Billboards dotting New Delhi are exhorting city residents to imagine a future made up of tall buildings and sky trains that will take the Indian capital from ”walled city to world city”. The phrase ”world-class city” is increasingly on the lips of city officials too, on a massive drive to tidy the capital in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
At least 51 people were killed on Thursday when an overcrowded bus taking them to a wedding skidded off the road and slid into a pond in north-east India, police said. "We have extricated 51 bodies so far. There could be some more people in the pond and divers are at work," a police official told Agence France-Presse.
Lawyers need no longer address Supreme Court judges with phrases like "My Lord" and "Your Lordship," the Bar Council of India has decided, calling the terms "relics of the colonial past". Supreme Court and high court judges can now be called "Your Honour", while in lower courts presiding officers may be called "sir" or its equivalent in local languages, the Indian media reported on Thursday.
Kissing in public has just gotten 10 times more expensive for couples in India’s capital, who face fines of 500 rupees ($11) if they are caught making "illegal use" of public spaces. New Delhi’s authorities found a fine of 50 rupees ($1,1) levied under a 1936 law was too little to deter couples from stealing kisses, the <i>Asian Age</i> reported.
England’s stand-in captain Andrew Strauss limped his way to 74 as the tourists finally tasted victory in the sixth one-day match against India on Wednesday. The Middlesex opener, leading England for the first time in place of the rested Andrew Flintoff, retired hurt with leg cramps in the 31st over before the tourists surpassed India’s modest 223 with 44 deliveries to spare.
Angry locals on Tuesday accused authorities of negligence over a fire which engulfed a trade fair Meerut in India, killing 100 people and leaving survivors battling for their lives. Police used batons to drive back hundreds of distraught and angry residents who massed outside the cordoned-off fairgrounds where the blaze swept through crowded tents on Monday night.
At least 100 people were killed on Monday when a fire swept through large tents packed with shoppers at a trade fair in north India, police said. ”At least 100 people are dead,” Rajiv Sabarwal, police chief of Meerut, 80km north of New Delhi, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Witnesses said bodies were charred beyond recognition and had been scattered throughout the stalls.
Captain Rahul Dravid led from the front as India crushed England by four wickets on Thursday to take an unassailable 4-0 lead in the seven-match one-day series. Dravid fashioned England’s dismissal for 237 with astute bowling changes and then hit 65 off 73 balls to help the hosts surpass the modest target with 16 deliveries to spare at the Nehru stadium.
Housewives and donkeys are much the same except that the beasts of burden are better companions, complain less and are more loyal, according to a school textbook used in India’s western state of Rajasthan. The book, for 14 year-olds, was approved by the state’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party administration but has sparked protests from its women’s unit, the report said.
Yuvraj Singh’s smashing century led India to a 49-run victory on Monday in the third limited-overs international against England, giving the home team a 3-0 lead in the seven-match series. Singh’s blazing 103, his seventh one-day century, helped India post 294-6 in 50 overs. In reply, England were bowled out for 245 in 48.5 overs, despite a defiant 93 by Paul Collingwood.
Teenager Suresh Raina struck a valiant 81 not out on Friday as India overcame an early collapse to beat England by four wickets in the second limited-overs international. Raina and Mahendra Dhoni (38) combined for a 118-run, sixth-wicket partnership to help India recover from a 92-5 slump.
It was a jail sentence long overdue in the battle to save India’s ”missing girls,” say women’s rights activists. Twelve years after the country enacted laws to curb the killing of female feotuses, an Indian judge handed out the first prison terms against two medical practitioners this week.
After giving birth to healthy twins, Mrs A, a young Indian woman, handed them to a United States-based couple knowing she was unlikely to see them again. ”Her parents never knew what she was doing,” her mother-in-law confides. ”She told them she had a baby boy but he passed away.”
Harbhajan Singh celebrated his comeback with a superb all-round show to guide India to a 39-run victory over England in the first one-dayer in New Delhi on Tuesday. The offspinner, who missed a one-day series in Pakistan last month due to a finger injury, finished with 5-31 as India defended their modest total of 203 by dismissing England for 164.
India’s ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi resigned from Parliament on Thursday following opposition allegations that she had breached parliamentary regulations by holding other salaried posts. "I have done this because I think it is the right thing to do," she told reporters.
Andrew Flintoff and Shaun Udal made a mockery of India’s famed batting line-up as a depleted England squared the series with a crushing 212-run victory in the third and final Test in Mumbai on Wednesday. It was England’s first Test win in India since 1985. India were shot out for a pathetic 100 off just 48.2 overs in their second innings.
