BRICS

The rising might of China is causing it to act with increasing disregard towards its neighbours, AFP reports citing a Japanese government-funded study.

Doctors said Nelson Mandela was responding positively to treatment Thursday after being readmitted to hospital with a lung infection, the latest health scare for the revered anti-apartheid icon, AFP reports.

A wave of inspections of nongovernmental organizations in Russia is intensifying pressure on civil society since the adoption of a series of restrictive laws in 2012, Amnesty International, Frontline Defenders, and Human Rights Watch said today. Teams of officials from a variety of government agencies have inspected at least 30 groups in the past two weeks in Moscow, and many more in at least 13 other regions of Russia.

Russia and four other major emerging economies on Wednesday agreed to set up a council that seeks to facilitate joint business projects.

President Vladimir Putin is set to attend a forum organized by the All-Russia People's Front on Friday in a show of support for the movement he created almost two years ago to garner votes for the increasingly unpopular United Russia party.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh dubbed the experiment of "two power centres" in UPA as a failure and said Rahul Gandhi should not repeat Sonia Gandhi's decision to nominate a leader as prime minister.

 

A local BSP leader who was the richest candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha election was shot dead inside his south Delhi farmhouse by two men after a brief altercation on Tuesday morning.

BRICS emerging powers on Tuesday sought a deal on setting up a development bank that would rival Western-backed institutions, trying to iron out significant differences ahead of a leaders' summit in Durban, AFP reports.

Hong Kong’s top court rejected the final appeal of a foreign maid who said the city’s denial of her application for residence rights is unconstitutional.

Xi Jinping has arrived in Russia on the first stop of his maiden overseas tour as president of China.

As Italy reversed its decision of not sending back its two naval guards, government on Friday said India has given assurances to that country that they will not face death penalty and will not be liable for arrest if they return by the deadline of today set by the Supreme Court.

The decision is the culmination of a series of negotiations between presidents Enrique Peña Nieto and Dilma Rousseff, as part of the Summit of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC), held last January in the city of Santiago de Chile.