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India's economic boom has reached Calcutta, a city better known for crushing poverty. The city wants to ban hand-pulled rickshaws, calling them medieval and inhumane. Officials promise to provide alternative employment, although those promised jobs might not materialize.

A major earthquake rumbles through mountain villages in Kashmir, Pakistan's capital and many other cities and towns across South Asia. Initial estimates of the dead are put at 1,000 and are likely to climb.

When Margi Scharff felt stomach pain in India, she assumed it was "Delhi Belly," an ailment often afflicting visitors. The 51-year-old artist, based in Los Angeles, was instead told she has advanced ovarian cancer.

Last October, Pakistan suffered a massive earthquake. More than 70,000 people were killed. The government is promising lump sums of money to people who rebuild. Hundreds of thousands of homes have to be rebuilt, including many in remote locations.

Announced by a simple sign -- "Village for Sale" -- the offer is an admitted attempt to bring attention to the town's plight. But the residents of Dodli say their problems are serious: rising costs, falling prices, bad harvests, inadequate water and high-interest debt from loan sharks.

Nepalese police open fire on thousands of pro-democracy protesters marching toward the capital of Katmandu in defiance of a government-imposed curfew, killing at least three and wounding dozens, witnesses and hospital officials report.

One of President Bush's goals in South Asia is a deal to sell India nuclear fuel. The tradeoff -- and a potential sticking point -- would be India's willingness to open civilian nuclear facilities to international inspectors.

In the last six months alone, extra-judicial executions, suicide bombings and fighting have claimed many hundreds of lives in Sri Lanka. The death of a Hindu Tamil priest underlines the sheer viciousness of the conflict.

Thousands of people trying to leave Sri Lanka's Jaffna peninsula are trapped by ethnic conflict. The peninsula is held by the Sri Lankan government. The territory just to the south is in the hands of Tamil Tiger rebels.

Many millions of Hindus are gathered along the shores of their holiest river, the Ganges, in one of the world's largest religious gatherings, the Kumbh Mela. Over a few weeks, up to 70 million Hindus swim in the chilly waters — many of them on what India's astrologers deem to be "auspicious" bathing days.