THE new year began — just as 2012 ended — with young people on the march.

India announced today that it had successfully test launched a new nuclear-capable missile that would give it, for the first time, the capability of striking the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai.

US officials fear terrorists could take advantage of lax security at Indian laboratories to launch attacks with biological weapons, according to comments in a leaked diplomatic cable.

A massive avalanche ploughed into an Indian army training centre at a ski resort town in Indian-controlled Kashmir today, killing at least 15 soldiers and critically wounding 17 others.

An Indian state government has admitted that its tiger reserve has none of the animals left.

The only man charged in connection with last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai told an Indian court today that he agreed to being provided with a lawyer by the government and also repeated that he is from Pakistan.

The Indian navy says one of its warships dedicated to fighting pirates has successfully fought off an attempted pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a police patrol in southern Afghanistan today, killing 24 people, while a two-day battle sparked by an insurgent attack killed at least 40 militants, officials said.

Burma’s isolationist government blocked United Nations efforts today to airlift urgently needed food aid to survivors of a cyclone which may have killed more than 100,000 people, UN officials said.

An Indian court issued arrest warrants for Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty today, saying their kiss at a public function "transgressed all limits of vulgarity," media reports said.

India has banned the export of all material, equipment and technology which could contribute to Iran’s nuclear programme the Indian trade ministry said today.

INDIAN police arrested three British bodyguards working for Angelina Jolie for allegedly pushing and shoving parents and students at a Mumbai school where the actress was filming scenes for her latest movie.

Indian police today arrested a journalist over his alleged ties to an outlawed Islamic group suspected of taking part in the Mumbai train bombings.

An Indian court today sentenced two British men to six years in prison after finding them guilty of sexually abusing boys at a children’s shelter that one of them had set up for street children in Bombay.

A Pakistan-born medical student was ordered today to stand trial in Australia on a charge of training with the outlawed militant Islamic group Laskar-e-Taiba.

A Pakistan-based militant group today threatened to disrupt a historic new bus service across the military line that divides Kashmir if it led to more “atrocities” by Indian forces in the disputed Himalayan region.

bmi today confirmed its plans to launch services from Heathrow to Mumbai and from Heathrow to Bangalore, following the recent agreement between the British and Indian governments to allow extra flights between the two countries.

The main suspect in the rape and murder of a British teenager appeared in an Indian court today was was ordered to be held in custody while extradition formalities are completed.

An Indian court was to decide today whether to lessen charges against the former chairman of US-based Union Carbide for a 1984 gas leak that left thousands of people dead in one of the world’s worst industrial accidents.

INDIA yesterday turned its anger on Pakistan and Islamic militants, blaming them for the massacre of 27 Hindu civilians in a slum in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Shelling and small-arms fire killed an army officer and wounded three civilians along the Kashmir border ahead of a visit today by the US defence secretary aimed at defusing tensions between India and Pakistan, an Indian army spokesman said.

Indian security forces have killed eight alleged Kashmiri militants.

Hundreds of critically-injured earthquake survivors are being treated on an Indian navy ship.