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/ 25 September 2006
A 36-year-old woman in the eastern Indian state of Orissa was locked in a cramped, windowless room by her family for over two decades, a newspaper reported on Monday. Swarnaprava Pandava has been confined at her family residence in eastern Kendrapara district by her parents who said she was mentally deranged, the Times of India daily reported.
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/ 20 September 2006
Storms caused by a depression in the Bay of Bengal have killed more than 40 people in eastern India and Bangladesh and left hundreds of fishermen missing at sea, officials said on Wednesday. Thousands of people have been left homeless. Most of the deaths came in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where heavy rains and strong winds caused flash floods.
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/ 11 September 2006
South Africa wants to treble two-way trade with India to -billion by 2010, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday as she invited Indian firms to invest in the African nation’s infrastructure and IT sectors. India’s exports to South Africa grew by 58% to ,55-billion in the fiscal year to March 2006, while imports were up by 11,44% to ,45-billion, government data shows.
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/ 8 September 2006
At least 31 people, mostly worshippers at weekly Islamic prayers, were killed and up to 75 injured in a series of explosions in a Muslim-majority town in western India on Friday, police said. The blasts came days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that intelligence agencies had warned of more terrorist attacks across the country.
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/ 7 September 2006
At least 54 miners were feared dead in eastern India after the roof of a state-owned coal mine collapsed following an explosion, a mine official said on Thursday. The incident took place in the Dhanbad district of the eastern state of Jharkhand late on Wednesday.
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/ 6 September 2006
Australia’s Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid of India and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene lead the nominations for this year’s International Cricket Council (ICC) awards. The trio of captains were among those short-listed on Wednesday for best player in Tests, one-dayers and overall categories for performances between August 1 2005 and August 8 2006.
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/ 6 September 2006
At least one million people have lost their homes to floods in eastern India, but the government’s relief effort is slow and inadequate, voluntary groups said on Wednesday. The flooding, triggered by annual monsoon rains over the past week, has hit an area where 2,3-million people live and damaged thousands of hectares of paddy in the coastal state of Orissa.
At least 35 people were feared dead after a boat capsized in the Ganges river on the outskirts of Patna, the capital of India’s eastern state of Bihar, police said on Thursday. Authorities said the boat was carrying about 60 passengers, including farmers and children, when it sank.
Watching a dead body being bathed in "holy" river water for a funeral may be an unusual thing to do for a guided tour, but that’s the point of an outing with Nigel Hankin. Almost everything about the "Nigel tour" of Delhi is far from the usual, right down to seeking an appointment — the 87-year-old Hankin does not have a telephone or internet connection.
At least 150 bodies have been recovered since last week following flash floods caused by heavy monsoon rains in India’s desert state of Rajasthan, officials said on Monday. The toll has risen sharply since Sunday as rescue workers continue to find more bodies as flood waters fell in the normally drought-prone area.
A restaurant in India’s financial hub has agreed to change its name from Hitler’s Cross following strong protests by the country’s tiny Jewish community and pressure from Israel. Hitler’s Cross, which opened a week ago using posters of the Führer and Nazi swastikas for publicity, initially refused to change its name.
England would topple Australia as the world’s top Test team if they successfully defend the Ashes by the unlikely margin of three victories. England, who won the Ashes in 2005 for the first time in 18 years, moved to within 11 rating points of Australia after clinching second spot in the International Cricket Council rankings after the 3-0 series triumph against Pakistan.
Thousands of people flocked to temples in northern India on Monday hoping to see a miracle as word spread that idols of Hindu gods were drinking milk, television reports said. Television pictures showed milk disappearing as people held up spoons full of the liquid to idols of deities such as Lord Shiva and Ganesha.
India’s Tata group is picking up a 26% stake in InfraCo, a new South African telecommunication company, a news report said on Tuesday. InfraCo will offer long-distance telephone services and will build and operate marine telecom infrastructure.
Indian music legend Bismillah Khan, who enthralled generations with his shehnai, an Indian wind instrument, died on August 21 of a heart attack, hospital officials said. He was 90. Khan, a recipient of India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, or Jewel India, had been ailing for months.
A new restaurant in India’s financial hub, named after Adolf Hitler and promoted with posters showing the German leader and Nazi swastikas, has infuriated the country’s small Jewish community. Hitler’s Cross, which opened last week, serves up a wide range of continental fare and a big helping of controversy, thanks to a name the owners say they chose to stand out among hundreds of Mumbai eateries.
