Russia and China are tight-fisted and Iran is broke and none of them has the political will or capacity to bankroll the Afghan economy, which only the US can, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

The flawed Indian policy toward Afghanistan is missing the woods for the trees. The Modi government doesn't have a 'big picture', observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who played a stellar role in beginning India's systemic dealings in Afghanistan in 1994.

China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity. They can play a big role in rebuilding, reconstruction of Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will inspire terrorists and trigger an "explosion" of extremism and security challenges for the world, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warned on Thursday.

Internal strife and tribalism is endemic to Afghanistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).

Britain's Cairn Energy has secured a French court order to seize 20 Indian govt properties to recover arbitration award, it is learnt.

After Air India, Britain's Cairn Energy PLC plans to target assets of state-owned firms and banks in countries from the US to Singapore as it looks to ramp up efforts to recover the amount due from the Indian government after winning an arbitration against levy of retrospective taxes. A lawyer representing the company said Cairn will bring lawsuits in several countries to make state-owned firms liable to pay the $1.2 billion plus interest and penalties that are due from the Indian government. Last month, Cairn brought a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York pleading that Air India is controlled by the Indian government so much that they are 'alter egos' and the airline should be held liable for the arbitration award.

The 'terrible' surge of the coronavirus cases in India has severely impacted COVAX's vaccine supply in the second quarter of this year to the extent that there will be a shortfall of 190 million doses by the end of June, according to a joint statement by the WHO, UNICEF, GAVI and CEPI.

UK's Cairn Energy Plc plans to bring lawsuits in the US and other countries to pierce the corporate veil between the Indian government and its owned companies such as in oil and gas, shipping, airline and banking sectors, to seize their overseas assets to recover $1.2 billion ordered by an international arbitration tribunal. The firm has moved courts in the US, UK, Canada, France, Singapore, the Netherlands and three other countries to register the December 2020 arbitration tribunal ruling that overturned the Indian government's Rs 10,247 crore demand in back taxes and ordered New Delhi to return $1.2 billion in value of shares it had sold, dividends seized and tax refunds withheld to recover the tax demand. With the government so far refusing to honour the arbitration award and instead choosing to challenge it, Cairn is looking to enforce it by seizing overseas Indian assets, Dennis Hranitzky, head of the sovereign litigation practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a law firm representing the company, told PTI.

After gaining access to the airfield, the unarmed intruder then entered a C-40 aircraft from the 89th Airlift Wing, known as the "presidential wing," officials said.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd has sold its stake in the shale gas asset in the US to Northern Oil and Gas Inc for USD 250 million, the firm said on Thursday.

The 78-year-old veteran Democrat leader was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice John Roberts at the West Front of the Capitol -- the traditional location for presidential inaugural ceremonies where the deadly violence took place just two weeks ago.

The presidential dreams that the veteran leader from Delaware had harboured since childhood seemed all but over for a third time until he won South Carolina's Democratic Party primary on February 29 last year, forcing most rivals out of the race and making one of the most dramatic comebacks in American political history.

Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath of office to Biden just after the clock strikes 12 (local time) at the West Front of the Capitol -- the traditional location -- under the unprecedented security umbrella of more than 25,000 National Guards, who have transformed the capital into a garrison city, mainly because of the threat of violent protest by Trump's supporters.

It is also for the first time ever that so many Indian-Americans have been roped into a presidential administration ever before the inauguration. Biden, a Democrat, is still quite far away from filling all the positions in his administration.

Biden's proposal also sets aside USD 20 billion for a national vaccination programme and USD 50 billion to scale up coronavirus testing.

Lady Gaga will perform the national anthem. There will be a musical performance by Lopez, who has used her voice during the coronavirus pandemic to speak out against its disproportionate toll on minority communities.

Biden said that he was glad Trump decided not to attend and that Pence is "welcome to come.'

"As associate attorney general, the number three job at the department, I nominate Vanita Gupta. A woman I've known for some time. One of the most respected civil rights lawyers in America," Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware as he announced some of the key nominations in the Justice Department on Thursday.

'This is not who we are. What we are seeing is a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness'

We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.

The US vice-president-elect received a dose of the Moderna vaccine from clinical nurse Patricia Cummings at United Medical Center, which is located in Southeast Washington, DC.

Biden received the first course of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at ChristianaCare Hospital in Newark, Delaware.

Biden previously told Jake Tapper of CNN that he would be "happy to" take the COVID-19 vaccine once US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said it was safe and he would get the injection in a public setting to prove it.

'She'll probably be leading some significant portfolio from the White House, the way that Vice President Biden did in the Obama White House.'

The reversal of Trump's policy with regard to Iran, like the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, may not be a matter of just turning the clock back, but one of patient negotiations, with uncertain consequences in the post-COVID-19 world, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.

Indian-American Neera Tanden, who has been nominated as the director of the Office of Management and Budget by US president-elect Joe Biden, on Tuesday shared the inspiring story of her mother who immigrated to the US from India.

'There is little appetite in the Democratic foreign policy establishment to pick a fight with India.'

Biden's Twitter statement came hours after incumbent President Donald Trump, a Republican, finally agreed that the presidential transition process should start, after weeks of wrangling.

Almost each of these companies has a different technology to show for the effectiveness against microbes.

Biden said he would follow the science. "I am not going to shut down the economy period. I am going to shut down the virus," he asserted.

Pfizer Inc and its group companies filed a petition in a US court against Aurobindo Pharma Ltd and Dr Reddy's Laboratories alleging that the Indian drug-makers were planning separately to come out with generic versions of its blockbuster multi-billion dollar drug Ibrance (palbociclib) before expiration of its patent.

'Biden's promise of returning to 'normalcy' after Trump appears to mean that the same old politicians, who are responsible for the 'endless wars' in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, are being brought out of the woodwork after four years,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

'President-elect Biden, in particular, has deep knowledge of, and experience with, dealing with India, serving as a custodian and champion of the relationship long before it was fashionable to do so.'

Trump presidency was the first in more than 100 years not to feature a "first dog". Neither President Trump nor his wife Melania owned any pets.

The beauty of the relationship between the two countries is that they agree to disagree and perhaps that is the strongest bond between the two governments and their relationships, notes Rup Narayan Das.

'This election might be the most significant for the community and indicates the possibility of greater engagement.'

We cannot simply bhangra off into the sunset. But we should take a moment to celebrate. A long, historic, poignant moment. This election is a Big. Freaking. Deal. For our country, our futures, our children, our spirits, notes Pia Padukone.

Washington might occasionally make some noises about alleged human rights violations and related issues but commonality of interests will only see the Indo-US ties grow stronger, observes Virendra Kapoor.

Biden and Harris are the leaders we need at this time to do the painful but necessary work of creating a more inclusive -- and united -- nation, points out Murali Kamma.