India

Two suspected rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir were killed on Friday, after a shootout with government forces. The gun battle occurred in the village of Khrew, located twenty kilometres (twelve miles) from Srinagar, the largest city in Indian Kashmir, according to senior police official Farooq Ahmed. None of the government soldiers were reported to have been killed; the Xinhua news agency, however, said there were unconfirmed reports that one of them had been wounded. The clashes began when security forces cordoned off a hou

Two bomb explosions in the northeastern Assam state of India have killed at least seven people and injured 25 more today. The blasts, which happened within several minutes of each other, occurred outside of a police station in the town of Nalbari, 70 kilometres from the state capital of Guwahati. According to security officials, the explosives were attached to bicycles. Police believe that the separatist rebels from the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were behind the bombings, but a senior ULFA member denied that the group carried out

"The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water," says a press release from NASA. A Moon mission launched by the agency has confirmed the presence of water on the moon. The discovery comes a year after a NASA instrument on an Indian lander indicated there were water molecules on the surface of our satellite. On September 24, 2008 the Indian Space Research Organisation had stated Chandrayaan-1 had discovered water based on readings from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, one of eleven instruments carried by the probe. Tho

Somali pirates have seized a cargo vessel with 22 crew members. The Greek-owned MV Filitsa was hijacked on Wednesday in the Indian Ocean, several hundred kilometres northeast of the Seychelles islands. The ship was carrying cargo from Kuwait to South Africa. The European Union's anti-piracy force Atalanta said the crew includes three Greeks and 19 Filipinos. The ship has turned around and is now heading north, Atalanta said. There were conflicting reports as to whether the vessel was seized 400 kilometres or 750 kilometres off of the Seychelle

Somali pirates have carried out their longest-range attack to date today, firing on an oil tanker 1,850 kilometers off the coast of Somalia. NATO and European Union anti-piracy forces say pirates attacked the ship in the Indian Ocean, 740 kilometers northeast of the Seychelles islands. The reports say pirates in at least two skiffs approached the tanker and attacked it with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The vessel took evasive maneuvers and escaped. No casualties were reported. The EU says a spotter plane has been sent to monitor the p

22 passengers were killed when a bus rolled down into a deep gorge near Mahua Dabra Haripura of the Kangra district in northern India this morning. 42 more people were injured. The bus driver lost control of the bus and fell into a hundred-foot-deep gorge 45 km away from Dharmsala, Himachal Pradesh. The bus, which was reported to have been overcrowded, was headed from Dehra to Nagota Suriyan. The wounded passengers have been admitted to the Dr. Rajendra Prasad government medical college in Tanda by a rescue team. Senior civil police and offic

A seventeen year old resident of a slum in Bandra, Mumbai, India, along with his sixteen year old friend, has been accused of raping his four year old neighbour in his home when his parents were away yesterday around 22:00 (+5.5 UTC). The boys, both minors, are scheduled to appear in juvenile court today. The four year old girl was called to Bindu's home to mop some spilled water where he and his friend allegedly raped her. They then warned her not to tell anything about what happened there. The girl was left deserted in front of her home by

Suspected Somali pirates have hijacked the MV Al Khaliq, a Panama-flagged ship, off the eastern coast of Africa on Thursday. International maritime officials said the ship was seized about 330 kilometers west of the Seychelles islands. Officials reported that the ship is carrying 26 crew members — 24 Indians and two Burmese. The Al Khaliq is the fourth ship Somali pirates have hijacked this month, and the third in the past week. "The MV Al Khaliq, a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier, has been hijacked early this morning off Somalia," said a

Miten Mehta, the son of the CEO of the Lilavati Hospital in Colaba, India, reportedly committed suicide on Wednesday after jumping from the ninth floor of the Maker Towers residence. Mehta, aged 54, was a diamond merchant based in Belgium. Police said that the incident took place sometime between 20:30 Mumbai Time (+5.5 UTC) and 21:00. At 21:00, police received a call from the residents of the building saying that Miten had committed suicide in Maker Towers, Colaba. Police arrived at the scene and took him to the GT hospital, but he was declar

Afghan government officials have said that a powerful suicide car bomb hit near the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 80 others. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, saying their target was the embassy. The Afghan Interior Ministry says the explosion killed mostly civilians on the heavily guarded road between its headquarters and the Indian Embassy. Eyewitnesses reports said that the the blast was very powerful, shattering shop windows, filling the air with dust and scattering

Maoists attempting to seize land in one of India's poorest communities are being blamed for the execution-style killings of at least sixteen villagers, including children, in the eastern part of the country. Authorities in the state of Bihar say heavily-armed rebels fired on a makeshift camp at midnight, pulled sleeping villagers out of huts, tied their hands and feet and then executed them. Police say most of those killed were teenagers but five children are also among the dead. Paro Sinh, a witness to the attacks, described his experiences

Ecuadorean police clashed with Amazon Indians protesting new laws they fear will increase oil drilling, leaving one person dead and at least 49 others injured on Thursday. Authorities said the violence occurred Wednesday in Morona Santiago province, a major oil producing region. The clash came after three days of demonstrations in which indigenous groups had blocked roads in the jungle region to protest laws they say would encourage more oil drilling. The officials say one protester was killed and 40 police and nine protesters were injured. "