Heavy rains and floods have killed 33 people in the western Indian state of Rajasthan over the last three days, authorities said on Monday. Over 1Â 500 villages and several towns had been cut off by the rising waters, schools and colleges ordered shut in the lake city of Udaipur and electricity and telephone networks disrupted across the region, they said.
Hundreds of people thronged to a midtown city beach in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, on Saturday after word spread that sea water there had turned sweet, with many seeing the development as a divine sign. People, largely Muslims, started gathering late on Friday to collect the water off Mahim beach on the shores of the Arabian Sea.
Health authorities have recovered scores of aborted female foetuses from a well in northern India, media reported on Thursday. The site was discovered by police in the city of Patiala in Punjab state, which has one of the worst gender ratios in the country, newspapers reported.
The flood situation in four states of India remained grim on Wednesday with almost 860 000 people displaced, officials said, as the death toll from the latest lashing monsoon rains rose to 196. Southern Andhra Pradesh state remained the worst hit with 543 000 people displaced by flood waters.
Swirling floodwaters inundated several towns and cities in western and southern India on Tuesday as the military deployed helicopters and boats to help hundreds of thousands of marooned people. Nearly 200 people have been killed in flooding due to incessant rains over the past week in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Three Indian doctors caught on camera apparently agreeing to amputate the healthy limbs of beggars are to be questioned by the Indian Medical Council. Footage broadcast on Saturday showed one of the doctors asking for 10 000 rupees (about ) to amputate a lower leg, leaving a stump that may draw sympathy — and a few rupees — from passersby.
The Indian Parliament was adjourned on Tuesday amid a bitter attack on the government over a wave of suicides by debt-ridden farmers in the country’s main cotton-growing belt. Opposition MPs blamed the policies of the Congress party-led government for the suicides, which activists say are continuing despite an economic aid package.
Indian police have arrested a journalist who may know those behind a series of coordinated bombs on Mumbai’s rail network earlier this month that killed 186 people, officers said on Monday. The latest arrest takes the number of people in police custody to nine in an investigation that has spread across several states, and into neighbouring Nepal.
India’s President Abdul Kalam says he has not seen a movie for 50 years because he spends so much time reading scientific literature, a report said on Monday. "You won’t believe it but it’s true," Kalam (74) told Radio Kashmir in a weekend visit to revolt-hit Indian Kashmir, <i>The Hindu</i> newspaper reported.
Another 21 people died from lightning and house collapses in northern India, an official said on Saturday, taking the nationwide death toll to at least 328 since the monsoon season began two months ago. The new casualties were reported in northern Uttar Pradesh state, one of the worst hit by the heavy rains.
Two more Indian Muslims have been arrested in connection with this month’s Mumbai train bombings, taking the number of people in custody to eight, police said on Friday. The blasts that killed more than 180 people have been blamed on Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani military spy agency Inter Services Intelligence.
Using snuff or chewing tobacco is associated with an increased likelihood of developing cataracts, Indian researchers report. Dr Prema Raju of the Vision Research Foundation and colleagues evaluated tobacco use among 3 924 adults from rural areas. In all, 1 705 used tobacco in various forms.
India has arrested three men in connection with last week’s Mumbai bombings that killed more than 180 people, and urged Pakistan on Friday to hand over a top Kashmiri militant as a gesture of its determination to fight terrorism. The three men, all Indian Muslims, were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the July 11 attacks.
India’s star batsman Sachin Tendulkar is set to return to international cricket in August after a four-month absence due to shoulder surgery, an official said on Tuesday. ”The report we have got from our physiotherapist John Gloster is that Sachin is fit to play,” Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah told the media.
A rarely used mixture of high explosives, fuel oil and ammonium nitrate was used in the Mumbai train blasts last week that killed 182 and wounded hundreds, the lead investigator said on Monday. Anti-Terrorism Squad chief KP Raghuvanshi declined to comment on whether the mixture, which included the high explosive RDX, could be linked to a specific group.
A group of Indian villagers presided over the marriage of two donkeys at an ancient Hindu temple in southern India in a bid to promote world peace, a report said on Monday. The wedding took place on Sunday evening in the Sri Thirumoola Natha Swamy Temple in Tamil Nadu state, the United News of India news agency reported.