IT’S LESS than a year since Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize.

DEBUT novelist Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction last night beating, among others, hotly tipped Irish author Sebastian Barry.

Debut novelist Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction tonight for his work which shows “the dark side of India”.

DUBLINER Sebastian Barry has been made favourite to win after he made it on to a shortlist of “page turners” announced for this year’s Man Booker Prize for fiction.

A 26-year-old software programmer in a southern Indian city has delivered identical quadruplets – an occurrence so rare that only one in 11 million mothers has them.

Patients turning to the internet to get cheap drugs can get almost anything they want, with no questions asked. Paul Kelly finds out just how easy it is to get round the law.

THOUSANDS of flood victims waiting in line for relief vouchers stampeded into a government-run distribution centre in southern India yesterday, killing at least 42 people and injuring 37.

Thousands of flood victims waiting in line for relief vouchers stampeded into a government-run distribution centre in southern India today, killing at least 42 people and injuring another 30, police said.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates visited a sanatorium for chronic diseases in southern India and inquired about HIV vaccine research being conducted there, a news report said today.

Thousands of people today prepared to move to higher ground as a cyclone with a wind speed of up to 60 MPH moved toward India’s southern coast, a state government official said.

A crowded bus was washed away today by floods in southern India, killing at least 10 passengers just hours after another bus was swept away, killing at least 20 others.

Rains flooded roads in a southern Indian state, and the waters washed away a bus today, killing at least 18 people, an official said.

Rains flooded out roads in a southern Indian state, and the waters washed away a bus today, killing at least 14 people, an official said. Another 34 people were feared drowned.

Heavy rains lashed the southern Indian coast and nine people were reported dead as a cyclonic storm touched the coastline today.

A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit India’s southern Nicobar Islands today.

A fire broke out at a fireworks factory in southern India today, killing at least 20 workers and injuring 15 others, a report said.

CHRISTCHURCH is a town said to be more English than England itself. Much like the Lions’ Test team really, and with just as many Irish theme pubs.

British Airways is to increase the number of flights to India following last week’s Anglo-Indian agreement to expand services for UK carriers.

Archaeologists have begun underwater excavations of what is believed to be an ancient city and parts of a temple uncovered by the tsunami off the coast of a centuries-old pilgrimage town.

Indonesia was rocked by a powerful earthquake today that caused panic and damaged dozens of homes, as the government and Aceh’s rebels prepared for talks to help rebuild the tsunami-shattered province.

Panic briefly spread through the streets of Madras after residents felt the shocks of an earthquake off the coast of the remote Andaman islands.

THE tsunami disaster in Asia has had an immediate impact on sport in the region, with the 10th South Asian Games, scheduled for Sri Lanka in August, postponed as the nation concentrates on rebuilding after the recent tragedy.

The new year got off to a subdued start around disaster-ravaged Asia, where prayers frequently substituted for parties.

RESCUE workers pulled corpses from canals and water-logged fields in India yesterday as the government warned the death toll of almost 9,400 from a tsunami that lashed the country’s south would rise further.

ONE of the largest earthquakes yet to strike the planet sent huge tidal waves tearing into countries across Asia.

AID agencies and governments were yesterday coming to terms with the long-term consequences of the devastating tidal waves which have killed thousands in Asia.

A fresh tremor hit Indian islands far off the country’s eastern coast today, a day after massive waves triggered by an undersea quake killed an estimated 4,000 people in India.

MASSIVE tidal waves triggered by an Indonesian earthquake slammed into southern India yesterday, killing more than 2,000 people and sweeping away boats, homes and vehicles, officials said.

The death toll in the massive south-east Asian earthquake and tidal wave tragedy has passed more than 3,000 people today.

More than 2,000 of people have been killed today as one of the most-powerful earthquakes in years triggered massive tidal waves slammed into coastlines across Asia.

India’s most wanted bandit, accused of murdering police officers, slaughtering elephants and kidnapping a film star, has been killed in a jungle shootout with police after more than three decades on the run.

A powerful explosion ripped through India’s main space centre today, killing up to six people and seriously injuring three others.

The groom and 44 other people were killed today when a fire engulfed an Indian marriage hall.

At least 30 people were burned to death early today when a fire broke out in a crowded marriage hall in southern India, a fire department official said.

The first commercial flight between India and Pakistan in two years arrived in the Indian capital today, amid rising hopes of peace between the South Asian nuclear rivals.

A train rammed into a school bus at an unguarded crossing in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state today, killing five people including four children.

Eight people were killed and 25 injured when a Ferris wheel collapsed at a temple festival in southern India, police said today.

At least 40 people, mostly women, have lost vision in one or both eyes after free cataract surgery at a state run hospital in southern India.

THE death toll from a stampede at a railway station after a huge political rally in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh rose to 16 yesterday when two more people died in hospital, police said.

Five militants were killed and 13 policemen were wounded during a fierce three-hour gun battle in the southern Indian state of Karnataka early today, police said.

In a bizarre 400-year-old traditional ceremony aimed at pleasing two Hindu goddesses, villagers in southern India buried dozens of unconscious children in muddy holes for a minute before digging them up.

Police have shut all the discos in India's southern city of Madras.

A man has beheaded his 20-year-old sleeping son in southern India in what his family described as a sacrifice to Hindu gods.

At least 25 people were killed and several wounded today in an explosion at a government-owned detonator manufacturing plant in a south Indian town.