When the Dalai Lama sat down on Saturday with Richard Gere and Robert Thurman, father of actor Uma and a United States professor of Buddhism, it was supposed to be for a few hours contemplating sacred art and silent meditation. But like almost everything the 72-year-old does, who he meets and what he says are picked over and pulled apart.
The people of Mizoram, a tiny, remote state of north-east India, have known for the past 48 years that they would face famine in 2008. Confirmation came last November when the local species of bamboo that dominates the state’s landscape began to burst into flower. A plague of rats rapidly followed.
South Africa are confident they will put their selection problems behind them during Test series in India, skipper Graeme Smith said on Saturday. The tourists arrived for the three-Test series amid a storm or controversy following the omission of paceman Andre Nel to fulfil the team’s quota of black players.
A South African woman has accused Indian peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo of raping her while on leave, a media report said on Tuesday. SA police detained three Indian army officers working with United Nations peacekeeping forces in the Central African nation on March 12.
Indian media on Wednesday rewarded the cricket team’s conquest of world champions Australia with front page banner headlines, celebrating a victorious end to an acrimonious tour. ”Triumph against all Oz” screamed the mass-selling Hindustan Times a day after the young Indian team completed a 2-0 whitewash of Australia.
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/ 27 February 2008
India’s new cricket coach Gary Kirsten said on Wednesday he was impressed with the team’s aggressive attitude despite controversies on their ongoing tour of Australia. ”What I like about Indian cricket as a whole now, and especially about the young players, is that they are ready to accept the battle,” said the former South African batsman, who officially takes over as coach next month.
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/ 25 February 2008
West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuels has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect due to an illegal action, the International Cricket Council said on Monday. The Jamaican, an occasional off-spinner, was reported for a suspected illegal bowling action during the third Test match between South Africa and West Indies.
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/ 20 February 2008
Young girls and their mothers huddle under shawls in the central reservation of one of Patna’s main streets, picking through trash for grimy metal scraps that might earn them 20 rupees (sh,50) a day. Buses and auto-rickshaws belt out black fumes beside them on the congested, muddy street and dogs pick through huge piles of garbage by the roadside as men urinate at their side.
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/ 11 February 2008
Two tournaments and two top-10 finishes to start the season have buoyed Ernie Els as he switches his focus to the United States in preparation for the Masters at Augusta in April. The world number four recovered from a horror nine at the 18th in his first round at the inaugural Indian Masters to end tied sixth.
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/ 10 February 2008
SSP Chowrasia claimed the biggest prize of his career by winning the Indian Masters on Sunday, holding off Ireland’s Damien McGrane for a two-stroke victory. Nicknamed ”Chipputtsia” due to his superb short game, Chowrasia was running hot in perfect conditions at the Delhi Golf Club, sinking four birdies in his opening seven holes.
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/ 10 February 2008
World golfing number four Ernie Els has been there and done that, and a "lucky" R5 coin has accompanied him throughout his golfing exploits on the world stage. The big South African revealed a superstitious side to his game during a clinic at the driving range on the sidelines of the Indian Masters.
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/ 9 February 2008
Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin grabbed a one-shot lead at a blustery Indian Masters on Saturday, with Ernie Els lurking dangerously four behind after posting the best score of the day. Jacquelin, who last tasted a European Tour victory at the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai last April, mixed an eagle and a birdie with three bogeys for an even par 72 on a day that saw the lead see-saw.
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/ 9 February 2008
Twenty people were killed by avalanches and 15 others were missing in Indian Kashmir as the heaviest snowfall in recent years brought the Himalayan region to a standstill, officials said on Saturday. More than 300 people have been rescued from avalanche-hit areas, while many villages remained inaccessible, police said.
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/ 8 February 2008
Northern Ireland’s Damien McGrane stroked a majestic 69 to take a two-shot lead at the Indian Masters on Friday as Ernie Els made amends for his disastrous opening round to scrape through the cut. Another Irishman, Graeme McDowell, who finished fifth behind Tiger Woods in Dubai on Sunday, shares second place with South Africa’s Hendrik Buhrmann.
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/ 7 February 2008
Ernie Els shot a horror quadruple bogey to lag 10 behind leader Jyoti Randhawa at the inaugural Indian Masters on Thursday, with the local star eagling the last for a two-shot lead. Irishman Damien McGrane played two rounds with Tiger Woods at the Dubai Desert Classic last week and the world number one’s magic clearly rubbed off as he fired a 67 to lie second.
