India's Modi meets queen, rallies fans on 2nd day of UK trip

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lunched with Queen Elizabeth II and rallied thousands of cheering supporters on the second day of his high-profile official visit to Britain, as royal officials announced Prince William and his wife Kate will visit India next year.

Modi arrived at Buckingham Palace for lunch Friday in a Jaguar, the iconic British car brand owned by India's Tata Motors — a symbol of the close relationship between India and its former colonial ruler.

Pomp, protests greet India's premier Modi on lavish UK visit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British counterpart David Cameron vowed Thursday to use U.K. knowhow and investment to help modernize the world's largest democracy, as Modi was greeted with official honors and noisy protests in London.

Hailing billions in new business deals between the two countries, Cameron promised to "set this relationship free" from its colonial past. Modi said the visit marked "a huge moment for our two great nations."

Alarm over Delhi pollution doesn't stop Diwali fireworks

The fireworks have fizzled. The festival lights are coming down. What's left of the Hindu holiday of Diwali in the Indian capital — already considered the world's most polluted — is a toxic haze that has residents gagging for oxygen and hiding indoors.

Air pollution levels across New Delhi on Thursday, a day after the ancient festival of lights, were described as severe-to-critical, up to eight times higher than what India deems acceptable and 20 times what's recommended by the World Health Organization.

World Bank: Climate change could result in 100 million poor

Climate change could push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 by disrupting agriculture and fueling the spread of malaria and other diseases, the World Bank said in a report Sunday.

Released just weeks ahead of a U.N. climate summit in Paris, the report highlighted how the impact of global warming is borne unevenly, with the world's poor woefully unprepared to deal with climate shocks such as rising seas or severe droughts.

5 things to know about Myanmar

Myanmar is holding a general election on Sunday, its second since polls in 2010 ended almost a half-century of military rule. Five things to know about the Southeast Asian country:

REFORMS

President Thein Sein's government makes the case that it is prudently managing a successful transition to democracy. Shortly after coming to power in 2011, Thein Sein — a former general and prime minister in the previous military government — instituted economic and political reforms that resulted in Western nations largely lifting trade and investment embargoes they had maintained against the previous military government. This spurred foreign investment and much-needed economic growth.

Bollywood figures, writer Roy join protest over intolerance

Booker Prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy and two dozen Bollywood award winners added their voices to the artists, scientists and historians who say they are alarmed by a climate of religious intolerance and violence in India.

Filmmaker Sanjay Kak, who was among Indian film industry figures returning National Film Awards in Mumbai on Thursday, said that those protesting "have deployed their visibility - and credibility - to articulate the growing anxiety of a vast number of Indians, those who may remain less visible but are no less perturbed at what is going on around them."

Rights group: Release Indian folk singer accused of sedition

An international rights group on Tuesday demanded the release of an Indian folk singer arrested on charges including sedition for writing songs criticizing a state official for not banning liquor sales.

Police arrested S. Kovan on Friday for accusing J. Jayalalitha, the chief minister of southern Tamil Nadu state, and her government of profiting from state-run liquor shops at the expense of the poor. A large number of poor people die in India every year from drinking cheap tainted liquor.