An overloaded bus swerved off a highway and plunged down a gorge in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday, killing 23 people on board, police said.

The accident happened when the driver lost control near the mountainous village of Marotthi, around 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar.

The head of India's largest Tamil party was cleared of corruption Monday, a verdict that sparked wild celebrations by supporters and paved the way for the return of one of the country's most powerful politicians.

Former film star Jayalalithaa Jayaram was forced to stand down as chief minister of prosperous Tamil Nadu state after being found guilty last September of amassing illegal wealth while in office.

Maoist rebels have killed one hostage and released some 250 others in India's restive Chhattisgarh state after capturing the villagers on the eve of premier Narendra Modi's visit to the state, police said Sunday.

The insurgents rounded up the villagers late on Friday and marched them into the forests in impoverished Chhattisgarh's Sukma district in protest against construction of a local bridge, police said.

Indian Maoist rebels took 250 villagers hostage in restive Chhattisgarh just hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured the central state on Saturday, officials said. 

Guerillas abducted the villagers late Friday in Sukma district, 80 kilometers (50 miles) away from where the right-wing Modi later addressed a public rally, said the state's chief minister.

An Indian court jailed 13 Islamists Friday over an attack on a professor whose hand was chopped off after being accused of blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed in an exam paper.

The group were handed jail terms ranging from three to eight years at a court in the southern state of Kerala after being convicted last week on charges including attempted murder and conspiracy.

A group of lawmakers from India's ruling party were given a dressing down in front of their peers in parliament after they accidentally voted against a key government bill.

The 12 lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit the red button instead of the green in the lower house of parliament on Wednesday during voting on a tax reform bill.

India took a step towards ratifying a 41-year-old border dispute with Bangladesh Wednesday that would see thousands of people living in "enclaves" being allowed to choose their nationality.

The enclaves, where pockets of one country's territory are surrounded by the other, are essentially islands of land resulting from ownership arrangements made centuries ago by local princes.

Nepalese authorities said Tuesday that a vast army of emergency workers was finally managing to deliver aid to stranded survivors of a massive earthquake as the death toll from the disaster rose to 7,557.

The government said that more than 131,500 Nepalese military and police personnel were now taking part in the massive aid operation in the vast Himalayan nation, aided by more than 100 teams of foreign relief workers.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his first visit to China next week, seeking to overcome strains between the nuclear-armed rivals over a border dispute and Beijing's growing regional clout.

Modi will meet with China's leaders during the three-day visit as part of an Asian tour that will also take him to South Korea and Mongolia, the Indian government said Tuesday. China confirmed the visit.

India's defense minister said Monday that final negotiations to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France would start this month and end as soon as possible, after leaders of the two nations announced the deal last month.

On the eve of a visit by his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to India, Manohar Parrikar said a bilateral committee would iron out details of the multi-billion dollar long-delayed agreement "in a time-bound manner."