• Police: NY-born Bollywood starlet found dead by mother

    Parveen Negi / India Today via Getty, file

    Bollywood actress Jiah Khan was found dead at her home in Mumbai, India, at the age of 25.

    By Tony Tharakan and Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters

    MUMBAI - Bollywood actress Jiah Khan was found dead at her home in Mumbai in an apparent suicide, police said on Tuesday.

    Khan, 25, was found hanged in her room on Monday night by her mother, a Mumbai police official said.

    Khan made her Bollywood debut in 2007 with Ram Gopal Varma's "Nishabd," playing the 18-year-old female lead opposite one of India's leading actors, Amitabh Bachchan, in a film loosely based on Vladimir Nabokov's classic novel "Lolita."

    "Never ever seen a debutant actress with more spunk and more spirit than Jiah when i was directing her in Nishabd," filmmaker Varma wrote on Twitter.

    "I dont know the reason what led to this but jiah was very depressed about her career and scared for her future," he said in another tweet.

    Khan, whose real name was Nafisa Khan, was born in New York and grew up in London.

    "Nishabd" received mixed reviews and did not do well at the Bollywood box office but Khan went on to play supporting roles in two blockbusters, the psychological thriller "Ghajini" in 2008 and the comedy "Housefull" in 2010.

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  • Woman rescued from rubble of collapsed Mumbai building, death toll hits 72

    Vivek Prakash / Reuters

    Rescue workers carry a woman who was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Mumbai, 36 hours after it fell to the ground "like a pack of cards."

    By Vivek Prakash, Reuters

    MUMBAI -- The death toll from a collapsed building in India's financial center Mumbai rose to 72 on Saturday, as an injured woman trapped for 36 hours was freed from the rubble of the illegal and half-constructed building.

    Rescue workers using cranes and bulldozers continued to search through the wreck of twisted steel and concrete after the seven-storey building collapsed "like a pack of cards" on Thursday evening, officials and witnesses said.

    A shortage of cheap homes in Asia's third-largest economy has led to a rise in illegal construction by developers who use substandard materials and shoddy methods in order to offer rock-bottom rents to low-paid workers.

    "The building collapsed like a pack of cards within three to four seconds," said Ramlal, a resident. "It just tilted a bit and collapsed," he said. Residents said laborers paying rent of around $5 a day had lived in the building.

    The building, which was in a forested area in the city of Thane, had been made using poor materials and without proper approvals, said Sandeep Malvi, a spokesman for licensing authority the Thane Municipal Corporation.

    At least 41 people are dead after a building collapsed in Mumbai, India, with dozens more missing in the rubble. The building was under construction when it collapsed. Families had moved into the unfinished structure.

    He said 72 people had been killed and 36 injured had been admitted into local hospitals. "There may still be more bodies inside," Malvi added. "The rescue is still going on."

    As the sun rose on Saturday, around 100 workers from the national disaster relief agency continued to use jackhammers and other equipment to cut through the pile of metal and concrete.

    The woman dragged from the building on Saturday was found after workers heard her voice and used camera equipment to pinpoint her location under the rubble. A 10-month old infant was pulled from the debris on Friday.

    Police said they were searching for the builders and would charge them with culpable homicide in connection with the disaster.

    "Unauthorized constructions are a product of unavailability of affordable housing," said Lalit Kumar Jain, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India.

    A sharp rise in property prices in densely populated Mumbai over the past five years has put housing out of reach for tens of thousands of lower earners, many of whom moved to the city in search of jobs, and who now sleep on the streets or in slums.

    In 2012, India's urban housing shortage was estimated at nearly 19 million households, according to a report by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

    Related:

    Dozens killed after building collapses near Mumbai

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  • Dozens killed after building collapses near Mumbai

    Dozens of people are dead after a building collapsed in Mumbai, India, with many more missing in the rubble. The building was under construction when it collapsed. Families had moved into the unfinished structure.

    Rafiq Maqbool / AP

    Rescue workers look for trapped people after a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013.

    By Reuters

    At least 39 people were killed and dozens injured after an illegal, half-constructed building collapsed in seconds "like a pack of cards" on the outskirts of India's financial centre Mumbai, officials and witnesses said.

    Rescue workers using cranes and bulldozers searched for survivors in the wreck of steel and concrete on Friday after the seven-storey building crumbled on Thursday night. Residents said laborers paying rent of around $5 a day had lived in it.

    "The building collapsed like a pack of cards within three to four seconds," said Ramlal, a local resident. "It just tilted a bit and collapsed," he said. Read the full story.

    Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

    Rescue workers carry a woman who survived from the collapsed building.

    Vivek Prakash / Reuters

    Rescue workers search for survivors at the site of the collapsed building.

    Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

    Rescue workers carry a child who survived the collapse of a residential building in Thane.