James Anderson celebrated his comeback with four wickets as England seized the initiative in the must-win third and final Test against India here on Monday. The 23-year-old fast bowler, playing his first Test in more than a year, also brought off a crucial run-out to strengthen his team’s chances of squaring the series.
A century from opener Andrew Strauss and an unbeaten 50 by Test rookie Owais Shah helped a depleted England reach a solid 272 for three on the first day of the third and final cricket Test against India. Strauss batted with authority as he drove, pulled and swept the Indian bowlers fluently after Indian skipper Rahul Dravid asked England to bat first after winning the toss.
Munaf Patel bagged seven wickets in his debut game and Virender Sehwag regained his form with a blazing 76 not out as India shattered England’s dreams with an emphatic nine-wicket win in the second Test on Monday. England go into the third and final Test at Mumbai on Saturday hoping to square the series.
India leg-spinner Anil Kumble moved closer to the 500-wicket mark by clean bowling England batsman Paul Collingwood before poor visibility disrupted play on Friday in the second Test match. England were 200-5 in their first innings when umpires Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel decided to call off play.
A hard-hitting Kevin Pietersen, along with Ian Bell, pulled England out of early trouble with an 81-run stand on the opening day of the second Test against India in Mohali on Thursday. England were struggling on 36-2 following seamer Irfan Pathan’s twin strike, before reaching 118-3 at tea.
The city of Varanasi, reeling from a deadly triple bomb attack, is India’s holiest Hindu site where pilgrims flock to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges and to die. Millions of devotees each year visit the ancient temple-studded town targeted late on Tuesday by what police called ”suspected terrorists” — a usual official term for Islamic extremists.
Sipping a tumbler of Johnnie Walker whisky as he chats with his friends in a hotel bar in Mumbai, Kunal Doshi, a smartly-dressed young solicitor, appears an unlikely warrior. But in the increasingly bitter "whisky war" being fought between the Indian industry and traditional Scottish producers, Doshi (21) has become an unknowing frontline soldier in a foreign assault on the world’s largest whisky market.
India opener Wasim Jaffer marked his comeback with a half-century after Paul Collingwood hit his maiden hundred to revive England in the evenly-balanced opening Test in India on Thursday. Jaffer, returning to the team after three years, scored an unbeaten 73.
The United States and India have reached an understanding on the implementation of a ”historic” civilian nuclear-energy cooperation deal and sealed agreements in other key areas, Indian Premier Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush announced at a joint press briefing on Thursday.
India’s cricket coach Greg Chappell may be taken to task over comments, in a British newspaper, that Sourav Ganguly wanted to remain captain for financial reasons, an official said on Thursday. Chappell said that he wanted Ganguly out as captain because his batting form was being affected.
Snake charmers have given the all clear for United States President George Bush to go ahead with plans to deliver a speech from a medieval fort in New Delhi during his three-day India visit, officials said on Wednesday. Police roped in the charmers over concerns that reptiles would gatecrash Bush’s scheduled address on Friday.
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/ 28 February 2006
India is aiming for annual economic growth of 10% in the next few years, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday while delivering a ”common man’s Budget” that focused on rural areas, social security and infrastructure. ”I believe that growth is the best antidote to poverty,” Chidambaram said while presenting the government’s 2006-2007 Budget to Parliament.
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/ 28 February 2006
At least 20 people died on Tuesday when Maoist rebels in central India blew up a truck packed with anti-Maoist activists. ”Until now, we know that 20 people have died. Around 35 to 40 people are injured. It was a landmine attack,” said police additional director general of intelligence SK Paswan in Raipur, capital of Chattisgarh state.
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/ 27 February 2006
England captain Michael Vaughan has been ruled out of Wednesday’s first Test against India after failing to recover from a knee injury, dealing a big blow to the tourists already battling form and fitness problems. ”He [Vaughan] is ruled out of this Test, but is not out of the series at this stage,” England media manager Andrew Walpole told reporters on Monday.
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/ 24 February 2006
England will not be asking for immediate reinforcements ahead of next week’s Test series against India despite the 16-man touring squad being wrecked with injuries and illness. Captain Michael Vaughan was given a cortisone injection to speed up the recovery of a recurring knee injury in time for the first of three back-to-back Tests starting in Nagpur on March 1.
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/ 23 February 2006
Health officials sealed off an Indian town hit by bird flu for a week-long ”quarantine” on Thursday as immediate fears began easing that the deadly virus may have spread to humans. Checkpoints were set up on all roads in and out of the town of Navapur and trains passed through its station without stopping.