As per French President Emmanuel Macron, France refuses to recognise Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea but hoped to make progress towards peace.
France is committed to Ukraine's sovereignty with its recognised borders.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after a military intervention in eastern Ukraine. The new French President expects a new round of the so-called “Normandy format” talks on the issue — involving France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
Mosul Battle to End
As per reports, the battle to take full control of Mosul from Islamic State will be over in a few days and an attempted fight-back by the militants failed.
Only a small part remains in the city, specifically the Old City.
Presidential Polls in Mongolia
Mongolia has started voting for a new President.
There are nearly two million voters in the country, which has a population of around three million.
The polls mainly involve candidates from three leading parties.
Miyegombyn Enkhbold of the ruling Mongolian People's Party and Battulga Khaltmaa of the opposition Democratic Party are considered the main contenders.
NASA's senior rover, is currently examining the edge of a crater on the red planet that may once have been a lake of liquid water and found rocks at the edge of Endeavour Crater that were either transported by a flood or eroded in place by wind.
The Opportunity mission has been investigating sites on and near the western rim of Endeavour Crater since 2011. The crater is about 22 km across.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) has joined the Indian consortium negotiating the acquisition of a 49% stake in Russia’s Vankor Cluster oilfields in the Arctic region.
Originally, ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas investment arm of state-owned ONGC, signed a MoU to explore buying a stake in Suzunskoye, Tagulskoye and Lodochnoye fields — collectively known as Vankor Cluster.
Later, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India (OIL) and Bharat PetroResources (BPRL), a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, came in using the influence of the oil ministry.
Excited to Keep Investing, Growing in India
According to Jeff Bezos, American online retail giant Amazon’s chief, which has committed investments to the tune of USD 5 billion in India, will keep investing and growing in India.
Bezos was among the 20 US business leaders who interacted with Modi as part of a roundtable interaction. Others in the group included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google's Sunder Pichai, John Chambers from Cisco, Shantanu Narayen from Adobe and Ajay Banga from Mastercard.
Govt. Defers TDS and TCS under GST
With just few days left for GST rollout, the government has deferred implementation of TDS and TCS provisions as well as exempted from registration small businesses selling on e-commerce platform.
Lupin Ltd. founder and chairman Desh Bandhu Gupta passed away. He was 79 and had been active in office till his last day.
He founded Lupin in 1968. Lupin is the fourth-largest generics pharmaceutical player by market capitalisation in the world.
Chinese Troops Enter India
In a major provocation, the Chinese troops entered India in the Sikkim sector and jostled with Indian Army personnel guarding the Indo-Sino frontier, besides destroying two Indian bunkers.
The Indian soldiers formed a human wall to stop the Chinese troops from progressing further into the region.
The bunkers that were destroyed are in the Lalten area of the Doka La area of Sikkim.