An Indian man, frustrated at failing to find employment, ordered the murder of his father to get his government job, a day before the victim was to retire, police said on Tuesday. The man, arrested from a village in the impoverished eastern Bihar state, had planned to claim his father’s job on the grounds that he died while still at work, police officer Naresh Singh said.
India’s truck and car maker Tata Motors announced on Monday it had completed its acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover from ailing United States car maker Ford for $2,3-billion. The company said the deal includes the "ownership of Jaguar and Land Rover, all necessary intellectual property rights, manufacturing plants and two Britain-based advanced designing centres".
South Africa captain Graeme Smith is likely to miss next month’s opening Test against England after sustaining a hamstring injury. Smith (27) picked up the injury while playing in an Indian domestic league match and may have to sit out the opener at the Lord’s cricket ground starting on July 10.
Situated in India’s majestic Western Ghats, one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hot spots, is Parimbikulam Wildlife Sanctuary.
South African cellular giant MTN could pick up to a 74% stake in India’s Reliance Communications in a share-swap deal being discussed between the companies, an official said on Friday. "The stock swap is an option being considered at the moment," a Reliance official said on condition of anonymity.
Reliance Communications, India’s number two mobile operator, has entered into exclusive negotiations for a tie-up with the MTN Group, knocking its shares down 4%. Reliance was quick to fill a void left after its bigger domestic rival, Bharti Airtel, pulled out of talks at the weekend aimed at taking control of MTN.
India’s top cellular company, Bharti Airtel, on Saturday called off merger talks with MTN, branding the ownership structure proposed by the flagship South African mobile firm ”completely unacceptable”. The merger would have created the world’s sixth-largest mobile company with a network of 130-million subscribers.
A Bharti Airtel official on Thursday said there were no new developments in its talks with South African telecoms operator MTN Group that could create the world’s sixth-largest mobile operator. Bharti said on May 5 it was in exploratory talks with MTN, and on May 13 said it had not made any bid for the South African firm.
The death toll in India’s worst bootleg liquor tragedy in recent years rose to 180 on Thursday as 30 more victims died, police said. Labourers in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu bought the liquor, sold in plastic pouches from illegal shops and laced with chemicals, at the weekend and immediately fell sick.
Merger talks between India’s biggest cellphone services firm, Bharti Airtel, and South Africa’s flagship MTN Group could wind up this weekend, a report said on Saturday. A merged group would create the world’s sixth-largest mobile company with a network of 130-million subscribers.
Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile operator, may seek a merger or share swap with MTN Group to try to avoid a bidding war for the South African phone firm, analysts and media reports say. A successful deal would be India’s biggest foreign acquisition and create the world’s sixth-largest mobile operator.
A little-known militant group called the Indian Mujahedin claimed responsibility for setting off bombs in the western Indian city of Jaipur that killed 61 people and injured 216 people this week, police said. A video clip sent by email to national media showed one packet strapped on the back of a bicycle. The email said that the packet contained a bomb.
The Indian cricket board banned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh for five one-day internationals on Wednesday for a slapping incident involving Shanthakumaran Sreesanth during a domestic Twenty20 league match last month. The ban meant the 27-year-old off-spinner will miss the forthcoming tri-series in Bangladesh in June and the start of the Asia Cup in Pakistan.
A shock of thick black hair was all that peeped out from under a white sheet that covered a small body Wednesday at a morgue in Jaipur after serial bomb blasts killed about 80 people. Eight bombs went off within minutes of each other in crowded markets close to several Hindu temples in what police said was a terror attack.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will look at ways to protect Test cricket in the wake of Twenty20’s growing impact at a two-day board meeting starting in Dubai on Monday. The India Premier League was launched last month involving several high-profile players and has taken the cricket world by storm, with the England board also planning their own league.
India’s largest hospital and pharmacy chain, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, is planning to set up hospitals in African countries, chairperson Prathap Reddy said on Wednesday. Apollo plans to take its total hospital bed count to 10 000 from 8 000 now over 18 months.
