New Delhi

A massive fire swept through a temple in southern India on April 10, killing more than 100 people after thousands gathered to watch an illegal fireworks display.
 
More than 280 others were injured in the fire that engulfed the Hindu temple complex in Kerala state, where crowds had built up during the night for a festival that boasted the fireworks show.
 

Indian banks will strive to recover "every penny" from a beleaguered liquor baron who left the country owing more than $1 billion, the finance minister said on March 17, as warnings sound over a mounting bad debt problem.

Government rules restricting foreign ownership in the Indian defense sector to 49 percent are undermining New Delhi's drive to lure greater investment in manufacturing, a senior executive at European conglomerate Airbus Group said on March 14.

Asia is "the world's most dynamic region" but structural reforms are key given its increasing importance to the global economy, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said in New Delhi on March 12.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has recreated the famous image of a 3-year-old Syrian child who drowned in Turkey last year by staging a photo of himself lying face down on a beach in Greece.

More than a million private cars were banned from New Delhi's roads on Jan. 1, as authorities began testing drastic new measures to cut smog in the world's most polluted capital.

For 15 days from Jan. 1, private cars will only be allowed on the city's roads every other day to try to reduce pollutant levels, which regularly hit 10 times the World Health Organization's safe limits.

India's top court said on Dec. 21 that it had no power to detain the youngest of the men convicted of the 2012 gang rape of a woman on a bus in New Delhi in a case that shocked the nation, a day after he was released after three years in custody. 

Japan will build India's first bullet train under a sweeping tally of agreements made following talks in New Delhi on Dec. 12, deepening a partnership Prime Minister Narendra Modi said would "shape the course of Asia."

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale occurred in Tajikistan on Monday, with mild tremors felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi and in northern Pakistan.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located 105 kilometres west of the town of Murghab, 136 kilometres northeast of the town of Khorugh and 349 kilometres east of the capital Dushanbe

A powerful 7.5 magnitude quake struck Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region on Oct. 26 and was felt throughout much of South Asia, killing at least 17 people in neighbouring Pakistan, with fears the death toll could rise substantially.