NOIDA, India

A man who solemnized his marriage in a helicopter was among six held in Noida outside New Delhi for highway robberies. All six, in their early 20s, come from affluent backgrounds, police said. Their habit of leading affluent lifestyles can be judged from the fact that a key suspect had solemnised his marriage in a helicopter in 2005, police said.The modus opernadi of the gang was simple. They used to hit vehicles on the road, and then get into an altercation with the car’s owner. They would then snatch the car at gunpoint and flee from the spot.

CHENNAI, India

The Tamil Nadu government is set to expedite the premature release of Nandini Murugan, who was sentenced to death for her role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, the state’s Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said.

Nalini, alias Sriharan, who had accompanied suicide bomber Dhanu to the election rally in Sriperumbudur where Gandhi was killed in May 1991, had sought her release saying she had spent more than the mandatory maximum 14 years in jail. Nalini, her husband and former Tamil Tiger guerrilla Murugan and two others were sentenced to death for their role in the killing of Gandhi.

HEART, Afghanistan

Taliban insurgents have freed 118 of the labourers it kidnapped last weekend in western Afghanistan, Mullah Bilal, a Taliban commander in the region, said. The workers were helping to construct an army base. Insurgents seized them in Bala Boluk district in Farah province last Sunday while they were travelling in a convoy of buses.

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Parents of a 15.2kg (33.5 pounds) baby born in southern Bangladesh were forced to hide their newborn after thousands of villagers flocked to see the infant, doctors said. Dr Pabitra Kumar Kunda, who delivered the baby by Caesarean section, said the child died 10 minutes after birth. “The baby had little chance of survival. Its sex organs had not developed properly. It was the length of a normal baby but its chest, belly and other important limbs were very big,” he said. According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest baby born weighed 10.8kg (23 pounds 12 ounces) in the United States in 1879. That baby died 11 hours after birth.

COLOMBO

The Ministry of Indigenous Medicine in Sri Lanka this has broached a plan to grow 4,000kg a year of marijuana, on a proposed 20acre farm to be used in Ayrvedic treatments. Ayurveda is a traditional medicine with roots in the early Hindu era which makes wide use of herbs and natural remedies with the goal of healing the body and mind. In Sri Lanka, ayurveda practitioners outnumber Western-trained doctors. Fresh marijuana fried in ghee, a form of clarified butter, is used in about 18 different traditional medicines for treating a wide variety of ailments in Sri Lanka.

KATHMANDU, Nepal

Nepal's oldest and best-known beauty pageant Miss Nepal, has been ordered to be put off since it threatened to create a law and order problem. This is the fourth time the pageant has been put on hold, raising grave doubts about whether it would be held at all. It also rules out the possibility of the winners being sent to international contests like Miss World and Miss Universe. Miss Nepal came under serious threat this year after the Maoists won the April election and spearheaded the new government of Nepal. The sister organisation of the formerly guerrilla party, the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary), trained its sights on the pageant, saying it was an elitist event that degraded women by reducing them to merchandise for advertisers.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan

Gunmen in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have killed the country's most prominent policewoman, officials say. Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, was shot in her car as she was about to leave for work. Taleban rebels, who banned women from joining the police when they were in power, said they had carried out the shooting. Kakar, who was reported to be in her early 40s and had six children, was one of the most high-profile women in the country.

LUCJNOW, India

The number of arrests in fake currency cases in Uttar Pradesh so far this year rose to 81 with the arrest of two more people, who were found to possess counterfeit currency worth Rs.6,000, (C$XXX) the police said. The two accused admitted to having circulated fake notes worth Rs.10 million (C$XXX). According to police records, fake currency cases are on an alarming rise in the past few years. As compared to 124 cases in 2005, they doubled to 214 in 2006 and increased to 286 in 2007.

MOHALI, India

A call centre employee was stabbed to death by three youths, who had borrowed his mobile phone to make a few calls but refused to return it, in this Punjab town, the police said. Davinder Sahota, 20, hailing from Una town in Himachal Pradesh, was stabbed to death by unidentified youths. "Davinder was going to his office in phase 8 along with his friend Sandeep when three motor cycle borne youths stopped them. They asked for the mobile of the victim and after making 2-3 phone calls, they refused to return the mobile," said the police official.

CHENNAI, India

Four people, including two women, have been jailed for allegedly selling a property worth over Rs.700 million (C$XXX) and partly owned by actress-turned-politician Vijayashanti. Vijayashanti heads Talli Telangana, a political party in Andhra Pradesh, and is said to own sizeable property here. Referred to as the "action queen of Indian cinema" and "female superstar", the 1964 born national award winning actress had played fiery leading roles in over 150 films in seven languages including Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.

NEW DELHI, India

Hundreds of Delhi University students are demanding the ouster of a professor of Ramjas College who has been accused of sexually harassing 10 male students last year by narrating tales of Mahatma Gandhi's sex life during class. Students from various departments of the college and other colleges of the varsity have been holding protests since to demand that B.N. Ray be removed from his post of senior reader and strict action be taken against him. The College Complaints Committee (CCC), which probed the complaint and submitted its report in April this year, had found the charges of sexual harassment against Ray valid and "recommended that he face termination from service".