An on-duty bus driver went on a rampage on the crowded streets of a central Indian city Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring more than two dozen as he mowed down pedestrians and rammed other vehicles.

Police chased the bus for an hour through the streets of Pune, with traffic officers firing on it in an attempt to stop it, before they managed to arrest the 30-year-old driver. He is being held on murder charges.

When India's Tata Motors' Nano went on sale in 2009, the concept of the "world's cheapest car" in one of the world's fastest growing auto markets seemed pre-destined for commercial success.

Logically, the strategy appeared faultless -- offering an affordable solution to millions of aspirational lower-middle class Indian families wanting to make the social and practical leap from two wheels to four.

Nearly 700 Indian separatist rebels laid down their arms on Tuesday at a ceremony that the government hailed as a major step towards bringing peace to the restive northeast region.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the move was the result of a series of peace talks and ceasefires that have dampened violence after decades of militant activity by separatist tribal groups.

Indian navy personnel will take command of the country's first nuclear-powered submarine in two decades on Monday after collecting the vessel near the Russian port of Vladivostok, an official said.

Television chat show queen Oprah Winfrey received a rock star's welcome when she spoke on Sunday to a heaving audience of thousands of fans at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India.

Winfrey, wearing a gold and red Indian outfit, told the packed crowd that her love of books had helped her education and enabled her to rise from a poor childhood in Mississippi to become one of the world's most influential women.

Indian police examined television footage on Saturday pending any formal investigation after Salman Rushdie's banned novel "The Satanic Verses" was read out at a literary festival.

Rushdie was forced to withdraw from appearing at the Jaipur Literature Festival due to security fears when some Muslim groups threatened to demonstrate at the event over the allegedly blasphemous book.

A landmine attack by Maoist rebels in eastern India killed at least 12 policemen and injured three others, authorities said on Saturday.

The attack, targeting a police vehicle in Jharkhand state, was to protest against the killing of one of the top Maoist leaders Koteswar Rao -- better known as Kishenji -- by security forces last year, police said.

For the first time, Indian prosecutors are taking Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other networking sites to court for refusing to remove material considered insulting to Indian leaders and major religious figures.

Government officials are upset about material insulting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and major religious figures. Some illustrations have shown Singh and Gandhi in compromising positions and pigs running through Mecca, Islam's holiest city.

India marked a year since its last new case of polio Friday, a major milestone in a country once considered the epicenter of the disease and one that gives hope the scourge can be eradicated worldwide.

There were 150,000 cases of the highly contagious virus in India in 1985, but the country has now gone 12 months since discovering a new case -- in an 18-month-old girl in the eastern state of West Bengal.

Indian diplomats protested on Thursday about a special edition of the BBC's popular "Top Gear" motoring show, claiming it had given a "disgusting" portrayal of their country.

"Top Gear" presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who has upset Mexico in the past and last month joked that striking British workers should be shot, was filmed on location in India with a Jaguar car which had a toilet fixed to the boot.