When 80-year-old Indian widow Kanwri Devi Surana suffered a mild heart attack last year, she pledged to fast herself to death in a religious practice known as "santhara".

Her distraught family says she gave up food and then water, and passed away in Kolkata 62 days after making her vow.

Namrata, a Delhi University student, turned an iPad tablet computer round in her hands at an electronics store in the city. It is Apple's latest must-have item -- yet it is already out of date.

"No, I'll wait for the iPad 2," she said, putting it back on the shelf, aware that the improved version has already gone on sale in the United States. "Perhaps my aunt in Australia will be able to send me one soon," she said.

The Indian navy has captured 61 suspected Somali pirates and rescued 13 fishermen after a firefight with a pirate mother ship in the Arabian Sea, a navy spokesman said Monday.

"A total of 74 men have been apprehended of which 61 are suspected to be Somali pirates," Indian navy spokesman P.V.S Satish said, adding the incident happened on Saturday night within Indian waters.

India has tested the naval version of a short-range missile capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads, a defense ministry official said Friday.

The missile was test fired Friday from a navy warship in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of eastern Orissa state, said defense ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar.

The Dalai Lama announced Thursday his plan to retire as political head of the exiled Tibetan movement, saying the time had come for his replacement by a "freely elected" leader.

The Dalai Lama, whose more significant role is as the movement's spiritual leader, said he would seek an amendment allowing him to resign his political office when the exiled Tibetan parliament meets next week.

An Indian court sentenced 11 Muslims to death Tuesday after finding them guilty of setting a train fire that killed 60 Hindu nationalists nine years ago and triggered one of India's worst outbursts of communal violence.

Judge P.R. Patel last week convicted 31 Muslims of being part of a criminal conspiracy that led to the deaths of 60 people when a Sabarmati Express train coach packed with Hindu pilgrims was set on fire in western Gujarat state in 2002.

The Indian government is considering proposals to limit the number of guests allowed at weddings to reduce food wastage, an official told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

Indian weddings are famous for their extravagance and a wave of new money in the country has led to ever more lavish marriage celebrations, often involving multi-cuisine buffets and hundreds, or even thousands, of guests.

India and Pakistan have agreed to begin talks on "all outstanding" bilateral issues, officials said Thursday, signaling a possible resumption of their suspended peace dialogue.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said officials from both sides would meet "in the coming weeks and months" to carry out "the necessary spadework" that would culminate in a meeting of the two rivals' foreign ministers -- possibly in June or July.

Royalty rubbed shoulders with the rump of India's caste system at the Jaipur Literary Festival this year as crowds flocked to India's "pink city" for an annual dose of celebrity and culture.

Bright sunshine and a roster of 220 authors and performers, including a clutch of Nobel, Booker and Pulitzer prize winners, lured tens of thousands of book lovers to the grounds of the Diggi Palace -- a converted 19th century mansion where the event has been held since 2006.

India's biggest art fair opens on Friday, pulling in dozens of foreign galleries seeking to tap a new breed of buyers in one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

Now in its third edition, the annual Indian Art Summit has expanded sharply in both size and