    Divyakant Solanki / EPA

    Rescue work continued at the site of the building collapse on April 5, 2013.

    AP

    Rescue workers carry a young child who survived the building collapse on Friday, April 5, 2013.

     

    This story was originally published on Thu Apr 4, 2013 5:39 PM EDT

  • India political party hands out 21,000 knives to defend women from rapists

    Divyakant Solanki / EPA

    Indian women hold up knives that were distributed by the Shiv Sena party in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday.

    By Kaustubh Kulkarni, Reuters

    MUMBAI, India — A radical Hindu nationalist party in India has handed out kitchen knives and chili powder to women in the city of Mumbai following the gang rape that ignited a national debate on the best way to tackle sex crimes.


    The Shiv Sena party, an ally of the main opposition BJP, said it had handed out 21,000 knives with three-inch blades to women in the city and surrounding areas and plans to distribute 100,000.

    Mumbai police said they were examining the knives and considering legal action.

    "This is a symbolic gesture," said Shiv Sena spokesman Rahul Narvekar, adding that a knife shorter than six inches in length does not fit the definition of a weapon. The party also handed out small bags of chili powder -- apparently to throw into an attacker's eyes.

    "It's only to pass a signal to eve-teasers [men who molest women], anti-social elements and perpetrators of crime against women that women are empowered and they can take care of themselves," Narvekar said.

    'Don't be afraid'
    Ajay Chaudhari, running the knife campaign, was quoted by the party newspaper Saamana as saying, "Don't be afraid of using this knife if someone attacks you."

    "We have set up a team of nine advocates to protect you from any potential court cases that may arise," he added.

    A 23-year-old physiotherapy student was raped and beaten on a moving bus on Dec. 16 before being thrown bleeding on to a busy road in New Delhi, dubbed India's "rape capital."

    Mumbai is generally considered a safer city for women.

    The attack and the student's death two weeks later caused public outrage at the failure of the government and police to protect women from rising sexual offenses in a country where one rape is reported on average every 20 minutes.

    In response, more women are taking up self-defense classes and carrying pepper spray. A government commission set up to recommend revisions to India's sex crime laws this week said women who kill an attacker during an attempted rape should be able to plead self-defense.

    Related:

    PhotoBlog: Women in India's 'rape capital' speak out

    Report: Six suspects held over another India bus gang rape

    Defense attorney blames victim in India gang rape, murder case



    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • American who aided Mumbai terror plotters gets 35 years in prison

    Tom Gianni / AP

    David Coleman Headley is shown in a courtroom sketch from May 2011.

    By James B. Kelleher, Reuters

    CHICAGO - David Headley, an American who admitted scouting targets for the 2008 Islamic militant raid on Mumbai and later agreed to testify against the plotters to avoid the death penalty, was sentenced on Thursday to 35 years in prison.


    The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, was the maximum sought by federal prosecutors.

    The attacks killed more than 160 people, including six Americans. Headley, a 52-year-old U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, admitted videotaping sites that were targeted by the Mumbai attackers.

    He was arrested in 2009 and pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including conspiracy to bomb places of public use and commit murder and plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.

    After entering his plea in 2010, Headley cooperated with U.S. investigators and foreign intelligence agencies to avoid the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan or Denmark, agreeing to testify in foreign judicial proceedings, the government said.

    In a memorandum filed with Judge Leinenweber earlier this week, the government said "there is little question that life imprisonment would be an appropriate punishment for Headley's incredibly serious crimes but for the significant value provided by his immediate and extensive cooperation."

    Last week, Judge Leinenweber sentenced Pakistani-born businessman Tahawwur Rana to 14 years in federal prison for providing support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

  • India hangs only surviving gunman of 2008 Mumbai attacks

    Officials in india say the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai was executed. The Pakistani citizen was one of ten gunmen who went on a three-day killing rampage. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Pakistan militant group accused of killing 166 people in a 2008 gun rampage in Mumbai has warned of future attacks, Reuters reported, after India secretly executed the only surviving man responsible.

    Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 25, a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was hanged at the Yerawada Prison in in Pune, southeast of Mumbai, at 7:30 a.m. local time Wednesday (9 p.m. ET Tuesday) -- hours after India's President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his legal appeal.

    Sanjay Kanojia / AFP - Getty Images

    Members of Bajrang Dal, a hard-line Hindu organization in India, distribute candy in Allahabad as they celebrate the execution of Pakistan-born Mohammed Kasab on Wednesday.

    The Pakistani national was the only suspect to be captured alive after Nov. 26, 2008 atrocity -- locally dubbed "26/11" -- in which 10 militants embarked on a 60-hour killing spree that engulfed cafes and luxury hotels including the landmark Taj Mahal Palace.