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/ 6 February 2008
The Asian Tour’s elite have Ernie Els in their sights at the Indian Masters this week, looking to pile more misery on the South African after his defeat to Tiger Woods in Dubai. The world number four leads the cast at the ,5-million tournament that marks the European Tour’s debut in a country where the sport is booming.
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/ 5 February 2008
Ernie Els says his agonising loss to Tiger Woods in Dubai on Sunday is history and he is fully focused on etching his name on the inaugural Indian Masters trophy this week. The world number four started the final day at the Dubai Desert Classic four ahead of Woods but his approach to the green on the 18th went in the water and it cost him the tournament.
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/ 5 February 2008
Golf is among the fastest growing sports in India and the movers and shakers of the Asian and European Tours see huge potential to cash in. This week, the country becomes the 37th destination visited by the European Tour, which has spread its wings to co-sanction the Indian Masters with the Asian Tour.
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/ 2 February 2008
A third undersea internet cable has been damaged in the Middle East, adding to the disruption in online services after two other lines were cut earlier this week, the cable operating firm said. The Falcon cable was cut 56km from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
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/ 29 January 2008
India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has been cleared of racial-abuse charges at a hearing in Australia, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Tuesday. ”He has been cleared — the racial charge has been dropped against him,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said.
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/ 29 January 2008
India will abandon the tour of Australia if spinner Harbhajan Singh is not cleared of racial abuse charges, a top Indian official said on Tuesday. Harbhajan was handed a three-Test ban by match referee Mike Procter after being found guilty of racially abusing Australia’s Andrew Symonds during the acrimonious Sydney Test earlier this month.
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/ 22 January 2008
India’s worst-ever outbreak of bird flu could turn into a disaster, an official warned on Tuesday, as five people were reportedly quarantined with symptoms of the virus. Eight districts in the eastern state of West Bengal have been hit by the virus, and dead birds are being sold and locals said to be ”feasting” on cheap chicken.
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/ 19 January 2008
In the same way as commentators refer to the 1900s as the ”American century”, the 21st century is forecast to be Asian. If the scale and speed of growth can be maintained on both sides of the Himalayas, by 2050 Beijing and Delhi will be the capitals of the world’s two richest nations.
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/ 15 January 2008
India on Tuesday confirmed a bird-flu outbreak among poultry following the deaths of thousands of chickens in the past week in the state of West Bengal. It is the country’s third outbreak since 2006 and the first since India, home to 1,1-billion people, declared itself free of the disease last November.
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/ 14 January 2008
The Indian cricket board’s official Twenty20 League has secured a 10-year rights contract worth more than -billion ahead of its launch in April, organisers said on Monday. Sony Entertainment and the Asia-based World Sports Group are behind the deal.
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/ 10 January 2008
India’s Tata Motors unveiled the world’s cheapest new car on Thursday, bringing car ownership closer for millions of poorer consumers in emerging markets but raising environmental concerns. The four-seater Nano, with an engine of 625cc, will have a dealer price of 100 000 rupees ( 500), about half the cost of the cheapest car on today’s market.
By Bollywood standards, an unusual movie was released in India at the start of January. It is not star-studded and has a paltry budget with 150 producers pitching in the money. Tickets have been sold by going door to door, and profits are to be shared equally. It is a first-of-its-kind cooperative film in Indian cinema.
India’s cricket tour of Australia will go ahead as scheduled despite racism and umpiring rows, the Indian cricket board announced on Tuesday. ”The working committee of the Indian board took note of all relevant circumstances and developments and decided that Indian team’s tour to Australia should continue for the present,” the board said.
Only 10 years ago, Tata Motors unveiled its first car, a hatchback, that established the truck maker’s credentials as a car maker. On Thursday, the company unveils a car that will sell for just  500, less than half the cheapest car on the market.
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/ 23 December 2007
Controversial Hindu nationalist party leader Narendra Modi swept back to power in India’s religiously divided Gujarat state on Sunday in what was called a national victory over the rival Congress party. The Congress loss in the Hindu nationalist bastion, though widely expected, was its fourth setback in regional polls this year.
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/ 15 December 2007
A two-year-old Indian girl born with four arms, four legs and extra internal organs left hospital smiling on Saturday, nearly six weeks after doctors removed her extra limbs in an operation. The team of around 30 medics took away what amounted to Lakshmi Tatma’s headless identical twin sister who was joined at the pelvis.
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/ 14 December 2007
Upset that a stray rabid dog was fleeing with a duck from his compound, a man in southern India caught the animal, wrestled with it and bit it hard in the throat before it was beaten to death, a newspaper said. A report in the Hindustan Times on Friday said that the dog had become a menace to villagers in Pakakkadavu, in the Kollam district of Kerala state.