NEW DELHI, India - India added a record 10 million mobile phone subscribers in March to overtake the US and become the world’s second biggest cellphone market after China. India’s mobile market is the world’s fastest growing. India crossed the 100 million cellular subscriber mark in May 2006 and the 200 million mark in September 2007. The government is aiming for more than half a billion mobile phone subscribers by 2010. By the end of 2008, at least three-quarters of the population is expected to be covered by a mobile network.

GUWAHATI, India - Lack of proper care and management of captive elephants in India could lead to more violent incidents by berserk pachyderms that cause human casualties. Internationally famous elephant tamer Parbati Baruah, said the recent incident of three people killed by a rampaging bull in a Hindu temple in Kerala was a result of ‘mismanagement’ “Elephants are made to toil hard in heat and dust without caring for their wellbeing and such acts invariably enrages the animal, which turns violent over small things. We have seen many such cases in the past,” said Baruah, who has lassoed hundreds of wild elephants since she was 14.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - About 40 to 50% of medicines being sold in Pakistan are counterfeit, which might cause prolonged illness or even death, experts warned at a meeting held here in connection with the World Intellectual Property Rights Day. They said the global trade of counterfeit drugs had crossed US$35billion. Nearly 65% of the goods being sold in the country are counterfeit, said Dr Saleem Farrukh, an expert on the issue in Asia.

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh - Bangladesh has deployed troops at a dumping site near the country’s main Chittagong port to stop poor people from collecting rotten rice, officials said. Hundreds of poor people thronged the dumping site as the food department started ditching some 500 tonnes of damaged rice last week. Nearly half of Bangladesh’s 140 milllion people live on an income less than a dollar per day and their plight has worsened since rice and other food prices started rising this year. Bangladesh faces food shortages after the country lost around 3 million tonnes of rice and wheat in a series of floods and a devastating cyclone last year.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A Sri Lankan state-backed former Tamil Tiger rebel group, accused of abductions and killings, has freed 28 child soldiers, Unicef said, welcoming the second major release in two weeks. The TMVP, made up of fighters who defected from the mainstream Tamil Tigers in 2004 and helped the government evict their former comrades from the island's east, released 11 children in early April. The UN agency estimates over 5,600 underage fighters have been recruited or re-recruited in Lanka, the vast majority by the Tamil Tigers, since a 2002 ceasefire in the civil war broke down in 2006. About 40% were girls.

NEW DELHI, India - A policeman and his friend were arrested for allegedly raping an 11-year-old girl in a moving car. The crime, which sent shockwaves across the Indian capital, occurred when a traffic constable and his friend allegedly abducted the girl from near her home in northern Delhi and sexually assaulted her in the car. This is the eighth case of rape reported in New Delhi in April, which has prompted lawmakers in the Indian parliament to voice concern over the growing number of cases of crimes against women in the city. According to statistics released by the Delhi Police, 581 rape cases were registered in the city in 2007.

MUMBAI, India - India has recalled over four million doses of a measles vaccine supplied by a south Indian drug manufacturer after four children died following inoculation with the drug. Parents said their babies started frothing at the mouth and nose and died within 15 to 20 minutes of being administered the vaccine, news channel NDTV reported. In the past, India's attempts to eradicate polio have been delayed after some Islamic clerics spread rumours the vaccines would harm Muslim children.

PATNA, India - Hundreds of villagers have flocked to a remote Indian village to see a baby girl who was saved by stray dogs after she was abandoned in a mound of mud by her mother. Villagers in the state of Bihar saved the newborn after they saw three dogs barking near a baby covered with mud. Female foeticide, though illegal in India, is widespread as boys are traditionally preferred to girls as breadwinners, and families have to pay huge dowries to marry off their daughters. The United Nations says an estimated 2000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.

LAHORE, Pakistan - A Pakistani woman chopped off her lover's penis after he wedded his cousin in a marriage arranged by his parents. The man, 24-year-old Muhammad Shehzad, had promosed to mayy his lover. When he refused, she invited him to her house and after serving some intoxicant cut off his sexual organ. Most marriages in Pakistan are arranged between families, with cousins often tying the knot to maintain ties within clans.

KATHMANDU, Nepal - Nepal's Maoists pledged that the world's last Hindu monarchy will be abolished swiftly after final results from landmark polls last week gave the ultra-leftists a resounding victory. The Maoists, who fought a bloody insurgency that ended in 2006 with 13 000 dead, swept double the number of seats of their nearest rivals. The ousted, King Gyanendra began his reign in 2001 under a cloud of grief and suspicion, after nine members of the family of the previous king were killed by a crazed crown prince who then shot himself.