The United States is expected to run away with the athletics competition in Rio, taking podium spots often the preserve of Russians such as double pole vault gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva and 110m hurdles world champion Sergei Shubenkov.

Members of the first-ever Olympic refugee team visited Rio de Janeiro's iconic Christ statue Saturday, with smiles as wide as their arms were outstretched, imitating the landmark's open embrace as they posed for photos.

According to sector estimates, it takes at least six months to develop a route.

When record Olympic champion Michael Phelps and the king of sprinting Usain Bolt resume their hunt for world records and gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next month they will not be the only big stories in town.

Visa Inc, operator of the world's largest payments network, said on Wednesday it had signed sponsorship deals with all ten members of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) refugee team, essentially becoming their first corporate sponsor.

Triple Olympic gold medal winner Kenenisa Bekele said he was bitterly disappointed to be left out of Ethiopia's team for the Rio Olympics and blamed members of the country's athletics federation he said knew nothing of the sport.

Leading sports powerbrokers gathered at the International Olympic Committee's headquarters on Tuesday morning to discuss further crackdowns on drug cheats before the Rio Games.

Russia said on Friday it is ready to do everything from a legal point of view to defend Russian athletes if they are banned from taking part in the Rio Olympics over doping allegations.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday unveiled its first ever team of refugees which will have 10 members and 12 officials and will compete at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games under the Olympic flag.

Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana ran the second fastest women's 5,000 metres in history as she missed out on the world record by just over a second at the Rome Diamond League in Rome, on Thursday.

A major fire broke out on Thursday in a five-storeyed commercial-cum-residential building in Mumbai but there were no casualties.

A data plan currently priced at Rs 100 should not cost more than Rs 34, if India has to make the Internet affordable for 80 per cent of its population.

Ethiopian runners vying for a place in the summer Olympics dominated the Boston Marathon on Monday, taking the top three spots in the men's division for the first time, and the top two spots among the women.

From soccer genius Lionel Messi to sprint king Usain Bolt, a shimmering array of the world's greatest sports stars are in the race for top honours at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards -- also called the 'Oscars of Sport' -- to be presented.

Saudi Arabia relies more heavily on migrant labour than any other large country.

During the World War, Singh fought alongside the Allied Forces in North West Frontier province, Eritrea, Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), Libya, Egypt and Italy.

Move the slider on the map above to see the change in percentage of population using an improved drinking water source over 1990 to 2015.

This year Olympic Games could feature an athletics programme without two of the sport's most powerful nations -- Russia and Kenya -- while a third, Ethiopia, is under immense pressure to show it has adequate anti-doping measures.

Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova, the highest-paid woman in sports, said on Monday that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open due to a substance she has been taking for 10 years for health issues.

World indoor 1500 metres champion Abeba Aregawi has been suspended from Swedish athletics after she tested positive for a banned substance, the national federation said on Monday.

It is the third time Genzebe Dibaba, 25, has broken a world record in Stockholm, having previously set new marks for the 3,000 and 5,000 metres at the Ericsson Globe Arena in the Swedish capital

'China's moves are of direct significance to India, which will closely monitor Chinese naval activity in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean not least because of Chinese maps depicting claims over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.'

Relying on the private sector to undertake infrastructure investment may not be a realistic proposition.

Kenyan pacesetter Gideon Kipketer won the men's race in an all-East African clean sweep of the podium by setting a new course record in the 13th Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on Sunday.

A statuette of Lord Hanuman is among few items that United States President Barack Obama always carries in his pocket and seeks inspiration from whenever he feels tired or discouraged.

Sadly, for hundreds of millions in India, that inequality from their birth and the utterly inadequate schooling and health care they receive thereafter mean that the lottery is stacked against them.

The winners of the 2015 Travel Photographer of the Year are out and the stunning images feature the bleak, frozen Arctic alongside the renderings of steamy swamps in America's deep south.

India contributed $10 million to the Ebola Trust Fund and helped in evacuating Indians as well as many foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen in 2015.

Climate action plans of poorest nations to cost $1 trillion.

Usain Bolt, Ashton Eaton and Christian Taylor are the finalists for the 2015 World Athlete of the Year award, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Wednesday.

Here are some of the most captivating moments from the first World Indigenous Games in Brazil.

Over the last four days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted the heads of over 50 African nations, some of whom have extremely unsavoury reputations. Meet the 10 most controversial leaders who visited Delhi this week.

Pakistan on Wednesday failed to win a re-election to the United Nations' human rights body. The 193-member General Assembly voted here to elect 18 new members of the UN Human Rights Council.

Index heavyweights were the top losers along with bank shares.

The crush and stampede that struck the Hajj last month in Saudi Arabia killed at least 2,121 pilgrims, a new tally showed on Monday, after officials in the kingdom met to discuss the tragedy.

History is not likely to be so kind to the 79-year-old Swiss, who only recently compared himself to a mountain goat that keeps "going and going and going and cannot be stopped." Instead, his name is likely to be associated with the succession of corruption scandals which occurred on his watch.

As German makes provisions to accept 800,000 refugees this year, the nation is split vertically on the crisis with refugee shelters attacked with Molotov cocktails and swastika signs painted outside many refugee homes.

Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana put on a brilliant display of front-running to win the women's 5,000 metres at the world championships on Sunday and deprive compatriot Genzebe Dibaba of an unprecedented double gold.

Britain's Mo Farah stormed to victory in the 5,000 metres on Saturday to secure an unprecedented third successive distance double at major global championships.

Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba eased through to the finals of the women's 5,000 metres on Thursday to stay on course for a world athletics championships double, while American Brittney Reese saw her six-year long jump reign end.