Hundreds of children are still being born with birth defects as a result of the world’s worst industrial disaster 23 years ago in the central Indian town of Bhopal, say campaigners. They are demanding that the Indian government provide immediate medical care and research the ”hidden” health impacts.
India spinner Harbhajan Singh has been banned for the remainder of a domestic Twenty20 league after he was found guilty on Monday of slapping compatriot Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi told a news conference that the cricketer would be fined all of his match fees from the tournament.
The Dalai Lama on Friday welcomed China’s offer to meet his envoy for talks after weeks of protests over Tibet and repeated calls from the exiled spiritual leader for dialogue with Beijing. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that talks would take place in the coming days, which the Dalai Lama’s spokesperson described as "a step in the right direction".
Police in India have arrested a man for stealing more than 100 sperm samples from a laboratory in the western state of Maharashtra, a news report said on Tuesday. Police told the Times of India daily that Anil Punjaba Mohite had stolen 101 sperm samples from Cryobank, a sperm bank in central Aurangabad city, last week.
The Olympic torch was paraded through India’s capital on Thursday, along a historic thoroughfare purged of spectators, as 15 000 police officers kept protesters from the world’s largest community of exiled Tibetans far from the route. Across India, thousands of mainly Tibetans protested.
At least 44 schoolchildren and three adults were killed on Wednesday when their bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a canal in western India, police said. Their bodies had been recovered, but some children were still missing, said RK Patel, a senior police officer in Gujarat state. Four children were rescued.
India dominated South Africa on Sunday to win the third Test by eight wickets inside three days, squaring the series 1-1 and retaining their world number-two Test ranking. In an extraordinary final day, India turned what had been an evenly poised match at the start of play into a rout.
Sourav Ganguly cracked a gutsy 87 on a difficult pitch to help India gain a slender advantage on the second day of the third and final Test against South Africa in Kanpur on Saturday. India were struggling at 123-4 before reaching 288-9 in their first innings at stumps in reply to South Africa’s 265 on a day of fluctuating fortunes.
Teenage paceman Ishant Sharma and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh shared six wickets as India restricted South Africa to 265 in the third and final Test in Kanpur on Friday. South Africa were comfortably placed at 152-1 before losing their way on a spin-friendly pitch. Skipper Graeme Smith (69) and Hashim Amla (51) led the way with solid half-centuries.
South Africa’s touring team has sought security assurances from the Indian cricket board following reports that militants plan to target the third Test match starting on Friday in the northern city of Kanpur. South Africa team manager Logan Naidoo had written to the board expressing concerns over the players’ security.
India and South Africa enter the third and final Test on Friday with the series on the line, and having to deal with the threat of a reported terrorist plot against the match, which is being played in Kanpur. Security was bolstered after police sources said that they had intelligence of a planned attack in the northern Indian city by Islamic terrorists.
Grim-faced Chinese guards protecting the Olympic torch have attracted further criticism ahead of the global relay’s arrival in India, where bitter memories of war with its neighbour remain fresh. Phalanxes of Chinese security personnel are accompanying the flame’s around-the-world journey to shield it from pro-Tibetan demonstrators.
”We are not the Chinese.” This was the message from India this week as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government used the first India-Africa Forum Summit in Delhi to redefine the way in which its role in Africa is viewed. The Mail & Guardian‘s Nic Dawes attended the summit.
A buoyant South Africa will be keen to capitalise on India’s form and fitness worries ahead of Friday’s third and final Test in Kanpur to complete a hat-trick in the subcontinent. The visitors lead 1-0 in the series following their crushing win by an innings and 90 runs in the second Test in Ahmedabad last Saturday after the opening match ended in a draw in Chennai.
India has joined the race with China for Africa’s abundant hydrocarbons and natural resources while offering to empower the 53-nation continent through affordable technologies, the development of human capital and equal partnerships. The first-ever India-Africa summit began in New Delhi on Tuesday.
A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said on Tuesday. The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces.