Indian intellectuals alarmed by rising intolerance attacks

First writers then artists, followed by filmmakers, historians and scientists. The chorus of Indian intellectuals protesting religious bigotry and communal violence grows louder by the week with a single message for Prime Minister Narendra Modi: protect India's tradition of secularism and diversity.

Those protesting are angry and worried by a spate of deadly attacks against atheist thinkers and minorities, and by Modi's relative silence through it all. That silence appears to have encouraged some of his party colleagues to make comments asserting Hindu pride and superiority.

Modi says Africa, India both areas of economic opportunity

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described India and Africa as bright spots of hope and economic opportunity and offered technology and credit in an effort to match rival China's influence over the continent at a summit with more than 40 African leaders Thursday.

As Modi opened the meeting in the Indian capital, he said Africa was now more settled and stable and "its initiatives are replacing old fault lines with new bridges of reforms and economic integration."

Labor laws questioned after Indian maid loses arm in Saudi

Kasthuri Munirathinam, a 55-year-old mother of four from southern India, was plunged into debt after borrowing money to marry off her daughters. Like many before her, she was recruited through an agency and promised an opportunity to earn 1,000 Saudi riyals ($267) a month by working as a live-in maid in Saudi Arabia, the Arab region's largest economy where domestic help is in high demand.

On Sept. 29, just a few weeks after arriving in the kingdom, she tried to escape from her employer's house, using two of her saris to fashion a rope and climb from a third-floor window.

Residents in quake-hit Pakistan demand help to rebuild homes

Residents in a northwestern Pakistani town that was among the worst-affected by this week's massive earthquake were seeking government help Wednesday to rebuild their damaged homes, after spending the second straight night with relatives.

Authorities said Monday's quake damaged 8,453 homes and 113 schools in Pakistan's impoverished northwest.

Woman back in India 12 years after straying into Pakistan

Twelve years ago, a deaf and mute 11-year-old girl crossed the Indian border into Pakistan. On Monday, finally, she flew home to a warm and emotional welcome.

Wearing a red tunic, her head loosely covered with a matching scarf, the girl — now a 23-year-old woman who had been given the name Geeta — waved to the scores of people who had gathered at the New Delhi airport to greet her. She was carrying a big bouquet of flowers given to her by Indian officials. It was a rare happy moment between hostile neighbors whose officials are often indifferent to the lives of innocent civilians.

Major road in heavily polluted New Delhi briefly car-free

One of the world's most polluted capitals, New Delhi, closed a major stretch of a road to private cars for a few hours Thursday, hoping to give its citizens a brief breath of fresh air by observing a car-free day.

Only public transport was allowed on the road from Old Delhi to the doorstep of Parliament.

Sophia Loren: Retire? Never!

Some things about the film business have changed for actresses in the more than five decades since Sophia Loren was first discovered, and some things have stayed exactly the same.

Take pay equity, for instance, and the reality that worthy actresses sometimes make less than their male counterparts.

"It never changed. It's always the same. It's always the same like before, but not only in the movies. Even in life sometimes, unfortunately," Loren said on the red carpet Monday night before the nonprofit Americans for the Arts honored her at its National Arts Awards.