New Delhi

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.

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.

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.

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.

A seven-year-old girl wed a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off the ”evil eye” on her and her family in eastern India, a news agency reported on Wednesday. Shivam Munda’s upper teeth appeared before her lower teeth — considered a bad omen by members of the Santhal ethnic group to which she belongs.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday officially launched what he called a ”landmark” anti-poverty plan that promises 100 days of work a year to every rural family in the country. ”The main focus of the scheme is the poorest of the poor,” Singh said, calling the initiative ”revolutionary”.

Indian newspapers hit out on Friday at the United States envoy to New Delhi, who warned a landmark nuclear deal could be scuppered if India votes against referring Iran’s nuclear programme to the United Nations Security Council. <i>The Hindu</i> newspaper said US ambassador David Mulford had "outrageously crossed the line of diplomatic propriety".

Judges at India’s busiest courthouse have ordered New Delhi’s municipal authorities to rid the bustling complex of monkeys or face serious action. Judges at Tis Hazari courthouse ordered the corporation to respond to a petition filed by a lawyer and shoo away the monkeys within a month from the three-storey complex.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said Tibetans in his homeland are still suffering from ”repression forces” in a swipe at China, a newspaper report said. ”The Tibetans living in Tibet are less fortunate than their counterparts living in India as they have to suffer a lot in their motherland from repression forces,” the Asian Age quoted the Buddhist leader as saying.

A dozen Greenpeace activists were detained by police on Tuesday after a protest at the French Embassy in India against a decision to send an asbestos-laden defunct warship to India to be broken up for scrap. The decommissioned aircraft carrier Clemenceau set sail from the French naval base of Toulon on Saturday for the world’s largest ship-breaking yard in Alang.

Seven more Indian MPs have been caught on television asking for cash, hot on the heels of a similar scandal involving parliamentarians earlier this month, Star News TV said on Tuesday. Star News aired pictures of the sting operation which showed MPs from different parties, including the ruling Congress, apparently asking for cash ranging from five to 45% of the project value to approve spending on public works programmes.

The death toll from the relentless cold front sweeping across north India has climbed to 36, it was reported on Sunday. The deaths have been reported from the Uttar Pradesh state over the last week, the NDTV network reported. Most of those who died were homeless people.

Southern India braced on Saturday for the arrival of a powerful cyclonic storm expected to cross the Indian coast by noon (7.30 am GMT). The storm, named Fanoos, was expected to hit India’s south-eastern coastal state of Tamil Nadu with winds of up to 80kph and heavy rains, the Chennai weather office said.

Chinese authorities have arrested five Tibetan monks who refused to denounce their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and recognise Tibet as part of China, an India-based pro-democracy group says. The five were expelled from Drepung Monastery in Lhasa and handed over to the Public Security Bureau on November 23.

India’s cricket chiefs plan to speak to national coach Greg Chappell over a rude gesture he reportedly made to crowds in Kolkata last week, an official said on Monday. ”We will certainly discuss the matter at the board’s annual general meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday,” said Inderjit Bindra, former head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

About 100 people were feared dead after two packed passenger buses skidded off bridges in southern India amid heavy rains, police and officials said on Saturday. The bridges had been swamped by water due to lashing rains, the worst in years, that have turned some parts of the state into lakes.

Progress has been made in tackling HIV infection in key African countries, but five million people were infected across the world in 2005 taking the total beyond a record 40-million, a United Nations report said on Monday. The grim HIV/Aids epidemic claimed about 3,1-million lives during the year, more than half a million of them children, the report said.

When South Africa toured India last year for a Test series, Mahendra Dhoni was just another aspirant for the Indian cricket team and played a tour game against them. Exactly a year later, when they are visiting for five one-dayers starting on Wednesday, he is a more swashbuckling batsman than even the likes of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.