Indian police: Mob kills Muslim man who was transporting cow

A Muslim man beaten by a mob that accused him of transporting cows for slaughter has died in western India, police said Wednesday, in the latest violence by Hindu vigilante groups enraged over treatment of the animal they consider sacred.

Pehlu Khan died late Tuesday of injuries sustained when he and 14 other men were brutally beaten three days earlier in Rajasthan state, police said.

Hindus, who form 80 percent of India's 1.3 billion population, consider cows to be sacred and for many eating beef is taboo. In many Indian states, the slaughtering of cows and selling of beef is either restricted or banned.

N. Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of Trump-Xi meeting

North Korea fired a newly developed powerful ballistic missile into its eastern waters Wednesday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, amid worries the North might conduct nuclear or long-range rocket tests ahead of the first summit between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week.

The initial U.S. and South Korean assessments indicated it was a KN-15 medium-range missile, whose first publicly known test in February was considered by many foreign experts as a potentially worrying development. It uses solid fuel already loaded inside the missile, which would shorten launch preparation times, boost the weapon's mobility and make it harder for outsiders to detect the signs of its liftoff.

India-China row deepens as Dalai Lama arrives in NE India

India said Tuesday that China should not interfere in its internal affairs, as the Dalai Lama began a weeklong visit to India's remote northeast that Beijing has protested.

The Tibetan spiritual leader was greeted by cheering supporters as he arrived in Arunachal Pradesh. China claims the partly ethnically Tibetan Himalayan state as its own territory, and warned last month of "severe damage" to relations with India and increased regional instability if the Dalai Lama proceeds with his trip.

Renowned Indian classical singer Kishori Amonkar dies at 84

Singer Kishori Amonkar, renowned for her innovative interpretation of classical Indian music, has died, one of her students said Tuesday.

Amonkar, 84, died late Monday at her home in central Mumbai after a brief illness, said Gandhar Bedekar. Music students in India often live with their mentors, and Bedekar's mother was one of Amonkar's oldest disciples.

One of the leading lights of the Jaipur "gharana" or community of musicians, Amonkar was trained by her mother, Mogubai Kurdikar, who was also a well-known singer.

11 Indian sailors on small boat hijacked off Somali coast

Somali pirates have seized a small boat, and its 11 Indian crew members, and taken the vessel to along the central coast, a state official said Monday. It is the latest ship targeted by Somalia's resurgent hijackers.

The pirates on Monday afternoon anchored the sailboat on the coast off Elhur, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Hobyo, which was a center of the piracy that was rampant several years ago, said Ahmed Mohamed, an official with the Somali state of Galmudug.

Desperation sets in as flood death toll in Colombia tops 200

Townspeople desperately searched their ruined homes and the local hospital for loved ones Sunday after a torrent of water, mud and debris swept through a city in southern Colombia, causing more than 200 deaths, many of them children, and leaving hundreds more missing and injured.

Neighborhoods were left strewn with rocks, wooden planks, tree limbs and brown muck after heavy rain caused the three rivers that surround Mocoa to rise up and surge through the city of 40,000 Friday night and early Saturday as people slept. The deluge smashed houses, tore trees out by the roots and washed cars and trucks away.

Iconic New Delhi movie theater shuts down after 85 years

From Bollywood superstars to political heavyweights, the Regal theater hosted some of India's biggest names over more than eight decades.

But with nostalgic theater-goers singing their way to the exits after a final showing of a Bollywood classic, the iconic New Delhi theater has closed its doors to make way for a multiplex.

"It's the end of an era. It's very sad," said Nanak, who had worked at the theater since 1979. Nanak, whose grandfather and father were part of the Regal's management team in the 1950s and '60s, uses one name.