New Delhi

India have asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to omit Australian umpire Darrell Hair from next month’s Champions Trophy, an ICC spokesperson said on Tuesday. ”Yes, I can confirm that a letter has been written by the Indian board,” the spokesperson said from the ICC’s Dubai headquarters.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’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 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.

At least 25 villagers were hacked to death and 21 others injured in a major attack by Maoist rebels in India’s central Chhattisgarh state on Monday. ”Between 500 to 800 rebels surrounded a village in Dantewada district shortly after midnight and killed 25 people using axes and knives,” OP Pal, the district’s superintendent of police told Deutsche Presse Agentur.

India’s prime minister on Tuesday vowed to "defeat the evil designs of terrorists" after blasts killed scores in the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, and eight others in revolt-hit Kashmir. Manmohan Singh called for calm in Mumbai and Srinagar after an emergency meeting at his official residence with Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

India’s new nuclear-capable Agni III missile failed in its first test-firing over the weekend because it was unable to reach its target, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. The Defence Ministry had initially declared Sunday’s test of India’s longest-range missile a success, but it plunged into the ocean in the Bay of Bengal, short of its target.

An earthquake measuring 5,5 on the Richter scale struck India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were badly hit by the December 2004 tsunami, an official said on Wednesday. ”The intensity of the earthquake was moderate. It was recorded in the Nicobar Islands this evening,” an official at the Indian Meteorological Department said.

At least 29 people were killed in lightning strikes across India’s western Maharashtra state, it was reported on Tuesday. State officials said the deaths were reported as heavy storms lashed the several areas in Maharashtra in the last three days.

An Indian man who spits out 1 000-digit memorised numbers in reverse order has warned that speed-dial features on cellphones and other shortcuts are turning people into ”mental slobs”. Nishant Kasibhatia was named Indian with the sharpest memory in the latest edition of the Limca Book of Records on Thursday.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Wednesday it would do everything possible to ensure South African stars Nicky Boje and Herschelle Gibbs could tour India without fear of arrest in a match-fixing case. Dave Richardson, head of the ICC’s cricket operations, said the body would try to ensure the duo would not be detained by Indian police over the allegations.

A four-year-old Indian child who ran 65km in seven hours last week was on Monday banned by worried welfare officials from running marathons. The child welfare department of the eastern state of Orissa announced the ban following a medical report that Budhia Singh was ”undernourished, anaemic and under cardiological stress”.

International advertising giant Saatchi and Saatchi has secured the marketing rights for Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar for -million, officials and media said on Thursday. Iconix, the newly formed marketing branch of Saatchi, signed Tendulkar, one of the sport’s leading batsmen, after his 10-year contract with the US-based WorldTel expired last year.

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.

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.