The government promised Friday to ensure that sugar cane farmers do not suffer as it sought to defuse a major row over pricing that has stalled parliamentary proceedings.

India has scrapped tenders to import rice, saying it has enough stocks to manage despite a harvest shortfall following the worst monsoon in almost four decades.

A passenger train derailed after Maoist rebels blew up a key track in eastern India, killing one person and injuring at least 30 others, a police official said Friday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said India would take all necessary steps to safeguard its nuclear facilities as the country tightened security in the wake of fresh fears over possible attacks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in New Delhi Monday for talks on a stalled trans-national gas pipeline and a possible Indian prime ministerial visit to Iran, officials said.

Watchtowers and close-circuit televisions will help secure the Taj Mahal, one of the world's most visited monuments, as the busy tourist season begins in India, a senior police officer said.

A speeding train derailed in western India early Saturday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 80. Fifteen cars of the New Delhi-bound train flew off the tracks and rolled onto their sides when the driver suddenly applied the brakes because of poor visibility in the region, said Vipin Kumar Pande, superintendent of police.

India's eunuchs and transsexuals hailed their victory Friday in a long-standing campaign to be listed as “others,” distinct from males and females, on electoral rolls and voter identity cards.

India's chief climate negotiator Shyam Saran played down Friday the chances of sealing a new UN treaty on global warming at next month's crunch climate conference in Copenhagen.

Hundreds of poor Hindu villagers in eastern India have refused to hand over a rare turtle to authorities, saying it is an incarnation of God, officials said on Tuesday.