Rediff.com lists 10 new countries that were formed over the last two decades
Defending champion Petra Kvitova suffered a shock exit when unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea beat the Czech 4-6 7-5 6-2 on Friday to move in the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup.
Benchmark share indices ended lower on profit taking after they touched record highs in the previous session.
German Marcel Kittel claimed his third victory on this year's Tour de France when he pipped Mark Cavendish on the line to take the 12th stage on Thursday.
Mark Cavendish's Tour de France campaign suffered another setback on Tuesday when the Briton had to settle for third in a sprint after being involved in a crash in a chaotic stage 10 finale won by Marcel Kittel.
Sania Mirza squandered a one-set lead and crashed out in qualifying at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, losing to Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 6-2, 3-6, 2-6.
Maria Sharapova joined Serena Williams in making an early exit from the Australian Open on Monday but defending champion Victoria Azarenka swept into the quarter-finals with an 18th straight victory at Melbourne Park.
India's campaign ended at the $125000 Tashkent ATP Challenger after Davis Cuppers, Yuki Bhambri, Vishnu Vardhan and Sanam Singh got beaten in their respective first round matches.
Sania Mirza earned the opportunity to end her 2012 season with a title win as she reached the summit clash of the China Open with her partner Nuria Llagostera Vives.
Maria Sharapova overcame more problems with her serve to beat Czech Lucie Safarova 6-2, 7-6 and reach the quarter-finals of the Pan Pacific Open on Wednesday.
Italy's Sara Errani ended the French resistance at the Pan Pacific Open, rallying to defeat ninth seed Marion Bartoli 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the last eight of the WTA premier five event on Wednesday.
Chandrika Tarafdar on Wednesday became the first Indian to win a medal in Youth World Weightlifting Championships after she bagged two bronze in the girls' 44kg category.
Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek stormed into the semifinals of the US Open men's doubles event after getting the better of Julian Knowle of Austria and Slovakia's Filip Polasek in straight sets in New York.
As rains lashed Mumbai, the metropolis faced one of the highest tides of the season that hit its shores on Thursday.
Milan has been named the world's top fashion city in an annual survey that ranks Mumbai at the 16th place and New Delhi at 17th.
Satish Kaushik performs a scene from his popular play.
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, two players who have tasted the wrath of the New York crowd, begin their title campaigns with first-round matches at the US Open on Tuesday.
Tennis, like other sports, was bound to have some players using performance-enhancing drugs, American James Blake said on Monday, but he felt authorities were doing all they could to ensure the sport was as clean as possible.
Gayatri Patel pays tribute to the legend of Pop music.
Venus Williams showed that, almost a year after her health scare, she has the stamina needed as she battled for two hours 23 minutes to beat Russia's Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 at the Cincinnati Open on Tuesday.
The crimes against foreigners visiting Goa have continued unabated with the government records admitting that 57 such cases were reported in last one-and-half year, till June 2012.
Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands registered a straight-set victory over Julia Goerges of Germany and Czech Republic's Kveta Peschke 7-6(1) 6-3 to enter the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Indian shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu fared dismally and finished 25th out of 34 competitors on Day 1 of the qualification round of the men's trap event at the Olympic Games and has extremely slim chances of making it to Monday's finals. At the end of three rounds, Manavjit -- in his third Olympics -- totalled 70 points out of a possible 75, with rounds of 24, 24 and 22, at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Shooter Shagun Chowdhary's campaign at the London Olympics ended on a disappointing note as she failed to qualify for the final of the women's trap event after finishing 20th, on Saturday.
Rain played havoc with the tennis schedule at the Olympic Games, prompting the organisersto postpone many matches, including the men's doubles fixtures involving Indian players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.
Shooter Kimberley Rhode etched her name into the annals of great American Olympians on Sunday when she easily won the women's skeet gold medal to become the first U.S. competitor to win individual medals in five consecutive Games.
Murugan was the first to vote in Panickanadarkudieruppu. "I wanted to vote before the heat gets unbearable."
Serena Williams has still not kicked post Wimbledon jet lag, but she still managed to beat Chanelle Scheepers 6-4, 6-0 in the quarter-finals of the Stanford Classic on Friday.
Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka struggled to find her rhythm against Kirsten Flipkens in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Monday but finished strong to beat the Belgian 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Former champion Maria Sharapova survived a tough battle with Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro on Sunday, winning 7-5, 6-3 to book her place in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open.
Australian Open champion and top seed Victoria Azarenka recovered from a sluggish start to beat Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday.
Former champion Maria Sharapova cruised into the third round of the BNP Paribas Open with a ruthless 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Italy's Francesca Schiavone on Friday.
Four-times champion Roger Federer was delighted to welcome back to the ATP Tour his long-time rival Rafa Nadal, a man he could face in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
World's leading online travel agency has placed Taj Lands End at Mumbai on its list of world's best-reviewed hotels.
World No 4 Koneru Humpy pulled off a great win using an unusual opening move with black and rounded off a very successful tournament with a share of the first place at the FIDE Women Grand Prix Chess in Kazan, Russia. She was tied at 7.5 points with the higher rated Anna Muzychuk of Slovakia.
French Open champion Rafael Nadal made a successful transition from clay to grass with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Slovakia's Lukas Lacko to join his great rival Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the Halle Open on Thursday.
Greece substitute Dimitris Salpingidis scored a second-half equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw with Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland in a pulsating opening match on Friday in which the Greeks missed a penalty and both sides finished with 10 men.
Wayne Rooney struck with a 74th-minute free kick to give England a 1-0 win over 10-man Estonia in a Euro 2016 Group E qualifier on Sunday and move to within six goals of Bobby Charlton's record tally of 49.
Holder Maria Sharapova ended the encouraging run of Venus Williams to reach the semi-finals of the Italian Open on Friday, but Serena Williams enjoyed an easy passage through to the last four.
World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka suffered a blow to her French Open preparations when she was forced to pull out of the Italian Open with a right shoulder injury on Wednesday, but an aching Roger Federer gingerly advanced to the third round.