    Special Report: Pakistan's threat within -- the Sunni-Shia divide

    Pictures of the young gunman wearing a black T-shirt and toting an AK-47 rifle as he strode through Mumbai's train station were published around the world -- helping to secure his eventual conviction and death sentence in August.

    The Times Of India / Reuters, file

    Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, pictured in the Victoria Terminus railway station in Mumbai on Nov. 26, 2008.

    Kasab was buried inside the prison where he was hanged, officials said. India said it would hand over the body to Pakistan if a request was made, underlying the sensitivities and severely strained relations between the two nations.

    Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group seeking the propagation of Islam around the region and an end to Indian rule of Kashmir, is blamed by India for the planning the attacks. Kasab confessed to being a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to Pakistan news site Dawn, but the organization was never conclusively linked to the crime. Pakistan also denies any official involvement.

    Reuters said it spoke on the telephone Wednesday to one the group’s senior commanders, who said Kasab was a "hero" whose death would "inspire other fighters to follow his path."

    PhotoBlog: Thousands attend funeral of suspected Kashmir militant

    The Pakistan Taliban said it was shocked by the hanging.  

    "There is no doubt that it's very shocking news and a big loss that a Muslim has been hanged on Indian soil," Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told Reuters.

    CNN IBN via Reuters, file

    Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving suspected gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is seen under police custody at an undisclosed location, in this undated still file image taken from video footage shown on the CNN-IBN television channel since February 3, 2009.

    However, there were celebrations in India.

    "When I heard the news of Kasab's execution today, I remembered those horrifying moments of the attack," said Vishnu Zende, who was working at Mumbai's train station on the day of the attack. "My eyes were filled with tears."

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • India hangs only surviving gunman of 2008 Mumbai attacks

    Reuters

    Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving suspected gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been hanged.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 2:47 a.m. ET: India hanged Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the only militant to have survived the 2008 attacks on the financial capital Mumbai, officials said Wednesday.

    In August, India's Supreme Court upheld Kasab's death sentence over the attack on a string of targets in Mumbai that killed 166 people. Kasab, 25, was a Pakistani national. He was executed at 7:30 a.m. local time.

    The execution at Yerawada Prison in Pune, near Mumbai, came just hours after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy plea by Kasab, who had said he belonged to the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

     

    It was the first time a capital sentence had been carried out in India since 2004.

    Many foreigners, some of India's wealthy business elite, and poor train commuters were killed by 10 Pakistani gunmen in a three-day rampage through some of Mumbai's best-known landmarks, including two luxury hotels and a Jewish center.


    Kasab was filmed walking through Mumbai's main train station carrying an AK-47 assault rifle and a knapsack on his back. Nearly 60 people were gunned down in the crowded station.

    In footage obtained by NDTV in India, Kasab told an investigator that his father had encouraged him to join with the rebels.

    The investigator: “Son, who asked you to come here?” 

    Kasab: “My father did. He told me, son, we are very poor.”

    The investigator interrupted, surprised: “Your father?”

    Kasab continued: “He said, ‘You will live and learn just like these people do. It is not difficult. We will also get money. We will be rid of our poverty. Your brothers and sisters can get married. Son, you will live comfortably like these people do.”

    His father told the Times of India, however, “I don’t sell my sons.”

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Fire consumes Mumbai's state headquarters, as rescuers work to save those trapped

    Rafiq Maqbool / AP

    Indian firefighters work to extinguish a fire as smoke billows from the headquarters of the Maharashtra state government in Mumbai, India, on June 21. Hundreds of employees were evacuated Thursday from the seven-story government building as more than two dozen fire engines battled the major fire that raged for more than three hours in India's financial and entertainment capital.

    Reuters

    People are rescued by firefighters and police officials from the Maharashtra state secretariat building after a fire broke out, in Mumbai on June 21. No casualties have been reported so far, but several people are feared to be still trapped in the building, according to local media reports.

    Reuters

    A man is rescued by firefighters from the Maharashtra state secretariat building after a fire broke out, in Mumbai on June 21. No casualties have been reported so far, but several people are feared to be still trapped in the building, according to local media reports.

    Reuters

    A man is rescued by firefighters from the Maharashtra state secretariat building after a fire broke out, in Mumbai June 21. No casualties have been reported so far, but several people are feared to be still trapped in the building, according to local media reports.

    Indranil Mukherjee / AFP - Getty Images

    Government staff fold the Indian national flag from the top of the burning Mantralaya building, which houses the Maharashtra state secretariat, in Mumbai on June 21. A major fire broke out of the Mantralaya building that houses offices of India's Maharashtra state Chief Minister, key ministers, and top officials, reports said. People were reported trapped in the upper floors of the building, with the fire department, police response teams, and navy pressed into rescue operations.

    Indranil Mukherjee / AFP - Getty Images

    Firefighters spray jets of water to contain a fire in the burning Mantralaya building, which houses the Maharashtra state secretariat, in Mumbai on June 21. A major fire broke out of the Mantralaya building that houses offices of India's Maharashtra state Chief Minister, key ministers, and top officials, reports said. People were reported trapped in the upper floors of the building, with the fire department, police response teams, and navy pressed into rescue operations.

    The Hindustan Times has more information from the scene at the Mumbai Mantralaya.

    See more images from India on PhotoBlog.

  • Wanted by US for $10 million: Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of Mumbai attack

    Faisal Mahmoud / Reuters

    Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, attends the funeral of Muslim cleric Moulana Showkat Shah in Islamabad April 11, 2011. Saeed is now wanted by the U.S. for $10 million.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The United States has offered a $10 million bounty for the founder of the Pakistani militant group blamed for the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people, a move that could complicate U.S.-Pakistan relations at a tense time.

    Hafiz Saeed founded Lashkar-e-Taiba in the 1980s, allegedly with Pakistani support to pressure archenemy India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Pakistan banned the group in 2002 under pressure from the U.S. but has done little to crack down on its activities.

    Saeed operates openly in the country, giving public speeches and appearing on TV talk shows. The U.S. also offered up to $2 million for Lashkar-e-Taiba's deputy leader, Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki.

    Bin Laden widows sentenced to jail, deportation from Pakistan

    The bounties were posted on the U.S. State Department Rewards for justice website late Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said Tuesday.

    The reward for Saeed is one of the highest offered by the program and is equal to the amount for Taliban chief Mullah Omar. Only Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida chief, fetches a higher, $25 million bounty.

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    Khuram Parvez / Reuters

    Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

    Launch slideshow

    U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman announced the bounty for Lashkar-e-Taiba's leader and deputy on Monday during a visit to India, according to The Times of India newspaper. 

    "[The bounty] sends a strong signal to Lashkar-e-Taiba as also its members and patrons that the international community remains united in combating terrorism," Indian ministry of external affairs spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said on Twitter.

    Al-Jazeera's correspondent in Lahore reported that Saeed has denied any links to militancy.

    Troubled Pakistan-US relationship
    The move comes at a particularly tense time in the troubled relationship with the U.S. and Pakistan. Pakistan's parliament is currently debating a revised framework for relations with the U.S. in the wake of American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November at two posts along the Afghan border.

    Pakistan retaliated by kicking the U.S. out of a base used by American drones and closing its border crossings to supplies meant for NATO troops in Afghanistan.

    At least two dozen Pakistani troops along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border were killed by NATO aircraft, straining already tense relations between the U.S. and Pakistan. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.

    The U.S. hopes the parliamentary debate will result in Pakistan reopening the supply lines. The closure has been a headache for the U.S. because it has had to spend more money sending supplies through an alternate route that runs through Central Asia. It also needs the route to withdraw equipment as it seeks to pull most of its combat forces out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

    But it's unclear whether the U.S. will be willing to meet Pakistan's demands, which include higher transit fees for the supplies and an unconditional apology for the airstrikes, which the U.S. has said were an accident. Pakistan has also demanded an end to American drone strikes in Pakistan, but it's unclear if that will be tied to the reopening of the supply line.

    Msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Toxic dyes in Holi celebrations kill 1, hospitalize hundreds

    Punit Paranjpe / AFP - Getty Images

    Vaishnavi Borde, a nine year-old Indian child, who is undergoing treatment after suffering from allergic reactions from colored powder thrown during the Holi Festival, reacts during a blood test at a hospital in Mumbai on March 9. A teenage boy has died and hundreds of others have been hospitalized in Mumbai due to suspected contaminated paint used in the Indian "festival of colour" Holi, a report said.

    Rajanish Kakade / AP

    Relatives of 13-year old Viky Walmiki, who died from poisoning from colored powder and water used during Holi celebrations, gather outside his house in Mumbai, India, on March 9.

    By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News

    What traditionally are lighthearted Hindu celebrations of the arrival of spring, became deadly when hundreds of children came into contact with toxic colors used in the festivities. Viky Walmiki, 13-years-old, died after he was taken to the hospital with poisoning symptoms while celebrating in Mumbai. According to the Times of India, more than 200 people were admitted to hospitals "after they complained of giddiness, burning sensation on skin, nausea and vomiting." It is possible that leather tanners from a local dump got mixed up with the colors the children used to splash each other. Mumbai's Dharavi neighborhood is home to a leather tanning industry.

    The annual festival always provides colorful scenes of people splashing each other with colored powders and dyes.

    AP

    Police take notes as they speak to children suffering from poisoning from colored powder and water used during Holi celebrations, in Mumbai, India, on March 8.

    Rajanish Kakade / AP

    5-year-old Ritika Borde, a victim of poisoning from colored powder and water used during Holi celebrations, stands in a queue to be treated at a government hospital in Mumbai, India, on March 9.