘extremist’ posts
A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a blogger to five years in jail for what it said was his extremist activity on the Internet after he urged people to attend a protest against high transport fares and criticised Russian intervention in Ukraine. Vadim Tyumenstev, 35, from the Siberian region of Tomsk, was also banned from using the Internet...
Russia’s Vladimir Putin orders several counter-terrorism units to be set up on coasts
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered counter-terrorism operational headquarters to be set up in several coastal areas, the state-run RIA news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying on Saturday. The units are to be set in Kaspiysk on the Caspian Sea, Murmansk in Russia’s north-west and in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk...
PM Modi arrives in Moscow for two-day visit; expanding ties in strategic areas key focus
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow on Wednesday on a two-day visit during which India and Russia are expected to seal a raft of major deals in defence, nuclear energy and hydrocarbons sectors to further cement their ‘special and privileged strategic ties’. Stepping up economic engagement and further expanding ties in...
Russia slams EU for extending sanctions over the Ukraine crisis
Russia on Monday lashed out at the European Union for prolonging sanctions over the Ukraine crisis for another six months rather than choosing to cooperate over issues including the fight against terrorism. “It is necessary to point out that instead of building constructive cooperation to counter the key challenges of our times such as...
India the largest remittances receiving country in 2015, says World Bank
India became the largest remittances receiving country at $72 billion this year followed by China at $ 64 billion, the World Bank said today. The US emerged as the largest remittance source country with an estimated $56 billion in outward flows in 2014. “India was the largest remittance receiving country, with an estimated $72 billion in...
World’s refugees and displaced exceed record 60 million: United Nations
The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide is likely to have ‘far surpassed’ a record 60 million, in 2015, mainly driven by the Syrian war and other protracted conflicts, the United Nations said on Friday. The estimated figure includes 20.2 million refugees fleeing wars and persecution, the most since 1992, the UN High...
Russian president Vladimir Putin praises Donald Trump to the moon, GOP candidate returns favour
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US presidential candidate Donald Trump praised each other on Thursday, saying they would welcome an improvement in the now-icy relations between their two nations. Trump – who holds the lead in opinion polls in his bid for the Republican nomination and was dubbed the “absolute leader” in the...
Ukraine court bans Communist Party
Ukraine came under fire from Amnesty International on Thursday after a Kiev court banned the national Communist Party, the latest move to break from the country’s Soviet past more than two decades after independence. The District Administrative Court of Kiev ruled on Wednesday in favour of the Ukrainian justice ministry’s lawsuit...
NATO aid for Turkey also meant to prevent Russia clash
NATO plans to send air defence support to Turkey partly to minimise the risk of Ankara shooting down another Russian warplane while assuaging its fears of a spillover from the conflict in Syria, senior alliance sources say. The mission, expected to be approved by the Western defence alliance’s council on Friday, has been under preparation...
