India

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Endangered Tigers Fading Fast
Endangered Tigers Fading Fast

Endangered Tigers Fading Fast

Numbers plummet as WWF calls for quick action

(Newser) - The World Wildlife Fund has warned that the world's tigers are in grave danger of extinction, reports the BBC. Experts believe tiger numbers have fallen in half over the last 25 years to as few as 3,500 worldwide, the WWF said. The South China tiger and the Sumatran tiger...

US May Move to Restrict H-1B Visa 'Cheaters'

Demand for skilled labor will fuel another application rush

(Newser) - The US is expecting a record number of applications for H-1B visas—given to highly skilled, specialized foreign workers—and is considering rules to penalize companies that try to improve their chances, ComputerWorld reports. Desperate firms have been known to send more than one application—123, 480 were received last...

Indian Athletes Aim for Gold on Billionaire's Buck

Trust seeks to boost Indian medal count

(Newser) - Young Indians are training for this summer’s Olympics with the backing of a London-based billionaire steel magnate, the Wall Street Journal reports. Lakshmi Mittal was dismayed by India’s poor showing at Athens in 2004—where the burgeoning superpower earned only a single silver, while archrival China won 32...

Indian 'Spy' Freed After 35 Years
Indian 'Spy' Freed After 35 Years

Indian 'Spy' Freed After 35 Years

Trader languished in Pakistani prisons after case was forgotten

(Newser) - An Indian prisoner has finally come home after spending 35 years on death row in Pakistan on spying charges, the BBC reports. Trader Kashmir Singh was greeted by his family and hundreds of well-wishers as he crossed the border back into India. "I have got a new life,"...

India Will Pay Families for Daughters

Incentives for raising girls aim to correct skewed sex ratio

(Newser) - India will start handing out cash to families in return for raising daughters, reports AFP. The culture's preference for sons results in sex-selection abortions, which are illegal but have skewed the country's sex ratio. Poor families with girls in states with the worst sex ratios will receive a series of...

Bomb Dogs Will Ride Amtrak
Bomb Dogs Will Ride Amtrak

Bomb Dogs Will Ride Amtrak

Security stepped up on nation's rail system

(Newser) - Amtrak is stepping up security, with random screening of carry-on bags and security teams packing machine guns and leading bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains, reports AP. The new system, beginning this week, echoes stricter security procedures at the nation's airports. Amtrak insists there should be no additional departure delays...

8-Limbed Indian Tot Walking
8-Limbed Indian Tot Walking

8-Limbed Indian Tot Walking

3 months after her surgery, delighted Lakshmi takes first steps

(Newser) - Three months after she underwent an intensive, 27-hour hour operation to remove her parasitic twin's four limbs, 2-year-old Indian tot Lakshmi Tatma, is beginning to walk with assistance, reports the Daily Telegraph. "When she was put in the baby walker she started pushing herself backwards with her legs and...

Wealth Doesn't Always Aid Health
Wealth Doesn't Always
Aid Health

Wealth Doesn't Always Aid Health

UN finds child mortality rates uneven in developing nations

(Newser) - Citing new child mortality statistics, analysts say a nation's wealth doesn’t always translate into better health for its youngest citizens, the BBC reports. Every year, 10 million children die before their fifth birthday, with 99% of the fatalities occurring in the developing world. But even when conditions improve, survival...

India Rolls Out $20 Cell Phone
India Rolls Out $20 Cell Phone

India Rolls Out $20 Cell Phone

The bare-bones 'people's phone' aimed at the half of Indians who have no mobile

(Newser) - On the heels of India’s $2,400 car comes its $20 mobile handset, the “people’s phone,” the Times of London reports. It has no smart features—not even a screen. “It is just a phone,” says the chairman of Spice Mobile, the phone’s...

Smoking Deaths Rocket in India
Smoking Deaths Rocket in India

Smoking Deaths Rocket in India

Study predicts 1 million will die annually from tobacco-related illnesses

(Newser) - Tobacco use is the smoking gun in 900,000 deaths annually in India, and the numbers are on the rise as the nation grapples with its epidemic-scale cigarette addiction, reports the BBC. At least 1 million Indians will die annually from smoking-related illnesses in the next decade unless the nation...

