The Southeast Asian Games officially open on Friday in Indonesia, where beleaguered organizers have admitted to battling a slew of problems including corruption, unfinished venues and poor ticket sales.

Eleven nations will contest sports from athletics and swimming to sepak takraw -- a cross between football and volleyball -- in the biennial Games held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and Palembang in South Sumatra.

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan said Thursday they expected to open a "new chapter" at future talks between the rival nations after they met at a regional summit in the Maldives.

India's Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani said their often strained ties were improving, but they declined to give a date for their next meeting.

Wikipedia on Wednesday said it was banking on growth in themobile phone sector and increased Internet access to boost content in Indian languages ranging from Hindi to Telugu.

The online encyclopedia currently has versions in more than 20languages spoken in India, but the number of pages compared with English, and considering the size of India's 1.2 billion population, is small.

A number of livestock traders were robbed of their lucrative Eid-ul-Adha takings after thieves threw itching powder over them at a Mumbai market, a newspaper report said on Wednesday.

The Daily News and Analysis said that several traders selling goats and sheep at the Deonar market were targeted in the run-up to the Muslim festival on Monday, which is marked by the ritual sacrifice of animals.

India's foreign minister said Wednesday that a "trust deficit" with Pakistan was shrinking as he headed for a regional summit, in a clear sign of warming relations between the neighbors.

"The trust deficit with Pakistan is shrinking," S.M. Krishna said on board his flight to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in the Maldives, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

At least 16 people were crushed to death and scores of others injured in a stampede at a religious ceremony close to the river Ganges in northern India on Tuesday, officials said.

"So far 14 women and two men have died, and 46 others are seriously injured," D. Santhel Pandiyan, district magistrate in the nearby town of Haridwar, told Agence France Presse by telephone from the accident site.

An ancient ritual worshipping Kanchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, has ended with the death of the last Lepcha priest in remote northeast India, reports said Sunday.

The indigenous Lepcha people of Sikkim paid homage to the Himalayan peak for hundreds of years in an annual ceremony led by direct descendants of the original "bongthing" or priest.

India aims to launch fourth-generation (4G) mobile services next year that will allow users to watch high-definition video and download content at a much faster rate, a minister said.

4G technology holds the promise of Internet speeds up to 10 times faster than typical third-generation networks.

Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was made the new Nawab (Muslim prince) of Pataudi on Monday in a private ceremony at his ancestral home in northern India.

Khan became the 10th nawab of the former princely state after the death of his 70-year-old father, Mansur Ali Khan, in September.

Two bodies have been recovered and 30 other people were feared drowned after a footbridge spanning a river in northeast India collapsed, police said Sunday.

Police and paramilitary forces rescued at least 31 villagers from the river following Saturday's accident, senior police officer Kyle Ayasaid. One later died in a hospital.