A Yemeni jetliner with more than 150 people aboard has crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros, aviation officials in Yemen said Tuesday. The jet was en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen's capital Sanaa when it crashed about an hour before reaching its destination, officials from the national airline Yemenia said. There was no immediate news of the fate of those on board. Yemenia Flight 626 left Sanaa at 9:30 p.m. ...

Once, they were a prized catch. Men who had everything an Indian woman wanted: a job, a house and a life of comfort in faraway lands. They had studied hard and landed top jobs in the West. On Wall Street. In Silicon Valley. In corporate boardrooms and college classrooms. Every woman wanted a non-resident Indian or "NRI" groom. Not anymore. The economic slump has affected marriage traditions in India, forcing men and women to rethink their choices of a lifelong ...

Asha's day starts at 8 a.m., when she wakes up and makes breakfast for the family she lives with as a nanny in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi. She takes the kids down to play, feeds them, bathes them and puts up with their tantrums. Asha is around 14 years old — a few years older than the children she minds. Neha, 12, works as a daily maid for a family in New Delhi. her day starts in ...

Anjali Thakur is living in fear in India. She is a mother afraid for her son. "We are all having sleepless nights," Thakur says. Her son isn't in a war zone or even a country known to be dangerous. He is a student in Melbourne, Australia. "Three years back when we sent him," she says, "it was one of the safest places for the children to go." The Australian government says it is still safe but a spate of vicious ...

"I hope wounds will start to heal," said Ruth Padel, blinking earnestly as flashbulbs popped. Her statement may not have contained the startlingly original imagery that propelled the poetess to prominence, but to her critics it represented a kind of poetry — poetic justice. On May 16, Padel was named Oxford University's Professor of Poetry, following in the footsteps of such literary giants as Matthew Arnold, Cecil Day-Lewis, W.H. Auden, Robert Graves and Seamus Heaney. Yet even in this ...

Royal Challengers Bangalore booked their place in the Indian Premier League final with a six-wicket victory over the Chennai Super Kings thanks largely to a 72-run partnership between Rahul Dravid and Manish Pandey. Bangalore, one of the worst teams in the inaugural IPL, will now face another side that battled in the 2008 season, Deccan Chargers, in Sunday's climax at the Wanderers. Chasing a 147 target, the win was set up by veteran Dravid (44) and youngster Pandey (48), who ...

For more than a quarter-century, the Tamil Tigers have waged a guerilla war against the Sri Lankan government in their attempt to establish an independent state — which they call Eelam — for minority Hindu Tamils in the north and east of the island nation. Suicide bombings and assassinations have been the group's calling cards, all orchestrated by Velupillai Prabhakaran, who founded the insurgent group in the mid-70s. Now, a months-long push by the Sri Lankan military appears to have ...

Indians are voting in their tens of millions in a monthlong general election that creates huge logistical issues in the world's largest democracy. The first round of polling was held on April 16. There are a further five voting phases before the final count is due on May 16. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party, which currently leads the coalition government, seeks to retain power. But some of its political allies are reported to be forming other ties which could ...

The world's largest electorate has spoken, although figuring out just what it said may still take a few days. India on Wednesday wrapped up its five-week election process, in which 428 million people cast their votes. But as impressive as the scale of of India's exercise in democracy may be, so is it notable for its almost complete lack of debate over real issues. The incumbent centrist Congress Party promises good governance, help for the poor and strong leadership. ...

Anxiety is a typical emotion for teenagers around the world upon leaving home to take up residence in a college dormitory. They face the daunting challenges of fitting in and making new friends amid unruly roommates and without the comfort of home cooking. But for thousands of Indian students, the anxiety is driven by an even greater menace: the prospect of constant verbal and physical abuse by senior students as part of a hazing tradition called "ragging," which critics say ...