-The New York Times   India has 1.2 billion people, among them bankers, gurus, rag pickers, billionaires, snake charmers, software engineers, lentil farmers, rickshaw drivers, Maoist rebels, Bollywood movie stars and Vedic scholars, to name a few. Humanity runneth over. Except in one profession: India is searching for a hangman. Usually, India would not need one, given the rarity of executions. The last was in 2004. But in May, India's president unexpectedly rejected...

-BBC   A court in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has sentenced 10 people to death for killing a young couple who married against their parents' wishes. Vijaya, 18, and her husband, Udai Pal Singh, were killed by her family after they found out about the marriage, the court in Etah district heard. The groom's brother was also killed. India's Supreme Court recently said so-called honour killers should face the death penalty. It...

Like millions of others across India, I have spent the past week repelled by the spectacle of a weak government entering into improbable contortions over the naive and somewhat bizarre demands of Baba Ramdev. And when the “toughness” followed in the early hours of Sunday, it came in a typically cowardly fashion — with police action in the dead of the night against unarmed supporters who did not pose an...

-BBC   Police in the Indian capital Delhi have broken up an anti-corruption protest led by controversial yoga guru Baba Ramdev. Around 30 people were injured as police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of his supporters, reports said. He had been fasting to demand that the government takes action to recover billions of dollars of suspected bribe money held in foreign bank accounts. Baba Ramdev was detained by police but later released. The police...

11-year delay in deciding on mercy petition cruel, degrading punishment' Amnesty International has expressed concern over the imminent execution of Mahendra Nath Das of Jorhat in Assam following the rejection of his mercy petition by President Pratibha Patil recently. In a statement, the AI said the 11-year delay in announcing the verdict of the mercy petition and the resultant prolonging of the stay on death row might amount to cruel, inhuman and...