Tiger Numbers Plummet in India
Tiger Numbers Plummet in India

Tiger Numbers Plummet in India

More than half vanish in 5 years

(Newser) - At least half of India's Bengal tiger population has vanished in the last five years, according to the latest alarming census of the endangered predators. A Project Tiger conservationist blamed "poaching, and loss of quality habitat and prey," reports AFP. A 2002 survey estimated there were 3,700...

Police Bust Doctor Heading Kidney Racket

Rogue MD from India found hiding in Nepal jungles

(Newser) - An Indian doctor hiding out in the jungles of Nepal has been arrested, accused of heading the country's largest organ transplant racket. Hundreds of poor workers were hoodwinked into selling their kidneys, which Amit Kumar then offered to rich clients in India and abroad seeking a transplant. The doctor will...

Kashmir Snow, Cold Threaten Pashmina Goats

Thousands in stranded herds will die without fodder air drop

(Newser) - The goats that provide the wool for those sought-after Pashmina shawls are in danger from heavy snow in Kashmir, the BBC reports. The goats' winter pastures are covered in snow and local officials have asked the Indian government to air drop goat fodder before the animals starve. Many thousands of...

Indian Guru to the Beatles Dies
Indian Guru to the Beatles Dies

Indian Guru to the Beatles Dies

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi brought Transcendental Meditation to the West

(Newser) - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru who inspired the Beatles and founded the Transcendental Meditation movement, died yesterday at his Dutch home, the Guardian reports. He was believed to be 90. Maharishi—known as the “giggling guru” for his playful witticisms—hosted the Beatles for a highly publicized retreat...

Repairs Begin on Cut Net Cable
Repairs Begin on Cut Net Cable

Repairs Begin on Cut Net Cable

Ship expected to reach 2nd severed undersea line today as well

(Newser) - Repairs have begun on a segment of undersea Internet cable reported severed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last Friday, Reuters reports. FLAG, an Indian telecom, said that one of their ships had reached the cable, the most recently disrupted of three main lines to undermine access across...

India, China Growth Breaks Western Mold
India, China Growth Breaks Western Mold
OPINION

India, China Growth Breaks Western Mold

Essayist says market reforms are only part of the big picture

(Newser) - Conventional wisdom chalks up the economic booms in China and India to their moves toward global capitalism in the '90s. It's a comforting thought for the West, writes Pranab Bardhan in the Boston Review, but the truth is far more complex. The astounding growth in both countries started well before...

Mideast Web Woes Persist as 3rd Cable Is Cut

Repairs could take days or even weeks

(Newser) - A third cable carrying Internet traffic to the Mideast was cut today off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, and web and phone service remained disrupted in large areas of the Mideast and India because of breaks in two cables in the Mediterranean Wednesday. The cables severed earlier carried as...

Sea Cable Damage Cuts Internet Service to Mideast

Egypt goes offline; India hit with severe delays

(Newser) - Damage to two underwater cables has huge swaths of the Mideast and South Asia offline and repair ships scrambling to restore internet service to millions. One of the cables has been completely severed, the Financial Times reports. Some 70% of Egypt's service was disrupted, including all of Cairo, and bandwidth...

Gandhi Family Scatters Ashes
Gandhi Family Scatters Ashes

Gandhi Family Scatters Ashes

60 years after assassination, pacifist gets traditional burial in sea

(Newser) - An urn of Mohandas Gandhi's ashes was poured into the Arabian Sea today by his great-granddaughter, the Guardian reports, finally giving the Indian pacifist a traditional Hindu burial 60 years after he was assassinated. Dozens of such urns had been distributed across India after Gandhi's death, allowing a connection with...

Kidney-Theft Bust Has India Buzzing
Kidney-Theft Bust Has India Buzzing

Kidney-Theft Bust Has India Buzzing

Ring may have done 500 illegal transplants; key suspect still loose

(Newser) - Police exposure of a criminal ring that has illegally taken hundreds of kidneys over the past nine years has created scandal in India, reports the New York Times. Victims were mostly day laborers lured by offers of work or simply kidnapped at gunpoint. They were forcibly operated on, and their...

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